[TomVDB]

That $5M is hyperbole, right?

Nobody will deny that Bay Area housing is expensive, but even today, $1.5M will get you a decent single family house with a garden in Santa Clara.

That’s a ridiculous amount of money for most, but it’s not in $5M exit territory, and something that’s relatively easy to manage for a 2 tech income family: $1.25M loan is $5600/m mortgage, $1500/m in real estate taxes.

[gonehome]

$5M is a little hyperbolic, but $4M is not.

$1.5M will get you a shack - really old maybe a little bigger than 1000sqft in Santa Clara if you can find one at that price at all.

$4M gets you a nice, newer 2900sqft house (comparable to what you'd get in the other regions I mentioned).

$1.5M would have been enough in 2012, but it's gotten worse since then.

[TomVDB]

2900ft houses is a good way to skew the argument in your favor, but it's a bit of a strawman: the vast majority of houses in the Bay Area aren't 2900ft to begin with, yet 2000ft house are plenty, with 4 bedroom, on, say, a 6000ft lot. You can easily find one of those for $2M, and they're not shacks.

This is a $2M house, 2600 sqft, 5BD house on an 11000 sqft lot: https://www.redfin.com/CA/Santa-Clara/2602-Birchtree-Ln-9505....

But going back to my earlier price range. I took me all of 2 minutes, not months of open houses to come up with these:

For $1.6M, you get this 2200 sqft house: https://www.redfin.com/CA/San-Jose/1244-Broadleaf-Ln-95128/h.... Or you get this 2500 sqft house: https://www.redfin.com/CA/Santa-Clara/1453-Franklin-St-95050....

[gonehome]

I don't know if I'd say plenty.

Redfin filters:

- Santa Clara

- Sqft Min: 2000

- Property Type: House

- Price Max: $2M

Results: 9

If you set a minimum year built to 2000 (so up to 20 years old)

Results: 0

You're right though that there are houses you can find in less desirable areas on the peninsula for around 2 million (and San Jose is cheaper, east bay is cheaper). Usually though there's some tradeoff (bad schools, long commute, house is really old). These tradeoffs don't exist in the other regions where for a a lot less you can live basically anywhere you'd want in a nicer place.

The places I've been looking (Palo Alto, Cupertino, Mountain View) don't really have anything in the price points you're talking about.

I will admit that my general statement about Santa Clara was wrong though (I was thinking mostly about the cities I mentioned as part of Santa Clara county, not the city of Santa Clara).

[JKCalhoun]

Yes, I think the people on each side are using "Santa Clara" differently.

As the County of Santa Clara, you can find a nice 2000 sq. ft. home for $1.2M.

South San Jose, people.

[alexhutcheson]

Depending on where your office is, you might consider the commute from South San Jose unacceptable.

[dmode]

I have a 2500 sq ft house in a 10 rated school district, 16 miles from SF, that I purchased this year for 1.4mn. Here's another similar example: https://www.redfin.com/CA/Lafayette/3399-Angelo-St-94549/hom...

[whimsicalism]

I agree with this comment if by 100 you meant 1000

e: oh whoops, it was edited