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But if they put a George Zimmerman in charge of the HOA there and drop the asking price from $300,000 to $175,000 then I would consider it a good value.

Yeah, $175k would be fine.

But the asking is outrageous. I do notice the $15k price cut.

Another sugar shack gem in Santa Cruz to cheer everybody up. Looks like it needs a roof rack for the golf clubs.

More cheer. Another California Dreamin' Beach Ass Reamin'. Cutsie Wootsie in California gonna cost you dear. Too many oligarchs, not enough beach.

Square footage goes up as you move away from the beach, but it looks like peak market chasing old prices to lure suckers or the institutional behemoths. There are a lot of price cuts already with wailing and gnashing of teeth from the speculators.

Ceffer says

More cheer. Another California Dreamin' Beach Ass Reamin'. Cutsie Wootsie in California gonna cost you dear. Too many oligarchs, not enough beach.

Lol. $130-140k per year for PITI likely. What a joke. I take 20 minute shits.... 1 bath? WTF. By default for me that house is technically unusable with 1 bath. 1 shower. I'd rather live on a bus at that point and swim in a clear water lake to clean myself or get a decked out RV for $300-400k and skip the insurance and taxes.

WookieMan says

Lol. $130-140k per year for PITI likely. What a joke. I take 20 minute shits..

Beachfront mobile home lot rents (not including HOA fees) exceed $5k a month (could be higher, that was 2 years ago).

Seniors Reamed on Rent Increases De Anza Mobile Home pdf

This Santa Cruz gem sugar shack is actually in a meth ridden crime area on west side, not that close to the beach, but in the UCSC university real estate corridor elevating its price (you'll always have a top dollar tenant(s)).

Ceffer says

WookieMan says

Lol. $130-140k per year for PITI likely. What a joke. I take 20 minute shits..

Beachfront mobile home lot rents (not including HOA fees) exceed $5k a month (could be higher, that was 2 years ago).

Seniors Reamed on Rent Increases De Anza Mobile Home pdf

Jesus. And that's not even a nice beach. I don't know how you cats do it out there. I'll eventually post pictures of my house when it's built. It will be 20% less and 3-4x's the size on almost an acre.

WookieMan says

And that's not even a nice beach.

It's beautiful in its own rugged way, though this location turns the corner at the west end of Santa Cruz and gets the very brisk wind belt treatment from the Pacific. Not even comparable, though, to an average looking Caribbean or Florida beach, not to mention the cold water.

Ceffer says

This Santa Cruz gem sugar shack is actually in a meth ridden crime area on west side

Few years ago took a monarch butterfly tour by UCSC. Part of it went through a gated community down to beach that UCSC sounded like has exclusive access.
Near the beach has pieces of glass scattered around ashes, suspect they were related to drugs as per one of the tour members!
While leaving, saw few sale signs close to 800k. Folks look poor or below middle around and tough neighborhood. Those shacks are obviously expensive.

Mortgage Rates Rise to a 2-Month High: Our Economist Explains What It Means for the Housing Market

Mortgage rates surged to 6.44% for a 30-year fixed loan in the week ending Oct. 17—the highest in roughly two months.

In the face of these elevated rates, the number of applications for home purchases went down this week. However, they still remained above the previous year’s pace, which indicates some improvement in homebuyer demand.

Meanwhile, the latest jobs and inflation reports continue to underscore the resilience of the U.S. economy. Retail sales ticked up, highlighting the willingness of consumers to spend, while jobless claims remained low, pointing to favorable conditions for workers.

In the for-sale housing market, activity remained steady: Home prices were flat after 16 weeks of mild declines, and time on the market and active listings were very similar to last week’s. The number of new listings saw a surprising dip, but it seems likely that Hurricane Milton disrupted new listing activity in many areas.

Finally, as Election Day nears and voting gets underway, a Realtor.com® survey found that politics influence where nearly a quarter of U.S. adults choose to live. Furthermore, as candidates attempt to sway voter opinions, a recent Realtor.com analysis found the movement of people from state to state is likely to play a role in the 2024 presidential race.

In fact, 31 states—including five crucial swing states—are likely to shift redder or bluer due to more people moving across state lines. Their voting habits might have the potential to sway election outcomes.

https://www.realtor.com/news/real-estate-news/mortgage-rates-rise-2-month-high-economist-explains

What good is a beach you can't swim in? How cold is that water? The riptide?

This is why God invented wetsuits and the one eyed Jack O'Neill became famous and wealthy. As you go north, more rippy and tossy, cold and windy. Santa Cruz is a large bay inlet facing south and the fog tends to slide off and around it. The water is calmer, but still gets the wave energy from the ocean, which is why surfers like it.

The spot in the picture is at the juncture where the coast turns back north from west and becomes much more rugged, windy and weather-y.

WookieMan says

I take 20 minute shits

You're gonna blow a gasket if you keep that up!

WookieMan says

The guy in the double lot next to the umbrella thingy inherited the lot with a long term lease from his parents and pays a couple hundred a month in lot rent fees. I bought a surfboard from him years ago.

The history is the park had rent control down to that couple hundred a month, so the Appalachian trailers on the lots were selling for 500k to a million based on the rent control subsidy. A large Chicago real estate firm bought the development then lawfared the rent control out of existence and raised the lot fees overnight to thousands, which squelched the old speculation in its tracks and left a lot of 'investors' and oldsters high and dry. However, many lower rates were preserved for various residents under various circumstances. My wife knows a lady who still lives there under the older plot rents. You can buy an old trailer there for lower prices now, you just have to pay the much higher rents and HOA stuff.

More cheer. Probably something that has been in somebody's family for generations but cost basically no tax to just keep (but not fix up) You see these weed strewn houses all over Santa Cruz. Somebody decided to finally liquidate. Smaller shed is the 'mother-in-law', LOL!

A tear down it appears and the payment is the lot price, not that close to the beach, either. Lot extends over to the right.

That's depressing. Not the price really, but the fact someone gives no shits about a property. That's 2-4 weeks of someone that's handy by themselves to make it look nice. I hate shitty looking properties.

My neighbor across the street pisses me off big time. Weeds in the flower beds. Mows bi-weekly and has long ass grass. There's always a car there so it's not like they're not at home. Plant some low maintenance perennials, toss some mulch down. Put fabric down to slow/stop weeds and water when it's dry. It's a nice brick ranch too.

Your front yard is your personality. I can tell if you're lazy or hard working immediately. Because throwing in a few plants and cleaning things up is a 4-6 hour Sunday job.

I think big grassy lawns are a waste and a PITA.

That being said, no excuse not to make it look park like. Put up some dwarf pines or evergreen bushes, some gravel, make a few patches of perennial herbs, etc. You can have a low maintenance, nice "Cottage" landscape in a weekend or two and then only need a once a month hedge patrol and rake or weed out. If you live away from Yup Codes, plant that shit in fruit and veggies.

AmericanKulak says

I think big grassy lawns are a waste and a PITA.

No doubt it's work. I just get pissed when I see people that just let their yard look like shit. With kids I like having a lawn. We have parks, but we're small and they're built towards kids not my kids ages. So we set up yard games like badminton, frisbee games, etc. It's nice to be able to just go out back and hang.

I concur with your point though. Doesn't take a whole lot to make a yard look decent. I don't mind the lawn because I have a zero turn and can knock out 1/2 acre in 20 minutes drinking a beer listening to music and the wife thinks I'm "working" lol.

I find lawnmowing to be relaxing. I wouldn't know about zero turns, the year I started mowing was the year Dad's riding mower broke. Wasn't too bad, a mix tape on the walkman. Later on in life, I only had a fifth of an acre with half in a backyard garden and the border was grapes coming up across a fence-trellis. Not much to mow after factoring in the detached garage.

I just weed whackered it in the front, not worth getting a mower for so small a patch of grass.

The hippies asked to take my grapes and left me mason jars of wine, which was nice.

Edit: Added "Later on in Life" to separate the walkman-mowing in my childhood home from the weed whacking in my small Oregon cottage later in life.

Well, at least the real estate agent had the decency to remove the dried out corpses of the crack/fentanyl addicts. However, that probably added 100K to the asking price.

AmericanKulak says

a mix tape on the walkman

I still have a Walkman but have not used it in 20 years. Mp3 and now phone/bluetooth kinds took over.

HeadSet says

AmericanKulak says

a mix tape on the walkman

I still have a Walkman but have not used it in 20 years. Mp3 and now phone/bluetooth kinds took over.

I'm just glad there's quality wireless over year ear headphones that don't break the bank. $100ish. I prefer those when mowing to drown out the mower noise.

The negative with a fenced yard is I sometimes smack the fence posts and don't notice/hear it. I go fast. I have broken the pins that attach the deck. Whoops. I knew how to fix it, but it was easier to take it to John Deere and have them do a whole tune up, fix my damage and swap in new blades.

Moral of the story is everyone should take care of their yard. I'm guessing that place Ceffer posted would go for $100k more just making the yard look "pretty" to get more showings.

WookieMan says

I'm guessing that place Ceffer posted would go for $100k more just making the yard look "pretty" to get more showings.

So, you are saying that at today's labor rates that would be a wash?