patrick.net

eburbed,
Why single out Reagan? I personally admire him, but that's besides the point. What about Norm Mineta SJ airport? Norm's still alive and kicking, isn't he? Or Bush airport in Houston?

I think FANS will solve part of the problem.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Air_Navigation_System

With telecommunication technologies, air traffic control can easily be moved offshore.

Johns says he was looking at houses when he came upon a New Tampa development called Covington Estates and mistakenly thought it said “King’s Covenant.”

Hmmm. Let me think. "Covington" has the "ing" sound of "King". It also begins with "Cov" like "Covenant". OK. I agree. There is indeed a lot of similarity. I don't blame him. Anyone would make the same mistake. We are all human.

Randy H Says:

> Of course you could say “caveat emptor”, better
> know what you’re buying. But do you really want to
> become a gemologist just so you can get some loving?

This reminds me of another good Buffett quote:

“If you don’t know jewelry, know your jeweler”

With that said I would never buy a piece of jewelry that I couldn’t return if a third party didn’t verify the value…

Buffett is full of wisdom.

With that said I would never buy a piece of jewelry that I couldn’t return if a third party didn’t verify the value…

Just curious, have you ever actually gotten a jeweler to refund a purchase if the item didn't appraise? This sounds easy in theory, but I've found it to be much harder in practice.

I wrote a letter to my senators today, vehemently opposing the bailout. Yeah, I know, bailout is the last thread, but you guys chew up a lot of territory during the day, and I don't blog at work. :)

Just curious, have you ever actually gotten a jeweler to refund a purchase if the item didn’t appraise? This sounds easy in theory, but I’ve found it to be much harder in practice.

Wait, who is the appraiser?

Will the jeweler use the appraiser again if he does not "hit" the number?

Will the jeweler use the appraiser again if he does not “hit” the number?

:LOL: Better hope the NAR/NAMB doesn't branch out into the jewelry market.

HARM,

As always, it depends on the ethics of the business person. When I was in the jewelry business, it was my standing policy to encourage the buyer to have it appraised by a third party. The only caveat was it had to be by a QUALIFIED gemologist.....not some yokel pawn shop. In over 15 years, it was never an issue....never. Every appraisal was for more than what I sold it for....I made sure my customers received as much value as possible while making a fair profit. It's the only way you get referrals and repeat business.....the cheapest and best advertisement there is.

I am one of the luckiest men on earth because my wife is not too much into jewelry.

FAB,

I am not talking about Portola Valley, Hillsborough, Woodside part of SM, we all know why they are priced that high. I am more curious about why the shady parts of San Mateo, Redwood City, Menlo Park, etc. are sold at such an astronomical price.

For example, why would the following house on the wrong side of El Camino with no lot and no view go for $1.5M?
http://tinyurl.com/2dg4ju

FAB states the case against Marin pretty well.

My opinion is similar to Peter P's. Marin is probably the most beautiful of the BA counties. And I mountain bike. Being able to pedal from my garage to Mt. Tam is very cool.

People here aren't so compatible with me or my wife. Too many trust fund babies. Too many self righteous neo-liberals who cry about the evils of GMO grown food being sent to feed unsuspecting Africans, thus denying them their goddess given right to homeopathic aromatherapies. All while showing up at Council meetings in Strawberry screaming bloody murder because Habitat for Humanity dare build a couple apartments for cops and teachers.

What will $1.5m get you in Marin:

1. Something nice north of the "wall of traffic", like the hinterlands of Novato.

2. A half-ass upgraded McCrapsion in the fog, on an unstable hillside, or near the 101 in the sound belt -- which by the way has no sound wall because eco-conscious Mill Valleyites keep showing up to protest every time the County tries to build a sound wall.

3. A knock down on a lot with a "peek through" view.

4. That one house that's been for sale for nearly 2 years now in Tiburon (just past the Lyce'e School in Corte Madera) which has a leaking pool full of algae and frogs, which is destined to end up falling into the Bay.

Oh yea,

5. The one we looked at last month in Corte Madera for $1.59m which had:
- 5 bedrooms!! yea!
- A cool glass enclosed bridge connecting the two halves of the house.
- A one-land driveway below that cool bridge where you could barely park a prius, and no other off-street parking, and no on-street parking being it's a one-lane road.
- 1.5 bathrooms. Hope those people in the 5 BRs don't all get up at once.
- A galley kitchen with a little mini-range and stove like the kind you see in those little closets in little apartments.
- No yard, but a lot of rusted funky 800lb steel "artwork" the owner had "expressed" on the hillside above and below.

@Brand,

Thanks, every little bit counts.

I am more curious about why the shady parts of San Mateo, Redwood City, Menlo Park, etc. are sold at such an astronomical price.

Part of San Mateo is very nice. Menlo Park has one of the nicest downtowns (other than Los Altos) in the non-Marin Bay Area.

Is RWC part of the US sovereignty or is it extraterritorial?

1.5 bathrooms. Hope those people in the 5 BRs don’t all get up at once.

What? Did you mean average 1.5 baths per bedroom?

I the little enclave of RWC we used to live in. It was picture perfect. But if we'd had more money back then we'd have crossed Edgewood into San Carlos, or gone up the hill into Emerald.

@PeterP

No. Lots of older Marin houses are lacking in bathrooms. Only the McCrapsions generally have the right BA/BR ratio. My theory is it's because so many have never been properly upgraded/remodeled, and so many have been rentals for decades.

i’m relieved that Sanjaya is safe tonight on American Idol.

We disagree on more things than RE.

I *liked* the little...

Maybe the following can be helpful to the JBRs. (Warning : A site sponsored by REIC.)

http://homeownershipfacts.com/

Emerald is okay. I played my first-ever round of golf there.

My theory is it’s because so many have never been properly upgraded/remodeled, and so many have been rentals for decades.

I think so. I never understood how people could have so few bathrooms. But I guess JBRs pee less often.

RE: http://homeownershipfacts.com/

This is more interesting:

http://fishscam.com/

My wife and I have pretty much given up on SC and will only be looking in San Mateo for a house... and if I'm willing to rent a nicer place, she's willing to wait to buy. Compromise! Less of the savey savey, but more of the waity waity. It's a deal I can accept.

The home ownership facts site cracks me up.

They start off saying in their Prices and Trends page that there was a huge run up, and the market has cooled off :

It’s no secret that Californians have been faced with record high housing prices and a market that is challenging to new homebuyers. However, the frenzied market of the past few years has slowed, which means the dream of buying a home can become a reality if you do your homework and understand how to make the buyer’s market work for you.

What’s a buyer’s market? It's when the buyer has the advantage over the seller, which is usually the case when there are more homes on the market than there are buyers. That’s the case today, and sellers have to price their homes attractively. But nobody knows how long these market conditions will last.

Then they publish a graph of uncorrected for inflation prices... showing two previous bubbles and how THOSE bubbles had downturns lasting 5+ years.

Noone KNOWS how long it will last, but we can guess it'll be at least 5 years.

TOS :

1- Ha ha ha… So tell me, do you really believe that inflation will be at 2.5% for the next 17 years

Of all the numbers is that the only thing you found laughable ? Take a look again. The calculation assumes 5% annual appreciation of home prices from this point onwards.

6- And if you need to buy for family reasons, so be it, especially given that it is a pain in the a$$ to move every couple years when you have kids.

Yes, Congress should repel the law that requires renters to move every couple of years. But I agree. NAAVLP is a much needed relief lotion for the pain in the ass move every renter has to endure.

7- And finally, the only thing standing between you cheap rental ($2500!!) and having your family on the street is the ability of your landlord not to default (except if he bought a long time ago and you cover his costs !!!)

Absolutely ! At the Sunnyvale Home Depot, I have seen hoards of renter families living on the parking lot - they say the parking lot is only marginally better than the streets. When young flippers come to purchase stuff to remodel their home, these would-be-again-renters run to them and beg to be accepted as tenants. Pathetic I tell you.

7- And finally, the only thing standing between you cheap rental ($2500!!) and having your family on the street is the ability of your landlord not to default (except if he bought a long time ago and you cover his costs !!!)

If only corporations could own rentals...

OO Says:

> FAB, I am not talking about Portola Valley, Hillsborough,
> Woodside part of SM, we all know why they are priced
> that high. I am more curious about why the shady parts
> of San Mateo, Redwood City, Menlo Park, etc. are sold
> at such an astronomical price.
> For example, why would the following house on the wrong
> side of El Camino with no lot and no view go for $1.5M?
> http://tinyurl.com/2dg4ju

Over the past 10 years almost everything between El Camino and the railroad tracks has been getting nicer, but the area around the streets Rosewood and Laurel (on the wrong side of El Camino) south of Central Park (near the URL above) have always been real nice. There are a couple streets in Burlingame (on the wrong side of El Camino) Cambridge and Oxford that have also always been real nice (my older sister graduated from HS just up the street from Cambridge and Oxford since she could never get along with the stuck up debs at my HS)…

P.S. A friend from the East Coast who paid over $1mm for a home east of El Camino in Burlingame told me he gets a big kick out of telling his neighbors (who also have tiny little $1mm + 3x1 homes with 1 car garages) that I’ve told him that “only poor people used to live east of El Camino”…

I can’t think of a better place to raise a family than San Mateo County. Some of the reasons include great weather (SC county is hot in the summer and parts of Marin like Tam/Tennessee Valley get an almost daily fog blast), easy drive to SF or SJ, and overall great demographic profile…

Do you include RWC in that claim?

Sanity check please: Am I just being a snob for finding the neighborhood of "652 STANFORD AV, Redwood City, CA 94063" to be very unappealing?

Oops, looks like you just posted a primer for SMC. Bad timing on my part.

@theotherside

1. This is my thread.

2. I'm not in the mood for your shit at the moment, being I've been patient and others and me have taken time to quantitatively correct your calculations twice now, only to have you disappear and reappear with the same old crap.

3. You know damn well that "And finally, the only thing standing between you cheap rental ($2500!!) and having your family on the street is the ability of your landlord not to default (except if he bought a long time ago and you cover his costs !!!)" is categorically false if the tenant has a defensible lease on good terms and knows how to have his/her attorney draft a letter for about $200. Here in Marin, which isn't very tenant friendly, absolutely no one is going to chase me out of this house in under 90 days, even assuming an implied month-to-month lease condition, unless the place is red-tagged by a mudslide or burns down. With my current lease I could force a new owner to contend with me for 15 months or pay me a healthy premium to move out.

4. This is your one and only warning. Either defend your specific claims without simply reasserting things which have already been proven false, or have your subsequent comments deleted from my thread.

Really, responding to someone else's model with "Ha Ha Ha" is childish. If you really are a former IB you should know how to at least make an attempt at analysis. You're not one of those who'd initiate coverage at a hold with a target 10% below the current market are you? Or do you just wear pink leather knee high boots...

It seems like guerrilla warfare.

Or do you just wear pink leather knee high boots…

Huh?

FAB,

not long ago (3 or 3.5 years ago), I drove by El Camino in San Mateo and witnessed the aftermath of a gang shooting (someone lying in blood). I am just having a problem with this street by street kind of "niceness", because I can't predict how this niceness can be safely contained in a 4x4 block zone, what is preventing the problems beyond the 4x4 block from invading such a "safe haven"?

I think Hillsborough and the part of San Mateo surrounded by Hillsborough (San Mateo Park area?) is nice, Belmont is fine, because they represent a substantial enough size of enclave to keep the bad elements out. The part of San Mateo bordering RWC? Not so sure.

Unbelievable. "Last week, civil rights groups called for a six-month moratorium on foreclosures resulting from high-risk loans given to people with shaky credit, arguing that lenders could face lawsuits if they don't help borrowers. "

A lawsuit? Based on what? Since when is stupidity illegal? Millions of Americans have become indebted to the credit card industry, charging evermore outrageous interest rates. That's legal, but an ARM is not?

Now, I could understand a suit based on illegal practices, like this one: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/19/AR2007031901798.html

Sallie Mae overcharged borrowers via a computer glitch. Fair enough. That's fraud. Perfectly reasonable lawsuit.

I need to get onto Brand's idea and email my representatives.

Can someone please do something about gang violence? What is the point of that?

I hate petty semi-organized crimes.

“Last week, civil rights groups called for a six-month moratorium on foreclosures resulting from high-risk loans given to people with shaky credit, arguing that lenders could face lawsuits if they don’t help borrowers. ”

What does foreclosure have to do with civil rights? It may be Social Darwinism, a necessary process in civilizations.

Now, I could understand a suit based on illegal practices, like this one

They should put law-breakers away but stupidity must not pay.

I think we have terrible ethicists, they can't figure out what to do with poor stupid people (let them starve? sterilize them? let them take over?)

We should euthanize ethicists.

I think I may be catching whatever Peter P has...

Muther fuckers just can't get their fucking real estate cheerleader uniforms off

From NY Times

In much of the country, including large parts of the Northeast, California, Florida and the Southwest, recent home buyers have faced higher monthly costs than renters and have lost money on their investment in the meantime. It’s almost as if they have thrown money away, an insult once reserved for renters.

Ok, lets go through it again, recent home buyers have faced higher monthly costs than renters and have lost money on their investment in the meantime

then It’s almost as if they have thrown money away, an insult once reserved for renters.

huh? Is this the 1900s? Is this a Hearst Newspaper?

I saw the aftermath of a gang shooting in Rome many years ago. Not pretty. :(