What's a Young Couple to Do?

First thing to do is move out of Santa Barbara. It's geared towards the elite establishment and tourists with lots of disposable income. Poor people don't have many options and aren't really welcomed anyway.

Santa Barbara is one of the best places in the world to live!

Don't listen to sourpuss rs251.

You can't get anything unless you try.

If you listen to bad advice, you'll end up living in beautiful Bako!!

Hey, I agree that Santa Barbara is beautiful and a great place to live, but it's just not economically feasible for a lot of people. What's the fun in living here if you have to spend half of your income on rent.

And I'm a little concerned about you turning a blind eye to the issue of Santa Barbara not being friendly to the poor. Santa Barbara is already starting to slip, and it's not going to change if people continue having this attitude. Just look at the gang problem that's emerging from the working class segments of Santa Barbara, and the failure of elected officials to address the issue. How is UCSB going to attract students when rent is $700 a month to split a room and Goletians resist UCSB building more housing?

No blind eye here to the poor, just didn't mention it.

Tell me, just where are these "greener pastures" for the poor that you allude to?

If you are talking about the really poor - look at the panhandlers that line lower State Street, I'd say they do better here than in LA.

Oh, and by the way, UCSB will continue to TURN AWAY applicants/students because it is in Santa Barbara.

I think Bourke's advice is pretty good and is consistent with what you hear from many financial planning resources.

Personally, I think making a home in SB is problematic for most young people. Only a small fraction of the people I knew when they were in their 20's and 30's have been able to stay in the area - most had to move to the bay area or San Diego because of a lack of the kind of jobs needed to make a living and buy a home in SB. The few that have, had extenuating circumstances (e.g. parents who could/would subsidize a huge downpayment, people who lived with their parents well after leaving college, etc.).

I've always been lucky to have friends younger than me throughout my life - it seems things are harder for them now than it was 10 or 20 years ago. I blame that partly on this area's continued emphasis on slow/no growth and low-paying industries (e.g. tourism). Whether thats good or bad on the whole is debatable, but it should come as no surprise that a result is this area's homeowner demographic continues to age. At least all the blue hairs in my part of town make me think that :)

In my neighborhood, a surprising number of homes are also owned by speculators or people from out-of-town using the property as a vacation home. So formidable competition from outside the area for local housing is another hurdle for the prospective home buyer.

Now for some free-thinking ... How many of you living in SB can say that your kids will have a better than 50% chance of settling down in SB if they want to? If not, is this the way you want it? Is this the way it should be? Is what's good for the parents not so great for the kids? Hey, you could extend this thought framework to environmentalism too :)

I hope this gives our young couple something to chew on while they enjoy what SB has to offer.