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CountAllVotes

(20,854 posts)
Tue Oct 27, 2015, 10:30 AM Oct 2015

'Million Dollar Shack' documentary looks at Bay Area's insane housing market

You've already heard the stories told in the new documentary Million Dollar Shack.

Rentals are scarce; home prices are staggering. The wealthy elite are scooping up Silicon Valley properties. These investment homes are sitting empty or rented by people who spend more time on the road than at home, turning neighborhoods into ghost towns. Members of the middle class are leaving the Bay Area in droves, searching for a more realistic reality, a place where they can actually afford a home.

Over the past decade, the media has jumped on these stories helter-skelter. This self-funded, homespun documentary on YouTube packs the insanity into 22 minutes and tells the harrowing tale through the eyes of the filmmakers, Michelle Joyce and Steve Fyffe, a married couple with two kids, who've been trying to buy a house in the Bay Area for five years.

Michelle said she and her husband, who worked as journalist before becoming a communications manager at Stanford University, decided to make the movie because, "The crazy housing situation in the Bay Area is all we talked about and all anyone we know talked about."

"We didn't have to go far to find examples of everything we show in the video," Michelle said. "Many of the people we interview in the video are personal friends. We hoped we could get a more honest conversation started about it.

"We notice stories in the media about ghost houses, rental prices and commuting, but we hadn't seen a story that put it all together. I don't think people realize all the pieces of this puzzle."

http://www.sfgate.com/aboutsfgate/article/Million-Dollar-Shack-documentary-Bay-Area-housing-6582122.php#photo-8831839

***************

The 20+ minute video is well-worth watching. Sad reality for renters and prospective property owners in the Bay Area and as for the natives



39 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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'Million Dollar Shack' documentary looks at Bay Area's insane housing market (Original Post) CountAllVotes Oct 2015 OP
This has been happening in San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, and Richmond since the 90's. JRLeft Oct 2015 #1
It is very bad now CountAllVotes Oct 2015 #2
I know how bad it is thousands of black people have relocated to Sacramento, Stockton, Pittsburg, JRLeft Oct 2015 #3
My late uncle was a native of Oakland CountAllVotes Oct 2015 #4
Have you seen the Temecula neighborhood lately in North Oakland, almost all of the black people JRLeft Oct 2015 #7
No, haven't been down there for a # of years now CountAllVotes Oct 2015 #10
Very few minorities reside there now. JRLeft Oct 2015 #24
My aunt had a house there years ago CountAllVotes Oct 2015 #27
Most of them will be gone in the next 20 years if not sooner. JRLeft Oct 2015 #29
Anywhere but CountAllVotes Oct 2015 #6
The city only wants an affluent populace. JRLeft Oct 2015 #9
Lee is a big crook CountAllVotes Oct 2015 #11
He's buddies with venture capitalist and Warriors owner Joe Lacob. JRLeft Oct 2015 #13
As a life long resident of SF I thought Frank Jordan was bad ED Lee is the worst kimbutgar Oct 2015 #18
He's owned by the economic elite in the bay area. JRLeft Oct 2015 #22
I filled by absentee ballot and everything he endorses I voted against kimbutgar Oct 2015 #25
Boy has he worked over Filmore, Lakeview, Bayview, and Potrero Hill neighborhoods. JRLeft Oct 2015 #26
That is where many of the junk yards, etc. were CountAllVotes Oct 2015 #28
The neighborhood of high priced parking. You can use a credit card to park there. JRLeft Oct 2015 #30
I drove though that area recently and thought I was lost I didn't recognize it anymore kimbutgar Oct 2015 #33
Temp. jobs CountAllVotes Oct 2015 #35
The housing bubble is one of the reasons we are headed for another major economic collapse. JRLeft Oct 2015 #5
Yep. CountAllVotes Oct 2015 #8
I suspect we will here rumblings of a crash in 3-6 months. JRLeft Oct 2015 #12
Who wants to live in a place that is a ghost town? CountAllVotes Oct 2015 #15
I still have family in the town, and the city of Oakland has attempted to purchase my family's JRLeft Oct 2015 #16
How many investors are Chinese looking for a safe place to hedgehog Oct 2015 #31
Quite a few, they've had investors and bankers. JRLeft Oct 2015 #34
All of Canada really Sen. Walter Sobchak Oct 2015 #37
I turned down two sharp_stick Oct 2015 #14
You must live in the valley. JRLeft Oct 2015 #17
I'm on the East Coast sharp_stick Oct 2015 #21
If you cross the Golden Gate Bridge you will find out that Marin County is worse than JRLeft Oct 2015 #23
True CountAllVotes Oct 2015 #19
The city is the 5th Ave (NYC) of the West coast. JRLeft Oct 2015 #20
When are the Silicon Valley employeers going to wise up and hedgehog Oct 2015 #32
It's is significantly a VC issue Sen. Walter Sobchak Oct 2015 #39
Our office in Burlingame is on borrowed time Sen. Walter Sobchak Oct 2015 #38
One of my colleagues just sold her grandma's teardown near Presidio Sen. Walter Sobchak Oct 2015 #36

CountAllVotes

(20,854 posts)
2. It is very bad now
Tue Oct 27, 2015, 10:43 AM
Oct 2015

like 10X as worse as 1990.

Would strongly recommend watching the video referenced above if you have the time.





 

JRLeft

(7,010 posts)
3. I know how bad it is thousands of black people have relocated to Sacramento, Stockton, Pittsburg,
Tue Oct 27, 2015, 10:47 AM
Oct 2015

Antioch, Lathrop, Manteca, Brentwood, Modesto, and Lodi.

CountAllVotes

(20,854 posts)
4. My late uncle was a native of Oakland
Tue Oct 27, 2015, 10:53 AM
Oct 2015

He lived in a crappy old house in a bad part of Oakland. When he died, my late father couldn't get rid of the house being it was such a nightmare of a place requiring thousands of $ worth of work. Hence, he unloaded it on a broker.

The neighborhood it is in shows a pattern. All of the neighbors that lived nearby sold their houses and left, not that I blame them.

So, no natives left and as for the black people in Oakland, they too are leaving in droves and taking the money and running to live elsewhere.

No one should have to pay a $12K deposit on a freakin' dump, no one!



 

JRLeft

(7,010 posts)
7. Have you seen the Temecula neighborhood lately in North Oakland, almost all of the black people
Tue Oct 27, 2015, 10:56 AM
Oct 2015

have been priced out.

CountAllVotes

(20,854 posts)
10. No, haven't been down there for a # of years now
Tue Oct 27, 2015, 10:58 AM
Oct 2015

It is a good thing I got out of there when I did as I'd likely be homeless by now.

Oh well ...

CountAllVotes

(20,854 posts)
27. My aunt had a house there years ago
Tue Oct 27, 2015, 11:38 AM
Oct 2015

Last edited Tue Oct 27, 2015, 06:02 PM - Edit history (1)

Soon there will be no minorities left, no nothing left but a bunch of rich people that know little if anything about the Bay Area. It was once a myriad of people that brought many to San Francisco and the Bay Area but today it is reserved for the rich and no one else can afford it it seems.

CountAllVotes

(20,854 posts)
11. Lee is a big crook
Tue Oct 27, 2015, 10:59 AM
Oct 2015

Why they elected him I'll never know other than to cater to the people you mention. *again* ...



kimbutgar

(20,882 posts)
18. As a life long resident of SF I thought Frank Jordan was bad ED Lee is the worst
Tue Oct 27, 2015, 11:12 AM
Oct 2015

I was fortunate to be able to buy my home on 1993, now I couldn't even afford to rent a 1 bedroom apartment.

kimbutgar

(20,882 posts)
25. I filled by absentee ballot and everything he endorses I voted against
Tue Oct 27, 2015, 11:29 AM
Oct 2015

I also voted for 3 unknown candidates. Yesterday I for a flier in the mail for him and used to clean out my cat box. I am disgusted because I supported him at one time and voted for him last time he ran. He is giving the city away to the highest bidder, while thousands are thrown out if their apartments and many end up homeless on the streets or living out of their cars.

 

JRLeft

(7,010 posts)
26. Boy has he worked over Filmore, Lakeview, Bayview, and Potrero Hill neighborhoods.
Tue Oct 27, 2015, 11:31 AM
Oct 2015

Not mention his mistreatment of the homeless.

CountAllVotes

(20,854 posts)
28. That is where many of the junk yards, etc. were
Tue Oct 27, 2015, 11:45 AM
Oct 2015

No one wanted to live in this part of the City. Now it is the new "Fisherman's Wharf" as they call it.

Little do they know what lies beneath all of that landfill out there -- lots of sunken ships and dead bodies of shanghaied people from the Gold Rush era.

As for Twitter headquarters, they say it smells like human piss inside of the building being it was built on top of where many homeless people once lived (without sanity facilities needless to say!).

Good luck with that prized property!

kimbutgar

(20,882 posts)
33. I drove though that area recently and thought I was lost I didn't recognize it anymore
Tue Oct 27, 2015, 11:58 AM
Oct 2015

Also there is a lot of waste from the old shipyards that is filled with contaiminated stuff. There is a reason things were not built there. Ed's also selling the city to Chinese investors who are building high rise that are empty except for 2 weeks out of the year when the Chinese come from China on their vacations. We should have laws against this.

Meanwhile thousands are homeless in our streets. Every time I go downtown I am stunned by the increased numbers of homeless. I stopped working downtown at the end of 2013, recently I had a temp job and was appalled by the numbers of people I saw on the streets not the usual druggies but people who probably had jobs and lost their apartments trying to keep some dignity.

CountAllVotes

(20,854 posts)
35. Temp. jobs
Tue Oct 27, 2015, 12:28 PM
Oct 2015

I wonder if this is a thing of the past. There was a day when just about anyone could go to a temp. agency and get a job. It might not have paid much, but it was a job.

As for the rest of what you have to say, I agree with you 100%. Who would have ever thought the the City by the Bay would end up like this?

As for the new and improved "Fisherman's Wharf" as it is now called, they can have it. Who wants to live/work in a toxic waste dump?



CountAllVotes

(20,854 posts)
8. Yep.
Tue Oct 27, 2015, 10:57 AM
Oct 2015

Fortunately I left in 1990. It was overpriced at the time and I knew I'd never get ahead.

I live in a small house today that I bought about 15 years ago for $85,000.00 and it is in northern California in a much better place to live (no traffic for one thing!).

When this bubble *pops* its really going to blow hard. Throw in another big quake which is the history of this area, good damn luck is about all I will say.



 

JRLeft

(7,010 posts)
12. I suspect we will here rumblings of a crash in 3-6 months.
Tue Oct 27, 2015, 11:00 AM
Oct 2015

Until we stop the wealthy from playing games with the global economy, nothing will change.

CountAllVotes

(20,854 posts)
15. Who wants to live in a place that is a ghost town?
Tue Oct 27, 2015, 11:05 AM
Oct 2015

The video makes the whole scene down there totally unpalatable to me. Just wait, you'll see a mass exodus when this bubble pops and yes it will pop or another big quake will hit and they'll run away just like after the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989.

Sad reality and what makes me even sadder is that the natives are about all gone. My last living relative sold their house just last month in fact and said relative was also a native of Oakland.



 

JRLeft

(7,010 posts)
16. I still have family in the town, and the city of Oakland has attempted to purchase my family's
Tue Oct 27, 2015, 11:10 AM
Oct 2015

property's over and over.

hedgehog

(36,286 posts)
31. How many investors are Chinese looking for a safe place to
Tue Oct 27, 2015, 11:54 AM
Oct 2015

stash their US dollars? I understand Vancouver is experiencing the same problem.

 

Sen. Walter Sobchak

(8,692 posts)
37. All of Canada really
Tue Oct 27, 2015, 01:34 PM
Oct 2015

Except Canada's housing market more caters to the international criminal element than the US one does. They're a little more "cool" about those things.

sharp_stick

(14,400 posts)
14. I turned down two
Tue Oct 27, 2015, 11:05 AM
Oct 2015

job offers in the SF Bay area this year. I just can't afford to live there and they can't afford to pay me enough to live there. I'd have to commute at least 2 hours each way just to get to work if I was going to get a legal mortgage.

The Bay area is going to implode, the Real Estate guy on that video is just blowing smoke claiming that it's just going to keep going.

sharp_stick

(14,400 posts)
21. I'm on the East Coast
Tue Oct 27, 2015, 11:19 AM
Oct 2015

I thought it was expensive here until I made a trip to SF a couple of years ago.

 

JRLeft

(7,010 posts)
23. If you cross the Golden Gate Bridge you will find out that Marin County is worse than
Tue Oct 27, 2015, 11:26 AM
Oct 2015

anywhere in the bay area.

CountAllVotes

(20,854 posts)
19. True
Tue Oct 27, 2015, 11:13 AM
Oct 2015

Last edited Tue Oct 27, 2015, 12:29 PM - Edit history (1)

Nothing can keep going up and up and up. He is nothing but a shill for the real estate market in the Bay Area.

I couldn't imagine paying $1 million dollars for a place that needs to be bulldozed down!

Anyone dumb enough to do so deserves it IMO.

hedgehog

(36,286 posts)
32. When are the Silicon Valley employeers going to wise up and
Tue Oct 27, 2015, 11:55 AM
Oct 2015

spread out to other parts of the country? Although, in my experience, executives tend to move the work place to cities that suit them rather than the typical employee. It doesn't matter what Boom Town is selected, prices are outlandish and commutes hellish.

 

Sen. Walter Sobchak

(8,692 posts)
39. It's is significantly a VC issue
Tue Oct 27, 2015, 01:44 PM
Oct 2015

The investors are Silicon Valley based and they like to keep a close eye on their startup investments. So the businesses start there and largely stay there.

There is also California's ban on non-compete agreements that fuels the whole start-up culture in the first place. That is very hard to replicate elsewhere.

 

Sen. Walter Sobchak

(8,692 posts)
38. Our office in Burlingame is on borrowed time
Tue Oct 27, 2015, 01:40 PM
Oct 2015

Manhattan was the first to go, Burlingame is probably next. Same story on both coasts, couldn't retain staff and when the costs associated with the offices were fully accounted for they just hemorrhaged money.

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