Post #47512 by Tiki-bot on Tue, Aug 12, 2003 12:54 PM

Interesting discussion. I've been recently lamenting the exact situation you all are talking about. Nothing sucks more than making an excellent wage and still living paycheck to paycheck. Having a family seems like a rich person's luxury to me at this point.

I just bought my house in December, which may have been near the top of the market, but the SF Bay Area is a very impacted area (i.e. no new homes being built - there's no room!) so the property values always seem to creep (or leap) upwards. We love our house and were lucky to get into a great neighborhood, unlike some of the depressing ones I looked in before.

I, too, look at my house as my retirement. It's unlikely that social security will even exist when I retire, I have no gov't or corporate pensions like many of our parents did. My only option, besides meager 401ks and Roths, is to buy property in the Bay Area, build equity, buy up whenever possible or necessary, then sell and move out of state when retired. Not preferrable, but maybe a reality.

Pop, putting immediate offers on houses is something I can relate to. I saw my house, they accepted offers a day later, the next day I found out I got it. I beat 5 other bidders, which was a low number. Some other places I put offers on had over 12 bidders and the prices sometimes ran $100K over the asking price! It sounds funny to me to hear about housing elsewhere, where you can expect your house to sit on the market for months. That happens here, too, but only on overpriced homes. We're seeing quite a few "reduced price" homes out there now. But mid-range homes ($350K-$600K) are still selling like blue hotcakes.

Yes, depressing.