Tech workers in Silicon valley are one of the higher paid groups of people in the country, but apparently even they need help managing the insanity that is the Bay Area housing market.
As Bloomberg.com reports, lenders throughout the Bay Area are doing their best to court tech workers with things such as tailored loans, guaranteed 24-hour approval, and financial-planning services.
While these tech workers, such as those who work for Apple, are compensated very nicely, often much of what they make is tied up in shares and is not very liquid, making it difficult to come up with a budget for a house. Additionally, the down payment is often more than the cost of the average U.S. house, at $187,000.
San Francisco Federal Credit Union began to offer zero-down loans to people who work in San Francisco or San Mateo County. This has led to some concern that high loan-to-value mortgages are dangerous and, in an area where there are regular murmurs of more bubbles bursting, this type of lending has some people on edge, fearing it is fueling another bubble and worsening inequality.
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