Originally Posted by
hhnngg1
???
It's EASY to figure out why Palo Alto South Bay is so expensive.
Between the natural beauty, amazing weather, convenience of living near all things you need, true multiculturalism, high level of education and income, and abundance of protected nature preserves even in busier residential areas, it's stunningly obvious to most people why this place is so expensive. The leisure is great, but the everyday LIFE is even better - as long as you can afford the place you live in.
One drive down the 280 in the stretch between Stanford and Burlingame tells you a lot about the area - that's a major throughfare for commuter traffic in the South Bay, yet it's more beautiful than probably 98%+ of highways in the US.
I'm not surprised that nearly everyone I knew who grew up in this area is fighting tooth and nail to find a way back in (given the insane housing costs etc.)
I completely agree, inasmuch as it is due to the quality of recreational and aesthetic life. That just doesn't follow the normal economics, in that vacancy rates are still pretty high, which should drop cost of living more than it has in reality, but the Bay Area is an anomaly, an outlier economically, like I was saying comparing it to NYC. There simply is no place on the planet like New York, or like the Bay Area.
But then again, as a cyclist with a child to think about, the quality and availability of education, and the ratio of income versus cost of living comes into play. I need to be able to save enough money to send my daughter to college, and we also need reasonable assurance that freshman seats will be available at good universities for qualified students.
my bosses daughter couldn't get into Berkeley with stellar qualifications, simply because the seats filled up. I've never heard of getting wait listed anywhere else in the US but here it is routine to get wait listed at three or four schools.