patrick.net

Most people I work with are obsessed with API scores. They dont want to venture near San Jose, Santa Clara, Milpitas where they feel (I dont know whether correctly or not) there are too many kids without attentive parents and drugs and bad behavior.

They also dont want to venture into Saratoga because they feel it has primarily rich and spoilt kids and bad behavior.

Dont know how much of these stereotypes are actually true but I have heard this type of reasoning from multiple people

Cupertino is seen as a place where hard working "middle class" $200K type families live which are neither blue collar nor trust fund babies...

dunnross says

Goran_K says

If you're a business man from Hong Kong, and $2,000,000 buys you a 2,500 sqft house in Cupertino, or a 1,100 sqft apartment in HK, the choice starts to make sense.

What utter nonsense. If you are a business in HK with $2,000,000, sitting in Cupertino on dead equity, who is minding the business back in Honk Kong?

Nonsense for the reason that if you are truely a business man you understand value, and is partly the reason why you have 2,000,000. It is the people who have it and don't understand its meaning that are throwing it away. Remember, as you get more, you want more even more. When you have 200k you think your attitude changes if you grow it to 2million. However, in reality you are more focused to grow the 2 to 4million. Simple fact of life. Only the people who were thrown into 2million by pure luck invest in bad value areas. They have a short half life though and don't make up the majority.

So, after all of this discussion.....

Does anyone in here actually want to live in Cupertino? Is it a hot topic because people want to live there & are annoyed at the prices, or are we just having fun examining a seemingly overvalued area that none of us would ever really want to live in. I'm in the latter group.

dunnross says

Goran_K says

If you're a business man from Hong Kong, and $2,000,000 buys you a 2,500 sqft house in Cupertino, or a 1,100 sqft apartment in HK, the choice starts to make sense.

What utter nonsense. If you are a business in HK with $2,000,000, sitting in Cupertino on dead equity, who is minding the business back in Honk Kong?

Yeah, like rich people around the globe can only think of one place to invest their money - buy a home in Cupertino and happily live ever after. LOL.

Wong,

Who cares about the macro. It is only 5% increase, but that 5% is concentrated in a small area driving up the price of housing. You have not explained why 90% of the student is Asian per API in Cupertino school.

Compared to Hoing Kong, the price of housing in Cupertino is still lower.

Every time I see the over priced transaction, it is usually Asian buyers with strong accent.

bmwman91 says

So, after all of this discussion.....

Does anyone in here actually want to live in Cupertino? Is it a hot topic because people want to live there & are annoyed at the prices, or are we just having fun examining a seemingly overvalued area that none of us would ever really want to live in. I'm in the latter group.

The latter. I worked and "played" there for years. The place is basically shit with zero personality. It's a *really* expensive strip mall.

CrazyMan says

bmwman91 says

So, after all of this discussion.....

Does anyone in here actually want to live in Cupertino? Is it a hot topic because people want to live there & are annoyed at the prices, or are we just having fun examining a seemingly overvalued area that none of us would ever really want to live in. I'm in the latter group.

The latter. I worked and "played" there for years. The place is basically shit with zero personality. It's a *really* expensive strip mall.

Later group also. If someone gave me a house for free there, I would rent it and still live elsewhere regardless of the cost. To me it is just the space between the two sets of montains. Necessary but pretty useless unless you are a farmer, and them days are gone around here. ;)

dunnross says

Goran_K says

If you're a business man from Hong Kong, and $2,000,000 buys you a 2,500 sqft house in Cupertino, or a 1,100 sqft apartment in HK, the choice starts to make sense.

What utter nonsense. If you are a business in HK with $2,000,000, sitting in Cupertino on dead equity, who is minding the business back in Honk Kong?

Dunross it's only nonsense to you because you don't understand the culture very well and the motivations behind their decision. But I like you so I'll explain.

San Marino and Cupertino have lots of wealthy chinese business types who buy homes here in the states not for themselves, but for their CHILDREN. Many of them go to school here in the states and college. In HK and China they consider American universities a luxury, almost like a feather in the cap.

Look at the API scores for schools in Cupertino and San Marino. Look at the rise of the chinese demographic. Look at the rise in prices.

Think about it for a second and put it together in your own mind.

Goran_K says

Dunross it's only nonsense to you because you don't understand the culture very well and the motivations behind their decision. But I like you so I'll explain.

San Marino and Cupertino have lots of wealthy chinese business types who buy homes here in the states not for themselves, but for their CHILDREN. Many of them go to school here in the states and college. In HK and China they consider American universities a luxury, almost like a feather in the cap.

Look at the API scores for schools in Cupertino and San Marino. Look at the rise of the chinese demographic. Look at the rise in prices.

Think about it for a second and put it together in your own mind.

I think its really YOU that don't understand MY culture. Your arguments have been rehashed 1000x here and it just doesn't hold water.

Do you think Cupertino is the center of the fucking universe? Do you really think millionaire commie tycoons really want to live near high tech? There are plenty of schools with a ton of immigrants in other areas of the world.

Let me repeat what I wrote many times to educate your freaking newbs
The vast majority of the immigrants in Cupertino did NOT come from Millionaire families. The worked hard, worked in high tech and saved to get to where they are. The price increase of the fortress areas happened because of the housing bubble cause by loose lending standards. This includes Crapertino.

I'm sorry you brought an overpriced house there, you are not the first person to post on Patrick.net to rationalize your purchase. The reasons you gave have been repeated a million times here.

If I was you, I'd enjoy the house and try not to worry about where price will go.

And no, I have no desire to live in Crapertino. I'd rather live in Palo Alto so my kid can become a superstar basketball player. Because Palo Alto is even more magical then Cupertino. LOL

Serpent,

Every One is an individual, including you. Now that you've expressed your individuality, you're well on your way to assimilation. Maybe, you're already completely assimilated. Like my American born Chinese friends who also want nothing to do with that API ghetto, including a couple who grew up in that particular API ghetto and attended the schools there.

Regarding the rest who don't act so Individuality-ish, I did not say they are or came from Millionaire Families.

I said, Wealthy Families. Of course they are Wealthy. To get an engineering degree (or whatever) in Asia that's good enough to get an H-1 job or into grad school here, of course you have to be wealthy, well-connected. I don't think Blue Collar types are coming here by that route.

Once they are here, well, to pay cash in The Fortress, they have to be Wealthy. To have enough cash for a downpayment in The Fortress, they have to be Wealthy. To qualify to borrow in The Fortress, they have to be Wealthy. To afford the rent or the mortgage payment in The Fortress, they have to be Wealthy. To pay the Property Tax bill in The Fortress, they have to be wealthy.

LIke others here have observed, they are mostly immigrants bidding against each other either to buy or rent in the Gaokao Genuflection-to-the-API, and of course to be able to do so, of course they are wealthy.

You don't think they are so wealthy? Just ask the Rest of Us who live in most of the rest of Santa Clara County, who change the oil in their cars, clean their office buildings at night, cook the food in the restaurants they eat at, sell them the goods at the retail stores, etc.; of course they are wealthy.

They are Wealthy and they are Immigrants

Wealthy Immigrants. And they keep comin'.

"Does anyone in here actually want to live in Cupertino?"

If I was working for the mothership, sure. Can't beat being an easy (non-sweating) bike ride to work vs. dealing with 85/280.

But other than that, no way. I've begun to rethink my desire to live in Los Altos, too.

Access to a Chipotle & In N Out should not drive my major life choices, LOL. I can make my own burgers and maybe I should learn how to make "barbacoa" beef too.

Instead of paying a million-plus for a $35,000 house in Los Altos my pal decided to decamp to the hills above Santa Cruz for about $200,000 less, on a lot big enough that he can't throw a rock from his house to off his property.

Trader Joe's and Costco are an easy drive away still.

Back around 2002 I was looking at buying some land up in the San Lorenzo Valley and making a similar doomstead.

But most people have to commute into town every day, and 17 / 9 is a bitch of a commute so most families are stuck in the valley. And if you're stuck in the valley, Cupertino is in the sweet spot beween the shittiness of San Jose and the enclaves closer to Stanford.

White Flight from Cupertino : http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB113236377590902105-lMyQjAxMDE1MzEyOTMxNjkzWj.html

bmwman91 says

So, after all of this discussion.....

Does anyone in here actually want to live in Cupertino? Is it a hot topic because people want to live there & are annoyed at the prices, or are we just having fun examining a seemingly overvalued area that none of us would ever really want to live in. I'm in the latter group.

Regarding Cupertino desirability -
Agreed, if you are looking to go to bars and restaurants every night, cupertino is not a good fit. And those who prefer long commutes (it came up in a different thread) wouldn't like it if they work in silicon valley.

for someone with a family, looking for a quiet place, low crime, with other families, short commute, good schools, it's a nice place. Cheaper than Los Altos / Saratoga / Los Gatos / Palo Alto but nicer than Milpitas / Campbell / most of San Jose.

Saying Cupertino is "horrid" is a little extreme, that's a description of some place with bullets whizzing around.

baka, I still haven'' gotten an answer on why you are so obsessed with the immigrants. You use that term " Gaokao" like it makes you an expert. Did you just learn it because you seem to use it on every post.

No, you don't have to be wealthy or connected to get an H1B. I know because my parents and most of their friends came out here that way. Of course you can't be dirt poor and you have to be pretty smart, but there was absolutely no family money involved.

has the demographics in Cupertino changed? are many of them well off immigrants? yes, but they got to where the are because of hard work, not magical commie dragon gold. Macro and micro economic forces still applies. There is no gold plated force field around Cupertino when the surrounding areas, wealthy or not, are being affected.

How many of them paid cash in the Fortress? lets see some numbers. I'm curious.

You DID not have to be wealthy to qualify for a mortgage in the Fortress. THATS the point. Back when the bubble was brewing, anyone with a half way decent income and credit score can qualify for a 5yr ARM + a second mortgage for a down payment. THAT IS WHY THERE IS A HOUSING BUBBLE.

Serpentor says

baka, I still haven'' gotten an answer on why you are so obsessed with the immigrants. You use that term " Gaokao" like it makes you an expert.

i wonder if he's very mildly autistic or has some mild mental tick.

he loves to repeat certain terms over and over and over.

i can't put my finger on it, it's not just repeating concepts or larger ideas which is what most of the users here do, it's more precise where he likes repeating the specific word.

SiO2 says

Regarding Cupertino desirability -

Agreed, if you are looking to go to bars and restaurants every night, cupertino is not a good fit. And those who prefer long commutes (it came up in a different thread) wouldn't like it if they work in silicon valley.

for someone with a family, looking for a quiet place, low crime, with other families, short commute, good schools, it's a nice place. Cheaper than Los Altos / Saratoga / Los Gatos / Palo Alto but nicer than Milpitas / Campbell / most of San Jose.

Saying Cupertino is "horrid" is a little extreme, that's a description of some place with bullets whizzing around.

I think its being used to balance out some of the mythical worship thats been going on here. Like you said, its a decent family place, but its not even as nice as Los Altos, Saratoga, Gatos & PA... Not to mention Atherton and Hillsborough etc.

Hysteresis says

Serpentor says

baka, I still haven'' gotten an answer on why you are so obsessed with the immigrants. You use that term " Gaokao" like it makes you an expert.

i wonder if he's very mildly autistic or has some mild mental tick.

he loves to repeat certain terms over and over and over.

i can't put my finger on it, it's not just repeating concepts or larger ideas which is what most of the users here do, it's more precise where he likes repeating the specific word.

I think it's more like when a kid learns a cool new word and he tries to us it in every sentence.

SiO2 says

Saying Cupertino is "horrid" is a little extreme, that's a description of some place with bullets whizzing around.

I think it is "horrid" also, but not in a whizzing bullet way. The main roads are busy, the downtown is better than before, but still not that desirable. It is basically a city that is chopped up with highways and De Anza Blvd. Going anywhere means at least 15 traffic lights. If there was a google+ page with city circles, it would be grouped with San Jose and Sunnyvale, as opposed to Palo Alto, Los Altos, Los Gatos, Palo Alto, etc.

It really is an affluent wannabe city. A pig with lipstick and a dress. That is my definition of "horrid" here.

Bellingham Bill says

But most people have to commute into town every day, and 17 / 9 is a bitch of a commute so most families are stuck in the valley. And if you're stuck in the valley, Cupertino is in the sweet spot beween the shittiness of San Jose and the enclaves closer to Stanford.

I actually grew up in Boulder Creek (one of the most beautiful places on earth btw) and my mom still lives there. Parents bought a house there in ~1962

I used to work in Cupertino and there's actually a reasonable short cut off of hwy 9 to sunnyvale/saratoga rd.

That being said, yes, if the commute wasn't so long I'd live back up there in a hearbeat. It's a totally different lifestyle; you can still ride dirt bikes and shoot guns :)

there is no real "Downtown" in Cupertino. its all stripmalls.

At least Mo'vew and S'vale has Castro and Murphy with some excellent restaurants,decent bars, farmers market, and free live music in the summer.

This is getting a little silly. Cupertino is not expensive solely because of some Borg Collective of Asians with suitcases full of dragon gold (thanks Serpentor, funny term). It may be a factor, but it seems like people are fixating entirely too much on the fact that Asians make up much of an expensive area. Would people on here be hemming & hawing if it was overpriced but crammed full of white folks? Probably not.

Why?

Because it is old news. Us cracker folks have been doing our very best to wage class warfare on everyone else since forever. Now that Indians & Asians are getting some small pieces of that pie, it is suddenly some big deal. White kids were all encouraged to "express themselves" and pursue degrees in useless liberal arts degrees, and the Asian kids were all kicked in the ass from birth to be scientists, lawyers & doctors*. Now that those kids are adults, it is really any surprise to see who has money?

*I am not advocating the "tiger parent" bullshit I hear about. There is a healthy medium between that and naming your kid something dumb like Brayden & letting him wear women's clothes if he feels like he wants to. One turns your kid in to a pot smoking robot that lives in your basement indefinitely, and the other turns him into a status-seeking robot that worries way too much about how they compare to everyone else, knows how to make lots of money, and has NO idea of how to live a life.

Not that impressive.

Chinese Immigrants in the United States

http://www.iowaimmigrationeducation.org/index.cfm?nodeID=22246&audienceID=1&action=display&newsID=7623

Demographic and Socioeconomic Overview •Over one-third of all Chinese foreign born in the United States arrived in 2000 or later.

•Almost two-thirds of Chinese immigrants in 2008 were adults of working age.
•Chinese immigrant women outnumbered men in 2008.
•Chinese immigrants were much more likely than the foreign born overall to be naturalized US citizens.
•Three of every five Chinese immigrants in 2008 were limited English proficient.
•Most limited English proficient Chinese immigrants spoke Chinese, Cantonese, or Mandarin.
•Nearly half of Chinese foreign-born adults had a bachelor's degree or higher.
•Chinese immigrant men were less likely to participate in the civilian labor force than foreign-born men overall.
•Over half of employed Chinese-born men worked in services; management, business, and finance; other sciences and engineering; and information technology.
•One-third of employed Chinese-born women worked in services and in management, business, and finance.
•Chinese immigrants were about as likely to live in poverty as natives.
•Chinese immigrants were more likely than other immigrants to own their own home.
•About one in six Chinese immigrants did not have health insurance in 2008.
•Over one-third of native-born US citizens of Chinese ancestry spoke Chinese at home.
•About 420,000 children under age 18 resided in a household with a Chinese immigrant parent.

The parts of Cupertino I've been to it just bothers me that there are like no trees.
Have you ever seen the movie Goodfellas. Remember the place he ends up in the end? I could swear he's in Cupertino...

Today everything is different.

There's no action. I have to
wait around like everyone else.

Can't even get decent food.

After I got here I ordered
spaghetti with marinara sauce...

...and I got egg noodles with ketchup.

I'm an average nobody.

I get to live the rest of
my life like a schnook.

toothfairy says

I get to live the rest of
my life like a schnook.

Welcome to pretty much most of Santa Clara County... from Palo Alto to Milpitas down to So San Jose. After living here for 15-20 years its pretty much all the same.

Hi All,

It's interesting to read these perspectives, given my strong interest in Cupertino. Ultimately, we are not buying there mostly because we would like access to jobs in SF and not just mid peninsula.

I thought I would just point out one thing from the Chinese perspective. Some of us require access to strong after-school Chinese programs, in addition to good schools, so our children may grow up getting a good grounding in Mandarin Chinese. This does factor in to the demand for towns like Cupertino and others, at least, for me.

Disclaimer: I am not advocating buying a house in Cupertino. Just answering OP's question from my perspective.

Cupertino prices are down recently, but not by much. Here is my perspective on why the Cupertino prices will never crash. It is conveniently located - close to 280, 101, 85. Great shopping - WholeFoods, Target, Marina/Maxim markets etc, Tons of excellent restaurants. Tons of schools with great API - just go to an open house in Faria or Portal to see the droves of interested (Indian, Russian, Middle Eastern AND Chinese - not just Chinese) parents there. Tons of afterschool enrichment and tutoring centers catering to families that want to supplement the public school curriculum (or lack of it). Tons of tech companies with job prospects in the neighborhood. I can think of more if I had more time to come up with positives.
Cupertino has become an enclave and a "Fortress". I see a lot of successful Indians move in there frequently as well as Asians. A lot of them wear T shirts that proclaim the virtues of VMWare, Google, Facebook, QCom, AAPL, CSCO, NTAP etc. I am assuming that they must work in the tech field with high paying jobs and great prospects even in this economy. The good private schools here cost $20K - $30K per child (sometimes more - see Harker fees). So, if you had multiple kids, it makes economic sense to buy in Cupertino and send your kid to the Faria, Portal, Lincoln or Garden Gate etc schools which boast to be as good as any top notch private school. In fact it works out cheaper to buy a house there than to pay private school fees for 2 kids. And many people in California are disillusioned with the public school system, so they trust only public schools deemed "the best". The cream of the crop in the tech world live in the bay area and they are from backgrounds where a great education (not just arts and crafts and sports, but ALSO excellence in science and math) is considered the foremost goal for their kids and they are willing to pay what it takes to get it. They will not lose money if the bubble bursts - because for them, their other option would have been to buy a house in a lousy neighborhood (where the crash would be bigger) and they would have paid for private schooling in order to make up for the poor schools there. And the public schools in cupertino are asking for parent contributions so that they can keep the Arts and Sports programs going (and the parents gladly contribute) even though the schools lack the budget for them.
Renting in Cupertino to get into public schools is not cheap - 2 bedroom apartments cost $2700 per month in Cupertino city and SFH cost $3000+ easily (check craigs list).
So, if you are waiting for the prices in Cupertino to drop, you might as well wait for the tech companies in Silicon Valley to shut down and all the tech workers to emigrate to Asia and then it will happen.

Cupertino Smupertino. Palo Alto is where everyone wants to be (apparently). WTH is wrong with people; buying 500 sq ft rat shacks for $1.15M.

I give up. All this talk of housing bottoming and prices going down in the peninsula is just plain crazy talk.
http://www.redfin.com/CA/Palo-Alto/1820-Ash-St-94306/home/595737

I just need to find a 1/1 listed for 1.2M or more. That will teach these wannabes.

Serpentor says

Do you think Cupertino is the center of the fucking universe? Do you really think millionaire commie tycoons really want to live near high tech? There are plenty of schools with a ton of immigrants in other areas of the world.

Let me repeat what I wrote many times to educate your freaking newbs
The vast majority of the immigrants in Cupertino did NOT come from Millionaire families. The worked hard, worked in high tech and saved to get to where they are. The price increase of the fortress areas happened because of the housing bubble cause by loose lending standards. This includes Crapertino.

I never said Cupertino is full of only millionaires. Why are you so angry?

I think many people who have posted in this thread, including Bayhousehunter's great response show that Cupertino has plenty of attributes that will keep it more expensive than other communities in the Bay Area.

I think prices will come down, but I don't see a 65% crash like some of the extreme bears are claiming.

Have a nice day!

Serpentor says

Do you think Cupertino is the center of the fucking universe? Do you really think millionaire commie tycoons really want to live near high tech? There are plenty of schools with a ton of immigrants in other areas of the world.

Let me repeat what I wrote many times to educate your freaking newbs

Please chill.

That comment got two dislikes. One more and it goes into moderation. I have to admit it is deliberately insulting.

what? only 2 dislikes? I thought there'd be more Haterz

Goran_K says

I think prices will come down, but I don't see a 65% crash like some of the extreme bears are claiming.

well I don't think 65% crash likely either. But even a modest 15%-35% drop is a quite a few years worth of rent in those parts and will wipe out equity in a lot of people.

Like i said, I really don't give a rats ass about Cupertino prices. What gets under my skin is people who don't know crap about a certain culture act like experts and repeat the same myths over and over again without any proof or data.

Serpentor says

Like i said, I really don't give a rats ass about Cupertino prices. What gets under my skin is people who don't know crap about a certain culture act like experts and repeat the same myths over and over again without any proof or data.

(read this with a strong Texan accent)

But I heard that them Gout Cow people are been movin in & taking all the jerbs! It was on the internets, so its gotta be true. All dem damn people, look different, can't trist em.

Really, what kind of people let their cows have Gout just to send dem kids to a school?!

lol

Serpentor says

lol

They did take our jobs in more than one way... you cant have expensive workforce because of housing. High Tech industry cant absorb high costs given the deflationary nature of the business.

The inbalance has caused plenty of job losses over the past 10 years all because someone's pathatic ego warrants $1M house in Cupertino, Palo Alto, Menlo, etc etc. High home prices and rents dont work around here...

Yes! they took our jobs away!

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/05/13/BUG91PO3US1.DTL&ao=all

Q: So are those really challenges?

A: Unequivocally, yes. Not only to the CEOs in the boardroom, but to any family you talk to in their living room. What we hear time after time from CEOs as well as frontline employees is how incredibly difficult it is to come here and stay here. That truly does have an impact on a company's bottom line when the cost differential is so much higher here than it is in other regions around the state, nation and globe, or the ability to recruit top talent is also impacted.

You mentioned housing. It probably is the top concern we hear about in Silicon Valley from both CEOs and employees in terms of local issues. Does that have an impact? Let me put a finer point on it.

Hewlett-Packard and Dell are the top two computer-makers in the world. Corporate headquarters for HP are located in Palo Alto and Dell is in Round Rock, Texas. Obviously, they both have people and facilities around the globe.

In those two communities where their corporate headquarters are and where a lot of research and development takes place, the median resale price for a home in Palo Alto is about $1.6 million. In Round Rock, Texas, it's about $180,000, except the home and property are bigger.

We hear from HP all the time that a huge deterrent to the ability to recruit and retain people anywhere near Silicon Valley is the housing issue. We don't hear that from Dell, which is also a member company, about their operations in Round Rock. It does continue to plague us and we will continue to sound the alarm.

Cupertino, CA: 63.3% Asian

Round Rock, Texas: 4.1% Asian

It's a myth to think that all asians are wealthy high tech workers. we have about 2x as many Asians in Oakland than Cupertino.
and you see elderly Chinese standing in the soup lines wrapped around the corner every morning.

As far as Round Rock Texas the problem with a low barrier to entry on housing prices is there's no exclusivity. You may be a Dell executive living in your 180k house and you could easily find that your next door neighbor works part time at the local Walmart.

This thread just seems disconnected from the question. There are definitely areas with fundamental supply and demand dynamics which result in higher prices. Cupertino might be one of those places.

No Bay Area neighborhood has yet returned to a pricing level that is not sustained by loans of money equaling many times incomes. The system supporting the very high loans was loans turned into pools of money in which institutions and individuals could invest more money. That support systems broke down even though I'm sure it still exists to some extent.

So prices will continue to find the balance between supply and demand fundamentals and the increase caused by adjacent investing. Some of the debate here is aimed at the supply and demand fundamentals that might be at play. It's helpful to understand that supply and demand fundamentals don't chance very quickly. Not much has changed in Cupertino. It's not like what's happening in North Dakota. So prices will continue to fall closer to the supply and demand fundamentals thinking they are still being affected by mortgage practices and the adjacent money changing practices.

I think there is enough money to fuel the bubble in small enclaves with good schools. Many tech couples are DINK (dual income no kids) making entry level salaries + bonus of > 200K. At my stage low to mid thirties this number crosses 300K for most couples I know.

On top of this people buy more house then they need around 4X income and in good school districts. And thats why the 1million per home rate is becoming sort of standard for anything in MV, Cupertino and PA.

Agree that Cupertino has nothing interesting going on like university ave, castro or santana row..but these folks are more in piano lessons and after school programs so they probably are in a stage of their lives that they dont care.

toothfairy says

It's a myth to think that all asians are wealthy high tech workers. we have about 2x as many Asians in Oakland than Cupertino.

Yeah,but the ones in Cupertino are the rich ones financed from black money in Shanghai. LOL. This whole Chinese thing never goes away. Every few weeks someone attributes these prices to the rich Asians.

justwantaniceplacetostay says

On top of this people buy more house then they need around 4X income and in good school districts. And thats why the 1million per home rate is becoming sort of standard for anything in MV, Cupertino and PA.

I agree that if people are willing to spend their entire lives in massive amounts of debt so that at the end of their lives they have enough money to feel like they did okay, the economy will continue to grow, get propped, at the expense of these people and to the benefit of the people who have enough money to loan them.

You've stated gross incomes and then multiplied those as a way of determining house prices. I don't understand why anyone thinks this is reasonable. I don't know about you, but I don't get to spend my gross income on anything. So using that number to determine affordability of anything is only a great sales job by people with enough money to loan it out with interest.