The San Francisco magazine that magically shows up for free in my mailbox each month addressed "affordable housing" in its November issue. "Affordable housing" was also a prominent topic at the City Council installation and rotation on Monday night with mention of Lots F and N where our city officials think we should be getting into the housing business. But back to the SF Magazine. Here is the start of the article on page 76:
Have you heard? It's absolutely impossible to buy a home in the Bay Area. Except people keep buying homes in the Bay Area. And contrary to popular belief, these home buyers are not all monocle-wearing Monopoly men sporting Uber swag. Some of them are teachers, hairstylists, social workers, single people, families, people of color, immigrants....
How on earth are they pulling it off? I needed to know. And more important, I wanted everyone else to know. Because personally, I'm not a huge fan of hopeless narratives, and our city has a thing for those these days. So I asked them... they told me (1) they had saved little by little until they had a nest egg big enough to hold a down payment, or (2) how their parents had helpfully lent them (money) or (3) how they'd sold a company or invested in the stock market or (4) bought a tiny condo 10 years ago.
Well this may come as a revelation to the journalist, Erin Feher, but that is exactly how people have been buying into the Bay Area for at least 30 years. In fact, I would suggest ALL OF THE ABOVE simultaneously. Does it make buying easy--not exactly, but it does make it work. And I speak from experience of doing 1, 2, 3 and 4-- some of them more than once. It would be great if Erin wrote the same piece every other month and those who think they can build or rent control their way to housing nirvana read it every other month until they get it.
Well Joe, I gotta tell ya, I don't think it's a revelation that mommies and daddies and their trust funds have played a big part in helping their kids afford bay area real estate. It is known that directly or indirectly (through inheritance) that parental help plays a huge role and likely more than the other categories. What Bruce Dickinson thinks is a more interesting question is how people afford homes if they are not born in the right womb, or had money (again permanently "loaned" by parents) to play stock market and happened to get lucky with the timing. Point being that regular incomes are insufficient to afford real estate without substantial help or substantial luck!
Now maybe you can call me bitter, but Bruce Dickinson got zilch from my parents, siblings, uncles, aunts, cousins etc. As a matter of fact, yours truly actually has a "Reverse Trust Fund" that supports some of the less industrious Dickinsons and their spouses and kids, and yes, I know exactly how they paid for their first time home purchases!
Posted by: Bruce Dickinson | December 20, 2017 at 08:43 PM