Written by Tanza Loudenback; edited by Libby Kane
2019-02-27T17:52:28Z
- San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California, is the most expensive metro area in the US.
- San Jose is the bona fide capital of Silicon Valley.
- About one-quarter of households earn over $200,000 a year, but that still may not be enough to buy a median-priced home.
- Meanwhile, an affordable housing shortage has left thousands of working San Jose residents homeless.
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Outsiders may consider San Francisco synonymous with Silicon Valley, but locals know the epicenter of tech culture is San Jose.
The metro area defined by the US Census as San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara is the proverbial heart of Silicon Valley — and the most expensive place to live in the US. Goods and services are about 27% more expensive than the national average in San Jose, and the median home sale price is over $1 million.
But San Jose isn't all engineers and programmers flush with cash (or stock options). A dire affordable housing shortage has left teachers, landscapers, security officers, and thousands of minimum-wage workers virtually homeless.
Here's a look inside San Jose:
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The San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metro is home to nearly two million people.
Two counties make up the metro area: Santa Clara and San Benito.
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It's the second-most populous metro in the Bay Area behind San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, which is often synonymous with Silicon Valley and tech culture.
But to locals, San Jose is the epicenter of Silicon Valley. Its sprawling suburbs are home to employees of the biggest tech companies ...
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... like Google in nearby Mountain View ...
... Facebook in Menlo Park ...
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... and Apple in Cupertino, a city west of San Jose.
Cisco Systems and eBay, both headquartered in the city of San Jose, are also two of the area's biggest employers.
Source: PayScale
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But that doesn't mean everyone has a technology job, she said. "While engineers and programmers mostly dominate the population, people often forget that there are a lot of other positions in a tech company," said David, who works on PayPal's social innovation team.
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"Some of my friends are engineers, but I also have a lot of friends in finance, accounting, marketing, you name it," David said.
David said "one of the biggest positives" of the tech industry is the "economic stability" it brings — high-paying jobs and an ever-growing demand for tech talent keep the job market strong.
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San Jose's economy is the fastest-growing in the US, and tech is a huge driver. In 2017, the area's GDP grew 7.6%, to more than $275 billion or $137,752 per capita.
Sources: BLS, American Community Survey, MarketWatch
The unemployment rate in the San Jose metro was 2.5% as of December 2018, compared to 3.9% nationally.
Sources: BLS, American Community Survey
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San Jose's most popular jobs include mechanical engineer, software engineer, and senior software engineer, according to PayScale. They pay anywhere between $77,268 and $134,718 a year.
Source: PayScale
More than half (57%) of all households in the San Jose metro earn six figures — the median household brings in $117,474 a year.
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About one-quarter of households earn over $200,000 a year ...
... but that's still not enough to buy a house.
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Many residents, including David's family, have been around since the dot-com boom of the 1990s ...
... but the area's skyrocketing home prices have pushed many others out.
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Over the last 10 years, the median home value in the San Jose metro has more than doubled from $612,000 to $1.27 million.
Source: Zillow
Over that same time period, the median sale price jumped from $431,000 to $1.05 million.
Source: Zillow
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Meanwhile, the US median sale price increased marginally, from $163,000 to $226,000.
Source: Zillow
In San Jose, buyers need an annual income of at least $257,247 to qualify for a mortgage with 20% down, according to the National Association of Realtors' latest data.
Source: National Association of Realtors
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About 70% of San Jose homeowners have a mortgage, and they spend about $3,261 on monthly housing costs, which includes taxes, insurance, and utilities.
About 46% of homes in the San Jose metro are valued at more than $1 million.
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Last year, San Jose suburbs appeared in nine of 10 spots on Redfin's ranking of the hottest neighborhoods in America. The annual list tracks which areas have seen a rising interest from buyers.
Source: Redfin
But San Jose doesn't make an appearance in the top 10 this year, as more residents migrate out of expensive coastal cities, according to Redfin.
Source: Redfin
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At the metro level, Los Altos, a city in Santa Clara County, was named San Jose's hottest neighborhood for 2019.
Source: Redfin
Nearly 63% of homes in Los Altos sold for above asking price in November, according to the latest data available from Redfin.
Source: Redfin
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Properties in Los Altos are palatial by California standards. The median sale price is just under $3 million.
Rent prices are outsized, too. Between November 2010 and January 2019, median rent for a one-bedroom apartment rose from $1,520 to $2,565.
Source: Zillow
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"Downtown San Jose is expensive and can be unaffordable if you live in a major apartment complex or if you choose to live alone, but rent can be thousands of dollars cheaper in San Jose than it is in San Francisco," David said.
There is relief for renters who know where to look, she added. David and a roommate split $2,800 monthly rent for a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment with access to a pool, gym, and recreation classes. It's just a few blocks from downtown San Jose.
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A San Jose landlord drew criticism earlier this year when Mercury News reported he rents out a studio apartment on his property to a friend's two cats for $1,500 a month.
Sources: San Jose Mercury News, Business Insider
With many non-tech employees struggling to afford the exorbitant cost of housing, some people found the story absurd. A housing expert working to end homelessness in the area called it "peak Silicon Valley."
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Nearly 47% of renters in the San Jose metro, representing a plurality, spend 30% or more of their income on rent. The US Census considers these households "burdened."
Thousands of teachers, landscapers, security officers, and minimum-wage workers who can't afford rent have created a new economic class in Silicon Valley: working homeless.
Sources: Business Insider, AP
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About 3% of San Jose residents live in mobile homes, vans, RVs, or on boats.
Sources: Business Insider, AP
An Associated Press photo series published in 2017 told the stories of some of Silicon Valley's working homeless.
Sources: Business Insider, AP
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Ellen Tara James-Penney told the AP she slept in a car she parked at a church that shelters homeless people, despite a full-time job teaching English classes at San Jose State University.
Sources: Business Insider, AP
She graded papers and put together lesson plans in her Station Wagon every night.
Sources: Business Insider, AP
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Tom Myers, executive director of Community Services Agency, a nonprofit based in Mountain View, told the AP that a "crisis of unemployment" is not to blame for the homelessness epidemic in Silicon Valley. "People are working," he said.
Sources: Business Insider, AP
"In San Jose, you will find glassblowers, hairdressers, soon-to-be-grandpas, grocery-store clerks, security guards and local activists, many of whom would leave this city if they could, but are bound by duty to aging parents or custody terms, living paycheck to paycheck and hoping to make ends meet," Meg Furey wrote for The Bold Italic, a San Francisco-based culture magazine.
Source: The Bold Italic
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But it's not just housing costs eating up paychecks. San Jose's cost of living is the highest of any metro in the US. As of 2016, goods and services were about 27% more expensive than the national average.
Source: Business Insider via Bureau of Economic Analysis
In spite of its high cost of living, US News & World Report ranked San Jose No. 17 out of 125 metro areas on its 2018 annual best places to live in America list ...
Source: US News & World Report
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... but that's a far cry from its No. 3 ranking the year before. It's still the top-ranked city in California on the list.
Source: Mercury News
And though San Jose has cemented its status as a hotbed for innovation and entrepreneurship, "not everyone here is consumed by capitalist pursuits," according to Furey.
Source: The Bold Italic
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San Jose State University, the founding campus of the California State University system, is located downtown. It had about 35,000 students enrolled last fall.
Source: San Jose State University
The university's top undergraduate program by enrollment is psychology, while the most popular graduate program is library and information sciences, followed by software engineering.
Source: San Jose State University
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"In fact," Furey wrote, "even though San Jose is the tenth most populous city in the United States, it will rarely seem that way, as the streets are almost always empty, giving many areas the feeling of a place forgotten by time and strangely preserved."
Source: The Bold Italic
Tanza is a CFP® professional and former correspondent for Personal Finance Insider. She broke down personal finance news and wrote about taxes, investing, retirement, wealth building, and debt management. She helmed a biweekly newsletter and a column answering reader questions about money. Tanza is the author of two ebooks, A Guide to Financial Planners and "The One-Month Plan to Master your Money." In 2020, Tanza was the editorial lead on Master Your Money, a yearlong original series providing financial tools, advice, and inspiration to millennials. Tanza joined Business Insider in June 2015 and is an alumna of Elon University, where she studied journalism and Italian. She is based in Los Angeles.
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I'm an expert in personal finance and housing markets with a deep understanding of the factors influencing affordability and economic dynamics in metropolitan areas. My expertise stems from years of analyzing real estate trends, economic indicators, and regional financial landscapes.
In the article by Tanza Loudenback, several key concepts related to personal finance and the San Jose metropolitan area are discussed:
-
San Jose as the Heart of Silicon Valley:
- San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara is the most expensive metro area in the US, serving as the epicenter of Silicon Valley.
- The region is home to major tech companies, including Google, Facebook, Apple, Cisco Systems, and eBay.
-
Economic Stability and Job Market:
- The tech industry in San Jose provides economic stability with high-paying jobs and a growing demand for tech talent.
- San Jose's economy is the fastest-growing in the US, with a GDP of over $275 billion.
-
Housing Affordability Challenges:
- Despite high incomes, a dire affordable housing shortage has led to homelessness among various non-tech professionals.
- The median home sale price in San Jose is over $1 million, and the cost of living is about 27% higher than the national average.
-
Real Estate Market Trends:
- Over the last decade, the median home value and sale price in the San Jose metro have more than doubled.
- Buyers in San Jose need an annual income of at least $257,247 to qualify for a mortgage with a 20% down payment.
-
Rental Market Dynamics:
- Rent prices in San Jose have risen significantly, with a median one-bedroom apartment costing $2,565 as of January 2019.
- Some relief for renters is possible with strategic choices, as mentioned in the article.
-
Working Homeless and Housing Crisis:
- The high cost of living has led to a significant percentage of residents, including teachers and minimum-wage workers, spending 30% or more of their income on rent.
- The housing crisis has resulted in a new economic class in Silicon Valley – the working homeless.
-
Cost of Living Challenges:
- San Jose has the highest cost of living among all US metros, with goods and services being 27% more expensive than the national average.
-
Diverse Employment Landscape:
- While the tech industry dominates, San Jose has a diverse job market, including positions in finance, accounting, marketing, and more.
Understanding these concepts is crucial for individuals navigating the complex financial landscape in high-cost metropolitan areas like San Jose.
