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Deleted member 23272
Guest
Just out of curiosity what is the flipside or the "greener grass" scenario here? Because most of the world is more or less the same, in terms of major cities and metro areas being unaffordable.You're absolutely right.
If your salary is $140,000 a year in San Francisco (this is well above the median salary in San Francisco), you'll end up with around $95,000 after taxes. A decent studio apartment in San Francisco costs at least $3500 a month, or $42,000 a year. If you don't feel like paying this much money, you'll have to live with multiple roommates or deal with a long (probably more than 2 hours per day) commute. Now you're left with $53,000. If you're frugal, you'll spend around $20 a day on food or $7300 a year. If you're lucky, you'll spend around $3000 a year on utilities and gasoline in San Francisco. I'll assume you already have a car. Now you're left with $42,700. Not bad.
If you're able to keep your job for the next 7 years, you'll have enough money for the down payment for a $1.5 million house in the Bay Area. A house worth less than that in the Bay Area is probably not suitable for raising a family. 7 years without eating out a single time, going on a single trip, or spending a single dollar to entertain yourself, and you can finally pay the down payment on your dream home (which probably isn't all that great). Now you can look forward to paying $10,000 a month for the next 30 years to pay off your mortgage.
If you don't want to spend your next 37 years like this, I guess you're a loser (according to another user).