patrick.net

eburbed,

I think we should encourage everybody to install better insulation and wear cardigans. Not travelling and not eating out are also good, less competition for me. I plan to be a renting DINK for a very long time, so I would love for everyone to act like first generation immigrant (though technically, I am also one).

DD Says:

> I graduated college (UCB) about a year ago with a
> degree in Business Admin, but quite honestly the degree
> has done me jack. I make less than 50k a year as a marketing
> coordinator/assistant for a commercial real estate firm

You need to get out there and network since you should be making at least 50% more with a degree from Cal and with a little luck you can hope to make 100% more in a couple years. Check out http://www.sfrex.com/ (a group of young real estate professionals) and Google to find sf spinsters (a group of mostly ex Sorority girls looking to get married who can be annoying at times but since about half of them grew up around here and went to Burke, Hamlin or Convent they know lots of people and can get you in the door at any firm in town).

> (so yes I work in RE, but we do Warehouse/Industrial along
> the 880). Maybe I’m not ambitious enough and maybe soon
> I need to look for a better job, but an income of 100k is far
> beyond my reach and for someone to say that 200k a year is
> the norm makes me feel like a REALLY BIG LOSER.

You are a little below the norm for a Cal grad, don’t feel bad since it is only the top grads from the top grad schools that make $200K to start (almost no one makes $200K out of undergrad)…

> Everyday I ask myself, “Why the hell am I still in the Bay Area?”

If you don’t have a strong connection to the Bay Area it does not make a lot of sense to live here. If I didn’t grow up here and have my entire family here I would be somewhere else (living in a huge home with a six car garage)…

nice blog you've got there, allah...

SFWoman:

There isn’t enough equity on earth for me to cash out and flee back to (undervalued) Upstate NY. My brother told me they just got 4 feet of snow. When he called me yesterday the windchill was about -15. If I sold my places and took my equity back there I’d be shuttling to the Caribbean every weekend all winter. I’d use up my equity on airfare and hotel trying to escape the place!

There are other places that aren't cold such as in the south. It may not be for everyone, but many are choosing to do just that. What it really boils down to is what is more important to you, better climate or better standard of living.

Bruce:
I wonder how many would a) succeed in selling into this market, b) find it possible to transfer their work to Charleston, WV or C-Urbana, IL, or c) adapt to the ‘culture’ of the various towns mentioned.

There are other places and believe it or not, there are business that are moving now and in the near future to these "underpriced" areas. People in the overpriced areas are going to be so stressed out and companies in those areas will find that they can find less stressed out workers with fewer financial problems for lower pay than have their own workers complain about raises. They have successfully outsourced many jobs overseas; why wouldn't they be able to do the same in other states?

As far as culture, when you have so many people of your own kind moving to the same place, the culture is moving with you. In Long Island NY for instance, many people have been selling and moving to GA and N.C. Many will argue those places down south are infested with rednecks. That may be true in the areas that Long Islander's aren't moving to, but the huge amount of brand new developments are filled with people such as Long Islander's; in fact there is an area in Wilmington that they call "Little Long Island". If you stray too far from any good area, you will find yourself amoung lowlifes and crime.

Everyone has their own reasons for staying or leaving, but here on Long Island, the taxes are insane! Many have left and are very happy to no longer be part of the rat race that Long Island has become.

nice blog you’ve got there, allah…

Thanks, actually its not a blog but a web site.

yes, i wasn't sure the right word to use. does a blog need to have user comments by definition? or just the concept of a diary. i guess your posts aren't dated...

Asking $719,900

http://www.mlslistings.com/common/properties/propertyDetail.asp?open=0&page=3&mls_number=705872&type=property&name=

Zillow shows the following:

01/11/2007: $710,917 ?
06/07/2005: $825,000 ***
08/27/2004: $515,000

They haven't even "owned" it for a month and it's for sale, flip?

Everyone has their own reasons for staying or leaving, but here on Long Island, the taxes are insane! Many have left and are very happy to no longer be part of the rat race that Long Island has become.

Since I'm originally from Long Island - I'd like to point out that Long Island was always a rat race. How could it not have been?

But then again, I rarely ventured past the Nassau County line.

The high property tax rate in LI does have a positive feature: fantastic schools. Like Herricks. (Not like Roosevelt.)

If you have 2+ kids, living in LI is a great deal compared to living in the Bay Area. You buy a $800k starter home in Mountain View and your kids have to learn about the Nortenos and the Surrenos? WTF.

this just in, hee hee:

Who put Google's Australian headquarters on the wrong street?

The head of the firm that supplies data for online mapping services has denied that his company is responsible for the glitch on the new Google Maps Australia site that recommends a wildly circuitous route for people who cross Sussex Street in Sydney.

The journey from the Shelbourne Hotel at 200 Sussex Street to Google's Sydney headquarters across the road at 201 Sussex Street is normally a 30-step, 30-second trip.

Google's new mapping service, however, recommends a route involving a 10.4-kilometre scenic detour that requires the Harbour Bridge to be crossed twice.

The anomaly is caused by the fact that Google Maps incorrectly locates 201 Sussex Street on the Western Distributor, one street south of where it should be.

Position, position, position

then I tried to use google blogger to shorten the link, and got a 'malformed address' error!!!

The only Shakespeare line I remember is “the fewer the men, the greater share of the glory.” But then again, I always like war, spoils of war, and slaughtering people.

hmm, Henry V was a bit of an a-hole... England's last attempt at a reverse Norman invasion...

Since I’m originally from Long Island - I’d like to point out that Long Island was always a rat race. How could it not have been?

But then again, I rarely ventured past the Nassau County line.

I have grown up here on Long Island, I can tell you that the taxes here are no where near what they were. Also it is so much more congested than it ever was; it's starting to look like queens!

The high property tax rate in LI does have a positive feature: fantastic schools. Like Herricks. (Not like Roosevelt.)

The property tax does not justify the overpaid teachers and the few good schools that there are here. Everyone seems to think the schools over here are all great but that is just a folly. Whenever I ask them where they got that from, they either tell me it's a known fact, they heard it from someone or they read it somewhere. Take a look at Newsweeks survey of the best high schools in America. Herricks is #245; many of the other schools don't even show up on the chart of 1000+ schools surveyed. Amazingly enough, the number one school in America is in Irondale, AL. There are also several schools in the double digits that are in FL, N.C.,GA.

If you have 2+ kids, living in LI is a great deal compared to living in the Bay Area. You buy a $800k starter home in Mountain View and your kids have to learn about the Nortenos and the Surrenos? WTF.

I don't know the Bay Area, since I never lived there but I do know the house prices are so much higher, the salaries over there are also higher. They are both very expensive places to live which makes moving away a not so bad idea.

Claire :

Trust me. It's faster than Cricket ! The "speed" version of that game takes one whole day. The "normal" game runs for 5 days. No kidding. Real stuff. I am madly in love with that game.

SP :

Some of my friends play in those "leagues". I am not going to spend my Sat morning watching THAT ! But the "world cup"* is starting. Life will be good soon.

*NOTE TO READERS : A "world championship" is a tournament between teams from different countries.

StuckinBA,

That's why we have "token" Canadian teams!

GC Says:

> it’s good to be the member of a gentleman’s
> club, I mean MSR).

What is a MSR?

> The SF spinsters shouldn’t really put the photos
> of their mother-daughter party online. You can
> really tell their ages by just looking at their moms.

Most of the Spinsters are in their 20's. They used to kick you out at 30 and even though they raised the max age to 35 a while back most girls who grew up around here will still quit the Spinsters and join the Junior League before they turn 30...

By the way, if anyone is interested in the best schools data in exel format so you can easily search it, I have it on my site just click here and save it to your desktop.

That’s why we have “token” Canadian teams!

Canada is a different country ?

# lunarpark Says:
"They haven’t even “owned” it for a month and it’s for sale, flip?"

Looks like a title transfer. Maybe someone died. After I split with my ex, Zillow showed a "sale" of half the loan amount.

That dud NEW is down 36% today ! On a volume 20 times the average.

One more link from Reuters. It's as downright negative as MSM can get.
http://tinyurl.com/38ldtu

What's up with CFC CEO ? The only quotes I remember from him are very -ve on the housing market. Am I missing something ?

Allah,

You make your points.

I recall the service economy/downsizing/sunbelt/right-to-work transition of the seventies, when smokestack industry became the rust belt and untold millions moved to the south. You may have sketched some future trends there.

As to cultural colonies, there's always a core of the educated, well-read and widely-traveled in most every burg of any size. I don't deny it. Regardless of a potential injection of new enterprise and relocationed workers, however, give me leave to doubt Columbia, SC will ever become SF.

See you in Sioux City. Or Knoxville.

Slow motion train wrecks:

I see that Anna Nicole Smith died. Gee, couldn't see that one coming...

I feel more sorry for her kids. It's probably a good thing for her daughter that ANS died.

GC,

I'd side with DS's analogy. Afterall, William the Conquorer had *some* Saxon blood in him via Ethelred the Unready.

Tell me this is not true.

Do you believe Freddie Mac?

Not to sound "too" indifferent but w/her son's passing that child's custody will now become center stage for the "real" battle.

39 is way too young to go.

JackInTheBox :

Of course it is true. It's coming from one of the most trustworthy companies known for good accounting practices.

allah,

As a graduate of one of those *best* schools, I should inform you that prevalence of AP/IB doesn't necessarily denote quality. My ghettoey school got in because it had a big IB magnet program, but the quality of education outside of IB was at best par.

It's just a sloppy way to sell more magazines.

Of course it is true. It’s coming from one of the most trustworthy companies known for good accounting practices.

...and David Liareah will back it up too!

I don't know if anyone caught Kudlow today but they had Doug Kass on (Seabreeze Partners) and he was hammering Larry that what made today's subprime meltdown so news worthy was that it WILL bleed into the A paper arena! I don't think Larry was dealing with that all too well and kept trying to shut him down.

Uh Larry..... you can't "hold" smoke!

Trust me. It’s faster than Cricket ! The “speed” version of that game takes one whole day. The “normal” game runs for 5 days. No kidding. Real stuff. I am madly in love with that game.

I asked a Briton about that once. He explained that it was so that you could have 5 days of drinking. Oh. duh!

I also asked why the scores are crazy. Like 109283 to 3. That part was less clear.

As a graduate of one of those *best* schools, I should inform you that prevalence of AP/IB doesn’t necessarily denote quality. My ghettoey school got in because it had a big IB magnet program, but the quality of education outside of IB was at best par.

It’s just a sloppy way to sell more magazines.

Astrid,

I never said that the list is the bottom line on schools, but I don't see any other list that shows differently, do you? Many schools I see here on Long Island are very ghettoey looking.

Besides, that survey was taken a couple of years ago and it can be all different today. Many schools such as down south are just built or are being built. I have been down there around October of last year. The schools I looked at are really nice; I have even went in and talked with some of the teachers. They all seem so much more nicer and less stressed out. I wonder why?

I haven't watched Kudlow in ages. But I remember that he was as irritating as Kramer. Who is worse ? (BTW, Kramer was pumping CFC today - saying they have better models that show that they won't blow up. Isn't that guy pathetic ?) Sometimes I feel Kiyosaki is not half as bad.

Believe me, the quality of students was more of a problem than the quality of the building (though the latter was pretty awful).

In any case, most of my best high school teachers had a real edge to them. Nicer and stressed out teachers are not necessarily better. Education is a relative thing.

Mainly, I just want to correct the perception that the Newsweek list is actually worth anything, it's not.

But to your main point, I doubt I'd ever send my kids (if I have any) to a non-magnet California public school. So I think we're in agreement there.

Off topic. Have you heard about this the 2008–2010 Zero-Percent Adjusted Net Capital Gain Rate?

http://www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/2006/1206/essentials/p40.htm

So much for keeping the bubble inflated. I used to think that it is more of a conspiracy that the real estate bubble is there to continue the stock bubble in '90s. But it seems to have more truth to it now. I guess it will eventually be no capital gain tax on any investment.

eburbed - don't you mean 109 for 3?

- stressed out
+ NOT stressed out

SP,

Sorry, I guess that's why I'm called an iconoclast. But honestly, did you think my opinion was clearly wrong in some way, or am I just not supposed to say bad things of the recently dead. (If the latter, does that social nicety apply to Saddam Hussein and the likes?)

If capital gain tax is reduced to 0% and then sunset quickly, isn't there a HUGE incentive for certain people to cash out their stocks during that period?

astrid :

ANS is not in the same league of Hitler and Saddam. Secondly, loss of a parent is bad for a child - at any age, especially when the child is at that age. Do you know if she was abusing her daughter ? Then no, you do not get any right to pass judgment on her parenting skills.

Most parents love their children. And it's not good for any child to miss it.

Peter P & Anthony,

0% cap gains is only for the people in the lowest 2 (or 3?) tax brackets. I doubt most people who have stocks to sell earn less than 25k a year.

0% cap gains is only for the people in the lowest 2 (or 3?) tax brackets. I doubt most people who have stocks to sell earn less than 25k a year.

What about newly retired boomers?