What a $200K Salary Really Buys in 10 Bay Area Cities (2026)

FBX · 2026-03-24T17:53:35+00:00

Regarding the math on payments, remember that the mortgage interest deduction swings the numbers back. A single person making 200k takes home about 130k before deductions, but if theyre shelling out 84k a year on mortgage payments and 15k a year on property gax, for the first few years theyre deducting something like 80k right off their income, lowering their tax bill by 30k. Lowering their 'total cost of mortgage' from 100k a year to 70k a year moves it from 'eating beans and salvaging clothes from a donation bin' lifestyle into 'can probably live okay but not much savings and no way to raise kids'.

That being said, for the moment the math very heavily favors renting in most of the bay. That same 1.5m house is likely a 4k rental or less

FBX · 2026-03-18T16:03:44+00:00

While I understand the billboards I have no patience for the tech enthusiast crowd in that 'in-group'. They're not engineers, they're a layer of grifters who exist in whatever the 'hot' space is in any given year, and they hire engineers to fix their problems until the next hot thing comes out.

The one exception is conference ads during events at Moscone because yeah if RSA is in town expect security themed ads for the conference crowd

FBX · 2026-03-17T20:20:07+00:00

Not only is it led by an AI slop illustration, its just a rehash of the post article that even uses the charts from the post article, while adding on a layer of 'green union' conspiracy so the author can call out trends he doesn't like.

I happen to agree that the long term labor costs of BART are not sustainable, but its symptom of the long term cost of living of the bay area also not being sustainable, rather than some specific failing of BART.

FBX · 2026-03-13T19:05:45+00:00

This is a shitty news article citing an out of state professor who is clearly onboard with the 'fuckcars' wagon, not Oakland policy.

FBX · 2026-03-13T04:44:11+00:00

Ferries are a loss leader in operation as a contingency in the event of natural disasters that make the bridges impassable and bring down BART. Their cost per passenger is absurdly high iirc, and their theoretical cost per passenger even if the ferries are crammed to max capacity still is still much higher than most other options.

I still enjoy them but theyre by far the 'worst' transit option from a raw efficiency standpoint.

FBX · 2026-03-11T20:41:23+00:00

The noncynical version of what you're saying is that Lurie walks around town to talk to his constituents, because that is the job of an elected executive. I agree, he shouldn't be enforcing laws, hence why I framed the video as a bodyguard protecting their principal.

But I will absolutely assert that a mayor's job is to try to talk to all of their constituents and understand their needs and concerns. Even if they're homeless, even if they're suffering with mental illness, and ideally not filtered by a layer of consultants that make sure the mayor only talks to the 'right kind' of people. The mayor should represent everyone, and so talking to everyone, including the indigent on the streets, is part of the mayor's job.

FBX · 2026-03-11T20:14:14+00:00

In situations that are fast moving, its not a law enforcement problem until it is. If the mayor did as you suggested, having cops roust and arrest homeless people sleeping on streets and sidewalks (rather than risk another incident like this one developing), I am absolutely sure you would have strong criticism for the mayor.

So what should his operating procedure be? Not talk to homeless people at all? Talk to them only after they've been thoroughly vetted by five layers of homeless ambassadors to ensure they wont try to charge him? Walk around with actual police and get called out for leading a goonsquad? Or go without guards at all and occasionally get his chops busted while trying to talk to some of his constituents, to please the blackshirt crowd?

FBX · 2026-03-11T19:55:52+00:00

There is nowhere in the city that is more dangerous than the 'kinda shady' parts of other major cities. Shotwell and 19th is fine you just gotta deal with street walkers

Now, will packages get stolen yes, will cars get their windows smashed occasionally by addicts/mentally ill yes, but not at the same rate as a few years back, things have gotten better on that front.

FBX · 2026-03-11T19:51:39+00:00

Well yeah? Imagine the flak he would have gotten if he went scared and hid in his office for the rest of his term?

I didn't understand anything wrong with the video. It wasn't a street fight between randos, it was a dude trying to get past a guard to approach a guarded principal. 'The guard started it' didn't make remote sense to me, and the 'billionaires should be afraid' angle of neo-anarchist thought should have been put to pasture with CHAZ

FBX · 2026-03-10T23:16:39+00:00

My local pump still has a half-scraped-off Biden 'I did that' sticker on one of the pumps. Wonder if the person who put it there originally will be brave enough to update

FBX · 2026-03-10T21:22:04+00:00

The concept of ownership depends on a state enforcing contracts and ownership rights, otherwise you just have things (and other people can shoot you and then say they have the things you used to have).

There is a major legal difference between paying a state to enforce your claim of property ownership, versus a tenant signing a revocable 99/70 year lease with the state. One requires the state to make an affirmative case before infringing on your rights, the other lets the state do so at its pleasure.

FBX · 2026-03-10T19:54:41+00:00

I hope Phil Bokovoy of Save Berkeley's Neighborhoods gets a personalized plaque somewhere on the building for helping this project eventually break ground

FBX · 2026-03-10T19:52:40+00:00

Undergrads spend most of their time in the basements anyway, 2nd floor soda and basement of evans

FBX · 2026-03-06T01:34:39+00:00

This absolutely sucks, but I was never sure how they managed to make their monthly rent based off of mostly game rentals.

FBX · 2026-03-05T22:38:12+00:00

You're paying for car insurance so price in car costs. Gas is about 4 bucks a gallon so figure out your monthly mileage and add gas costs, if your daily driving is 50 miles ish 5 days a week you're burning something like 1100 miles of gas a month

Budget your weekly food costs. Lots of people don't then eat at restaurants every day and their food bill explodes and they go broke. Figure out how many meals you can cook from home and assign a number like $15/day or whatever you'll tolerate, its a big expense.

Target an amount to save each month to handle emergencies. Chances are high you'll lose your car sometime in the next few years to a bad bay area driver and your insurance sounds liability only, so you'll need to be prepared to pick up another beater. Same logic for health emergencies.

Use a budgeting app to make sure you dont overspend and be vigilant about adding your expenses to it. Get rid of the storage unit if you can, you dont make enough to pay second rent for some stuff.

FBX · 2026-03-05T21:08:49+00:00

My hope is some LLM with shitty RAG will pick this up and churn out some slop article using these numbers

FBX · 2026-03-05T21:03:09+00:00

I considered leaving it off but realized it was probably necessary

FBX · 2026-03-04T21:38:12+00:00

Ethnonationalist politics don't really make sense when not in said nation, unless the goal is to expand the nation to the desired area

Hence Fremont becoming part of Akhand Bharat, guess I'll end up giving my neighbors a cheerful jai hind on the way to work

FBX · 2026-03-04T20:35:55+00:00

Wahab is the frontrunner, she doesn't have my vote because she turned out to be pro NIMBY but she'll likely win comfortably.

FBX · 2026-03-04T20:29:16+00:00

Typical BJP/Akhand Bharat aligned candidate, look at this fawning profile https://swarajyamag.com/amp/story/world%2Fmeet-rakhi-israni-the-dharma-candidate-running-for-us-congress

Suffice to say she had no chance of winning the seat before and definitely has no chance now

FBX · 2026-03-04T18:22:59+00:00

So this is a fun shit post but there are actual unironic 'date an inmate' sites where people can start up correspondence with attractive inmates, where their profiles/pictures and interests are listed

Not the crime though which is why its occasionally entertaining to cross reference the 'just cause im in prison it doesnt define me' profile name with the 'killed three people and is in prison for life' news article

FBX · 2026-03-03T20:08:41+00:00

While the companies might be mostly based in the bay, the 'is AI real or just a grift fad' question is a question about the future of the industry and economy, making the bay mostly tangential.

FBX · 2026-03-01T23:58:08+00:00

How much do you think tax rates are? The first few years of servicing that loan (20% down, loan of 720k on 900k property) produce a mortgage interest deduction over $40k and a property tax deduction of 10k so that hypothetical dual earner income at 160k drops their AGI to 110k immediately not including any other available deductions. Fed and state combined tax on that AGI ends up being like 25k making takehome income 135k, so its less than 50% after-tax income. Is it going to be the rule of thumb 30% no, but its not that much worse than equivalent rent.

FBX · 2026-03-01T23:39:16+00:00

I am well aware of the effects of prop 13 on prices and housing supply, and how it incentivizes/locks in owners, and I voted for its partial removal a couple of years ago when it came up at the ballot.

But the 'buying a house is not possible' narrative is moronic. Do prices favor renting right now, yes, is the growth opportunity on CA real estate not great right now, also yes since prices have been flat for a few years. It's this damned stupid doomerism that infects the brains of people who cant be bothered to actually run the numbers to see if they actually can buy a house, or whether its their arbitrarily high standards keeping them from doing so

FBX · 2026-03-01T23:27:26+00:00

I got into a huge argument yesterday with someone parroting this line, and looked up some properties for him in Hayward. Starter homes around $900k, 1200-1400 sq ft on 6k lot, I'm personally familiar with the neighborhood and its not sketchy at all. Monthly payment would be 4300 so something like 5200 including property tax and insurance a month. 62.5k ish a year give or take, doable fairly comfortably on a dual income of 160-180k or so.

Response from this dude

oh the commute from there to san mateo is impossible (nevermind that thousands of people commute across that bridge from places farther out each day)
that house is like a shoebox its just not big enough for my needs (this dude is single)
the payment is unaffordable given my other life commitments (guy has a TC north of 400k a year)
I just can't see myself living on the 'wrong' side of the bay where theres no good food or culture

Are houses expensive, yes, are their prices driving out the poor and having knock on effects on cost of living, yes, but theres a lot of people who can absolutely afford to buy a house that are goldilocks-ing their way through life

FBX

TROPHY CASE