California people (Boise, Meridian, Caldwell: estate, debt, trip)

[Sandpointian]

Everyone has a right to sell his or her property for the price that can be had. Idahoans that were able to jack up prices and still get buyers got the price that the market woudl bear at that moment in time. Californians, particularly those with large equity holdings in their houses, were able to buy in Idaho into a house probably much nicer than their home in CA and have a bundle left over

But like an EBAY auction after the euphoria settles, people may not be entirely satisfied with the price they got/paid for. For those that made off with an extra $50K or so, nice work. For those who overpaid, I am sure you will make your money back, although perhaps not for a while.

The loser in this process was our fair corner of the US. The craze of the auction had real consequences. Honest working people are now totally priced out of the market. MANY will HAVE to go back to school and retool for the 21st century economy we are now in. Others have to go to two incomes to buy what was a one income house not too long ago. The character of our community went from laid back and personable to being a bit more anonymous and frenetic. Our uncrowded area is now home to mushrooming traffic.

I do not blame individual families from this place or that, nor should anyone. It would be the height of hypocrisy. But I do blame the few who had power over this market--those in charge of zoning and land use, a number of our elected officials, and "local" developers who when faced with a choice to make a lot of money or make a ton of money, chose to destroy our community. Such is the story of the prairie. These people should be hounded and asked to explain their actions.

I also blame financial regulators and institutions (I am not sure the County or cities had any control) who dipped into Neg Am loans for those who would clearly not be able to repay without substantial appreciation.

If we are not too careful, we will let things get worse. Stop these guys. Smart and controlled growth is what we need--> deepening and quality infilling rather than expansion and sprawl.

But please, stop the childish finger pointing. Moronic to label millions on an accident of birth.

S

[The Casselli's]

We just moved from CA to UT because of the same problem. Making 50,000-60,000.00 couldn't afford to buy a house in ELA or Compton! Had to leave a good paying job to afford to buy a new home. Thank GOD we did that in 2004 cuz now the cost of real estate in Utah is over 200-300's and that's for a older home and smaller home but a lot better then California. The only problem is the wages are low in utah, so dam if you do and dam if you dont!

[NewAgeRedneck]

The Cassellis' wrote:

We just moved from CA to UT because of the same problem. Making 50,000-60,000.00 couldn't afford to buy a house in ELA or Compton! Had to leave a good paying job to afford to buy a new home. Thank GOD we did that in 2004 cuz now the cost of real estate in Utah is over 200-300's and that's for a older home and smaller home but a lot better then California. The only problem is the wages are low in utah, so dam if you do and dam if you dont!

We made a move from Virginia to Colorado for similar reasons. We bought a much nicer home in a much nicer neighborhood for less $$$ than the selling price of our Virginia home. The downside as you mention is the lower wages. We both took B-I-G paycuts, but our overall quality of life has improved tremendously. All things considered, it was a good trade off. If you are looking for a better quality of life, I think you can find it in Idaho. We seriously considered Idaho, but upon closer inspection, Colorado seemed to be a better fit for us. Sometimes I wish we would have gone to Idaho instead. Ah, the grass is always greener across a few state lines.

blessings...Franco

[Lacerta]

3rd generation Idahoan here, working a desk in a real estate office. I noticed that most of the responses on this thread focus on the recent housing boom. I have to say that while Californians moving here did contribute to the boom, they were not the primary cause. Californian INVESTORS have done this to the market, and it was exactly what they planned to do, coming in. Also, Sandpointian hit the nail on the head with the comment about local developers getting greedy. I know of one developer in particular who almost single-handedly drove up new construction prices by $50,000 overnight.

Anyway, a few years ago, we found out that classes were being taught in several locations in California on how to buy property specifically in Idaho for investment and make a profit. As a consequence, hundreds of investors came in, buying up every house under $250,000 within hours of going on the market. When you have 4 people offering you more than you asked for, within the first 24 hours, how many people do you know who are going to take the lowest offer to keep prices down? Honestly

These investors came in and bought up every piece of property they could get their hands on, which created a demand that drove up prices. They then moved on to buy in another state, and with the prices here at an all time high, they started selling, thus creating the glut of houses on the market right now.

As for other influences on the market, growth over the last 10 years has turned Boise into a service oriented market, especially since many people moving here are of retirement age. Retirees bring their money in to Idaho to be spent, without taking jobs away from those already here, and while creating more service jobs to handle the number of people. Everyone wins in that case.

Do I wish there was less traffic, less crime, less road construction...of course I do. Was it unavoidable or inevitable. I think it was. Boise is a fantastic place to live, and it was only a matter of time until the word got out.

[NewAgeRedneck]

Lacerta wrote:

When you have 4 people offering you more than you asked for, within the first 24 hours, how many people do you know who are going to take the lowest offer to keep prices down? Honestly

When I wrote:

People everywhere can keep housing affordable by not accepting the inflated prices we are offered for our homes. Sell our homes for less. What a concept!

I was saying it in jest. If someone makes me an inflated offer for my home, I wouldn't turn it down and I don't seriously expect that anyone in their right mind would turn down a good offer. BUT, if local residents anywhere would want to keep prices down so that their children could afford to buy a home locally when they grow up...the community could band together and collectively turn down inflated offers. It's probably a coccamamie, half baked idea...but it could be done!

best wishes....Franco

[Miborn]

Originally Posted by Lacerta

3rd generation Idahoan here, working a desk in a real estate office. I noticed that most of the responses on this thread focus on the recent housing boom. I have to say that while Californians moving here did contribute to the boom, they were not the primary cause. Californian INVESTORS have done this to the market, and it was exactly what they planned to do, coming in. Also, Sandpointian hit the nail on the head with the comment about local developers getting greedy. I know of one developer in particular who almost single-handedly drove up new construction prices by $50,000 overnight.

Anyway, a few years ago, we found out that classes were being taught in several locations in California on how to buy property specifically in Idaho for investment and make a profit. As a consequence, hundreds of investors came in, buying up every house under $250,000 within hours of going on the market. When you have 4 people offering you more than you asked for, within the first 24 hours, how many people do you know who are going to take the lowest offer to keep prices down? Honestly

These investors came in and bought up every piece of property they could get their hands on, which created a demand that drove up prices. They then moved on to buy in another state, and with the prices here at an all time high, they started selling, thus creating the glut of houses on the market right now.

As for other influences on the market, growth over the last 10 years has turned Boise into a service oriented market, especially since many people moving here are of retirement age. Retirees bring their money in to Idaho to be spent, without taking jobs away from those already here, and while creating more service jobs to handle the number of people. Everyone wins in that case.

Do I wish there was less traffic, less crime, less road construction...of course I do. Was it unavoidable or inevitable. I think it was. Boise is a fantastic place to live, and it was only a matter of time until the word got out.

Thank you beautifully said!!
Eagle, Star, Middleton etc. Literally had acreages taken off the market and put back on for 100,000-200,000. plus overnight and were being bought because they were a good deal for Ca. people. ( I am sorry but that is who the majority that was buying allot of them were for investments.) In fact our now home while we were looking at it some people from Ca. came up the drive and told our Realtor they were going to offer 100,000 more than asking price because they really wanted it.
Now if that does not have a impact on our state what does?
It took our leverage away.
I don't know about most being retiree's at least in the Eagle area they were early 30's to late 40's. Some still being employed by their Ca. jobs. So I don't know if that is a good thing for Id or not. I mean they are not taking jobs away nor are they creating any either. Maybe this is happening more in the Eagle area oppose to other areas in Idaho.

[Lacerta]

Originally Posted by Miborn

I don't know about most being retiree's at least in the Eagle area they were early 30's to late 40's. Some still being employed by their Ca. jobs. So I don't know if that is a good thing for Id or not. I mean they are not taking jobs away nor are they creating any either. Maybe this is happening more in the Eagle area oppose to other areas in Idaho.

They create jobs just by living here. Someone has to man the hospitals, schools, police stations, grocery stores, etc., and the more people there are here, the more of those jobs are needed.

We haven't done too much in Eagle recently in our office, so I'm not actually familiar with the age trends out there, but in Boise and Meridian, we've had a much higher than normal median age moving in from elsewhere (not just California). We build as well: midrange, high quality, custom houses; and in one subdivision, out of about 60 houses we built in the last 2 years, more than half were retired, and quite a few more were near retirement. Of course, that might be a bit skewed since we specialize in custom homes, while many younger folks with growing families prefer to spend the money for square footage with only the basics.

Its true that so many people moving in over a very short time period put a HUGE burden on the infrastructure, to the point that some areas (Kuna, I know for sure) put a moratorium on pulling building permits for months at a time in order to attempt to catch up. The road construction in West Boise especially is the worst I ever remember seeing. On the other hand, those people coming in from California mostly have some extra money to spend, since they did get more house for their dollar moving here. They have to pay taxes, they buy local goods, and since a lot of them are older, they will be creating more medical jobs on average, which creates more high paying jobs for the valley. Also, being older, they have fewer children at home, so they have to pay taxes into the school system without adding to classroom size.

Honestly, I don't like how populated the valley has gotten, but I can play devil's advocate and look at the positives as well. I'm not Pro-Californian, but looking at the other side of the coin, I'm not Anti-Californian either.

As long as they don't want to bring any "big city mentality" with them, all are welcome. Its only when folks move here to get away from a lifestyle, but then try to turn Boise into that lifestyle that I get angry. Like when I see someone who moved here from a big city complain about the air quality where they came from, while driving around in a Hummer.

[DeniseC]

You are right on the money with this comment!!!

[Miborn]

I had 6 houses in the cul-de-sac I lived in one of the newer subdivisions in Eagle. Very expensive custom homes. of those 6 houses 4 were bought by people from Ca. all but 1 had children elementary school age to newborns. A house on the main street but in view of my home same elementary age kids. of those 5 families 4 of them are still employed in California jobs. Maybe not many retirees are moving out this way because it is not centrally located to the shopping restaurants etc. And lets face it Eagle rd is a nightmare!
I know it hurt Eagle in the sense that we moved there (from SE Boise) because there were pastures, horses, cows ya know the country. That pretty much does not exist in the city area now.
They are not planning the roads well taxes are going through the roof for a rural area. The schools are over crowed all of them.
Emmett also had a moratorium on building permits to help control the growth there don't know if it has been lifted now or not.

[skitow]

Hi. I havn't read this thread for quite some time. A lot of very nice people have posted to me, and I haven't thanked you for your nice comments. You know who you are. I'm sorry I didn't respond. I see a trend here that seems more folks living in Idaho are becoming more understanding of the non-wealthy people living in CA. I'm glad to here that a lot of you don't blame CA people for the mess that CA has become. As many have stated, we didn't want this overcrowded, overpriced State, it just slowly creeped up on us. There was nothing we could do to stop it. Personal and corporate greed has swallowed up this once beautiful part of the country. I truly hope it doesn't continue into your beautiful State. I hope we can continue this thread so more people will understand Calis very serious problems, and continue to iron out our differences. Really, we are no different, most of us. Again, sorry for not responding to your posts. Best to you and yours,skitow.