I suppose the issue here is that the "wait and save" approach does not always have success, especially in the Bay Area.
The reason for that is because there is a finite number of houses, and an excessive number of bidders. These bidders use loans and leverage (other people's money) to pay a higher price than they normally would be able to afford.
Thus, waiting and saving is tougher.
Of course this begs the question, why not just avoid the Bay Area?
Unfortunately, most of the tech jobs are there. Other cities don't have the job capacity, despite having plenty of houses.
So, finally, there really only are 33m people on this Earth who can afford to pay cash for a home in the Bay Area.
The rest have to leverage, and thus, are affected by identity theft and credit scores.
I can just tell you, respectfully, as someone who has a successful career in tech far from the Bay Area, that it comes across as obtuse to presume one can't work or buy a house anywhere else.
Your comments imply Bay Area housing costs are the default, but they're not. They're the exception. Contrasting the number of global millionaires with Bay Area housing costs in response to a general statement about saving to buy a house is silly.
I'm not sure how realistic it is to save for instead of getting a loan for a house, but I started my career 30 minutes from a city in the US with an international airport. I got a mortgage, but the house was $117k, in a safe neighborhood, with a garage, three bedrooms, and 2.5 baths. There is a whole world outside the Bay Area.
How much job capacity do you personally need? Isn't it enough to have just one job? Many cities have that and more, and it only takes one job to support a family.
I hope you don't expect to lose your job every few months, but in case you do, remember that new jobs pop into existence. It's not like a city with 100 jobs is on the verge of running out. (several years later: "oops, the last job got used up in 2018 and we can't ever make any more; this city is all used up")
I've had my tech job for a dozen years now. It pays well enough to get a 3500-square-foot house on half an acre and feed a huge family, even though the pay is perhaps only 2/3 of what I'd make in San Francisco or Mountain View. The 5x to 10x difference in housing cost more than makes up for the salary difference.
I suppose the issue here is that the "wait and save" approach does not always have success, especially in the Bay Area.
The reason for that is because there is a finite number of houses, and an excessive number of bidders. These bidders use loans and leverage (other people's money) to pay a higher price than they normally would be able to afford.
Thus, waiting and saving is tougher.
Of course this begs the question, why not just avoid the Bay Area?
Unfortunately, most of the tech jobs are there. Other cities don't have the job capacity, despite having plenty of houses.
So, finally, there really only are 33m people on this Earth who can afford to pay cash for a home in the Bay Area.
The rest have to leverage, and thus, are affected by identity theft and credit scores.