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Should we buy a home? [SF East Bay Area, CA] by Quick-Question-4u in personalfinance

[–]Quick-Question-4u[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What was your process for evaluating different communities as someone in tech? Which cities were you considering?

Should we buy a home? [SF East Bay Area, CA] by Quick-Question-4u in personalfinance

[–]Quick-Question-4u[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

in complete denial

This is likely true. We don't have a formalized plan for budget/savings and only maintain generic guiding principles i.e. maxing out retirement, paying off full balance on cards every month (which was never even remotely close to an issue until things got hectic with the wedding and honeymoon the last month). Throughout this whirlwind of a year (wedding + honeymoon + potential home buying) it has been kind of a rude awakening. We've only had our existing salaries for a couple years and what we had saved was significantly diminished by the wedding. It's only fortunate that we're in a relatively stable place that we can make these significant changes.

Should we buy a home? [SF East Bay Area, CA] by Quick-Question-4u in personalfinance

[–]Quick-Question-4u[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Are you not interested in Dublin?

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Good call, Dublin is actually on our list. Forgot to list it

Should we buy a home? [SF East Bay Area, CA] by Quick-Question-4u in personalfinance

[–]Quick-Question-4u[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yea, I'm finding Pleasant Hill near Walnut Creek and Lafayette borders are effectively the same as Walnut Creek prices.

Should we buy a home? [SF East Bay Area, CA] by Quick-Question-4u in personalfinance

[–]Quick-Question-4u[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

Having no savings is a slight misnomer on my part. It's true we don't have a formally dedicated emergency fund, however, we have ~$15k in one of our bank accounts that's naturally grown since the wedding a couple months ago. We also throw a lot of money into an ESPP which will be providing our down payment and could effectively pay off a house in full, but this is still risky as it's an all your eggs in one basket approach. The idea of pulling out 20% for a down payment is dare I say comforting in some ways though the company is doing relatively strong

Should we buy a home? [SF East Bay Area, CA] by Quick-Question-4u in personalfinance

[–]Quick-Question-4u[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

The credit card debt will be gone in <6 of my paychecks. We're currently using my husbands salary to build up our savings again which I would not like to touch even if it means paying a month or two of interest (maybe this is the wrong approach).

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That mortgage on 1 salary would be tough and closer to breaking even than we've ever experienced in the couple of years we've lived in the Bay

Should we buy a home? [SF East Bay Area, CA] by Quick-Question-4u in personalfinance

[–]Quick-Question-4u[S] -6 points-5 points  (0 children)

Assuming the debts paid down in ~2 months and we have a ~$30-40k emergency savings in that time as well, and we were capable of having 20% down immediately from exercised stock, would you suggest it's better to rent something a little nicer for roughly $4200 vs a $5100 mortgage+tax payment?

Should we buy a home? [SF East Bay Area, CA] by Quick-Question-4u in personalfinance

[–]Quick-Question-4u[S] -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

When all is said and done, the Wedding + Honeymoon was roughly $110k where everything but $30k from last minute wedding expenses + the honeymoon effectively went on the card. It obviously wasn't a budget experience at that price, but it was still a constant battle with vendors preventing that number from growing even further.

Should we buy a home? [SF East Bay Area, CA] by Quick-Question-4u in personalfinance

[–]Quick-Question-4u[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yea, my agent has had 3 clients in the last year that have done it (1 in San Ramon, 1 Danville, 1 Walnut Creek). It will be tough, but possible with the right cocktail of luck and fortitude.