How do people afford to buy a house here? (Inglewood: school district, colleges)

[Ultrarunner]

The political upheaval from investing in not so good areas is Gentrification... there have been plenty of posts on this where money comes in and things get pricey.

Homes can only sell for what the market is willing to pay... the market is worldwide so locals have to compete with Asia and Europe.

I doubt I could have ever afforded to simply qualify for a loan and buy... in a good area/school district.

It took time and 5 moves... each time buying a distressed property... moving in, making improvements... not necessarily a lot of out of pocket... but plenty of sweat equity and then rolling the gain into the next project...

I guess this is why companies like Home Depot and Lowes have done so well...

Don't know a single person that moved into Mom and Dad's or Grandparents home... seems inherited property sells fast because everyone wants their share and even if one person buys out the siblings... those portions are re-assessed to market for property tax

[Marv101]

There are still deals on fixers throughout the state although the market in many areas such as the IE has been in a buy and hold mode for at least a couple of years.

[jm1982]

Originally Posted by Ultrarunner

The political upheaval from investing in not so good areas is Gentrification... there have been plenty of posts on this where money comes in and things get pricey.

Homes can only sell for what the market is willing to pay... the market is worldwide so locals have to compete with Asia and Europe.

I doubt I could have ever afforded to simply qualify for a loan and buy... in a good area/school district.

It took time and 5 moves... each time buying a distressed property... moving in, making improvements... not necessarily a lot of out of pocket... but plenty of sweat equity and then rolling the gain into the next project...

I guess this is why companies like Home Depot and Lowes have done so well...

Don't know a single person that moved into Mom and Dad's or Grandparents home... seems inherited property sells fast because everyone wants their share and even if one person buys out the siblings... those portions are re-assessed to market for property tax

Will be interesting to see how the recent crash of the stock market in China might affect investing. I could see even more people investing in U.S real estate because of these stock market crashes.

You make a good point about buying a distressed property and then moving up over the years. It seems many people don't want to do this ...they want the perfect home in the perfect area right now. So instead they rent and rent...meanwhile missing out on equity.

The big advantage in my opinion of real estate is that you can buy a property with equity built in or create your own equity versus 'sweat equity' as you mentioned and do the improvements. This is impossible to do in the stock market. If Apple is $110 a share or whatever you have to buy it for $110 a share.

I'm kind of scared to look at my stock market accounts right now and actually stare at the big losses. One week or even a couple days can wipe out years of gains..and it's frustrating.
Real estate can go down..but it goes down much slower at least when it does go down.

[Ultrarunner]

^^^Never been a fan or active in the stock market... have friends that have done very well and others that lost just about all.


That said the markets sure do have a ripple affect that is just about worldwide.

It could mean another buy opportunity is around the corner???

None of the kids of friends will consider anything that is not done as far as home buying... saw a very nice home in a good school district and well maintained... the young couple said the paint is boring and passed... the home was owned by an older couple that never had kids...

[jtamay3]

Originally Posted by jm1982

Will be interesting to see how the recent crash of the stock market in China might affect investing. I could see even more people investing in U.S real estate because of these stock market crashes.

You make a good point about buying a distressed property and then moving up over the years. It seems many people don't want to do this ...they want the perfect home in the perfect area right now. So instead they rent and rent...meanwhile missing out on equity.

The big advantage in my opinion of real estate is that you can buy a property with equity built in or create your own equity versus 'sweat equity' as you mentioned and do the improvements. This is impossible to do in the stock market. If Apple is $110 a share or whatever you have to buy it for $110 a share.

I'm kind of scared to look at my stock market accounts right now and actually stare at the big losses. One week or even a couple days can wipe out years of gains..and it's frustrating.
Real estate can go down..but it goes down much slower at least when it does go down.

Well if you have kids or plan on having kids, one doesn't really want to buy knowing they are going to move out and buy in another area and continue on until they get into a good area with a good school district. It's not like that almost anywhere else in the US(nowhere I can think of), why is it like that here?

[Taiko]

Originally Posted by jtamay3

Well if you have kids or plan on having kids, one doesn't really want to buy knowing they are going to move out and buy in another area and continue on until they get into a good area with a good school district. It's not like that almost anywhere else in the US(nowhere I can think of), why is it like that here?

Because people from all over the world what to be here and then supply and demand does its thing.

[jtamay3]

Originally Posted by Taiko

Because people from all over the world what to be here and then supply and demand does its thing.

Understood. I, nor anyone else, would want to have their kid change schools every few years. You would want continuity.

With that stated, a simple solution to kill off the high prices is to create a law which bans any foreign buyers. There are already laws in which you cannot build or rent out a unit of a SFH unless you live in the premises. Make it that way for foreign buyers. You can't buy unless you live here.

I mean, housing is a big problem down here where you're pricing out many locals who have been here for awhile as well as anyone who has moved here for a new job. Everyone says its because of the foreign buyers with cash on hand trying to buy up everything so they can flip a profit. You kill that, you take back the land and allow for locals to actually live in homes.

[jm1982]

Originally Posted by Ultrarunner

^^^Never been a fan or active in the stock market... have friends that have done very well and others that lost just about all.


That said the markets sure do have a ripple affect that is just about worldwide.

It could mean another buy opportunity is around the corner???

None of the kids of friends will consider anything that is not done as far as home buying... saw a very nice home in a good school district and well maintained... the young couple said the paint is boring and passed... the home was owned by an older couple that never had kids...

Crazy...paint is a relatively low cost expense.

Yet people will pump a bunch of their money into stocks of companies that they know hardly anything about. Easy to speak to the owner/seller of a house..but pretty much impossible to speak to the CEO of a company.

Of course this just creates more opportunities for those willing to buy properties that need work and get them at a discount and live in them or resell them for much higher prices to others.

In L.A there are tons of "cute homes" on the market...and then when I look at the sale history I see that they bought them for MUCH less than the asking price...sure they put money into them but I know they couldn't have put that much money into them.

[jm1982]

Originally Posted by jtamay3

Well if you have kids or plan on having kids, one doesn't really want to buy knowing they are going to move out and buy in another area and continue on until they get into a good area with a good school district. It's not like that almost anywhere else in the US(nowhere I can think of), why is it like that here?

In L.A , even the homes that are very expensive are many times in bad school districts.
You usually have to go outside of the city limits for better schools.

This is why people live in $1million + homes but feel the need to send their kids to private schools.

It probably sounds crazy for the rest of the country..but it's a reality in Los Angeles.

[jm1982]

Originally Posted by jtamay3

Understood. I, nor anyone else, would want to have their kid change schools every few years. You would want continuity.

With that stated, a simple solution to kill off the high prices is to create a law which bans any foreign buyers. There are already laws in which you cannot build or rent out a unit of a SFH unless you live in the premises. Make it that way for foreign buyers. You can't buy unless you live here.

I mean, housing is a big problem down here where you're pricing out many locals who have been here for awhile as well as anyone who has moved here for a new job. Everyone says its because of the foreign buyers with cash on hand trying to buy up everything so they can flip a profit. You kill that, you take back the land and allow for locals to actually live in homes.

I know that many countries do this. I believe it is this way in Mexico or at least was in the past..Several other countries to this in an attempt to keep prices more in line with local wages...and "give the people/voters what they want"..but on the other side if you already bought property and lived there a while and want to sell..you don't want to limit the buyers of your house or sell for a low price..you want to sell for the highest price.

Personally I don't like these kinds of laws or policies to have a market just be for 'locals'

Also what are you going to consider a local? Does someone have to be born here in order to buy property or can they just be 'locals' for a day,week or month?

Do they have to be born right in that city or is the state or country ok?

It can get pretty complicated.
Also in any market there will still be areas where foreign buyers aren't buying ....or aren't buying heavily. All real estate is local.

Also what would you do about the people that already bought property but are foreign buyers? Would they be forced to sell their property?