SF Bay Area homes you can buy for the national median price of $157,000

[Newsjock]

Source: San Jose Mercury News

... Here, where the median is nearly three times higher than the national, $157,000 will get you a 460-square-foot house in East Palo Alto that would fit inside a Saratoga walk-in closet. Or a two-bedroom in Antioch with mold, a squatter's mattress in the kitchen, the oily remnants of an amateur grease-monkey operation out back, and what looks like a bullet hole dead-center in the front window.

... Want to spend that $157,000 on a San Jose bungalow on North 13th Street?

... "Burned house," says the real estate agent's MLS note. "Don't go in!"

... Maybe spend your money near a quality market like Palo Alto. If you'll settle for nearby East Palo Alto, Sarjeet Singh has an intriguing proposition for you. After buying his 460-square-foot home 10 years ago for $285,000, then watching it drop in value to a point where he says only a loan modification from the lender would keep him afloat, Singh is trying to sell the place for $130,000.

Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_17795863

[On the Road]

1. Those Houses Can be a Good Investment

if you can hire an unemployed tradesman to do the work cheaply. I've bought houses in Baltimore for a lot less than that and watched them appreciate. The price is going to go back up again.

[REP]

3. No, they're not

EPA is not Charm City.

[Gormy Cuss]

9. True. Neither are parts of San Jose or Antioch.

In Antioch these days one can buy a nice, newer 4BD 3 BA house for about 250-300K because that area is the foreclosure capital of the East Bay.

[REP]

11. Define 'nice' - they're pretty poor construction, and in Antioch (a rough neighborhood)

(Charm City is a nickname of Baltimore's, for anyone who cares :-))

[Gormy Cuss]

12. Your notion of Antioch may be outdated.

It's not a little low income town at the edge of civilization anymore. Antioch grew tremendously in the late 1990s-2000s. The growth was not only in residential but in retail-- lots of chain store mall stuff like Home Depot, Olive Garden, etc. It looks a lot like Concord or Dublin these days. There was a massive amount of new construction housing selling for upwards of 500K. The houses certainly looked at least typical for the new construction in Contra Costa.

However,like much of East Contra Costa, the bottom fell out there before the real estate correction affected the rest of the area. Most of those new construction houses are severely underwater.

[REP]

13. Maybe it's changed in six months

The houses I looked at were crap construction.

[Gormy Cuss]

14. I was referring to the "rough neighborhood" description.

I live close enough to Antioch to say that much of it is far from that.

[REP]

22. Lot of gang tags where we were looking (plus lousy commute)

We ended up buying in Los Gatos. Well, we have cats so it just made sense ... :-)

[Gormy Cuss]

29. Ooof! Los Gatos is very appropriate.

:-)

I understand about the commute. I think that's why areas like Antioch fell so hard with the bubble bursting. Few really wanted to live that far away from the job centers.

[distantearlywarning]

2. Here's a small sampling of what ~160K will buy you in Pittsburgh, PA:

http://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/reb/2313221111.html

http://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/reb/2299763290.html

http://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/reb/2314121877.html

http://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/reb/2305016931.html

http://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/reo/2284042662.html

http://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/reb/2260485149.html


We have one of the best unemployment figures in the nation, cultural amenities like a much bigger city, a highly educated populace, politically "blue" for at least the last 50 years, have a reputation as an up-and-coming green and tech city, and have been ranked #1 best place in the US to live by several publications in the last 5 years.

Why the hell would anybody pay good money to live in a falling down shack in California when they could just move here???? :shrug:

[Texasgal]

4. wow!

Those are all amazing!

You couldn't buy a match box in Austin for that price!

[Shagbark Hickory]

6. Thats NOTHING. New 5/3/2 subdivision houses here auctioned on courthouse steps for ~$100k

[madrchsod]

7. good prices....actually better than my hometown.

[Warren DeMontague]

15. Gee, I don't know. I don't know why anyone would rather live in Northern California than Pittsburgh.

Clearly, all those people must be misled, or mentally incapacitated.

[krispos42]

28. Or they just might not want to be involved in an earthquake/tsunami

Or maybe they don't want to pay a fortune for the privilege of living in a tiny house on a tiny lot in the middle of a traffic jam.


I'll admit that the weather is decent and the scenery is great, but let's face it... unless you live or work on the beach, you're not going to see it unless you specifically travel out there to look at it. You're going to be living in a house or apartment, in a neighborhood of houses and/or apartments, on a street with traffic and sidewalks and mailboxes and people and pets and fences and pink flamingos. You'll work someplace where walls, buildings or hills keep you from seeing the scenery.

So maybe two or three times a month you get down to the beach or the cliffs or go up into the mountains and actually get to enjoy it. Is that worth an extra $500 or $1,000 a month on a mortgage, especially when the Appalachian Mountains provide some beautiful scenery as well?



Some people don't think so.

[Warren DeMontague]

38. I know. And that's great that they don't think so.

But then when they whine about how unreasonably expensive California real estate is, they should realize that lots of people DO think so.

[krispos42]

44. Oh, I don't whine about it... I whine about how much CT real estate is!

Only because I was forced by circumstance to move back here... into my parent's house.

The basement, to be more precise, from whence I left some 11 years ago. Yay, progress...



Unfortunately, part of the reason the prices are so high is due to speculation in the real-estate market by the wealthy and powerful who simply needed another investment vehicle for their millions.


Another part of the reason was that a few of the powerful Wall Street financial firms needed shitty, guaranteed-to-collapse mortgages to bundle together so they could bet against the CDOs they were creating and rake in billions of insurance money.

Yay, unregulated capitalism...

[Warren DeMontague]

48. A lot of that speculation has shook out of the market, now.

but I agree, it was insane for a while.

[demodonkey]

30. Yep, those Pittsburghers must be totally, completely & hopelessly nuts to stay in a place like THIS:

[distantearlywarning]

31. Awesome!

I thought I was going to have to be the one to post some pictures of "ugly" Pittsburgh, but you beat me to it!

:toast:

[Warren DeMontague]

39. I think it's great that you like it.

And if it's such a well kept secret that real estate is cheap and things aren't crowded, even better.

Enjoy.

[KamaAina]

52. I thought Pittsburg was right next to Antioch?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburg,_California#History

Pittsburg, originally settled in 1839, was called first "New York Landing", then "Black Diamond", before citizens voted on "Pittsburg" on February 11, 1911. The name "Pittsburg" has at least two origins. First, it was the name of a coal mining company that built a railroad in 1865 on the eastern edge of what is now the city. Second, some citizens wanted to honor Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, (with the "H" dropped), due to the city's relations with the steel building industry, which was first established by the Columbia Geneva Steel Company. The original town site fronts on the Sacramento River Delta, reflecting its origins as a deep water channel river port.

:-)

[JuniperLea]

54. I think the warm sunshine and spectacular views...

Causes that illness.

I was born and raised in So Cal... I have that illness too... but worse than in San Francisco area... far more sunshine!! It's a deadly deterrent to moving elsewhere... you just can't.

[comrade snarky]

59. Shhhushhhh!

There's nothing here! There is absolutely no reason houses are 5 times the cost of Pittsburgh. We're just crazy. That's it!


Oh! Wait.. was that another earthquake? Yep, yep it was. Little one, this time Dum dumm dummmmmmmmm <ominous music>

[Warren DeMontague]

60. Secret's been out for a while.

Now, Portland SUCKS. Under NO circumstances does anyone want to move here. Ever. It's horrible.


Really.

[comrade snarky]

63. Horrible coffee there, even worse than here in San Francisco

And your forests? Totally covered in mildew, all that rain you know.

Really, the whole North West Coast should be considered a dead zone. Unfit for habitation except by us poor mutants.

[Raine]

21. "WHY?" .... Location, location, location

ask any real estate person. I'll take the worst house in the best location anytime. Really though I don't want to encourage anymore people to come to my beautiful state of California. So yeah go for the better house. :evilgrin:

[distantearlywarning]

27. Perhaps you missed the second half of my post.

Understandable given the pretty pictures in the links at the top. :-)

But since it wasn't clear enough, try this instead: http://www.forbes.com/2010/04/29/cities-livable-pittsburgh-lifestyle-real-estate-top-ten-jobs-crime-income.html

Or this: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10299/1098241-100.stm

Or this: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1359195/Pittsburgh-best-place-live-says-Economist-Intelligence-Unit.html

Or this: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/28/the-best-and-worst-cities_n_555901.html#s85745&title=BEST_Pittsburgh_PA

Or this: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35591286/ns/business-forbescom/


Seems like the "location" part of the equation is working out just fine also. :-)

[Raine]

43. You're correct, I didn't see the second part

:blush: I'm on dial-up and linking can be slow so I'll usually just "sample" a few. THANKS for setting me straight. :hi:

[JuniperLea]

55. I'm with you all the way on this one...

So Cal sucks so bad... bleh... no one should come here! And surfing sucks too, so stay away from the stinky beaches!

:evilgrin:

[Liberal_in_LA]

34. 160k won't buy you a 1 bedroom condo in west los angeles

[ProgressiveProfessor]

40. Weather

and not having to say they live in the Pitts?

[distantearlywarning]

46. Yeah, that's true.

The weather here isn't for everybody. California is much more temperate. I love the 'burgh, but even I admit that I start daydreaming a bit about Los Angeles around February or so.

[JuniperLea]

53. Damn... I could have two of those for what I've paid for my townhouse...

In Lakewood, CA. East of Long Beach, south of Cerritos, north of Seal Beach... 7 miles from the coast...

But to answer your question... $$$$. I make four times the money in Los Angeles County that I could just about anywhere else except New York. This is no exaggeration.

[drmeow]

58. Not everyone has the option

to just up and move somewhere!

[Shagbark Hickory]

5. Unreal. Sickening. If you look up some very dangerous neighborhoods in CA, the homes are like $350k

AND UP.

[Warren DeMontague]

17. Why would it bother you

unless you're looking to move there? :shrug:

[Shagbark Hickory]

18. It bothers me because how is anybody supposed to be able to afford that?

[Warren DeMontague]

19. It is a very desirable place to live. So prices go up.

How the fuck is anyone supposed to be able to afford to live in Manhattan, for that matter?

I think there are a lot of people who observe California from afar without ever really understanding it. 34 Million people live there. There's a reason for that, and there's a reason people keep moving there.

[Shagbark Hickory]

20. All I keep hearing about are people moving out. And lots and lots of foreclosures.

What if I wanted to move to california? I might as well be moving from a 3rd world country. I can't afford no million dollar house.

[REP]

23. Wish people were moving out; might not be so many crappy drivers on the road

[Shagbark Hickory]

26. Theres crappy drivers everywhere, sorry.

[REP]

41. Not like here. Trust me.

CA driving exam is pointing to an object that mist closely resembles a car. There's raised dots on the roads for blind drivers.

[Warren DeMontague]

42. It's not all of California, in my experience.

For some reason, though, the tangle of freeways between Oakland, Sacramento, and San Jose seem to accumulate the worst of the worst.

[REP]

57. LA is its own little hell, too

I'd rather find parking in the City than drive in LA!

[Warren DeMontague]

61. And that's saying something. Today my daughter said "look, dad- two empty parking spaces--

right next to each other"

I said "you know what that means, don't you?

...We're not in San Francisco"

[Warren DeMontague]

36. If you're talking about the South or East Bay

in my experience there are ALWAYS going to be crappy drivers on the road.

[JVS]

32. If you have business moving there, then you should be able to afford a house.

You can move out to Victorville or Corona if you need to find a cheap place to start.

[Warren DeMontague]

35. Like I said, try somewhere like Sonoma, or maybe Mendocino county.

If you want to move to the South Bay, though, you're going to be in competition with a lot of Silicon Valley high earners. I knew a couple in Sunnyvale where the wife was an executive with a big corporation and the husband was a lawyer; they paid something like 3/4 of a Million to live in a townhouse, with no yard, and their first kid was on the way.
They moved away, probably for other reasons but the fact that they couldn't even get a place with a small yard for the kid to play had to have something to do with it.

That's just the way it is, particularly somewhere like Silicon Valley where geography has conspired to put limited housing in reasonable commuting distance from large numbers of jobs. Lots of people endure what I would consider unreasonable commutes to get there, too.

[Shagbark Hickory]

47. What is the average price for a 3/2/2 single family detached on 1/8-1/4 acre?

[Warren DeMontague]

49. It depends on where you look

I can tell you one thing, it's way less than it was a few years ago.

Wine country is beautiful, though. Hard to go wrong, as long as you don't need to commute to SF or further south.

[KamaAina]

56. It's not just geography

thanks to dear old Prop 13, urban planners in CA view housing as a dog, because it doesn't bring in as much revenue as office parks, strip malls, etc. Thus, they tend to put developuing housing on the back burner. The state assigns every municipality a "Regional Housing Needs Allocation" target. Not one Bay Area community has reached it; SF is the closest at around 80%.

[Warren DeMontague]

62. I think it varies by county. And some is local government, not prop. 13.

If you're talking Marin, there's always been a NIMBY attitude. But I was living in Sonoma during part of the housing boom, and there was tons of construction. Drive up 101 you can still see half-finished subdivisions in places, stopped when the bust came.

[krabigirl]

50. The salaries are also much higher in CA, if you have a job that is.

[quakerboy]

8. Do your own research.

A quick real estate look up shows a number of places in the San Jose area at the 150 mark. If you expand your search up to Oakland, then more than a handful.

I don't know the area. And it doesn't look like there is the abundance of relatively cheap housing that you can find in many places. But it does not appear to me that a burnt out building is the norm offering for the area, even in the low end pricing.

[REP]

10. No, it's not the norm, but $150K gets you small condo in a decent area or a long commute

Or a bad area.

Just bought a house in this area, and it wasn't 150K. That would have been nice, but no.

[LooseWilly]

45. The places going for 150K in Oakland... are boarded up foreclosures in the ghettoes ...

which are probably being used as squats by junkies or crackheads currently.

I've looked at the lists, and the pictures... and I was driving a taxi in those ghettoes when I was doing the looking... which pretty much made me an expert at where the junkies and crackheads and so on were most numerous.

A burnt out building might not be the "norm"... but that's the price that would be asked for a burnt out building (come to think of it... reminds me of a friend and her boyfriend nearly burning down an apartment I lived in in Oakland while smoking heroin on our couch after the boyfriend got out of jail).

All things considered though... assuming you've got the stones to deal with deep East Oakland, or East Palo Alto.... $150K is a steal... even if you have to pay another $200K on repairs/renovations.

[Warren DeMontague]

16. I don't know why more people aren't moving north. Sonoma county is beautiful.

It was overpriced for a while, but prices have fallen dramatically.

[REP]

24. Commute times to Mountain View, Cupertino, even the City aren't worth it

(Google, Apple, HP, AMD, Facebook, etc)

[Warren DeMontague]

37. Yeah, I know. Used to live there.

But I knew people who did it. Insane.

Edit: Eventually, ideally, they're going to get this SMART train rolling, but I'm not sure how much of a difference that would make. I've always thought they need to take BART up over the GGB, maybe on the lower deck, and extend it up to Marin, etc.

[KamaAina]

51. That was the original idea

the Muni Metro that runs a level above BART along Market was supposed to be for the BART tracks to Marin. Imagine what Marin would be like today if that had actually happened. (sigh)

[MadHound]

25. Thanks, but no thanks.

I think I'll stick with my house that came with twenty beautiful acres and a couple of outbuildings. You can purchase places like this for roughly the same price out here in the Midwest.

California is a nice place to visit once in awhile, but I certainly wouldn't want to live there, cost of living being one of many reasons.

[Liberal_in_LA]

33. 10 years ago, the market hadn't peaked yet. 6 years ago that tiny house would have cost a lot more