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| Angelika/Mike Schilli |
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Michael A single-family home in our neighborhood now easily costs around 2 million dollars. However, what many newly wealthy people don't consider when buying a house is that paying off a loan of this amount over 30 years not only requires about $7,000 net per month, but also incurs a lot of additional costs.
Since the property tax in San Francisco is about 1.2% of the purchase price, for a two-million-dollar house, around $22,000 per year, or almost $2,000 per month, must be paid to the tax man. Fortunate is the one who has calculated this beforehand, before making an insane bid on a house; many techies with temporarily high salaries and zero knowledge realize this too late.
And in addition to garbage collection ($200 per month), electricity (up to $400 with the new eco-friendly provider), water, sewage, and all sorts of miscellaneous stuff, another $1000 per month quickly adds up. Repainting the house? $20,000. New roof? $20,000.
Many people also do not know that homeowners must repair the sidewalk in front of their house at their own expense if the typical approximately 3ft by 3ft stone slabs in San Francisco are starting to crack. This mainly happens because of trees, planted by the city at the roadside, which develop wild roots and destroy the stone slabs from below with intense pressure. If the unionized city inspection team then comes by and sees damage. The inspector marks the damage with a spray can, and shortly thereafter, a letter arrives in the mailbox, requesting the homeowner to repair the damage within 30 days.
And of course, not just any independent craftsman can take on the repair, but only those authorized by the city's union officials, who work at exorbitant prices. They start at $2,000, just to turn on the cement mixer.
Homeowners are, of course, resisting arbitrary actions by the authorities, and in the meantime, court rulings have been issued stating that damages caused by city tree roots after 2017 must very well be repaired by the city at their expense. Or take the 30-day ultimatum, issued for such tasks: The homeowner is only required to begin the repair within 30 days, but who knows how long it will drag on with unreliable craftsmen!
Recently, one hears from Germany that homeowners are getting upset about having to co-finance road construction in their communities, and they surely think: "Typical German bureaucracy! It would surely be different in America!" But they are mistaken, at least when it comes to liberal strongholds like San Francisco or California in general: There, the bureaucratic red tape is even more pronounced, and the financial burden on homeowners takes equally bizarre forms.
Greetings from the city:
Angelika and Michael
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