$550,000 dollars for a starter home????? (Los Angeles, San Francisco: sales, apartment, condo)

[Ceece]

I think people generally dont want to be 2hours away from their job ..
Nor do they want to be in a crime infested slum full of illegals w/ crap schools.
Home owner since 1984.. The world was a different place and so were property values.

True, but there are places you can buy home a home for a lot less than $500k that isn't crime infested and is near your job. Not everyone works in Silicon Valley, SF or LA. Unfortunately there are more people who want those home and jobs than there are homes and jobs. That's true everywhere.

When I talk about "desireable" I'm focusing mostly on location and amenities. Living close to a beach or in an upscale town with all the conveniences, etc.

Yes, the houseing market here went bonkers, I saw it happen a couple times. When big things happen, like the rise of the dotcom era or something, it's like the gold rush all over again. Ebb and flow. It's just a shame the ebb happened at the same time as the financing fiasco.

[yeahthatguy]

Originally Posted by Ceece

True, but there are places you can buy home a home for a lot less than $500k that isn't crime infested and is near your job.

No, (generally) there actually aren't.. you are going to take a hit on safety, school quality, etc ....

Originally Posted by Ceece

Not everyone works in Silicon Valley, SF or LA.

That is true ... and the the quality of the neighborhoods seem to drop off a cliff when not around these centers..

Originally Posted by Ceece

Unfortunately there are more people who want those home and jobs than there are homes and jobs. That's true everywhere.

Everyone wants something... Do they have access to credit to 'demand' it is a different story .. and that is the driver of price... In some places, given widely new development, there is a lot better city planning and thus locality to amenities, good schools, etc are a lot better (for all). It's not such a drastic drop-off in other places whereby its either 10/10 or 2/10...

Originally Posted by Ceece

When I talk about "desireable" I'm focusing mostly on location and amenities. Living close to a beach or in an upscale town with all the conveniences, etc.

Desirability means nothing when a price is not attached to it. You acknowledged this by correlating desirability to price. I further highlighted that the insane prices here are driven by credit availability by people who can hardly afford it .. Again, the housing bubble was a perfect demonstration of this.

Originally Posted by Ceece

Yes, the houseing market here went bonkers, I saw it happen a couple times. When big things happen, like the rise of the dotcom era or something, it's like the gold rush all over again. Ebb and flow. It's just a shame the ebb happened at the same time as the financing fiasco.

That's primarily what we are all talking about ... It still is bonkers and will be in contraction for some time. The 'ebbing'/'flowing' in the valley is much to do w/ silly capital chasing dreams... Much of the smart money made from the housing/financial mess is still floating around in the valley chasing b.s ... The 'ebbing' is still occurring and will for some time... Everyone talks about the success stories of 'gold rushes' but few highlight the masses of people just trying to get by or the many failed fools who rushed in ... In this way, I have found the 'bay area' to reflect this in many ways... You have the places where insanity is happening and then you have 'everyone' else .. school quality/etc reflect that. Hardly a stable mix.

[Bulldogdad]

Originally Posted by Ceece

True, but there are places you can buy home a home for a lot less than $500k that isn't crime infested and is near your job. Not everyone works in Silicon Valley, SF or LA. Unfortunately there are more people who want those home and jobs than there are homes and jobs. That's true everywhere.

When I talk about "desireable" I'm focusing mostly on location and amenities. Living close to a beach or in an upscale town with all the conveniences, etc.

Yes, the houseing market here went bonkers, I saw it happen a couple times. When big things happen, like the rise of the dotcom era or something, it's like the gold rush all over again. Ebb and flow. It's just a shame the ebb happened at the same time as the financing fiasco.

Something I agree with you on. For those that really know California outside of those major Urban Metro areas 500k in the current market can go a long way without sacrificing anything except spending extra money.

[mayorhaggar]

Originally Posted by yeahthatguy

Crap :
School Rankings for the City of Hercules, CA
Crap :
Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed

Generally crap :
School Rankings for the City of Sacramento, CA

In BFE away from jobs.. the general home in sac town is 200k+ .. same for Hercules .. Compare this to a nice new home in a nice neighborhood in FL ...
They don't compare.. and the epicenter of jobs is not San Francisco.

I never said anything about the schools being good or not and you know it MOD CUT.

[beb0p]

Originally Posted by mayorhaggar

When I pick up those cheesy real estate listing booklets when I'm getting some food to go, they always have listings of basic-looking houses in the Sacramento area for like $50k-$75k. Now I don't know if they're in a craptastic neighborhood or not but that is cheaper than you'd get in nice parts of Florida where houses are still around $150k. Also you can get basic houses for about $200,000 in Hercules CA which is about 45 minutes from downtown San Francisco, just drive down to BART and ride the train into SF.

Those $50k-$75k Sacramento homes are in the crapiest of the crap neighborhoods. I'd say, in general, a standalone house under $150k in Sac Town is in a crap area, though there are half-plexes and townhouses around $150k that is in good neighborhood.

[zugor]

Originally Posted by JetJockey

Ugh, I have to go to Wichita every once in a while for flight safety stuff (aviation capital of the wooooorld!!) and the only thing to do there is watch tv and drink. Heavily.

I know this is a bit OT but it is a somewhat disconcerting to see

"flight safety stuff ... and drink. Heavily."

in the same short post.

[beb0p]

Originally Posted by janelle144

The house was on HGTV this evening. Showed a young couple searching for a house in the Ventura area. It will probably be rerun or you can go to their web site to see it.

Hasn't the housing bubble hit CA yet? It has everywhere else. Here it is----

This is extremely naive and uninformed. LA real estate price is right in line with major cities across the world. In fact, it is quite cheap in comparison - no way you can get above 1,000 square feet plus two garaged parking in Hong Kong for "only" $550,000.

Cities have always been exponentially more expensive than rural areas, and has been this way for centuries.

I don't want to sound harsh because we need areas with $50k houses, but at the same time, we cannot have nothing but $50k houses because that signals a third-world country.

[yeahthatguy]

Originally Posted by beb0p

This is extremely naive and uninformed. LA real estate price is right in line with major cities across the world. In fact, it is quite cheap in comparison - no way you can get above 1,000 square feet plus two garaged parking in Hong Kong for "only" $550,000.

Cities have always been exponentially more expensive than rural areas, and has been this way for centuries.

I don't want to sound harsh because we need areas with $50k houses, but at the same time, we cannot have nothing but $50k houses because that signals a third-world country.

Actually insane real-estate prices are whats most hurting the economy and is indicative of the biggest leech of free flow cash that keeps the economy going. It serves no great purpose to have such insane property values. #1 bill a month is rent/mortgage... Who exactly is that money going to?

I have never seen soo many apartments in my life until I moved to the bay area. Grown adults w/ kids making good money and having to live in a tiny box apartment. The only people who benefit from this are slumlords/landlords and the tax man (higher density of people) .. High property values were considered great for governments (more tax revenue) and thus why they fed/continue to feed the bubble. If people were actually able to afford these insanely priced homes, maybe it wouldn't be so bad. But most can't and resort to exotic financing to do so. This is in no way healthy and is the epitome of idiocy.

Explain how you remain a profitable business when you are shelling out boat loads of cash to the landlord every month for insanely priced commercial real-estate?

Insanely priced real-estate is in no way shape or form good for the average person. Uppity fools who want to declare (the place I live is in such high demand that a trailer park home costs $400k) love to remark about the high property values as it makes them and the place they live in seem important but that 'desirability' price becomes a whole lot hilarious when you come to find out that 50% can't afford the silly mortgage they took out and tons are 20-30% underwater w/ no relief anywhere on the horizon.


And FYI, hong kong is set to be one of the biggest property bubbles of all time. $10k/sq ft.. LMFAO
As the recent housing bubble has been an indicator, all of this nonsense is predicated on availability of credit... If it runs out or the gold rush does, you will be a fool left holding a high priced bag.
Bubbles and idiocy tend to unravel quite precipitously, all that is needed is the right nudge.

Here's an explanation :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herd_behavior

In a lot of markets, you do quite well by not following the herd.

[yeahthatguy]

Originally Posted by mayorhaggar

I never said anything about the schools being good or not and you know it MOD CUT.

Yeah, you didn't.. you kindly left out that important detail.. No need to call you names.. As you were.

[Snort]

Originally Posted by Mr5150

??? The median price of a home in my area is $150K. And I live in a nice area. Here you can get a nice "starter home" for $80K.

I'd buy that. Whereabouts exactly?