Santa Monica Housing Price Shockers (Nice: fit in, sale, real estate)

[jaminhealth]

I have some older friends as I play bridge....too bad young people don't get into this great MIND game...Keeps your mind in good shape..

Ok a friend who is 83, born and raised in So. Cal. bought her house in SM about 50 yrs ago and paid $34K, it's been appraised at close to $2M....she has done some upgrades, added a guest house in back, but not a lot of upgrades otherwise. Her daughter is her heir.

When I came to SM in the 60's we sold our NICE two story house in Pgh area for like $24K and when we arrived in SM, looking at houses in the "cheaper" $76K area.....out of sight on the CA real estate.

Those who came in early have made real estate their big business...buying buying back yrs ago. It was still a risk back then but has paid off so much..

My grandkids paternal grandfather bought a lot of SM real estate back in the 40's on and the children are in a trust from their late father.

[genjy]

Well, that's the way it is pretty much anywhere in SoCal.

It's going to be the same for those who bought in the recent years... it's going to pay off in 20-40 years.

[SupBro]

When one of my neighbors died in 2008 his kids sold his house for 1M. It was in rough shape and hadn't been kept up at all so was heavily discounted. It was a green and green designed beautiful craftsman that would sell for 1.5M today.

He was a black guy that bought the house in the 60s for $16,000 at fire sale prices due to white flight in the area.

[LuvSouthOC]

Originally Posted by genjy

Well, that's the way it is pretty much anywhere in SoCal.

It's going to be the same for those who bought in the recent years... it's going to pay off in 20-40 years.

I think appreciation over the next 20 years will be slow, sometimes stagnant etc. The reason for the immense increases were due to an expanding economy and the continuous lowering of interest rates which in turn enabled affordability. When you consider that they likely won't and indeed can't, really lower interest rates (except to go negative), and the pretty stagnant wages, we won't see the explosive growth of previous decades.

[ryanms3030]

So if I buy a house and pay it off I might make a good profit in 50 years when I can't enjoy it. Sounds great

[Dunbar42]

I know someone who bought SFH in SM in the mid 1990's for ~$400k. It is worth around $1.5M today. Being Socal "house rich" does you no good unless you sell and move somewhere significantly cheaper. I doubt even housing in SM is a great investment compared to the stock market if you account for property taxes, insurance, maintenance, upgrades etc.

My parents bought their house in the Chicago suburbs for $30k and sold if for $775k 40 years later. Admittedly, property taxes are much higher in IL for someone who buys and holds compared to CA.

[Tycho Brahe]

Originally Posted by LuvSouthOC

the continuous lowering of interest rates

Actually, the feds increase the rate.

[DabOnEm]

Must have been nice to be able to buy wherever you wanted back when it was cheap. My grandparents would have been told that everything was sold lol!

[thelopez2]

Originally Posted by Tycho Brahe

Actually, the feds increase the rate.

And mortgage rates dropped

[Pennychaser11]

Housing prices will appreciate for sure but we won't see 10x+ appreciation. Even after 30 years I see housing prices double but not much more.