WatchWell, not in our lifetime. Prices spiked thru the 80s & 90s in a speculative frenzy, only in selective areas due to our over exuberance.
Herd mentality even caused some folks to spend irrationally in villages like Yuba City.
As irrational as square foot cost appraisals are, this chart shows frenzied spending only in particular areas of the country.
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/13/the-housing-bust-in-one-chart/
Gambling on pricing seemed to be most prevalent in Las Vegas. Coincidence ?
Oh come on,, YUBA CITY ? Couldn't we have speculated in PODUNK JUNCTION ?
I believe these charts help show the irrationality of real property prices. If values increased evenly between all American cities, those values might still have merit.
Follow
Befriend (8)
40 threads
2,062 comments
Pleasanton, CA
Premium
$350K and you too can live in Yuba city. Was it the low crime and the great school scores? No, wait, it was the Asian all cash buyers. No, wait again, it is the workaholic Indian families. I got a thought. Maybe it was the fact you just needed to be alive and have the ability to lie. Can you sign your name, then we have an overpriced house for you. Just come in to the party, free cookies and in one simple swipe of the pen, you can look forward to 7 years of bad credit. It is the American dream, drink it up.
Follow
Befriend (4)
26 threads
1,566 comments
Laguna Beach, CA
Premium
$350,000 to live in Yuba City?
Insane.
Follow
Befriend (5)
10 threads
2,329 comments
RentingForHalfTheCost says
Now I am thinking driving US home prices was some conspiracy driven by China/India. Has to be cuz we are broke. LOL.
Follow
Befriend (13)
106 threads
3,863 comments
Goran_K says
Someone would actually pay to live in that place?
Follow
Befriend (8)
1 threads
792 comments
Danville, CA
Premium
RentingForHalfTheCost says
So, anyone who buys anywhere at any price is destined for bankruptcy?
That's stupid...and if you believe it, so are you. I grew up in this business. There are good deals and there are bad deals. There are people who should buy and people who shouldn't...and in the Bay Area, people who simply can't.
It's not about the real estate. It's about the Bay Area, unfocused emotional follow-the-leader high school culture. It's about people living here who CAN afford it and then those who can't afford it and those who sell real estate (because they can't do anything else) seeking to take advantage of them.
Yes, $1.2M for a condo in Silicon Valley is crazy. So, don't fucking live there! There are other (and better) options but here again it's about the culture. Some dickhead in a blue shirt and tie tells you something and you believe it. It's always the same, never changes.
Sometimes I really miss Ohio.
Follow
Befriend (8)
38 threads
1,606 comments
Mountain View, CA
bmwman91's website
Premium
I'm with rootvg on this. The BA just isn't looking like it will be middle-class affordable again. There are PARTS of the BA that will be affordable, but you will have to commute, at a minimum, 45 minutes each way. If you want to save yourself 8+ hours of free time per week, you are going to need to shell out some serious cash, and that seems to be the obvious issue here for most of us. It isn't fair or right since the causes of this seem to be a mix of superfluous bullshit and outright manipulation of the market by vested interests, but that is just life. There have been and still are many places where this is exactly how it is.
NY & SF have not friendly to middle class folks for a very long time because they have a mix of high demand, limited new development and a lot of high incomes. The BA is exactly like that right now. I don't like it, and I hate to think that I am priced out of the place in which I grew up, but it may well be the fact. There is no point in sitting around feeling like a victim though, because there are so many worse things to be subject to in the world than overpriced housing or an hour long commute. I'll still take this over industrial China any day, or just about any part of India. The fact that we have functional infrastructure & affordable food is worth being glad for, as easy as it is to totally dismiss those things & take them for granted.
So, housing is a rigged game. Everyone here knows it. Nobody here can change it. So much money is tied up in keeping it rigged, both for very powerful lobby groups and the government, that none of us lowly middle class tax payers can hope to change it. It sucks, but dwelling on it too much only serves to ruin what little time you have left in this world. It is sort of a put-up or shut-up situation. You have 3 options:
1) Pay a ton of money you don't have & get a house in a desirable area like most people, or rent in that area and save some amount of money versus buying
2) Buy (or rent) in a cheaper area & do the commute.
3) Move away to somewhere else entirely
Sorry, but in the end there just are no other options. They all have some hefty compromises baked in, just like everything else in life.
Follow
Befriend (4)
52 threads
4,416 comments
Corning, NY
Premium
bmwman91 says
By far the most reasonable option. California is the most expensive third-world country on the face of the earth.
Follow
Befriend (8)
38 threads
1,606 comments
Mountain View, CA
bmwman91's website
Premium
lol
As enticing as it is to be super cynical about this place, it isn't THAT bad. It is overpriced & full of clueless ultra left-wingers*, but there are still plenty of good things IMO.
*disclaimer for the Democrat nut-huggers: ultra right-wingers are just as bad. Anyone that bindly clings to any ideology is a dangerous moron.
Follow
Befriend (5)
10 threads
2,329 comments
FortWayne says
Sure,why not? I millionare from China would do that just to live anywhere in USA.
Follow
Befriend (4)
26 threads
1,566 comments
Laguna Beach, CA
Premium
FortWayne says
Yeah really. I don't like dissing other people's choices on where to live, but Yuba City is in the middle of nowhere.
Follow
Befriend (9)
70 threads
930 comments
San Leandro, CA
Goran_K says
I was certainly not making a derogatory comment about the people or ideology of any local. I once planned on retiring in Grass Valley. But a most compelling reason for Bay Area Real Estate in retaining it's higher prices is due to the short supply of BARE LAND. You can fly or drive from Yuba City in any of 360 degrees, for fifty miles observing millions of acres of unimproved land. Do you think one of them old Farmers/Ranchers, might take $50k cash to split off 5 or 10 acres ? You only need 35 usable acres, to be self sufficient. Pull on a $100,000.00 pre fab home. Later selling a couple acres could recoup your entire investment.
http://www.unitedcountry.com/search06/SearchResults.asp?SID=106048318&H=&AU=N&DA=N&Lcnt=&curpage=4
Follow
Befriend
9 threads
94 comments
At first I mis-read TUBA CITY (AZ). $350k for a hogan and sheep corral?
Follow
Befriend
38 threads
2,300 comments
bmwman91 says
This is the story just about anywhere in the country in a major metro. Want to live right next door to the office? You're going to have to pay a lot more for that privelage. This is true in SF, NYC, and in other cities like Austin, Boise, Atlanta, and so on. Prices for houses we saw in Austin that were close to the city core were in many cases just as much as they are here.
I guess I'm exactly sympathetic to prices being higher closer to convenient areas. My wife and I have been commuting 35-40 minutes each way for years and its not a big deal.
Follow
Befriend (9)
70 threads
930 comments
San Leandro, CA
edvard2 says
Exactly. Put a value on your time commuting add that to Fuel costs, repairs and depreciation. Now decide if your extra costs are worth the added benefits. You probably live in an area that is more suitable for raising children and you enjoy more square footage at lower cost. You do not have to consider if those noises coming from the next unit are abnormal bodily function sounds or plumbing concerns.
Follow
Befriend (8)
38 threads
1,606 comments
Mountain View, CA
bmwman91's website
Premium
edvard2 says
Yup. 40 minutes each way really isn't bad. I used to do it. There were those days where "some asshole crashed his car" and it took 90 minutes, but those were relatively rare. Someday, when I buy a house, I'll have to accept that my 5 minute bike commute is going bye-bye! Until then...gonna enjoy it & my OK rental unit.
Follow
Befriend (4)
52 threads
4,416 comments
Corning, NY
Premium
bmwman91 says
Did you see a sign like this?
Follow
Befriend (8)
1 threads
792 comments
Danville, CA
Premium
A lot of employers are feeling the heat and going to a part time or even a full time telecommute situation. One guy I know here owns a local flight school and is a research scientist for IBM...totally over the wire, travels to meetings once or twice per month, might take con calls from his office at the school, who knows. I know he didn't pay a million bucks for his house. All his assets are wrapped up in the business and I think two of the airplanes. The rest are leasebacks.
Follow
Befriend (8)
1 threads
792 comments
Danville, CA
Premium
wthrfrk80 says
That's brilliant.
Follow
Befriend (8)
38 threads
1,606 comments
Mountain View, CA
bmwman91's website
Premium
wthrfrk80 says
Haha, classic! I wish that the CalTrans guys (or whoever runs those signs) would do stuff like that to break up the monotony.
Follow
Befriend (8)
40 threads
2,062 comments
Pleasanton, CA
Premium
rootvg says
I guess you didn't get that I was talking in the past here. The 350K medium price in Yuba city happened at the peak. Most people that bought then, are most likely considering bankruptcy now if they haven't already been forced there already.
Glad you grew up in the business. I have good double income friends (good jobs) who are foreclosing because they bought in the peak. They can afford, but financially it makes no sense. I can only assume what happened to the people who bought with no money down, only pay interest. They had no chance.
Follow
Befriend (3)
14 threads
232 comments
Beverly Hills, CA
RentingForHalfTheCost says
What about the people who paid 20% down had two jobs and are current on their mortgage? The big lessons the learned are NEVER trust a Realtor or their stories: "House prices NEVER Go down", "I heard they aren't making land anymore", You better buy now or you will throw away rent as only a tenant FOREVER", "We have multiple cash offers on this 'home' and you must bid higher and withdraw all contingencies like termite reports and house inspections". Oh yes, they need to be run out of town! They never shut up their big mouths and bubble blowing.
They are GUILTY and we won't forget it. If their mouth is moving...they are LYING.
Follow
Befriend (8)
40 threads
2,062 comments
Pleasanton, CA
Premium
investor90 says
Follow
Befriend (8)
1 threads
792 comments
Danville, CA
Premium
We also lived in Texas for a number of years and the realtor culture is different there. Our realtors for the two homes we bought while living there said to NEVER decline a home inspection.
Housing prices there generally do not go down but they also do not go up. The house we bought in Plano in 2001 for $239K would sell for $240K today. The same goes for Ohio. My parents' house that built for $50K in 1975 is worth $180K today. No significant upgrades, just maintaining what they already had. They put hardwoods in the family room, kitchen has linoleum on the floor and laminate counters, basement is finished off but not professionally. People there don't throw money around. The adults are in charge.
Over and over, this is not about real estate. It's about the California culture and our boom and bust economy. It's always been that way and I suspect it always will be.