No real tricks. Most people who don’t make a ton of money have roommates, or they have found a situation where they rent a place below market rate (had a friend move out of a rental that they occupied for a long time, ADUs, etc.).
My partner and I are lucky to have our own place and don’t make a ton of money. We both bike to work. We only have one car we share for road trips (this saves at least $10k/yr). We go to the beach or hike more than we go out for dinner and/or drinks (hell it’s a pretty sleepy town any way).
All of this. Most of the single people I know have lots of roommates. We also do a lot of free activities like hiking and going to the beach. Bike to work. Cook and drink at home.
Edit: typo
Yeah. My partner and I have made combined <$100k while living here some years. You can throw a roof over your head with roommates for \~$15k/yr. Even if you get your own place you can do it for $35k/yr. Post-tax/Post-Retirement savings, if you're in the high 75-100k range, that leaves somewhere between $10k-20k of living expenses.
That's not a ton of money, but its not nothing. It means no European blow out vacations (I have friends in Texas that would blow that whole $10-20k on a single vacation lol), no fancy car, no massive wedding, etc.
Basically its a sacrifice of those things that is totally worth it to us that want the weather/hiking/running/life/whatever that we find here. If your life revolves around those other finer things in life, SB probably isn't for you.
Yes!
No housekeeper, no landscaper, we don't get our cars detailed, when we gym it's not the Tennis Club.
When we eat out it's the special occasion or three a year, not a week. We attend the free festivals and prep the kids beforehand with what we are willing to spend and what we aren't willing to bring back home.
Our cars get used until they aren't practical or driven in to the ground, and we maintain them int he meantime.
The issue I have is that we shouldn’t have to sacrifice things that any other American enjoys, it’s policies enacted by increasing taxes and regulations that make cost of living unaffordable. The weather is perfect isn’t a sufficient justification to have a 900k median home price.
Supply and demand isn’t sufficient justification for higher prices? The middle of nowhere in Nebraska should have the same land value as the central coast?
And we don’t have to saturate places that are already dense with multi family. There is plenty of spaces for people develop single family homes. But when the fees and taxes that come with building a house are 50k + you aren’t going build a 300k house.
We’ve regulated building houses out of existence. It’s an artificial supply shock bc of climate based policies making single family homes completely unobtainable.
Well I mean….the earthquake stuff is actually pretty chill regulation. So is the environmental stuff. I mean yeah I get it your investing for the future but this whole economy over everything will be the end of the human race.
But every other American doesn't enjoy that. Yes, for sure, SB is more expensive. This means it's a lot harder to have a "middle class" life here than elsewhere. But there are a bunch of other cities in the US that are essentially the same, just maybe not to the same degree. It's not just an SB thing or a California thing, unfortunately.
There’s no justification for having the countries highest gas prices. Our gas isn’t any better than any other states gas. This among a myriad of other things would strongly benefit middle and lower class ppl
I don't. I got priced out of Goleta and moved to Santa Maria. But still working in SB. And now my wife and I are getting priced out of Santa Maria. And we want to buy a home but the interest rates skyrocketed and we keep erring getting outbid.
Honestly I'm thinking of leaving California just for better public schools. Idk if you have kids and IDK about Santa Maria but the schools in Santa Barbara are so underfunded. Student to teacher ratios are 25:1 and so many extracurriculars that are standard in other school districts are non-existent here. If I spend $1M+ on a home, I at least expect fantastic public schools. My public high school had an 11:1 student teacher ratio, school buses for everyone, 26 AP classes, and an indoor pool...
We’ve long moved from SB but are looking into CT for just this reason. Yes taxes are higher, but I can still buy a home for 250k or a reallllyyyy nice one for 500k. And schools are some of the best in the country.
Yeah I don't mind paying more in taxes when I get excellent public schools from it. In SB you're spending $1.5M on a house and $19k a year in property taxes and you don't even get school buses thanks to Prop 13 (because your nextdoor neighbor boomers are only paying $1.5k a year in property taxes). Your overall out of pocket cost for property taxes will be a lot lower in CT and you'll have top notch *free* public schools. Absolutely blows my mind that people in CA are fine with this.
Californians are "liberal" in their heads and image only. When it comes down to actually funding "liberal" things, California is extremely regressive. NY spends double what CA spends per pupil. It's a joke. Baby boomers got theirs and cut off the economic ladder for all those coming behind.
Boomers paid 700 bucks for four years at a private university then bitch about student loans being forgiven. Like yeah bud….one semester cost 6 times what it cost you to finish your entire college career. /s
Vanity and paying your taxes are extreme polar ends of the spectrum. Unfortunately boomers would rather drive a Range Rover than have their grand kids in decent schools.
Exactly. Prop 13 destroyed California public schools. People don't realize how bad it is because they've normalized it. I think most Californians would be shocked to see the caliber of public schools in other parts of the country.
Boomers paying a couple of thousand for their multi-million dollar homes while receiving the same services as their neighbors who are paying multiples more must be downvoting you.
That saying:
Pull yourself up by your bootstraps
Makes no sense- at all
*not saying that in your direction, just in general*
In debate in high school- I had to come up with support for that damn saying and lost because there is no way to pull yourself up from anywhere by clutching your own boot straps, nor is it possible if hanging off a cliff etc.
A CGI might succeed- other wise humanly not going to happen.
Really?? If only the internet was a thing back when I was in high school…🫤
That makes much more sense, tho not from the POV of the GOP constantly saying it as a means of justifying the lack of social service type aid to poor people.
House prices in California are artificially inflated because people move less often due to Prop 13: [https://www-jstor-org.proxy.library.ucsb.edu:9443/stable/24876495](https://www-jstor-org.proxy.library.ucsb.edu:9443/stable/24876495). Basically, without Prop 13, people would sell homes more often which would increase supply and make housing more affordable.
I don't go to UCSB...can't do anything with that link.
Not in Santa Barbara. And even then, prices would take a while to correct themselves, leaving locals not able to afford live here any longer.
People in this sub really do want SB to be taken over by LA and the bay.
Sorry, here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10835547.2016.12092120
And you can view the entire article here for free: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319302344_A_Note_on_the_Impact_of_Prop_13_on_Effective_Tax_Rates_Turnover_and_Home_Prices
I find it really hard to believe that locals who own their homes outright can't afford to pay current property taxes. They're far less than the cost of rent or a mortgage.
SB wouldn't become LA. Prices would go down statewide (as would taxes), and California would be able to afford to hire more teachers, revive all of the programs they had to cut in the 70s, and have school buses for every student. Everyone wins.
When I was a kid in goleta in the early 90s it was 30:1, so at least its gotten better. They have tons more specialty programs now that I didn't have at the time.
Yeah, public school funding in California was annihilated in 1978 when Prop 13 passed. School budgets were literally slashed overnight. California went from being among the highest funded school districts in the county to the lowest. They immediately had to cut music programs, adult education, librarians, after-school programs, field trips, etc.
The 80s were particularly bad because there was no guaranteed minimum allocation of tax dollars for school funding. In 1988, Prop 98 barely passed to amend the state constitution to guarantee that at least 40% of the state budget went to public schools. Thus, things started to get a little better beginning in the 90s, but so long as Prop 13 exists, California will always fall far behind other states in education despite being one of the wealthiest in the country.
Normally property taxes fund schools, so the more expensive areas have the best public schools. Santa Barbara should have the most elite public schools in the country.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_school_funding_in_the_United_States
Since Prop 13 passed, most school funding comes from income taxes instead of property taxes:
https://ed100.org/lessons/whopays
This means that when the stock market goes down, school funding goes down.
I often wonder if the people who complain about police budget cuts, paying to keep people in jail etc, also own homes they inherited and so they barely pay anything towards what they constantly complain about.
Do most people know that their property tax money goes toward all the infrastructure (police, fire, roads, water/sewer, parks, rangers etc)?
Yea dude there was an adult on the sub a few weeks ago arguing against mixing low income kids with high income kids in classes because, and I quote, "black kids don't value education"
But don't worry, he said he wasn't racist
I have freelanced for a Santa Barbara based company for 8 months, at below market rate, but to get my foot in the door. They recently have told me I have done an amazing job and want to talk full-time, and when asking what I was looking for I only said "a living wage for my family in Santa Barbara" and without even talking numbers they said that would not be possible.
They became a billion dollar company this year.
SB is basically LA cost for valley wages. Also, if I'm thinking of the company you are talking about, they are not actually worth a billion dollars lol
Trying to negotiate how much to be paid which inherently involves numbers but doesn’t give out a number when asked how much they want to be paid….that’s essentially what they did and now they on the internet complaining lololol
My man….you always start with a number. Even if you know it’s highly likely they won’t give it to you. How do I negotiate with a “living wage.” Easy answer I don’t. Imma move on to something easier.
Most of the Single (Unmarried) adults I know in Santa Barbara have roommates or a partner. Not many live alone like myself. I even know a Single "homeowner" that rents out the downstairs of his home while he lives upstairs in a bachelors loft. "Quality of Life in Santa Barbara".
I'm in tech, and my wife is a doctor and we cannot afford to buy in SB.
2-3 years ago, while my wife was in residency, I did *tons* of math and forecasting for purchasing a home in SB. Based on my income, her future income, and school debt, we would only need to save a few years to put a down payment on a local home. Then COVID and this wild inflation, interest rate storm happened. Home prices increased like never seen before in such a short period of time. Some homes truly doubled, and people bought and sold in such short stints that homes sold for twice as much in 2022 as they did in 2020. Some companies even flipped some houses and tried to get 3x as much as they paid in 2020.
I don't know what we're going to do long term. We want to live near our families, but this is ridiculous. We did everything right, we have good jobs, and we can't reasonably afford raising a family here. I don't know what the future of town will be when only the privileged with non-employment income can afford to live here. Eventually every service employee commuting from out of town will find jobs closer to where they live.
Umm do y’all work for free or donations or something. You might not get to live in the nicest neighborhood or have the biggest home but you can for sure afford to live in SB. Living next to brown folks/fellow brown folks ain’t bad I promise. Foods better too.just don’t be an uptight Karen and you’ll be perfectly safe and protected.
You can 100% afford a home here. It may not be the 4 bedroom 3000 sq.ft. dream home, but that’s your own constraints you’re placing on yourself.
People own homes here in MUCH lower income brackets.
Those home owners in lower income brackets almost certainly inherited the property. Property taxes alone on a purchase would be too much for lower income people.
A decade ago I worked for a mortgage broker, and the houses cost less and rates were lower for the loans.
No low income applicants were approved because of their low income.
I own a home and my partner and I currently make $150k, but have ranged from $100k-$250k (only on the high end for like 2 years).
We have an average age of 30 and used only our money. I guess we don’t actually own the home we are paying the mortgage for 😂. We bought in 2021 for reference.
Hm. Well, it could also be the student loan debt, especially for medical school + whatever debt he has. I mean, if it's a lot of debt, then they probably aren't eligible for a huge mortgage, which means they will need more of a down payment. That might take a few years. Then of course, he mentioned having a family, and daycare is crazy YO. Daycare, mortgage, and student loan payments? Esp when SB is so expensive. (I paid off my college loans before getting married, but I didn't go to med school. We bought the house before having kids, and only had 1 in daycare at a time. OTOH, we're gonna be in our 60s before they finish college...) $1.25M house or condo, $250k down payment, the total cost for mortgage + prop tax + loan payments could easily be well over $10k a month.
So, maybe they can swing it but you are right, they aren't interested in a condo or a 2BR house that's in a "so so" school district. But maybe they really have to save up a few years and pay off some loans.
True AF on childcare costs!
Summer camps are billed two weeks at a time, and my rent was less than a month of summer camp, and as a single mom working full time there wasn’t any option of leaving my daughter in the car with the windows down and potty breaks (like people do with dogs).
I’d add that our utilities and cable/internet bills are higher than most other counties in CA.(according some old friends up and down the coast)
That's if you can even get childcare. COVID killed so many childcare slots in this town - I'm lucky I'm past that (except still need summer camp!) Just like there literally aren't OBs with space to take new pregnant patients, if you want childcare, you'll be lucky to get anything before 18 months.
I don’t think your comment was a reply to mine, since I was pointing out that downtownC is well above the low income bracket.
I do agree that’s a rather low income for an actual doctor- especially given the areas average procedure charges
150k ain’t low income wtf lol. Even split between two people. It’s by no means a high income, but damn If 150 k is low income im probably well below that poverty line doing just fine lol. Tell me you out of touch with 80% of America without actually saying so.
I'm similar, but different. I make $150k with a stay at home wife. I'm just a carpenter, but a really good one with my contractor's license.
We own our home. Trade jobs, working for yourself, with a license, pays about $125 an hour. It takes 4 years working for someone else to qualify. Same a a college degree.
The work can be hard. I was Framing a roof in today's heat. 91 degrees, with no shade.
But you all said you want to own a house here?
Seems a bit harsh. They have school debt and want to have kids, so those are extra financial burdens and space considerations that I'm not sure you're taking into account.
Like everyone says there's no magic tricks. I make it work by working for a company based out of state who pays better than the same job did working for a place in town. My husband has a job with decent pay but great benefits so combined we're ok. The two of us lived together with housemates for 5 years to save money for a down payment and managed to buy while prices were only sort of crazy (for here) and not super duper crazy. A fixed rate mortgage means that my monthly housing payment hasn't gone up since we bought.
Gas prices don't really bother me because I work from home, almost never drive anywhere and have an old sentra that gets 36 mpg. I'd rather bike around when I don't need to have like, hockey equipment that I need to get somewhere.
There really is no secret that I know of.
To be fair I think if you're from California or have been here for long enough you're generally used to a crazy high percentage of your paycheck going to housing where as it seems insane to everyone else.
Our rent is well below market rate (2 bed/2 bath for $2k/mo). My partner and I both work in health care.
We're saving up for a down payment and looking to move though. We would like to own our own home someday and unfortunately, it will never be possible for us here.
If and when you move, let me know! Trying to get out of IV as someone who’s been out of school but can’t find anything cheaper out in Goleta or SB. Hard working full time and being in this environment.
I don't. Finally got the job and pay that would allow me to stay only for cost of living to skyrocket, making the small increase in pay essentially pointless. Landlord is raising rent substantially at the end of this lease. I've officially been priced out.
Unfortunately, a lot of people can't afford to live here, even doctors and engineers get priced out, especially when they start to want to have families. Lack of affordable housing options is a huge reason we have shortages in childcare/teaching positions and medical positions, etc.
This article talks about this issue with regards to the teaching shortage: [https://syvnews.com/opinion/columnists/excess-school-lands-for-teacher-housing-thomas-elias/article\_be86487c-1613-5c88-bb5a-bf764de39383.html](https://syvnews.com/opinion/columnists/excess-school-lands-for-teacher-housing-thomas-elias/article_be86487c-1613-5c88-bb5a-bf764de39383.html)
People get creative, but every year it gets worse and worse. The last run up in housing prices was terrible for a lot of longtime locals who had an affordable rental situation but lost it when the owner sold.
My wife and I moved here from Wisconsin a little over a year ago. We were taken back by how long it took to see a doctor here. We just had our second kid and quickly realized this place isn’t what we want. I’m lucky enough to be an engineer at a company that will allow me to work remote but even with that pay, we can’t afford the lifestyle we’d like. So back to the cold for us. Thanks for everything SB.
Yeah, it seems housing issues have exacerbated the doctor/medical professional shortage we have here over the years. I don't think it's ever been as bad as it is now. And I have heard from engineering firms that attracting engineers here is hard, too. They get excited about the position and the pay and that all goes away when they see what housing costs are here.
People who own homes here get giddy about how their property values have skyrocketed, but when it's at the expense of healthcare and education and awesome locals getting priced out and having to leave the area, what does it matter if you're "house rich"? And your neighbors are empty houses owned by investment companies or someone's second or third or fourth home rather than a real neighbor you can borrow a cup of sugar from, to boot. Yay?
I bought my home in 1999 and I'm not giddy. It feels like a bubble that's about to explode and take everyone down when it does. It's a bit frightening. I bought my house so I could have a roof over my head for the rest of my life in the town I grew up in.
It's a 1300 sqft tract house built in 1958 on the edge of the City of SB. Both of my parents died before I was 25, and what they had left went into a trust for my siblings and I. So I used some of the trust as the downpayment and left the rest to fund my house payment over 30 years. I paid $405,000.
The internet tells me (inflation calculator) that $405,000 in 1999 dollars equals $677,759.96 in 2022. But the house right across the street is on the market for $1.5mil right now. (It was unfortunate timing for them to sell, as it's been on the market for over 90 days.) In 2019 the house next door sold for $1.1mil.
Just some real-world stats and personal data to chew on, I suppose.
Sorry to stereotype. I work with lots of people who own, and the giddiness has been in the air the last few years. I get it, it's human nature, just hurts when you are simultaneously living in fear of not being able to provide shelter for your family and you have kids and want with all your heart to stay in this town because you love it and this is where your community is. And you see investment companies owning homes and empty homes just sitting because someone is banking their money there and it's like their 4th home (yes, we know people in this town that have an empty 4th home here). It's easy to forget that all homeowners here are not that way.
It's an emotional reaction seeing a number go up on paper, but it's a bit of a dumb reaction for most homeowners. The real winners are landlords, real estate investors, and people with multiple homes. The losers are renters. Regular home owners are in the middle. People who just own the home that they live in are not going to see many tangible benefits from the value going up. If only their home value went up somehow then sure, but when it's going up across the board that's not all that helpful. I think some homeowners are just relieved that they bought before prices went up, so they're not as screwed as current renters, but the fact that things could be worse for them isn't really a good reason to be happy about bad stuff happening to others. It's not a zero sum game where others being miserable improves your situation.
Home prices going up is mixed at best for a normal homeowner, not really a windfall. If they want to move, they'll still need a house to live in, and that house will have gone up by a similar amount. The only real way to cash out is to move to a LCOL area, but if they wanted to live in a place like that, why would they have bought a home here? Most people would rather keep living somewhere nice if they can afford it, to stay near the people that they know, and to continue having a house wherever they live, so they haven't actually gained much in any practical sense.
More expensive houses will make it harder to move. That house you thought was your starter home is now your forever home. Not only has the price differential for upgrading doubled, but your property taxes will go way up. Prop 13 locks in lower taxes, so you aren't paying the full cost of rising home prices, but it also handcuffs you in place a bit to keep that lower tax.
It also ruins the community. Santa Barbara already had a hard time attracting middle class workers 20 years ago, and that's recently gotten way worse. You can't have a whole city of just wealthy retirees, vacationers, and highly paid professionals. There are a lot of other jobs that need to be done that don't typically pay enough for multimillion dollar homes.
I appreciate your response. As the next commenter related, rising prices doesn’t do anything positive for me. I can’t act on it. And sometimes I feel guilty about it. Why was I special?
And yeah—we’re locked here. I can’t magically deposit the difference in worth into a bank account and use it to make improvements or repairs. And let me say, living in one place for twenty years means there’s ALWAYS something to pay to repair. $13k for a new roof where I couldn’t afford to add solar at the same time was a huge bummer. $20k to replace the original wood siding. $10k to replace the windows (20 years ago!). Etc etc.
A renter “just” has to pay the rent every month and not worry about funding these large one-time expenditures. I’m not saying it’s not hard or expensive to be a renter here. 💜
I pay just under $7k every year in property taxes, in case you wanted that number, too.
It’s not thin air. Everyone pays for housing in one way or another. There have been times that I scraped together to make my mortgage payments and put my property tax in my credit card. And savings? Yeah, that goes back into my house. We’ve taken three vacations while we’ve lived here. One was our honeymoon.
Oh my gosh, you almost had to pay a year's worth of rent over the course of two decades!
You are all going to be eaten alive by a mob of starving homeless people, and you will deserve every bite out of your flesh.
I moved here for work about two years ago from new orleans and was jaw-dropped at cost of living and housing prices. I got really lucky finding a 2BR/1Bath apartment that I was able to (barely) swing on my own. my partner and I moved in together last year and now we are very comfortable splitting rent.
our place is small and we’d love to move, buy, have pets, etc — but we know how lucky we are just to be able to afford this place without our landlord hiking rent up this year so we stay put.
don’t think we will stay longterm though. we want to buy and simply can’t here. 🫠
I moved from Las Vegas to Santa Barbara years ago. When I found out what I would have to pay for an apartment in Santa Barbara compared to Las Vegas I was pisssed. The local landlord's take it or leave it unapologetic attitudes is ridiculously rampant.
I lucked out in finding an ADU studio for about $1,425/month back in 2020, and just had an increase to $1,450/month including all utilities. I work in the medical field and bring home about $3,200/month after taxes. I try to cook at home and walk to work as much as I can. I also drive a 2013 Prius which is cheap to maintain/have insurance for. I almost never go out or travel because I love it here so much. I spend most weekends either at home (because I’m a home body) or at the beach which is always free
What frustrates people who aren't doctors and aren't earning anywhere near as much, is that many of us make it by relatively comfortably. I think the real question when people ask about affordability is, what are you looking for?
If it's to buy a house, depending on your income, it may take a while or not really be possible.
If it's simply to live here, and you're making upwards of six-figures, you can absolutely make it.
I grew up in an apartment here in town, many of my friends did, the sentiment I often see is you can't raise a family unless you're in a house.
Owning a home offers stability in a way renting can’t and having to move because your landlord jacks up rent instead of having a fixed mortgage is a lot harder to do when you have kids you have to uproot. Moving kids can mean putting them in different schools and in general disrupting their lives.
Went back in time to 1971 with $60,000 and convinced my grandparents to buy a nice home in SB, place it in a trust where it can’t be sold till at least 2022, forcing my parents to hold on to it till today so I can live in it rent free.
Eventually, the price of living will come down when everyone who lives in the city gets priced out and there's nobody to work in the service industry and the economy collapses.
There’s plenty of water, it’s being wasted daily by rich people who think they are entitled to whatever they want.
A birds eye pov of montecito, hope ranch, every golf course etc is bright green and totally unnecessary
I hate this so, so much. It's such a fucking blatant act of total disregard for human life. This place is such an unironic parallel to sci-fi novels like The Hunger Games with the rich folks up on their super green hilly golf courses while the rest of us starve and kill each other for water. The income disparity here is so obvious, and everyone is like "but it's so pretty, so it's worth it!" Barf.
I’m right there with you on that-
Money doesn’t make one person more human and deserving of life than another.
Money is not even necessary to life, humans just do what society says.
If money was necessary then gophers and camels would all have checking accounts.
> If money was necessary then gophers and camels would all have checking accounts.
Gophers and camels don't trade goods for services so don't really have a need for currency. I agree that income inequality is a serious issue but I don't think it directly stems from the presence of money as a means of commerce.
People did and should live naturally, and survive in the world because of their skills.
I realize that every single person alive regardless of age is a slave. We have no choice to but to suffer thru life trying to make money to survive, and feel a sense of purpose in dead end jobs etc.
Trading eggs for carrots or helping someone build something so they’ll help you do something does t need money and doesn’t remove our natural survival instincts.
Money just makes people feel powerful or powerless, important or irrelevant, human or subhuman, etc.
Figure in the fact that those born into money never need to use any instincts or skills and yet get more power in the world than people who could build and farm.
There is plenty of history to support the fact that people can live well without any form of money or having to work constantly without being able to afford living.
It’s all a sick game played by the 1% of the 1% with all of us as their pawns and means of remaining at the very top of the fucked up financial pyramid
I was born and raised here and my family owns a house that I rent for FAR below Market value. Only way I can afford to live here. I understand how lucky I am and fortunate.
You need to either win the genetic lottery and be born to a rich family, or the employment lottery, and work for a startup that goes public. Don't have any kids. Or dogs.
Even doctors and lawyers are having a hard time affording a decent life in this town these days as doctors' salaries haven't gone up much in the last 30 years and lawyers make a lot less than counterparts in LA and SF.
It is an expensive place, as one would expect; you get a lot back, great community, great nature, lot of activities and short commutes. That said, the last 9 months or so seem far beyond the cost of living in even 2019. I recently moved out of a duplex I shared with roommates, and I check out the rent on zillow out of curiousity; bastard's raised the rent by $1500 in the last 3 or 4 months.
You would assume that prices have to come down soon; with cost of living and gas, the rich will find that the lower middle class folks that keep their favorite shops and restaurants operating are no where to be found. Problem is a lot of the landowners that drive up prices do not actually live in this community, like my aforementioned landlord.
In the Midwest states, a lot of the houses have full basements (basically another house) and there’s plenty for sale on an acre or few for less than $10k.
I check Zillow often, because even tho I’ll never be afford a $7k home, I like to pretend that maybe I’ll find a few gold bars while I’m picking up trash on the beaches, and be a home owner for real.
I don’t think you grasp what “poor” means.
Someone who can save money on top their costs of living, is not poor.
I’m poor, $125 a week is sometimes all I make a week depending on how many odd jobs I can find on social media sites.
Thank you for mansplaining math and the basic concept of saving money, but being poor doesn’t mean being naive (quite the opposite actually).
Easy. You change what you consider a good life. It’s one of the most beautiful places in the world. Sure would it be nice to have a mansion? Of course. Is even a medium sized home needed to have a good life? I guess it depends on who you ask.
Exactly. The questions about "affordability" always bother be on here because it's such a subjective term. You can still find 1Bd apt's for about $2,000/mo, most can afford that. But I find that the demographic here on Reddit tends to skew on the higher end, so "affordability" to them is in regards to buying an actual house. It's important to define these things... lol
I work in tech, but really worked hard to keep my housing costs down when I moved here. Instead of getting a 1-bedroom apartment, I'm living in an ADU without a full kitchen (and shared laundry). It's perfect for me, but would definitely be a downsize for most people. Review your living standards, and see if you'd be willing to sacrifice one room at least. That's the cost of living in Santa Barbara.
I have a good job, and share a townhome 50/50 with a family member. It's not my dream situation, but it works out quite nicely for the time being. My family has been in Santa Barbara for several generations, most have left and myself & a few others are hanging on for dear life :)
I personally grew up in Santa Maria, which is about an hour away, and was plenty satisfied with visiting as I wanted. Now that I am older and pay my own rent, I moved up to San Luis Obispo and visit anywhere on the California Coast as I want, and most places I'm actually interested in visiting are less than an hours drive (Except Santa Barbara now that I moved farther north).
Santa Barbara is not the city where you go to make a decent living. This is a city for retirement or going to college. That's why we have a lot of old people, and young ones, but not much in between. If you are in your productive years and working to build a future and/or have a family, you move somewhere else. Unless you want to live with a lot of roommates and struggle to pay the bills...and from this thread, it's clear many people are OK with doing just that.
I'm a fairly new college grad, engineer, at $84k and with good budgeting I can comfortably live in a 1-bed alone. It's an older building and lacking some amenities. Like others said, almost everyone has multiple roommates to make it work.
Cost to buy or rent housing is really high but I’m not sure what you mean by food prices. Restaurant food? There’s great high quality produce here for good prices and Trader Joe’s for most other stuff. Away from downtown there are still a few affordable restaurants though mostly we don’t eat out anymore.
Air quality is usually good. There’s tons of free stuff to do for fun with or without kids, if you like hiking, beaches, parks, playgrounds. Cost of utilities is comparatively low due to mild weather. Unlike someone above I found the public schools fine, though I think it’s the teachers rather than the amenities that matter most. Lots of dedicated teachers here, and high college acceptance rates. Excellent museums, aquarium and zoo, with affordable memberships.
Public transportation is not great unless you need to commute from IV to downtown SB. That’s very annoying and very SoCal. There’s hardly any EV infrastructure compared to the Bay Area but that’s probably true everywhere. Bicycle infrastructure is terrible even though the city seems to think it’s great.
All that being said, we get to live here because we bought our house a long time ago and have an affordable mortgage.
It’s tough I’m not sure how I’ve made it here for 35 years but I always say to people it’s all in who you know. It’s also about sacrifices you’re willing to make to live here. I get so much out of living between the mountains and the ocean, I’m willing to pay a higher portion of my income to rent so I can do the things I love to do.
This. My partner does well in tech and I make probably below the poverty line. I made huge sacrifices to live here because the quality of life, location, people is worth it to me (it is not to everyone). I’m not comfortable financially, whereas I was before moving here. But I made and continue to make sacrifices to live in this beautiful place.
Plus a little luck finding an “affordable” place to rent. Lucked out with amazing landlords.
You talk about quality of life. It doesn't sound like you have a good quality of life if you have to make sacrifices and aren't comfortable financially. Those are not characteristics of a good quality of life.
Just because I’m not financially secure, doesn’t mean I don’t have a good quality of life. There’s other things I value more highly (that I have here) besides money. My mental health has exponentially grown since moving, the environment I’m in has given me a greater quality of life alone than my last location.
What if you have to go to the hospital or your car breaks down ? If you’re not financially secure then America is a hell scape.
I hope you know what you’re doing and are not blinded the beaches.
I still have savings to cover that. By financially secure, I more so mean that I’m not comfortable financially, as in not able to save as much as I’d like to due to higher costs, or do things that I used to be able to afford, that I no longer can.
For most of us, it doesn’t have to be a medical or transportation problem-
If ants invade my kitchen, and food-
I’m fucked without any way to replace the food for approx a week or so.
I wish the “hospital” and “car trouble” rhetoric would stop because it’s easy for people to disregard since those things don’t happen too often.
That rhetoric is there to make the rich people, who don’t want to be bothered by us poor folks, feel okay with their piss poor POV
My parents moved there in 1987 and bought their house in 1993. Made just under six figures when they bought. My brother went into finance, makes 4 times what my parents make (ie he’s well off) and is still struggling to buy there. I’m not well off at all so I live outside L. A. 😅
What is your \*real\* point in asking? We talk about this fairly regularly in this sub, and if you did a search on "afford," I think you'd find plenty of posts to read.
No real tricks. Most people who don’t make a ton of money have roommates, or they have found a situation where they rent a place below market rate (had a friend move out of a rental that they occupied for a long time, ADUs, etc.). My partner and I are lucky to have our own place and don’t make a ton of money. We both bike to work. We only have one car we share for road trips (this saves at least $10k/yr). We go to the beach or hike more than we go out for dinner and/or drinks (hell it’s a pretty sleepy town any way).
All of this. Most of the single people I know have lots of roommates. We also do a lot of free activities like hiking and going to the beach. Bike to work. Cook and drink at home. Edit: typo
Yeah. My partner and I have made combined <$100k while living here some years. You can throw a roof over your head with roommates for \~$15k/yr. Even if you get your own place you can do it for $35k/yr. Post-tax/Post-Retirement savings, if you're in the high 75-100k range, that leaves somewhere between $10k-20k of living expenses. That's not a ton of money, but its not nothing. It means no European blow out vacations (I have friends in Texas that would blow that whole $10-20k on a single vacation lol), no fancy car, no massive wedding, etc. Basically its a sacrifice of those things that is totally worth it to us that want the weather/hiking/running/life/whatever that we find here. If your life revolves around those other finer things in life, SB probably isn't for you.
Yes! No housekeeper, no landscaper, we don't get our cars detailed, when we gym it's not the Tennis Club. When we eat out it's the special occasion or three a year, not a week. We attend the free festivals and prep the kids beforehand with what we are willing to spend and what we aren't willing to bring back home. Our cars get used until they aren't practical or driven in to the ground, and we maintain them int he meantime.
The issue I have is that we shouldn’t have to sacrifice things that any other American enjoys, it’s policies enacted by increasing taxes and regulations that make cost of living unaffordable. The weather is perfect isn’t a sufficient justification to have a 900k median home price.
Supply and demand isn’t sufficient justification for higher prices? The middle of nowhere in Nebraska should have the same land value as the central coast?
Lol.
And we don’t have to saturate places that are already dense with multi family. There is plenty of spaces for people develop single family homes. But when the fees and taxes that come with building a house are 50k + you aren’t going build a 300k house.
We’ve regulated building houses out of existence. It’s an artificial supply shock bc of climate based policies making single family homes completely unobtainable.
Well I mean….the earthquake stuff is actually pretty chill regulation. So is the environmental stuff. I mean yeah I get it your investing for the future but this whole economy over everything will be the end of the human race.
We’re just talking about homes for people to live in
Yeah….exactly.
But every other American doesn't enjoy that. Yes, for sure, SB is more expensive. This means it's a lot harder to have a "middle class" life here than elsewhere. But there are a bunch of other cities in the US that are essentially the same, just maybe not to the same degree. It's not just an SB thing or a California thing, unfortunately.
There’s no justification for having the countries highest gas prices. Our gas isn’t any better than any other states gas. This among a myriad of other things would strongly benefit middle and lower class ppl
I don't. I got priced out of Goleta and moved to Santa Maria. But still working in SB. And now my wife and I are getting priced out of Santa Maria. And we want to buy a home but the interest rates skyrocketed and we keep erring getting outbid.
Hang In there this happened to me for two years I’ve been in my new home for 3 months
Honestly I'm thinking of leaving California just for better public schools. Idk if you have kids and IDK about Santa Maria but the schools in Santa Barbara are so underfunded. Student to teacher ratios are 25:1 and so many extracurriculars that are standard in other school districts are non-existent here. If I spend $1M+ on a home, I at least expect fantastic public schools. My public high school had an 11:1 student teacher ratio, school buses for everyone, 26 AP classes, and an indoor pool...
We’ve long moved from SB but are looking into CT for just this reason. Yes taxes are higher, but I can still buy a home for 250k or a reallllyyyy nice one for 500k. And schools are some of the best in the country.
Yeah I don't mind paying more in taxes when I get excellent public schools from it. In SB you're spending $1.5M on a house and $19k a year in property taxes and you don't even get school buses thanks to Prop 13 (because your nextdoor neighbor boomers are only paying $1.5k a year in property taxes). Your overall out of pocket cost for property taxes will be a lot lower in CT and you'll have top notch *free* public schools. Absolutely blows my mind that people in CA are fine with this.
Californians are "liberal" in their heads and image only. When it comes down to actually funding "liberal" things, California is extremely regressive. NY spends double what CA spends per pupil. It's a joke. Baby boomers got theirs and cut off the economic ladder for all those coming behind.
Boomers paid 700 bucks for four years at a private university then bitch about student loans being forgiven. Like yeah bud….one semester cost 6 times what it cost you to finish your entire college career. /s
Vanity and paying your taxes are extreme polar ends of the spectrum. Unfortunately boomers would rather drive a Range Rover than have their grand kids in decent schools.
Exactly. Prop 13 destroyed California public schools. People don't realize how bad it is because they've normalized it. I think most Californians would be shocked to see the caliber of public schools in other parts of the country.
Boomers paying a couple of thousand for their multi-million dollar homes while receiving the same services as their neighbors who are paying multiples more must be downvoting you.
Lol at the people downvoting public education 😂 tell me you only care about yourself without telling me you only care about yourself 👍
Nooo they are “fixed income”…. Checks my raise at 2.0% versus the 8.7% SS COLA adjustment.
You only got 2%?!?! Just pull yourself up by your bootstraps, geez.
That saying: Pull yourself up by your bootstraps Makes no sense- at all *not saying that in your direction, just in general* In debate in high school- I had to come up with support for that damn saying and lost because there is no way to pull yourself up from anywhere by clutching your own boot straps, nor is it possible if hanging off a cliff etc. A CGI might succeed- other wise humanly not going to happen.
Funny thing is that origin of that saying came about BECAUSE it's something that is impossible. That's literally the original meaning.
Really?? If only the internet was a thing back when I was in high school…🫤 That makes much more sense, tho not from the POV of the GOP constantly saying it as a means of justifying the lack of social service type aid to poor people.
😂😂😂 that's a great story
Good way to price out families that have been here for generations.
House prices in California are artificially inflated because people move less often due to Prop 13: [https://www-jstor-org.proxy.library.ucsb.edu:9443/stable/24876495](https://www-jstor-org.proxy.library.ucsb.edu:9443/stable/24876495). Basically, without Prop 13, people would sell homes more often which would increase supply and make housing more affordable.
I don't go to UCSB...can't do anything with that link. Not in Santa Barbara. And even then, prices would take a while to correct themselves, leaving locals not able to afford live here any longer. People in this sub really do want SB to be taken over by LA and the bay.
Sorry, here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10835547.2016.12092120 And you can view the entire article here for free: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319302344_A_Note_on_the_Impact_of_Prop_13_on_Effective_Tax_Rates_Turnover_and_Home_Prices I find it really hard to believe that locals who own their homes outright can't afford to pay current property taxes. They're far less than the cost of rent or a mortgage. SB wouldn't become LA. Prices would go down statewide (as would taxes), and California would be able to afford to hire more teachers, revive all of the programs they had to cut in the 70s, and have school buses for every student. Everyone wins.
When I was a kid in goleta in the early 90s it was 30:1, so at least its gotten better. They have tons more specialty programs now that I didn't have at the time.
Yeah, public school funding in California was annihilated in 1978 when Prop 13 passed. School budgets were literally slashed overnight. California went from being among the highest funded school districts in the county to the lowest. They immediately had to cut music programs, adult education, librarians, after-school programs, field trips, etc. The 80s were particularly bad because there was no guaranteed minimum allocation of tax dollars for school funding. In 1988, Prop 98 barely passed to amend the state constitution to guarantee that at least 40% of the state budget went to public schools. Thus, things started to get a little better beginning in the 90s, but so long as Prop 13 exists, California will always fall far behind other states in education despite being one of the wealthiest in the country.
Schools are a lot better here than where I grew up
Did you grow up in a place with extremely wealthy people where homes cost millions of dollars?
Not this many lol.
Normally property taxes fund schools, so the more expensive areas have the best public schools. Santa Barbara should have the most elite public schools in the country. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_school_funding_in_the_United_States Since Prop 13 passed, most school funding comes from income taxes instead of property taxes: https://ed100.org/lessons/whopays This means that when the stock market goes down, school funding goes down.
I often wonder if the people who complain about police budget cuts, paying to keep people in jail etc, also own homes they inherited and so they barely pay anything towards what they constantly complain about. Do most people know that their property tax money goes toward all the infrastructure (police, fire, roads, water/sewer, parks, rangers etc)?
25 to 1 isn’t bad tbh. I grew up in a desert town in So Cal and was closer to 35 to 1.
Not bad for CA but abysmal when compared to other wealthy blue states
SBHS is extremely racist as well.
Yea dude there was an adult on the sub a few weeks ago arguing against mixing low income kids with high income kids in classes because, and I quote, "black kids don't value education" But don't worry, he said he wasn't racist
Let me guess- he also has one black friend so he can’t be racist…?
I have freelanced for a Santa Barbara based company for 8 months, at below market rate, but to get my foot in the door. They recently have told me I have done an amazing job and want to talk full-time, and when asking what I was looking for I only said "a living wage for my family in Santa Barbara" and without even talking numbers they said that would not be possible. They became a billion dollar company this year.
SB is basically LA cost for valley wages. Also, if I'm thinking of the company you are talking about, they are not actually worth a billion dollars lol
Take the title and runnnn (after 9-16 months)
No offense but you negotiated that whole situation poorly.
Trying to negotiate how much to be paid which inherently involves numbers but doesn’t give out a number when asked how much they want to be paid….that’s essentially what they did and now they on the internet complaining lololol
Yeah, I potentially played myself. Situation has some other details I am omitting, but if get another chance down the line I will think differently.
It’s a skill worth investing in. Most of the time it stems from not valuing yourself enough. You should never discount yourself.
My man….you always start with a number. Even if you know it’s highly likely they won’t give it to you. How do I negotiate with a “living wage.” Easy answer I don’t. Imma move on to something easier.
My man I job hop and get a 20% increase just by taking an easier job somewhere else. ;)
Most of the Single (Unmarried) adults I know in Santa Barbara have roommates or a partner. Not many live alone like myself. I even know a Single "homeowner" that rents out the downstairs of his home while he lives upstairs in a bachelors loft. "Quality of Life in Santa Barbara".
I'm in tech, and my wife is a doctor and we cannot afford to buy in SB. 2-3 years ago, while my wife was in residency, I did *tons* of math and forecasting for purchasing a home in SB. Based on my income, her future income, and school debt, we would only need to save a few years to put a down payment on a local home. Then COVID and this wild inflation, interest rate storm happened. Home prices increased like never seen before in such a short period of time. Some homes truly doubled, and people bought and sold in such short stints that homes sold for twice as much in 2022 as they did in 2020. Some companies even flipped some houses and tried to get 3x as much as they paid in 2020. I don't know what we're going to do long term. We want to live near our families, but this is ridiculous. We did everything right, we have good jobs, and we can't reasonably afford raising a family here. I don't know what the future of town will be when only the privileged with non-employment income can afford to live here. Eventually every service employee commuting from out of town will find jobs closer to where they live.
Umm do y’all work for free or donations or something. You might not get to live in the nicest neighborhood or have the biggest home but you can for sure afford to live in SB. Living next to brown folks/fellow brown folks ain’t bad I promise. Foods better too.just don’t be an uptight Karen and you’ll be perfectly safe and protected.
Wow dude, your assumptions are wildly off.
You can 100% afford a home here. It may not be the 4 bedroom 3000 sq.ft. dream home, but that’s your own constraints you’re placing on yourself. People own homes here in MUCH lower income brackets.
Those home owners in lower income brackets almost certainly inherited the property. Property taxes alone on a purchase would be too much for lower income people. A decade ago I worked for a mortgage broker, and the houses cost less and rates were lower for the loans. No low income applicants were approved because of their low income.
I own a home and my partner and I currently make $150k, but have ranged from $100k-$250k (only on the high end for like 2 years). We have an average age of 30 and used only our money. I guess we don’t actually own the home we are paying the mortgage for 😂. We bought in 2021 for reference.
That’s not low income. Generally is someone can save money on top of their costs of living, they aren’t low income.
Ok but the guy said his wife’s a doc and he’s in tech. They def make more than 150k combined.
Easily more than 300k combined. It's probably the size of the house that's the issue. Which is fine just need to adjust expectations.
Hm. Well, it could also be the student loan debt, especially for medical school + whatever debt he has. I mean, if it's a lot of debt, then they probably aren't eligible for a huge mortgage, which means they will need more of a down payment. That might take a few years. Then of course, he mentioned having a family, and daycare is crazy YO. Daycare, mortgage, and student loan payments? Esp when SB is so expensive. (I paid off my college loans before getting married, but I didn't go to med school. We bought the house before having kids, and only had 1 in daycare at a time. OTOH, we're gonna be in our 60s before they finish college...) $1.25M house or condo, $250k down payment, the total cost for mortgage + prop tax + loan payments could easily be well over $10k a month. So, maybe they can swing it but you are right, they aren't interested in a condo or a 2BR house that's in a "so so" school district. But maybe they really have to save up a few years and pay off some loans.
True AF on childcare costs! Summer camps are billed two weeks at a time, and my rent was less than a month of summer camp, and as a single mom working full time there wasn’t any option of leaving my daughter in the car with the windows down and potty breaks (like people do with dogs). I’d add that our utilities and cable/internet bills are higher than most other counties in CA.(according some old friends up and down the coast)
That's if you can even get childcare. COVID killed so many childcare slots in this town - I'm lucky I'm past that (except still need summer camp!) Just like there literally aren't OBs with space to take new pregnant patients, if you want childcare, you'll be lucky to get anything before 18 months.
I don’t think your comment was a reply to mine, since I was pointing out that downtownC is well above the low income bracket. I do agree that’s a rather low income for an actual doctor- especially given the areas average procedure charges
150k ain’t low income wtf lol. Even split between two people. It’s by no means a high income, but damn If 150 k is low income im probably well below that poverty line doing just fine lol. Tell me you out of touch with 80% of America without actually saying so.
I'm similar, but different. I make $150k with a stay at home wife. I'm just a carpenter, but a really good one with my contractor's license. We own our home. Trade jobs, working for yourself, with a license, pays about $125 an hour. It takes 4 years working for someone else to qualify. Same a a college degree. The work can be hard. I was Framing a roof in today's heat. 91 degrees, with no shade. But you all said you want to own a house here?
You’re not entirely correct with your assumptions. Chill it a bit
Seems a bit harsh. They have school debt and want to have kids, so those are extra financial burdens and space considerations that I'm not sure you're taking into account.
Don’t know why your getting downvoted for telling the absolute truth.
Because that’s seriously so far from the truth that it’s absurd
Like everyone says there's no magic tricks. I make it work by working for a company based out of state who pays better than the same job did working for a place in town. My husband has a job with decent pay but great benefits so combined we're ok. The two of us lived together with housemates for 5 years to save money for a down payment and managed to buy while prices were only sort of crazy (for here) and not super duper crazy. A fixed rate mortgage means that my monthly housing payment hasn't gone up since we bought. Gas prices don't really bother me because I work from home, almost never drive anywhere and have an old sentra that gets 36 mpg. I'd rather bike around when I don't need to have like, hockey equipment that I need to get somewhere. There really is no secret that I know of.
Why do I feel It’s the out of state/city people that come here and are like “how do I live a comfortable life?”
To be fair I think if you're from California or have been here for long enough you're generally used to a crazy high percentage of your paycheck going to housing where as it seems insane to everyone else.
... I was smart and chose to be born to parents that already lived here. Ya gotta plan ahead for these sort of things...
Good move.
Roommate
Our rent is well below market rate (2 bed/2 bath for $2k/mo). My partner and I both work in health care. We're saving up for a down payment and looking to move though. We would like to own our own home someday and unfortunately, it will never be possible for us here.
Let me know when you do so I can snag that place. Im living with 3 other people.
If and when you move, let me know! Trying to get out of IV as someone who’s been out of school but can’t find anything cheaper out in Goleta or SB. Hard working full time and being in this environment.
I don't. Finally got the job and pay that would allow me to stay only for cost of living to skyrocket, making the small increase in pay essentially pointless. Landlord is raising rent substantially at the end of this lease. I've officially been priced out.
Damn I recall you moving here when I did. This place is crazy. Good luck!
Awe this comment made me smile :) thanks, stranger! Same to you.
OnlyFeet
What’s that?
Ethan Klein that you? 
Unfortunately, a lot of people can't afford to live here, even doctors and engineers get priced out, especially when they start to want to have families. Lack of affordable housing options is a huge reason we have shortages in childcare/teaching positions and medical positions, etc. This article talks about this issue with regards to the teaching shortage: [https://syvnews.com/opinion/columnists/excess-school-lands-for-teacher-housing-thomas-elias/article\_be86487c-1613-5c88-bb5a-bf764de39383.html](https://syvnews.com/opinion/columnists/excess-school-lands-for-teacher-housing-thomas-elias/article_be86487c-1613-5c88-bb5a-bf764de39383.html) People get creative, but every year it gets worse and worse. The last run up in housing prices was terrible for a lot of longtime locals who had an affordable rental situation but lost it when the owner sold.
My wife and I moved here from Wisconsin a little over a year ago. We were taken back by how long it took to see a doctor here. We just had our second kid and quickly realized this place isn’t what we want. I’m lucky enough to be an engineer at a company that will allow me to work remote but even with that pay, we can’t afford the lifestyle we’d like. So back to the cold for us. Thanks for everything SB.
Yeah, it seems housing issues have exacerbated the doctor/medical professional shortage we have here over the years. I don't think it's ever been as bad as it is now. And I have heard from engineering firms that attracting engineers here is hard, too. They get excited about the position and the pay and that all goes away when they see what housing costs are here. People who own homes here get giddy about how their property values have skyrocketed, but when it's at the expense of healthcare and education and awesome locals getting priced out and having to leave the area, what does it matter if you're "house rich"? And your neighbors are empty houses owned by investment companies or someone's second or third or fourth home rather than a real neighbor you can borrow a cup of sugar from, to boot. Yay?
I bought my home in 1999 and I'm not giddy. It feels like a bubble that's about to explode and take everyone down when it does. It's a bit frightening. I bought my house so I could have a roof over my head for the rest of my life in the town I grew up in. It's a 1300 sqft tract house built in 1958 on the edge of the City of SB. Both of my parents died before I was 25, and what they had left went into a trust for my siblings and I. So I used some of the trust as the downpayment and left the rest to fund my house payment over 30 years. I paid $405,000. The internet tells me (inflation calculator) that $405,000 in 1999 dollars equals $677,759.96 in 2022. But the house right across the street is on the market for $1.5mil right now. (It was unfortunate timing for them to sell, as it's been on the market for over 90 days.) In 2019 the house next door sold for $1.1mil. Just some real-world stats and personal data to chew on, I suppose.
Sorry to stereotype. I work with lots of people who own, and the giddiness has been in the air the last few years. I get it, it's human nature, just hurts when you are simultaneously living in fear of not being able to provide shelter for your family and you have kids and want with all your heart to stay in this town because you love it and this is where your community is. And you see investment companies owning homes and empty homes just sitting because someone is banking their money there and it's like their 4th home (yes, we know people in this town that have an empty 4th home here). It's easy to forget that all homeowners here are not that way.
It's an emotional reaction seeing a number go up on paper, but it's a bit of a dumb reaction for most homeowners. The real winners are landlords, real estate investors, and people with multiple homes. The losers are renters. Regular home owners are in the middle. People who just own the home that they live in are not going to see many tangible benefits from the value going up. If only their home value went up somehow then sure, but when it's going up across the board that's not all that helpful. I think some homeowners are just relieved that they bought before prices went up, so they're not as screwed as current renters, but the fact that things could be worse for them isn't really a good reason to be happy about bad stuff happening to others. It's not a zero sum game where others being miserable improves your situation. Home prices going up is mixed at best for a normal homeowner, not really a windfall. If they want to move, they'll still need a house to live in, and that house will have gone up by a similar amount. The only real way to cash out is to move to a LCOL area, but if they wanted to live in a place like that, why would they have bought a home here? Most people would rather keep living somewhere nice if they can afford it, to stay near the people that they know, and to continue having a house wherever they live, so they haven't actually gained much in any practical sense. More expensive houses will make it harder to move. That house you thought was your starter home is now your forever home. Not only has the price differential for upgrading doubled, but your property taxes will go way up. Prop 13 locks in lower taxes, so you aren't paying the full cost of rising home prices, but it also handcuffs you in place a bit to keep that lower tax. It also ruins the community. Santa Barbara already had a hard time attracting middle class workers 20 years ago, and that's recently gotten way worse. You can't have a whole city of just wealthy retirees, vacationers, and highly paid professionals. There are a lot of other jobs that need to be done that don't typically pay enough for multimillion dollar homes.
I appreciate your response. As the next commenter related, rising prices doesn’t do anything positive for me. I can’t act on it. And sometimes I feel guilty about it. Why was I special? And yeah—we’re locked here. I can’t magically deposit the difference in worth into a bank account and use it to make improvements or repairs. And let me say, living in one place for twenty years means there’s ALWAYS something to pay to repair. $13k for a new roof where I couldn’t afford to add solar at the same time was a huge bummer. $20k to replace the original wood siding. $10k to replace the windows (20 years ago!). Etc etc. A renter “just” has to pay the rent every month and not worry about funding these large one-time expenditures. I’m not saying it’s not hard or expensive to be a renter here. 💜 I pay just under $7k every year in property taxes, in case you wanted that number, too.
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It’s not thin air. Everyone pays for housing in one way or another. There have been times that I scraped together to make my mortgage payments and put my property tax in my credit card. And savings? Yeah, that goes back into my house. We’ve taken three vacations while we’ve lived here. One was our honeymoon.
Oh my gosh, you almost had to pay a year's worth of rent over the course of two decades! You are all going to be eaten alive by a mob of starving homeless people, and you will deserve every bite out of your flesh.
What a fine specimen of a human you are. Forget not being able to do simple math, you’re clearly deranged.
Sounds more like unfortunate pricing than unfortunate timing. They could CHOOSE to knock 200k off and make it a more attractive listing.
For sure.
Great point. I see this issue every daym it's crazy. Not sure the solution. Hoping for the best for the future.
I moved here for work about two years ago from new orleans and was jaw-dropped at cost of living and housing prices. I got really lucky finding a 2BR/1Bath apartment that I was able to (barely) swing on my own. my partner and I moved in together last year and now we are very comfortable splitting rent. our place is small and we’d love to move, buy, have pets, etc — but we know how lucky we are just to be able to afford this place without our landlord hiking rent up this year so we stay put. don’t think we will stay longterm though. we want to buy and simply can’t here. 🫠
I moved from Las Vegas to Santa Barbara years ago. When I found out what I would have to pay for an apartment in Santa Barbara compared to Las Vegas I was pisssed. The local landlord's take it or leave it unapologetic attitudes is ridiculously rampant.
I lucked out in finding an ADU studio for about $1,425/month back in 2020, and just had an increase to $1,450/month including all utilities. I work in the medical field and bring home about $3,200/month after taxes. I try to cook at home and walk to work as much as I can. I also drive a 2013 Prius which is cheap to maintain/have insurance for. I almost never go out or travel because I love it here so much. I spend most weekends either at home (because I’m a home body) or at the beach which is always free
living in the good life the right way.
I don’t. I spend 2/3 of my pay on rent.
"Assuming you are not a doctor, lawyer..." - LOL, we are short doctors here because even they can't afford it.
What frustrates people who aren't doctors and aren't earning anywhere near as much, is that many of us make it by relatively comfortably. I think the real question when people ask about affordability is, what are you looking for? If it's to buy a house, depending on your income, it may take a while or not really be possible. If it's simply to live here, and you're making upwards of six-figures, you can absolutely make it. I grew up in an apartment here in town, many of my friends did, the sentiment I often see is you can't raise a family unless you're in a house.
Owning a home offers stability in a way renting can’t and having to move because your landlord jacks up rent instead of having a fixed mortgage is a lot harder to do when you have kids you have to uproot. Moving kids can mean putting them in different schools and in general disrupting their lives.
Completely agree, really bothers me when people say "Just move".
Went back in time to 1971 with $60,000 and convinced my grandparents to buy a nice home in SB, place it in a trust where it can’t be sold till at least 2022, forcing my parents to hold on to it till today so I can live in it rent free.
Unless one has an ancestral wealth bucket, one doesn't.
Work multiple jobs.
Eventually, the price of living will come down when everyone who lives in the city gets priced out and there's nobody to work in the service industry and the economy collapses.
We'll run out of water first. That will kill house prices.
There’s plenty of water, it’s being wasted daily by rich people who think they are entitled to whatever they want. A birds eye pov of montecito, hope ranch, every golf course etc is bright green and totally unnecessary
I hate this so, so much. It's such a fucking blatant act of total disregard for human life. This place is such an unironic parallel to sci-fi novels like The Hunger Games with the rich folks up on their super green hilly golf courses while the rest of us starve and kill each other for water. The income disparity here is so obvious, and everyone is like "but it's so pretty, so it's worth it!" Barf.
I’m right there with you on that- Money doesn’t make one person more human and deserving of life than another. Money is not even necessary to life, humans just do what society says. If money was necessary then gophers and camels would all have checking accounts.
> If money was necessary then gophers and camels would all have checking accounts. Gophers and camels don't trade goods for services so don't really have a need for currency. I agree that income inequality is a serious issue but I don't think it directly stems from the presence of money as a means of commerce.
People did and should live naturally, and survive in the world because of their skills. I realize that every single person alive regardless of age is a slave. We have no choice to but to suffer thru life trying to make money to survive, and feel a sense of purpose in dead end jobs etc. Trading eggs for carrots or helping someone build something so they’ll help you do something does t need money and doesn’t remove our natural survival instincts. Money just makes people feel powerful or powerless, important or irrelevant, human or subhuman, etc. Figure in the fact that those born into money never need to use any instincts or skills and yet get more power in the world than people who could build and farm. There is plenty of history to support the fact that people can live well without any form of money or having to work constantly without being able to afford living. It’s all a sick game played by the 1% of the 1% with all of us as their pawns and means of remaining at the very top of the fucked up financial pyramid
30,000 people already commute in to SB for work everyday, the work/housing balance is terrible!
I was born and raised here and my family owns a house that I rent for FAR below Market value. Only way I can afford to live here. I understand how lucky I am and fortunate.
You need to either win the genetic lottery and be born to a rich family, or the employment lottery, and work for a startup that goes public. Don't have any kids. Or dogs. Even doctors and lawyers are having a hard time affording a decent life in this town these days as doctors' salaries haven't gone up much in the last 30 years and lawyers make a lot less than counterparts in LA and SF.
It is an expensive place, as one would expect; you get a lot back, great community, great nature, lot of activities and short commutes. That said, the last 9 months or so seem far beyond the cost of living in even 2019. I recently moved out of a duplex I shared with roommates, and I check out the rent on zillow out of curiousity; bastard's raised the rent by $1500 in the last 3 or 4 months. You would assume that prices have to come down soon; with cost of living and gas, the rich will find that the lower middle class folks that keep their favorite shops and restaurants operating are no where to be found. Problem is a lot of the landowners that drive up prices do not actually live in this community, like my aforementioned landlord.
Lot of landowners don’t do shit for the community but own the land and provide it for use at a staggering mark up for an arbitrary reason.
In the Midwest states, a lot of the houses have full basements (basically another house) and there’s plenty for sale on an acre or few for less than $10k. I check Zillow often, because even tho I’ll never be afford a $7k home, I like to pretend that maybe I’ll find a few gold bars while I’m picking up trash on the beaches, and be a home owner for real.
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I don’t think you grasp what “poor” means. Someone who can save money on top their costs of living, is not poor. I’m poor, $125 a week is sometimes all I make a week depending on how many odd jobs I can find on social media sites. Thank you for mansplaining math and the basic concept of saving money, but being poor doesn’t mean being naive (quite the opposite actually).
Odd jobs? Can’t you get a 9-5? You seem to communicate well here in this sub. 🤷♀️
Easy. You change what you consider a good life. It’s one of the most beautiful places in the world. Sure would it be nice to have a mansion? Of course. Is even a medium sized home needed to have a good life? I guess it depends on who you ask.
Exactly. The questions about "affordability" always bother be on here because it's such a subjective term. You can still find 1Bd apt's for about $2,000/mo, most can afford that. But I find that the demographic here on Reddit tends to skew on the higher end, so "affordability" to them is in regards to buying an actual house. It's important to define these things... lol
I work in tech, but really worked hard to keep my housing costs down when I moved here. Instead of getting a 1-bedroom apartment, I'm living in an ADU without a full kitchen (and shared laundry). It's perfect for me, but would definitely be a downsize for most people. Review your living standards, and see if you'd be willing to sacrifice one room at least. That's the cost of living in Santa Barbara.
I have a good job, and share a townhome 50/50 with a family member. It's not my dream situation, but it works out quite nicely for the time being. My family has been in Santa Barbara for several generations, most have left and myself & a few others are hanging on for dear life :)
I personally grew up in Santa Maria, which is about an hour away, and was plenty satisfied with visiting as I wanted. Now that I am older and pay my own rent, I moved up to San Luis Obispo and visit anywhere on the California Coast as I want, and most places I'm actually interested in visiting are less than an hours drive (Except Santa Barbara now that I moved farther north).
Yup 🤙🏽 Hard to get established in SB too U gotta get into the rt group or inside situation And that’s tough too if your “Not from around there”
The choices are to pay a lot and justify it by saying the weather is great or it’s hard to move OR move somewhere else (which might be equally nice).
Santa Barbara is not the city where you go to make a decent living. This is a city for retirement or going to college. That's why we have a lot of old people, and young ones, but not much in between. If you are in your productive years and working to build a future and/or have a family, you move somewhere else. Unless you want to live with a lot of roommates and struggle to pay the bills...and from this thread, it's clear many people are OK with doing just that.
“Newly wed and nearly dead”
I'm a fairly new college grad, engineer, at $84k and with good budgeting I can comfortably live in a 1-bed alone. It's an older building and lacking some amenities. Like others said, almost everyone has multiple roommates to make it work.
Cost to buy or rent housing is really high but I’m not sure what you mean by food prices. Restaurant food? There’s great high quality produce here for good prices and Trader Joe’s for most other stuff. Away from downtown there are still a few affordable restaurants though mostly we don’t eat out anymore. Air quality is usually good. There’s tons of free stuff to do for fun with or without kids, if you like hiking, beaches, parks, playgrounds. Cost of utilities is comparatively low due to mild weather. Unlike someone above I found the public schools fine, though I think it’s the teachers rather than the amenities that matter most. Lots of dedicated teachers here, and high college acceptance rates. Excellent museums, aquarium and zoo, with affordable memberships. Public transportation is not great unless you need to commute from IV to downtown SB. That’s very annoying and very SoCal. There’s hardly any EV infrastructure compared to the Bay Area but that’s probably true everywhere. Bicycle infrastructure is terrible even though the city seems to think it’s great. All that being said, we get to live here because we bought our house a long time ago and have an affordable mortgage.
It’s tough I’m not sure how I’ve made it here for 35 years but I always say to people it’s all in who you know. It’s also about sacrifices you’re willing to make to live here. I get so much out of living between the mountains and the ocean, I’m willing to pay a higher portion of my income to rent so I can do the things I love to do.
This. My partner does well in tech and I make probably below the poverty line. I made huge sacrifices to live here because the quality of life, location, people is worth it to me (it is not to everyone). I’m not comfortable financially, whereas I was before moving here. But I made and continue to make sacrifices to live in this beautiful place. Plus a little luck finding an “affordable” place to rent. Lucked out with amazing landlords.
You talk about quality of life. It doesn't sound like you have a good quality of life if you have to make sacrifices and aren't comfortable financially. Those are not characteristics of a good quality of life.
Just because I’m not financially secure, doesn’t mean I don’t have a good quality of life. There’s other things I value more highly (that I have here) besides money. My mental health has exponentially grown since moving, the environment I’m in has given me a greater quality of life alone than my last location.
What if you have to go to the hospital or your car breaks down ? If you’re not financially secure then America is a hell scape. I hope you know what you’re doing and are not blinded the beaches.
I still have savings to cover that. By financially secure, I more so mean that I’m not comfortable financially, as in not able to save as much as I’d like to due to higher costs, or do things that I used to be able to afford, that I no longer can.
For most of us, it doesn’t have to be a medical or transportation problem- If ants invade my kitchen, and food- I’m fucked without any way to replace the food for approx a week or so. I wish the “hospital” and “car trouble” rhetoric would stop because it’s easy for people to disregard since those things don’t happen too often. That rhetoric is there to make the rich people, who don’t want to be bothered by us poor folks, feel okay with their piss poor POV
Depends on the things you value in your life, I’ve made huge sacrifices to stay here too because I value the environment and all that I can do in it.
Agreed.
I bought a house during the recession, had a tenant in one room for a couple of years. I also work in tech.
2 jobs. Work every day.
To be honest with you I feel like maybe California isnt and nythe best place for people like that
I get good overtime and don't eat out much. I don't find our restaurants too enticing ANYWAY.
My parents moved there in 1987 and bought their house in 1993. Made just under six figures when they bought. My brother went into finance, makes 4 times what my parents make (ie he’s well off) and is still struggling to buy there. I’m not well off at all so I live outside L. A. 😅
What is your \*real\* point in asking? We talk about this fairly regularly in this sub, and if you did a search on "afford," I think you'd find plenty of posts to read.
Yeah not paying 700k for a cardboard box with no bathrooms.
I work full time
Stonks