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Comment by tytytytytytytyt | Hacker News Reader

It's hardly insane for a house in a large metropolitan area! That's actually pretty reasonable, and lots of apartments in SF are 50% to 100% more in rent. If you look at current, or anything within maybe 5 years, house prices in Seattle I doubt you'll find much if anything within a 15 minute commute to downtown Seattle for a 900/month mortgage.

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Other than NYC that's close to 50% more than what you can expect in any large American city. That is not reasonable in any sense of the word. 4k / month mortgage is around a $1 mil home value.

Is a 50% variation in housing costs between large American cities not reasonable in any sense of the word?

The per-capita GDP variation between large American cities is larger than that, and there's no good reason to expect housing to cost the same in very different cities.

Some cities having housing cost at least 50% more (or double) the national average seems like something that would be the case in pretty much any country in any period of history.

So you're now moving the goalposts from 2k / month up to 4k / month? Nice.

Absolutely insane. Going to buy a house with a 15 minute commute by train downtown. I’m looking to spend less than ~350k for a house with around 1500sq feet and fenced in yard.

I will be spending less than $2k total a month. West coast is crazy.

Where are you buying?

Atlanta and in an area that has exploded in the past 5 years. Comparable to Austin, Houston and maybe Portland. Maybe not so comparable for Portland anymore.

Bankrate calculator says it’s $700k more expensive for the same house in SF.

Yeah, ATL is adding a number of tech jobs (hopefully Amazon too). Cost of living is increasing, but relative to everywhere else it is cheap to live in the city center. Developments of apartments and condos has exploded, which is making for a nice urban feel.

I just paid 290k for a 3500sq-ft home with a big yard in a great school district. Indy aint so bad.

2k/month is fine. The guy I responded to is now moving the goalposts up to 4k/month, which is significantly more.

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