My husband and I had quite a few conversations about the price of housing in the Bay Area while we were down there. They were spurred by the price of a house for sale down the street from his parent’s house, where he grew up. There is nothing extremely special about the neighborhood. I mean, it’s a really nice neighborhood and has always been slightly pricier than other San Jose neighborhoods. But, really, its just a really nice neighborhood in suburbia. The price of this house was totally ridiculous for what you were getting. Want to know how much it was? Two million dollars. That would be about $18,000.00 a month for a mortagage payment. For two million dollars I would expect something with lots of land, perhaps something on the ocean, lots of square footage. AT least a pool. This house, while nice, had none of these things. It was just a really nice suburban house. A house that, in Spokane, would probably go for $300,000.00. My husband saw another house while out walking around the neighborhood. He said it had 2 bedrooms, 1 bath and was around 1500 square feet. Guess how much that one was? 1 million dollars. For 2 bedrooms and 1 bath in suburbia. 1 MILLION DOLLARS.

Now, we have been having dreams that we would someday move back there because we really miss it. We were hopeful that this would, indeed, happen someday. Maybe after we paid off some bills and got on our feet a little. Now we know that, unless something drastically happens to the housing market down there, that’s not going to happen. My husband was telling me that he feels like he has been pushed out of his home. The high prices have pushed him out of the very neighborhood in which he grew up, and that he would very much like to live in. Isn’t that kind of sad? And it’s not like we are making poverty-level salaries. I mean, we both have professional-level degrees. We should be able to live there. But we can’t afford it. The high cost of housing has pushed us out of the Bay Area. It has pushed us out of the neighborhood in which my husband grew up. Think about that. I mean, looking at it on the surface one can kind of laugh at it, or be surprised, and then go on thier merry way. But when you ponder it you come to all kinds of realizations. When I drive down his street, I realize that his street  has been totally taken over by these millionaires with thier over-the-top “Monster” homes. It has become elitist. One has to be filthy rich to be able to buy a home anywhere in the San Jose area. It’s really sad for those of us who really love it down there and want to live there, and want to be able to have the security of home ownershop. And the person who is writing this is someone who has a Master’s degree. Someone who worked her ass off in college to get a good-paying job to with the intention of being able to live comfortably in a nice house that my husband and I own. In the Bay Area there is no middle class anymore. You seriously have to be rich to be able to live there.
What I want to know is who are these people who are making enough money to be able to make (at least) a $9,000.00 a month mortagage payment? And why are they wasting the money on some suburban home when they could buy something sooo much nicer anywere else? Do you know what kind of home they could get up here? Seriouly, let’s compare. This is what you get for a million dollars in Spokane. This is what you get for a million dollars in San Jose. Wouldn’t you rather have the 7 room estate rather than the 4 bedroom suburban home?