Scottsdale "plastic" people... (Phoenix, Tempe: house, neighborhoods, to buy)

[Elmonellie]

Originally Posted by Mach50Thunderdart

Scottsdale is for people who couldn't make it in OC-CA, OC-CA is for people who couldn't make it in Beverly Hills, that is my take on it.

They all have the "I'll go in debt before I look bad" complex.

Let the rats race...laugh at them and enjoy your life.

Curious....Where do you live?

[Elmonellie]

Originally Posted by SpeedyAZ

Lets start off with a fact:

Scottsdale is a city of appx 240,000 people. Where you have that many people in one city, there is going to be a wide variety of income levels and personalities. Not every single person on Scottsdale lives on credit nor tries to show off their wealth. There are some of these types of people and I have met my fair share. BUT there are also people who have actual wealth and find no need to show it off.

The average home price in the city of Scottsdale is around $450K but we can break it down more. South Scottsdale would be around $300K, Central Scottsdale around $400K-500K, and North Scottsdale $600K and up. Of course there are many exceptions to this but as a whole it's fairly correct. To afford a 1/2 million dollar home, YOU MUST have a upper 6 figure income. Yes there are "liar loans" but even to make payments on these, you must have a high income.

The wanna-be's you may see at the supermarket driving a new H2 or BMW probably don't live in one of these homes. There is only so much debt you can go into before it catches up with you. It's all about priorities. I've seen houses in Mesa where the house is in disrepair yet in the driveway there's a Cadillac Escalade and a BMW.

But there is REAL wealth in Scottsdale. Look at those living in $2+ million dollar mansions, they have real wealth. My parents bought their 2nd home here a couple years back and paid cash. Do they dress wealthy? Nope, most of the times my dad will wear jeans and a regular old shirt. Do they drive nice cars? He drives an F-150 and my mom drives a Lexus. Nothing special or that screams "look at me, I'm rich". I know a couple who both have very regular jobs; nothing special or high paying but his parents passed away a while back and left him a very large inheritance. Guess what he does with it? Invests it and treats himself to a new Toyota Camry and his wife buys a Lexus. He doesn't go blow it on a huge home, go buyout fashion square, or anything trivial. These are the type of people who have real money, not ones that drive leased Beemers and Mercedes.

I guess I was raised to not care about what someone drives, wears, etc. I'm not going to look down upon someone because they don't "keep us with the jonses", I could really care less. On the flip side I don't care if I see someone wearing Armani, driving a Hummer, and trying to look like someone special. It's THEIR business, not mine. If they want to dig themselves into a mountain of debt, I'll let them. I'm happy with my house (paid-off), Yukon (make payments every month), and my non-Gucci clothes.

Like he said!

[Mach50]

Originally Posted by Elmonellie

Curious....Where do you live?

I have lived in Los Angeles, went to school at ASU and now live in OC, so I know all 3 places and the stereotypes very well.

However I am not one of them, but I don't hate em.

You are kidding yourself if you don't think these 'fake wealth/in debt' people exist though. There is very little actual wealth in OC and Scottsdale. Real wealth can be found in Beverly Hills, Marin County and D.C. to Boston. I think the rest of these people are fakes. Especially the ones driving around on 22" wheeled Hummers...phony phony. At the end of the pay cycle these people are staring at line of credit which gets them to the next cycle. I have met plenty of these "people" (use of word people here is questionable).

Did you know a persons phoniness is in direct proportion to the size of their sunglasses? So when you see that doosh in the BMW drop top with a license plate that says "Dale B8". Check if hey have the blinging gucci nucci glasses on with the 4" lenses...yup you have just spotted a person with 0 wealth and ++debt...probably got a BK filed on the ole credit report too.

[Elmonellie]

Originally Posted by Mach50Thunderdart

I have lived in Los Angeles, went to school at ASU and now live in OC, so I know all 3 places and the stereotypes very well.

However I am not one of them, but I don't hate em.

You are kidding yourself if you don't think these 'fake wealth/in debt' people exist though. There is very little actual wealth in OC and Scottsdale. Real wealth can be found in Beverly Hills, Marin County and D.C. to Boston. I think the rest of these people are fakes. Especially the ones driving around on 22" wheeled Hummers...phony phony. And the end of the pay cycle these people are staring at line of credit which gets them to the next cycle. I have met plenty of these people.

Did you know a persons phoniness is in direct proportion to the size of their sunglasses? So when you see that doosh in the BMW drop top with a license plate that says "Dale B8" and they have the blinging gucci nucci glasses on with the 4' lenses...yup you have just spotted a person with 0 wealth and ++debt.

Why does it bug you?

[Mach50]

Originally Posted by Elmonellie

Why does it bug you?

Humbleness is to know the value of oneself.

[irwin]

I don't think that kind of attitude "bugged" me in particular but it made the place definitely less welcoming, at least to me and my vibe. This is especially true since I am single and the people I met out in the Valley were just a different breed from people I was used to back East. Scottsdale is just the ultimate manifestation of that attitude in the Valley. The same attitude is also found in Southern California, which is why I really don't like it there very much either.

The whole LA-PHX culture seems to be very celebrity obsessed and very into "pop culture." People seemed to be insecure because of their lack of "pedigree" and thus over compensate for that with materialism. Just not my style and I just found it rather annoying. I wasn't jealous, I would much rather have my degrees than a garage full of Hummers. I think it is just a totally different outlook on life and what is important. If I suddenly fell into millions of dollars I would much rather buy a historic home in Beacon Hill than some sprawling, one story place with three pools in Scottsdale (or PV, or SoCal for that matter).

[ArizonaBear]

For whatever it is worth: I rent a small apartment here in S Scottsdale-------surprisingly enough; it is cheaper here than most of Tempe, Phoenix, etc. plus my roundtrip commute to work in Tempe is 10 miles.

I prefer certain neighborhoods in either of the above cities vs. Scottsdale.......yet, I keep winding up here time and time again.

Things happen for a reason--------and, I am about as unplastic as they come. Old ratty looking SUV with broken A/C etc. yet here I am.

[43north87west]

Originally Posted by irwin

...
The whole LA-PHX culture seems to be very celebrity obsessed and very into "pop culture." People seemed to be insecure because of their lack of "pedigree" and thus over compensate for that with materialism. Just not my style and I just found it rather annoying. I wasn't jealous, I would much rather have my degrees than a garage full of Hummers. I think it is just a totally different outlook on life and what is important. If I suddenly fell into millions of dollars I would much rather buy a historic home in Beacon Hill than some sprawling, one story place with three pools in Scottsdale (or PV, or SoCal for that matter).

This is basically what I was trying to say, you just said it better. I live in Scottsdale-slash-Phoenix (85254 at Kierland) which is a fairly nice area. But there are no Beacon Hill neighborhoods here. No old world crasftsmanship, no 11 foot, plaster ceilings. No maple floors throughout a house. Nothing established or particularly unique, certainly not old world. I lived in a 6000 sq. ft. Victorian in the Midwest for several years. The neighborhoods with that kind of house are very well established, affluent, but much different than the neighborhood where you can buy a 6000 sq. ft. McMansion. Different people, different attitudes.

A couple of nights ago I had the rare pleasure of strolling some of the Lincoln Park streets in Chicago. One can not be poor to live here, yet displays of consumer spending are not common. In Phoenix, people would get into a shouting match if their Mercedes touched bumpers with the neighbors' BMW. In Chicago, street parking is the rule in old neighborhoods, and bumper contact is a mandatory occurrance not an oddity. Things are just accepted as being crowded, less than perfect, but in trade, they are rich in character and culture. Chicago has brand new suburbs with large homes, big garages, and large chunks of property too, but they don't have the urbane quality or the "pedigree", to use your term, that the old city neighborhoods offer.

I suppose it is just a difference in the prevailing attitudes and expectations. Those are what have been hard for me to get used to about the southwest. After saying all of this, I still LIKE Scottsdale, it has just been a major change from what I grew up around, and what I am acclimated to.

[Elmonellie]

Originally Posted by Ponderosa

Oh no! I thought you sounded a little like a broken record I had heard before. You're not referring to that poster who never failed to remind us how he was a best selling author, how much money he had, about his cars and his house here and in NB, CA all the while belittling the good people of Scottsdale? Takes me back. You are not one and the same by any chance?

Bwahahahah! That best selling author, the one who told others how to sell, while couldn't quite sell enough of whatever to make it in evil Scottsdale, but wrote a "best selling" book on how to sell real good! Oh, and, by the way, he hated those phonies in Snottsdale as I recall. What a hoot.

[Readdict]

Glendale ZIP code 85308 has the most millionaires of any ZIP in the Valley, but it's also a hot spot for prisoners out on parole.

85308! Glendale..acre lots...Arrowhead but not a lot of hummers and Mercedes there. So do the ex prisoners go there to rob the millionaires or are the ex cons the millionaires? Could it be that they are not fooled by the plastic of Scottsdale and go where the real money is?

I have no idea why there are so many "snottsdale haters" out there. My guess is that these people are very unhappy in their own lives. Judging someone because they have money is no different than judging those because they do not.