There's nothing like a trip to the Bay Area of California to put things back into perspective! My family and I went to visit relatives and friends the past few days. As we drove around the crowded highways it was a challenge to remain calm. You see I tend to notice things easily and sometimes I take it to heart and it upsets me such as the overpricing of homes from the past blog entries. Well in the Bay Area there are so many people in a rush to get to who knows where. I watched many people cut each other off, zoom in and out of lanes and live what I believe to be the high stress lifestyle.
Don't get me wrong there are wonderful things about California and for me the weather usually can't be beat. But the cost of living and price for homes is still out of control! I watched the news one night and saw another negative story of the housing disaster. The news was pretty good for home buyers as they indicated that you could purchase a home for $480,000 in parts of San Jose. Amazing I thought (wink, wink). For $480,000 I could live in a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1500 sq ft home. Hmmmm for $200,000 I could live in a 4 bedroom, 2 bath, 1800 sq ft home in the Treasure Valley area.
I'm at the point in my life where I believe that life needs to remain relatively easy. By that I mean it's not worth the stress to be stuck in traffic each morning for 1 hour plus when the 10 miles you need to go should take 15 minutes at maximum. It's not worth the high cost of living and the wondering what will happen should the economy continue to slide. Our focus right now is on our family and providing a wonderful home for them surrounded by friends in a good, safe area. The higher the cost to have this the higher the stress.
I have friends that are paying $2800 plus monthly for their mortgage. That's not easy. They live day to day under a great deal of stress. What if one of them loses their job? How will they make their payment? These questions haunt them and they tell me so. They pay the price for the weather and life just isn't too easy.
I decided to look around for I heard that prices have decreased steadily the past year on homes in the Concord area. As I pulled up to a few homes I thought ah this one has potential in a quiet neighborhood and with a decent yard, probably .16 acres let's see the price. The sign indicated price reduced, something that you'll find just about on 90% of the signs. As I picked up the flyer I started to read the marketing points on the home. Bright and warm home with 1460 sq ft - check, larger yard - check, newer appliances - check, 3 bedrooms - check, 2 baths - check, close to everything - check and priced to go at only $500,000. Yipes! In doing some quick math even if we were able to get a FHA loan with 3% down we are looking at approximately $3000 per month and that's before the $5000 annual taxes and insurance. Woh not the lifestyle we would choose. The funny thing is that the same home would have cost $580,000 about a year ago. The stories indicate that these homes are now bargains and compared to a year ago probably but in the name of health, family and stress I still don't think so.
We love visiting with our friends and family. It's a beautiful area that's for sure and hey we used to live there. Would I trade the pretty good weather, the more relaxing lifestyle and the affordable living for it? No way! While it's true that salaries are generally 30% higher in the Bay Area the prices for homes are still 100% higher for comparables. You know I sometimes think of the Treasure Valley as a mini replica of the Bay Area but without the stress level. More on this below.
The thought of 2000 sq ft, 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, .25 acre lot for my dogs and family to enjoy for $250,000 or less is just too good to pass by. It's hard to find this for less than $800,000 and we wouldn't even qualify for the mortgage payments by today's lending standards. I'm not sure how people are getting into these homes.
Our trip is almost over and we are looking forward to returning home to a more simple, less stressful lifestyle. I suppose that's why many people do end up in the Treasure Valley area too.
Despite one of the worst winters in the past 20 years the Treasure Valley area offers families the chance of a more relaxing and affordable lifestyle. The weather by the way is pretty fantastic. Compared to Northern California it's usually just 10 degrees cooler in the winter time and it's mostly sunny and warm from May through the October months. There's so much to do and with the mountains, biking, camping, skiing all so close by that too is comparable to Northern California.
More great restaurants open weekly and for families looking to get out and meet people it's probably much easier here. Generally people are nice and approachable something that I never really felt in my years living in California. It's not that I didn't make the effort too but after saying a simple hi to hundreds of people and not getting a hi back in return I knew it just wasn't the place for us to raise our family.
Our neighbors in Meridian are great! Our kids are having so much fun meeting people and going over for play dates. There's always something going on whether in Boise, Meridian or Nampa for us to check out. There's great places to live throughout the Treasure Valley and if you are looking for a mini mansion of say 2500 sq ft the cost in Northern California of $800,000 plus will only be $300,000 in the Treasure Valley area. So click on the links such as Things To Do and let us know if you have any questions at all. We love it here and sometimes we need a little reminder in life of just how lucky we are to be here.
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