$600,000 is affordable? How about smart? I don't mean to chide, but $600,000 for a cookie cutter tract-home is down right absurd. California is nuts.

The comparison is 2million in Palo Alto for an attached townhouse ~2200sqft. You might be able to get an 800k house in a bad neighborhood (east palo alto) that's 1100 sqft.

Friend in Buffalo is buying a house for 120k, difference is extreme.

> Friend in Buffalo is buying a house for 120k, difference is extreme.

Buffalo is an extreme example, both nationally and inside Buffalo itself. The most expensive single family homes in the city are ~$1.5MM [0]. These are mansions built in the early 1900s right on a beautiful park. Alternatively, you can buy an almost condemned house in a bad neighborhood for ~$5,000 [1]. People actually live in those places.

[0] http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/82-Meadow-Rd-Buffalo-NY-14...

[1] http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/647-Norfolk...

Buffalo is a rust belt place that has been in the wane for decades.

A decade ago, they were razing 50 houses a month.

And I'll bet the average salary and job prospects in Buffalo are reflective of the low house prices.

If you live in rural Kentucky, housing in many parts of Florida would be considered absurd. Comparing costs of living in wages against locations is apples and oranges. You can get a home with 2000sgft in Montana with 50 acres for the same price as a cookie cutter home in a subdivision in North Carolina. Housing is based on numerous economic factors including wage and comps (what other people have been willing to spend on similar homes in the area)

The difference between the housing market in the Bay and almost anywhere else is an extreme caricature of your analogy, though. At some point all analogies fail to provide an adequate description, but yours fails almost out of the gate here, in my opinion.

It doesn't scale though. I live in SD (moving to Austin) and the cost of living to income ratio is simply better elsewhere.

Absolutely. We're looking to move as well. Can't handle the cost of living here in SD.

$600,000 for a house in California sounds pretty cheap to me too. That's the price of an apartment in Toronto and even senior software developers here are lucky to clear US$80,000 a year.

Toronto dev here. How many years qualify you as senior in the city? On average how likely is it to score six-figures (CAD) within let's say 4 years?

Definitely not staying here long term. Gonna try to move down-south where developers are better compensated and cost of living isn't so much.

Yeah but it's well known the housing market in Toronto is crazy too...

If you look on realtor.ca, you can find many many apartments in Toronto for less than half of that.

It is, which is a big part of my decision to move from SD to Austin in two weeks. I make the same salary and cost of living is ~30% less.

You could buy a huge house for that here in Bend, and we're probably at or near the top of the latest real estate cycle.

It's almost as dry as San Diego here in theory, but a heck of a lot colder in the winter.

McMansions are pervasive in all states/cities. And their overpricing is a common. It's not California, it's the American economy, built upon housing.

I love PQ.

Guys PLEASE don't come to San Diego.

I like it the way it is and would hate to see it turn into another Bay Area.

On a more serious note I still have no idea why people haven't figured this out and all flooded the place... You could have some killer startups here..

I guess it's good if you have a family and don't go out. Other than that, it's BORING!

Other than the fact that there's no cheap talent to build the start-ups with because you can't live here and work for cheap...

This!

Can confirm: currently live in Rancho Penasquitos and it's great if not a little suburban. That said, if I were a little older and had a family it would be perfect.

>In north county, places like Rancho Penasquitos (92129) have great schools and you can find decent single-family homes in the low $600's these days.

Not true. I just bought a house in PQ and there's no WAY you can find anything below 650.

Depends on which part. North-east PQ (over by Rolling Hills) homes were built in the early 70s and are still going in the low 600's. I believe west PQ (Black Mountain Rd area) homes are newer and more expensive.

we could start a PQ HN meet-up. My treehouse accomodates 4 and has a pulley system. We can haul up buckets of beer :)

Note to self: uptownfunk, falkenb0t also in PQ. That's 5

I'm in UC but work nearby at Intuit. Lots of us.

+1 for PQ meetup

Second Chance or BT's Southern BBQ would be good.

I'm interesting in restarting the old SD Hacker News Group. I have access to the old email list and there is an existing google group. How about combining efforts?

Sure. I know the owner of BT's.

Hey, I want in on this action! I live in Hillcrest and work in Poway!

Count me in too! Who knew we were so many?

+1 , would love to

Shhhhh! Just shhhhhusshh!

I don't think you have to worry... there is a NET outflow of people living in California[1]. Why? My mother always said if you don't have anything nice to say about a group of people, don't say anything at all.

[1]https://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/great-california-ex...

There's a net outflow when considering purely domestic migration, maybe. California's population is still growing, driven by immigration and births.

Escondido is another reasonably priced suburb. My wife and I bought a nice house there in the mid $500s. The only downside of Escondido is that the school system is not great and it's a good 40 minutes from downtown SD.

+1 for Exco!

Wife and I bought a fixer-upper in old Escondido for a bit under 300. There's several tech companies in North County, and you can take Del Dios to the coast pretty easily (which is where I work).

40 minutes? Maybe using FasTrak.

Ha, true. Normally we aren't going there during rush hour. It's probably more like an hour or an hour and 15 minutes during rush hour.

Sounds like similar prices and commute to Daly City. Can anyone who knows both regions distinguish them for me?