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by konjin 1924 days ago
I don't get how people can think like this.

I buy a SF house and start paying the SF mortgage with my SF salary, I spend the next 10 years living there with a cost of living that's around 40% higher than Texas.

At the end of it I sell at SF market rates and move to Texas. I now have an extra $1.24m even if prices didn't increase by a cent.
2 comments
mpmpmpmp 1924 days ago
It’s easy. I don’t want to live in San Francisco for 10 years to have an extra $1.24m. Most of my family would not be “just a plane flight away” where as right now I make good money and it’s a 3 hr car ride to see them. Those things mean something to me that money won’t replace. The cost of living being nice here just means I can also do all the things I want to do easier with less money.
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thebradbain 1923 days ago
Sure, but you're anticipating CA housing prices keep rising or the very least don't crater and that Texas real estate prices don't continue skyrocketing (in the past 5 years, the average 3bd/2ba home in Dallas has doubled from 200k to 400k. As all major cities in Texas are among the top fastest growing in the US each year, it looks like there's a good 5-10 years of 10%+ property value growth, at minimum). Like almost all arbitrage opportunities, the spread will eventually be narrowed as more and more people take advantage of it.

Furthermore, your 1.24m figure is over-inflated, as CA has high state/local sales/income taxes. And don't forget San Franciso transfer taxes on real estate (around $50k-100k due at close)! Texas has no state or local income taxes, aside from property taxes.

Not to mention that if you have kids, you don't really have the luxury of waiting that long. You can put them into a better school district for cheaper, or you can even send your kid to top-tier well-known private schools for $25k/year rather than $60k/year. Even in-state college tuition at UT, a nationally renowned public university on par with UCLA and UC Berkeley, is only $5k/year, versus near $20k in CA.

I live in Los Angeles now, but I grew up in Dallas. Obviously I'm choosing to stay in California for a reason, but I'm not ignorant as to why someone would move from CA to TX.

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