According to Forbes, Virginia Beach one of the worst family friendly places (Norfolk: fit in, rent)

[telemonster]

My friends that come from affluent families have doors opened to them that those without those social contacts would not get. But that's life.

Good job with calling out the people that purchased years ago, and are disconnected from what has happened. This housing mania was a once in a lifetime event. The gains were "ill gotten" and will have to be given back, either by value losses of the property or American money. Our country isn't productive enough to support it.

I guess it's kind of American. No one really wants to work for their income. They want home equity to provide them with cash to buy things. Everyone thinks they should have some lifestyle that they saw on HGTV, even though they are incapable of creating new products or services, and really aren't good in whatever career they have.

Recently some changes went down where multiple appraisals are needed for loans. These multiple appraisals help eliminate fraud, where realtors and lenders work with the appraisers to falsely value properties. This practice was rampant over the past few years. These changes are a good move. Well, the National Association of Realtors, the huge trade group backed by Realtors with a powerful lobby is working to get a moratorium on this for 18 months. They are lobbying that they want more fraud in real estate. Is this going to help the buyers? No. It will not.

[hurley89]

I think the fact that Hampton Roads is on a huge interstate cul-de-sac hinders the area from becoming what it wants to be. Most big cities have a major interstate cutting through it that brings business and other things to that place.

I was born in raised here so I'll always have a tiny soft spot for it, but i get the feeling that the city leaders don't give half a s*** about the people who actually live here only the military and the tourists If it wasnt like that it would be a much much better place to live. Why live somewhere where the local gov'ts dont do much for the residents? I'm with randomdude, as soon as I can I will be out of here as well.

[CosmicWizard]

telemonster wrote:

Good job with calling out the people that purchased years ago, and are disconnected from what has happened. This housing mania was a once in a lifetime event. The gains were "ill gotten" and will have to be given back, either by value losses of the property or American money. Our country isn't productive enough to support it.

When I bought my 1300 sf castle in great neck estates back in '91, I bought it as a place to live, never envisioning that it would one day triple in value. I knew going in that I'd probably have to live there at least 7 to 10 years for it to appreciate sufficiently to cover the 6% realtor commission when I sold it. As lady luck would have, this whole crazy housing mania happened, and I got lucky. I sold right near the top, got a full price offer with no contingencies in just 2 days. I have felt absolutely not one iota of guilt, nor do I consider it an ill begotten gain ( it's all in the eye of the beholder! ).

On the other side of the coin, I purchased my next home in Colorado a year prior to the local top of the market, and it has thus fallen slightly below the value I paid for. Some might say that this is karma at work, and perhaps it is. However, I'm looking it as simply a natural market adjustment. Time will tell how the whole things plays out. I'm moderately nervous about it, but it's mostly out of my hands, so I'm doing my best to avoid spending too much time and energy worrying about it.

[telemonster]

Hmmm. I was thinking more along the lines of Tol Brothers, where Robert Toll took home $1 billion dollars. And the mortgage people who lined their pockets, went out of business abruptly (50% of the top subprime lenders went out of business right after the peak) so they wouldn't have to buy back the garbage paper they sold. Then the taxpayer got to make up for it by funding the banks.

Your 1300sqft house is fairly irrelevant in the scheme of things.

But you brought up an important point, that houses moved from being shelter to being considered an investment. Realtors and others with something to gain helped drive this. Then you had those stupid shows on HGTV where the people spend $5K in upgrades to supposedly bring up the value $25K for sales.

And everyone thinking they will get rich off of landlording, not realizing it takes work and effort, and is not a free ride. The people that suffer here are the renters that end up renting from someone that isn't around, has no interest in keeping up with the property. Of course the risk that your landlord is keeping the money and not paying the bank. A friend was renting office space (sublet) in Virginia Beach from a group of Realtors. Turns out, the Realtors hadn't paid their rent in 7 months. So when the eviction notice shows up for the entire space, it's news to the business that was subletting.

Eh my point is there was a mania, there were people that lined their pockets from this mania, there are lots of people (including the media) who won't tell the truth as to what it was, and there is only one way to correct it, and that is for major losses. People will have to suffer, it's not my problem.

A number of years ago the cocky guy we were renting a place from in Virginia Beach pointed out that the value of his house had gone up $40K in 2 months. Thinking that I was behind on salary or population was growing insanely in Hampton Roads I did some google searching. Within 10 minutes I knew the population was not growing rapidly in Hampton Roads, that salaries were not increasing rapidly, and that it was all debt. Debt which people were unlikely to pay back. This was 5 years ago.

It's not rocket science, but Americans generally do more research on selecting a TV than buying a home.

[GeorgiaTransplant]

Originally Posted by telemonster

Good job with calling out the people that purchased years ago, and are disconnected from what has happened. This housing mania was a once in a lifetime event. The gains were "ill gotten" and will have to be given back, either by value losses of the property or American money. Our country isn't productive enough to support it.

You, personally, not liking what happened in the housing bubble does not make the gains "ill gotten", nor do those gains necessarily have to be given back.... Perhaps you should take that brainpower and take some basic classes on economics and contract law. Look at the stock market over the last 50 years. Do we have to give up those gains, too?

Nobody forced the vast majority of those who bought at the top of the bubble to spend that money and give it up to those who sold at the top of the bubble.

[Freefreq]

Originally Posted by Randomdude

1. Cost of living is relative. Id rather make 70k in Manhattan, NY, then 30k in Virginia Beach, Va.
2. Cost of living figures are highly skewed, largely inaccurate, and not dependable at best.

70K Manhattan and your damn near poor cause of the cost of living there.

[Hatcher]

Originally Posted by telemonster

You recruited telco engineers from India? Why do you hate America?

Hahah I hear you.. In my defense I only did it twice and their skill sets were very very hard to come by. But I do still feel ashamed..

[Randomdude]

Originally Posted by oduhoo

You're right. I just got a break working 2 jobs getting an undergraduate engineering degree

You were lucky enough to be dealt intellegence enough to complete an engineering degree. You were lucky enough to be hired for 2 jobs. You were lucky enough to be offered wages at those two jobs to pay for your needs.

Originally Posted by oduhoo

and getting a full ride for a masters b/c my undergrad GPA was high.

You were lucky enough that the college you wanted to go to offered full rides, and you were selected to receive it.

Originally Posted by oduhoo

Staying married so we pooled our $ was lucky. No work really, we just ignore each other.

You were lucky enough to be married to a spouse who stuck by you in more difficult times.

Originally Posted by oduhoo

Hanging laundry outside and doing maintenance on our cars and house really didn't influence much.

You were lucky enough to be able to afford the land and tools to hang your laundry and do maintenance on your own cars.

Originally Posted by oduhoo

Laying hardwood floors, installing tile everywhere, replacing heater cores and hot water heaters. Oh never mind... just got good roll of the dice I guess.

You see where this is going.......

Bottom line, you made the best of every situation, or enough situations to get you to a good place.

What if you didnt get that full ride? What if you were blessed with an IQ of 80? What if you had a physical handicap? Got hit by a bus? Had poor mechanical skills? Werent offered that second job? Had a gold digging wife who showed her true colors 3 years in to the marriage?

Think for a second just how many points in your life could have been different, points which you had little to no control over, and where you might have been if they were?

I can name about 5 things in my life that led me to where I am right now, rather then a much better spot. All of those, I had zero control over.

[Randomdude]

Originally Posted by Freefreq

70K Manhattan and your damn near poor cause of the cost of living there.

You give me a 70k job in Manhattan, and I will live far better then here. The prevailing rent in Manhattan is about 1.5-2 times the rent then here.

Which means, if you are paying 1,000 a month, or 12,000 a year here, on 30k, that is 40% of your income (unaffordable housing), with 18k gross spare (obviously less in taxes).

You can get a nice 2 bedroom in Manhattan for about 2k. So, thats 24k a year. Thats 35% of your income, still unaffordable, but less of a percent, and 46k gross for spare. You could actually afford about $2350 in Manhattan before you are spending as high of gross percent of income on rent as here. $2350 could get you a smaller place in Tribeca or SoHo. You could easily find a place anywhere in midtown, Harlem, the upper west side (including Washington Heights) and the financial district for that.

Food costs would rise, but transportation costs and associated vehicle taxes and registrations would fall offsetting that.

[rtandc]

Originally Posted by Randomdude

You were lucky enough to be dealt intellegence enough to complete an engineering degree. You were lucky enough to be hired for 2 jobs. You were lucky enough to be offered wages at those two jobs to pay for your needs.



You were lucky enough that the college you wanted to go to offered full rides, and you were selected to receive it.



You were lucky enough to be married to a spouse who stuck by you in more difficult times.



You were lucky enough to be able to afford the land and tools to hang your laundry and do maintenance on your own cars.



You see where this is going.......

Bottom line, you made the best of every situation, or enough situations to get you to a good place.

What if you didnt get that full ride? What if you were blessed with an IQ of 80? What if you had a physical handicap? Got hit by a bus? Had poor mechanical skills? Werent offered that second job? Had a gold digging wife who showed her true colors 3 years in to the marriage?

Think for a second just how many points in your life could have been different, points which you had little to no control over, and where you might have been if they were?

I can name about 5 things in my life that led me to where I am right now, rather then a much better spot. All of those, I had zero control over.

Wow I get back from a long weekend holiday and I see you are still crying over this thread.........All of you post always seem to have the word luck or lucky along with a lot of what ifs, could of's and should of's involved in your replies........

This person went out busted his butt working two jobs and put himself though school and now you want to play the what would of happened "if" game with him.........

What are you really looking for Randomdude?......should all of us that visit this board get together and all hold hands while we sing Kumbaya and tell you we are all sorry and allow you to blame all of us for your poor lot in life? Will that make you feel better?....Good God man get over it all ready and move on............Either be happy with the way you live now or do something to change it, but crying about it to everyone else will not solve any of your personal problems