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A comment on Nearly half of Bay Area residents say they want to leave. Parent comment

Re:Nearly half of Bay Area residents say they want to leave by lpolovets on Sunday June 03, 2018 @09:09PM (#17223665)
I agree and disagree. In most areas, I think it's true that other asset classes outperform real estate. One challenge in the Bay Area is that housing has been going up faster than non-housing investments. For example, I just checked the house next door to me on Trulia, and it's up 6X in 20 years. That's an almost 10% annual rate of return. So in fact if you don't own a house, you're probably falling even further behind from your house-owning peers. At least in this area.
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Re:Nearly half of Bay Area residents say they want to leave by sxates on Monday June 04, 2018 @01:20AM (#17224883)
You're under-stating the return. Unlike other investments you can leverage the house with a mortgage. Assuming you put only 20% down you're making 50%/year gains.
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Re:Nearly half of Bay Area residents say they want to leave by usaar333 on Monday June 04, 2018 @01:07PM (#17229859)
Except every year you are paying about 6% of the purchase price in principal and interest and property tax (plus maintenance and water), so the math isn't quite that simple.
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Re:Nearly half of Bay Area residents say they want to leave by overeater on Sunday June 03, 2018 @09:19PM (#17223716)
So you're saying if you buy a house, you will be making incredible gains. If not, then you will be making gains at least as good as everywhere else. Sounds like win-win to me.
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Re:Nearly half of Bay Area residents say they want to leave by lpolovets on Sunday June 03, 2018 @09:44PM (#17223849)
There are very few assets that return 10% annually for 20 years. It's impossible to know what will happen in the next 20 years, but owning a house in the Bay Area for the last few decades would have been a much better investment than paying a little less for rent and investing what's left over.
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Re:Nearly half of Bay Area residents say they want to leave by fjsolwmv on Sunday June 03, 2018 @10:05PM (#17223952)
6x in 20years is lower return than stock shares in most of the employers that have been driving up housing prices (for obvious reasons -- those companies' growth are funding the housing price gains)
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Re:Nearly half of Bay Area residents say they want to leave by usaar333 on Monday June 04, 2018 @12:42AM (#17224715)
Not sure why you are being downvoted, but this is correct. The returns on VITAX far outperformed leveraged housing. (see 3rd final thought at https://medium.com/@usaar33/why-you-shouldnt-buy-a-home-in-t...)

Besides, 10% is about the long-term S&P 500 average return.

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Re:Nearly half of Bay Area residents say they want to leave by hikarudo on Monday June 04, 2018 @02:42AM (#17225182)
Not to mention that by owning you have to pay property tax, which should be considered when comparing investment returns.
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Re:Nearly half of Bay Area residents say they want to leave by jfnixon on Wednesday June 06, 2018 @10:20AM (#17247340)
It is normally a Bad Idea to invest heavily in your employer due to the Putting All Your Eggs In One Basket principle. If anything happens, you lose your job and investments.
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Re:Nearly half of Bay Area residents say they want to leave by 49bc on Sunday June 03, 2018 @11:26PM (#17224351)
But you can’t live in your other investments.
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