A housing question to Californians

[Joseph]

Originally posted by Cyclotron
I'm from Marin county, north of San Francisco, which is probably not a good indicator - it's composed mostly of fairly wealthy towns. The phenomenon of skyrocketing home prices has affected us particularly; most public servants, police officers, teachers, etc. commute from out of the county because they can't afford to live there.

Marin is largely suburban, and houses are the normal thing here - and not many are being constructed, thanks in part to much of the county being public land. I'm not aware of any significant apartment-building going on there, and I doubt very much that it's going on in SF, as they ran out of space a long time ago.

If one wants to get a cheap apartment in my city (San Rafael), one must inevitably look at the Canal district, which is home to much of the city's overcrowded and poorer latino population. Even there, I doubt there is much room left. Unfortunately, the real growth in housing - and also in population - is probably occuring outside the county, in places like Sonoma, Napa, and the East Bay.

I hope that helps a bit, though it's rather limited...

Here in Napa, no house under 400,000.00, Apt go from around 1,000 per month and up.

[Wittlich]

Well, in "The City" it is all a matter of space. Realestate prices here in San Francisco are outragous...and quite frankly, they will remain outrageous.

People talk about the "housing bubble" bursting, and that it may; but if it does, San Francisco will remain mostly uneffected by it.

The problem is SPACE and SF has only a limited amount available and buyers willing to pay outrageous prices in order to say "They live in the City"... unless the "big one" hits us and turns everything into rubble - then San Francisco would be considered an investor's dream and the entire vicious cycle will occur all over again...

[Wittlich]

Believe me, people don't move to San Francisco for the sunny weather! ... But that's an entirely different topic!

[:) Smiley]

Speaking of sunny weather, noticed the first rain of the season in the East Bay today.

Say, where in SF do you live Wittlich?

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Spiff, if you want some real vomit, check this out:

[Odin]

I'm suprised no one has mentioned the culture factor yet. Part of the "American Dream" is owning a single family home in a nice suburb. Most middle-class people view apartments as a temporary place too live until a person has a career and a family. Hence, you get this disgusting suburban sprawl dominated by single family houses giving you a trafic nightmare going from the 'burbs into the city to work, rather than apartments or condos, which would take up a lot less space.

[Ted Striker]

.

[:) Smiley]

Yep, Tokyo Bay has been filled in but not near that degree.

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Actually, its not single family houses that take up lots of space, it's single family lawns. Even in old suburbs with houses on small lots, with 20 feet setback in the front and a five foot wide useless side yard on each side, that's around 1,000 square feet (~100 sq. meters) of unused land. That's roughly the floor area of a modest 2-bedroom.

In newer suburbs, houses are often built on 1/8, 1/4, or 1/2 acre lots, which correspond to around 5, 10, and 20 thousand square feet. Of that about a third is backyard and the house itself takes up around 700 to 2,000 depending on size and floors. The rest is just for show.

More land in America is used for growing grass (no, not that kind - that's grown in warehouses) than for growing any other crop.

[mrmitchell]

Re: the huge suburban yards:

Every yard in America should have a tree in it. Other than that, yeah, all the empty space with the grass is a waste. Yards without trees are hideously blank spaces, IMO.

[Ted Striker]

.

[:) Smiley]

Trees

Trees

[ajbera]

Yards with trees, for me & the dog.

I'm moving to Oakland soon, and need to rent a place with a yard.

[:) Smiley]

when's soon, and where in Oakland you plan on moving to?

[chequita guevara]

I dude I worked with just flipped a house he owned for two years near Tampa. The price of the house doubled in that time, and there's lot of developable land near Tampa. Here it's frikkin' insane. I wish we only had 25% increases.

[ajbera]

Smiley-

Soon: End of December.

Where: Alameda is first choice. others are Lafayette, Berkeley, Union City (McMansions, I know), a few others (have to look at the list the wife & I made when we were there last month.) Wife has Oakland job starting January, making $77k, I can find something for ~ $35k+.

[Cyclotron]

Originally posted by Smiley
Reposted from an urban development forum:

Back in the 50's, people actually believed in this kind of stuff. That's the Pacific Ocean at the bottom of the picture.

And, with all that, Marin is still just a bunch of grassy hills.

Joseph - Is Napa seeing a lot of new residents move in, or is population pretty much static up there?