CA Homes, Affordable Yet? (landscaping, neighborhoods, buy)

[tew]

Good point John, I know with all the tv shows The OC, Real housewives, Laguna Beach, The Hills, Dr 90210 and all that has put the area in front of many people. Those shows show how great it is to live there. But you need to have the money also. For me I didnt buy in the 90's cause I was too young. I missed the boat by a few years.

[TurcoLoco]

Originally Posted by Charles

The whole question (that I asked) is why did LA housing prices balloon so much more than everywhere else when the conditions in LA didn't change any more than anywhere else.

Ask Alan Greenspan!

For all we known, the real answer may never be known without calling in agents Scully and Mulder....

[JustJulia]

Yesterday I looked at a listing of REO homes on my mortgage company's website, thinking maybe I could help my sister find a good deal on a home in Orange County. GOOD GRIEF. I found a listing for a tiny house in Santa Ana: 620 square feet, 2 bedrooms, no garage, no land, on Baker near Bristol and First.

FIVE HUNDRED AND FORTY THOUSAND DOLLARS. I'm sorry to scream, but What. The. Hell. People? And that's the short sale price! That is absolutely insane. Over half a million dollars for a tiny house with not one thing going for it. It's not in a nice area. It doesn't have a pretty views. It doesn't have room for expansion--the lot size was something like 3000 square feet. It's just another shining example of the sheer idiocy and blind greed that fueled this mess. Why on earth would someone PAY that? Either they thought they could flip it, or there were a stack of families living there all paying the mortgage together.

And my mortgage company has that sad little house listed at $540,000, like someone is going to come along in this market and say, "Oh wow! Just what I've been looking for! I love it! Here's 20% down and several thousand dollars a month! Of course I can prove my assets and income!"

I think they'd be lucky to get $150,000 for that place.

The whole thing just makes me so mad.

[bhcompy]

500k gets you a mansion in any state directly west of CA through the mtn time zone and some ways beyond

[JustJulia]

Well, there's not much directly west of California.

[EscapeCalifornia]

Yeah I'd say $540k for that house in Santa Ana is 250% delusional. I sold my 2 bedroom house in Fountain Valley earlier this year for just over $500k. Twice the square footage, more than twice the lot size, 2 car attached garage, room to build out, and most importantly NOT in Santa Ana. I thought even that was overpriced but hey, their money was green and I wanted out.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by tew

Good point John, I know with all the tv shows The OC, Real housewives, Laguna Beach, The Hills, Dr 90210 and all that has put the area in front of many people. Those shows show how great it is to live there.

I've espoused this for a long time. SoCal gets lots of free advertising with all the TV and movies made there. It creates a larger demand. Most of the time those shows don't show the traffic, the insides of the LAUSD classrooms, or the returns from realtor.com housing searches.

[tew]

I agree Charles, when I live in OC and watch the shows, I was thinking, what? that life isnt like mine at all and Ive lived here all my days (with the exception of living in SD 2 years in the late 90's). Thats not how it is at all.

[sheri257]

Originally Posted by Charles

Why did this happen so dramatically in Southern California (as compared to Houston or Denver or Atlanta or Salt Lake City...)? Cost of lending was lower and credit was easy there too.

People forget that the SoCal fires of 2003 took out 5,000 homes so ... that reduced already tight inventory combined with the freewheeling credit environment.

That's why prices got so high even in the IE and other inland areas.

[sheri257]

Originally Posted by Charles

So I guess my next question is, why was So Cal one-third as desirable in 1997 than it was in 2006?

I think it's a question of inventory. OC wasn't totally built out in '97. By 2006 it was ...severely limiting inventory.

That's why a lot of people moved out to the IE but, others decided to pay to stay in OC.