No Obligation and transparency 24/7. Instantly compare live rates and costs from our network of lenders across the country. Real-time accurate rates and closing costs for a variety of loan programs custom to your specific situation.
The San Francisco Bay Area is home to thousands of tech industry professionals. It’s also one of the most expensive real estate markets in the country.
Due to the pricey nature of this market, Bay Area tech workers often have to rely on specialty mortgage loans when buying a home. In this guide, we’ll cover several mortgage options for tech professionals in the Bay Area.
Specifically, we’ll explain how Bay Area tech professionals can use jumbo mortgage financing to purchase a high-priced home, possibly in conjunction with restricted stock units (RSUs).
According to one estimate, the San Francisco Bay Area “employs the most tech roles of any market (407,810), which makes up 11.6% of total Bay Area employment and is more than double the 50-market average of 5.6%.”
The broader Bay Area includes nine counties and stretches from the Silicon Valley region on the south to the Wine Country region in the north. And there are tech companies located throughout the region.
But most of the tech industry jobs are located in Silicon Valley, generally defined as Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. Not surprisingly, these are also two of the most expensive housing markets in America.
In some of these real estate markets, the down payment alone can exceed the average home price for the rest of the U.S.
Because of these price points, a traditional mortgage loan often won’t cut it. Bay Area tech workers often have to rely on jumbo loans when purchasing a house.
So let’s talk about that next.
When it comes to size, most mortgage loans in the Bay Area fall into one of two categories:
The current conforming loan limit for the entire Bay Area is $1,149,825. So anything above that threshold would be considered a jumbo home loan.
Here’s what you need to know about this distinction as a home buyer. Many, if not most, tech workers in the Bay Area rely on jumbo mortgage financing due to the high home prices found in these real estate markets.
If you’re buying a home in a housing market like Cupertino or Los Altos (two of the Bay Area’s priciest), a loan limit in the low-$1-million range would seriously limit your options. That would make it harder to find a home.
This is where the jumbo mortgage proves useful.
From a borrower’s perspective, jumbo loans for tech workers work just like their smaller conforming counterparts. The main difference has to do with qualification criteria.
Due to their larger size and secondary mortgage market restrictions, jumbo loans typically require higher credit scores and larger down payments from borrowers.
But if you can meet these basic qualifications—and you have enough income to cover your monthly housing payments and other debts—you’ll likely qualify for a jumbo loan.
There’s another important topic we need to cover that relates to mortgage loans in the Bay Area. It’s something known as restricted stock units, or RSUs.
RSUs are a type of employee stock option that grants you the right to receive shares of company stock at a future date, often after a vesting period. In the San Francisco Bay Area, many tech workers receive restricted stock units as part of a broader compensation package.
There are two main types of restricted stock units:
Some mortgage lenders (but not all) will count vested RSUs as income for mortgage qualification purposes. This can be particularly helpful in an expensive real estate market like the Bay Area, where tech workers often need access to multi-million-dollar tech industry housing loans. This is something that tech workers should know about restricted stock units and mortgages.
With such high price tags in the Bay Area, tech workers often have questions and concerns about long-term investment potential.
Will my home’s value hold up over the long term, or at least for as long as I own it?
No one can predict future real estate market trends. But Bay Area buyers can analyze historical data and current market conditions to make informed purchasing decisions.
For these and other reasons, the San Francisco Bay Area (and especially the Silicon Valley region) is generally considered to be a good long-term investment for home buyers.
Today’s mortgage interest rates in San Francisco, CA are as follows:
Sammamish Mortgage offers a wide range of mortgage products, including jumbo loans. We now service the entire state of California, including the Bay Area, CA, as well as the entire Pacific Northwest. Please contact us to get an instant rate quote, have all your financing-related questions answered, or to look further into mortgage options for tech professionals in the Bay Area.
Whether you’re buying a home or ready to refinance, our professionals can help.
{hours_open} - {hours_closed} Pacific
No Obligation and transparency 24/7. Instantly compare live rates and costs from our network of lenders across the country. Real-time accurate rates and closing costs for a variety of loan programs custom to your specific situation.