Middle Class Being Priced Out of Bay Area Housing Market: Report

We all know it takes a lot of money to own or rent in the Bay Area, but a new survey is showing an eye-opening detail of just how financially painful it can be. Terry McSweeney reports.

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[jaquanpowell]

Bay Area isn't affordable for the dumbest reasons. Greed has destroyed a beautiful place.

[jasjas]

There is no middle class in the SF Bay Area.

[alksjda]

Bay Area isn’t for middle class. It’s like saying Beverly Hills and Hamptons is not affordable for middle class.

[JAYY_JAYY]

Here’s some news for you
There is no “middle class”
There is wealthy and poor .

[ashackerford]

All of the affordable homes in most of the major cities are being sold to corporate investors. I live in Charlotte, Tricon residential owns most of the homes that were priced from $250k to $350k. Tricon has around 260 homes listed for rent in the Charlotte Area and there just sitting empty for months due to the price.

[jamesharris]

You have to be a fentanyl addict or multi millionaire to get a decent place in SF

[MrWaterbugdesign]

I moved to the Bay Area 40 years ago. Every boom brought the same stories..."Middle class priced out!". In the down times "Middle class will be poor!" Just rerun the same story over and over, what people want to hear. Yet people continue to move to the Bay Area, buy homes and do very well. Oh, time for the story where the "news" finds someone not doing well and interview them like somehow that represents something.

[TheChiefSteel]

LOL. Middle Class priced out. More like Upper Upper Middle Class to higher. I mean a single family home for 1.75 Million. A condo for 1.25 Million with association fees on top. What Upper Middle class family or couple is even able to afford anything close? But experts are saying this time it's not a bubble because it's not subprime ARM's this go around. So laughable. I hope all the corporate investors choke hard on these investment properties down the road.

[franka]

Who the hell now a days have that type of money to afford such a small house 😵‍💫 housing market is crazy.

[YT_C]

Such a shame.

There is absolutely no reason to stay in Bay Area when WFH is new norm. Just move place closer to friends and family where housing prices are low and have good quality of life. I don’t know why people suffer while submerged with high monthly mortgage payments. Companies who does not adopt the Remote work approach are bound to fail anyway.

[eklectrikmusic]

You don’t need more homes as much as you need to put a cap on real estate speculation. Especially from overseas investors using US real estate to stash money.

[_stone_]

Getting tougher for renters in 2022???? It has been tough for renters since AIRBNB started in 2008. I gave up living in San Francisco in 2016. All that I could afford was a rented room in a house with at least two other roommates. Not worth it. So glad I left when I did. My quality of life is extraordinarily much better now.

[nz]

it's been out of reach for at least 15 years. WTF

[ivyc]

Lol...we were priced out many years ago kidding me? 😄

[ericli]

This is not new, it's been like this for the last 2 decades.

[gosikh]

Realtors and Appraisers killed it, they come up with crazy numbers and sell everyone a story. The low rates made it easy to get jumbo loans. Plus, there is a lot of tech money here.

[kmccree]

Soooo wtf is the solution. They report about this crap but yet nothing is being done smh.

[prakrutipatel]

There should be some kind of law for it first preference given to the citizens and first time buyers. So some people won’t hold 5-6 homes.

[victoriagarcia]

It’s all the tech buyers who make 250k+ a yr that live in that area.

[ron]

We gave up our San Francisco Mission smallish studio apartment where we paid $1, 850 a month. We now live 45 miles from San Francisco and own a 2, 700 sq ft home. We are a few minutes from a BART station so can be in the city in around an hour (about the same to drive mid-day). Neither of us have to commute each day to work so I am not sure we would have moved here if we had to drive to the city each day. Our new home has a two car garage (no more driving around and around looking for parking). We have 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and our own laundry room (the best part besides the garage). Our mortgage is $2, 300 a month. Eastern Contra Costa County is the last affordable area within an hour of the city. The summers are hot (of course we have central AC). Winters are a little colder than the city. You can buy a brand new home out here starting in the mid $750K range. The towns of Oakley, Brentwood and Antioch are the areas with the best prices. Antioch has lovely planned communities with lots of bike trails and parks. Downtown Antioch is not great and a little sketchy but the newer areas of homes are beautiful and far away from downtown. Our realtor was Peter Lekas of Coldwell Banker realty. He has lived out here for over a decade.