Yup. I am a CS professor at a community college in the Bay Area. I make good money for a tenure-track professor (slightly under $112,000, in fact), but the problem is that there are many thousands of households in the area that make multiples of what I make, and due to our limited housing supply, I can’t compete with them. Thus, home ownership within a 30-minute commute is not in the cards for me unless I become rich, and I’d need to make a 90+ minute commute from exurbia to find homes I could afford that are in safe neighborhoods. Even if I quit my job and somehow landed a high-paying software engineering position, I’d be scared about taking on a 30-year mortgage for over $1 million, especially since there’s no way to guarantee making a $200,000+ salary the entire length of the mortgage.

Thus, I rent an apartment, and I anticipate being a lifelong renter as long as I’m in the Bay Area. I also don’t anticipate being able to retire in the Bay Area, though that’s not for another 30 years. My long-term plan is to save a down payment for a vacation home somewhere affordable that I’ll use as my retirement home when the time comes.