Why is California real estate so absurdly expensive?

Maybe because it's the most popular and desirable place to live in the USA.

IT IS literally ridiculous....

a house where i live for 200 thousand would be 1 million if not more? how does anyone afford this? yes, the payscale is higher in california but the cost of living is HIGHER!.HIGHER than the payscale..

for instance if a house is 3 to 4 to 5 times more than somewhere else does that mean the same job in california is paying someone 3, 4, 5 times more? NO!

SO do people just try and get good credit, live in debt their entire lives and when they die, oh well?...

That's a tautological argument, r1. OP is asking why it is so popular and desirable.

OP, it's largely because the climate is so pleasant. It's not as humid nor as hot as the Southern half of the US East Coast, and so most of it stays relatively dry and sunny for much of the year.

It's not just California, we're in another housing bubble. In some areas, investors are buying up all of the housing inventory and that drives up the prices.

Half a million dollars for ghetto trash tiny houses in Compton. Insane.

R3, nothing at the DL is "taut," which, if you consider the facts, is logical.

O.

What's a chainmail yard?

R2, I think you're being a bit hyperbolic.

In SF here, and my husband and I make good money, we're easily able to afford our $2MM home. That's totally within the current market.

CA'ers can indeed afford higher cost of housing, as is evidenced by the flood of home sales in the past five years. Yes, some of them are getting jumbo loans, but you can't get them without great credit.

A relative moved to Vallejo about 26 years ago, they paid $600,000 for crappy wooden cottage!

Because California is where classy people live, OP. It's like asking why Prada products are expensive. It's the brand value of high end products.

[quote]Because California is where classy people live, OP. It's like asking why Prada products are expensive. It's the brand value of high end products.

Yes, Rose, EVERYONE in California is "classy" and earns a million and up a year.

STFU.

I’d love to live in Southern California, but I think it’s the opposite of “classy.”

Former Californian, I would add to all this an anecdote: especially in the Bay Area, which was built to the gills in my youth - in the nicer parts, richer people have kept themselves in great health and stay alive FOREVER (I know 80 year olds who still run). So, they're still mobile and holding onto their homes as opposed to going into home and selling, etc.

Why are you so retarded, OP? Most buildable, inhabitable land in California is already built on. Large parts of California are very dry and barely inhabitable. The state is very narrow and 15 minutes away from the coast you’ll find yourself in a desert. San Diego? Beautiful. 15 minutes outside of San Diego it’s 110 degrees.

Water has to be diverted and pumped to most of the state. That costs a tremendous amount of money. Of course land is going to be expensive when there’s so little of it that can be lived in without consuming a humongous amount of resources.

The state is very narrow? It's 250 miles wide, which is three times more than the entire width of Connecticut.

[quote] Because California is where classy people live, OP.

R10 has obviously never been to the northern parts of the state, the central valley, or the suburbs around Sacramento. Mostly MAGA shitheads.

R15 the area where people want to live is relatively narrow.

r16 Honey, those places don't have expensive real estate and we generally don't consider them as a part of true California, anyway.

It is insane. Where do the restaurant servers and store clerks live?

R19, they make excellent tips, and live in the City or in Oakland, typically with roommates.

Doesn't Cali also have 50 year mortgages available?

Three words: supply and demand.

California continues to be a place where a lot of people want to live. Not enough new homes are being built, so prices go up. It’s not complicated.

Just moved out of coastal Southern California. We sold a townhouse for 1.5mm. To buy the type of house we wanted, everything was 3mm and up. Not doable for us. But people we knew out there either spent a much larger proportion of their income on their mortgage, or they had parents who sold California homes, made a bundle and left it to their kids. The weather is dreamy but too many people and the taxes are absurd. We decided we can still have extended visits or one day spend the winter in California by renting. But our home base needs to be in a more affordable state. As context, our combined income is 450k-475k. No kids. No other debt.

[quote]CA'ers can indeed afford higher cost of housing, as is evidenced by the flood of home sales in the past five years. Yes, some of them are getting jumbo loans, but you can't get them without great credit.

I rolled my eyes so hard I think I hurt myself.

Per the BLS the mean hourly wage for LA is $30.61 which is around $64,000 a year.

In San Francisco, it is $39.35 so around $82K.

A couple making $164K a year cannot afford a shack in San Francisco.

San Francisco

L.A.

[quote] Most buildable, inhabitable land in California is already built on.

Which is why people are moving eastward to find cheaper homes.

In Palm Springs, what was once a seasonal playground for gays and God's Waiting Room for the Olds is now becoming a cluster of tech bros and refugees from LA and SF.

Utterly wrong, R24. My neighbors make less than that and own their 1 bedroom condo in the Castro. Yes, it's mortgaged.

Houses for close to a million dollars, OP?

How adorable!

r7 A "chainmail" yard is a stretch of lawn where you can fully enjoy those f-a-a-a-abulous knights.

(I think OP meant a yard enclosed by a chain link fence, a style of fence which is considered déclassé and inappropriate for the bon ton.)

R2 we don't use the word 'literally' in this manner - unless you're retarded

Long term goal is - price average and lower class people out of homes completely. These same companies who are buying up homes/apartments know that there is BIG money in cheap apartments, government-subsidized housing, etc. so the sooner they can expand that market, the better.

I bought my 3 bedroom/1 bath 20 years ago for half a million. It's worth 1.9 million now. It's a postwar and the builder got away with murder. It's so cheaply made. But it's in a fabulous school district and very close to all the big tech firms. Maybe when I can sell it and move I'll put the listing on a Tasteful Friends post and you'll all be horrified.

There is no place in the US with more fake concern about affordable housing for working class people or more real action to prevent that affordable housing.

California IS particularly expensive compared to lots of other places in the country. But almost everywhere is experiencing this rise in prices.

I'm originally from rust belt PA. My father paid 15K in 1965 for the home we were all raised in (with a loan that took them until the early 90s to pay off) and he owned the house until 2010. When he sold it, it sold for right around 100K. Houses in that area are now selling for DOUBLE that. And it's dingy Trumpland.

One thing almost none of us over 40 really comprehend is that anyone starting out working a retail or service job is just so beyond fucked. There is probably no way any of this generation will ever own a home, and renting is nearly impossible at current pricing. If I was 29 and not 49, I would be doomed to live with my parents forever.

Apartments that were 800-1200 dollars ten years ago are almost non-existent, and "starter" apartments are "starting" at 2K. When I lived in Chicago, they built a cheapo new build of apartments that, according to reviews, have really thin walls and weren't built very well. But they've got new floors and cabinets and so, they're charging $3200 for a 850 sqf STUDIO...and getting it.

They never built homes on the west coast like they did in the midwest. There are tons of 2-story houses in my city, many of them vacant.

The original Sharon Tate House: According to the Los Angeles Times, Morgan paid $32,000 in 1940 (equivalent to $0.47 million by 2020).

.47 million for a house in the Hollywood Hills. What a dream!

OP, "You can get NYC apartments (small yes) for less, and close to all the action."

Yes, but you'd be in NYC.

Exactly, r38.

Yes, I know that if I moved to Arkansas, I could rent a 6BR 7BA house with a 3-car garage on 5 acres for what my 1BR apartment costs in SF. But then I’d be in Arkansas.

No thanks.

The other thing that I don’t understand; all that money for a house and the public schools are mostly shitty and bums are sleeping on your sidewalk. For that kind of money, the minimum expectation is a half decent public school system.

Have you been to Arkansas R38? I will admit I haven't, so I'm not so quick to dismiss it as a hellhole.

Suburbs across the country are very similar.

Tired of these flyoverstan shit posts.

R2 And where do you live?

I have, r41. I once had to spend five days in Pine Bluff - a complete shithole.

Elaborate R43.

What didn't you like about it?

What about it made it unlivable from a day to day basis? Sure, if gay "life" (bars, clubs, organizations) are important to you, then I can see it, but there are hundreds of very liberal small towns with none of those options.

No ballet or orchestra? How often do you attend those?

No varied food "scene" (rolls eyes here). How often do you go out to eat, and if it is 5 days a week, why are you pissing away your money?

Homophobia is certainly a factor, but how many times were you called faggot to your face in five days?