patrick.net

I wish my daddy had the money to buy me a NSX when I was in college...I'd probably total it in 6 months...

Skibum,

Seriously? I don't know. I had a very good public school education in this country. Probably a better one than the pricy private college I attended afterwards.

Hate to rent,

Actually, high on my wish list would be a Honda CRX in good condition. But Peter P and my parents would probably call that a death trap.

SFWoman,

Sorry, I know. I'm actually a fairly sensible and cautious driver. But something the NSX really gets under my skin. It's just such a beautiful car.

"yes, my del sol is also a death trap. how about a volvo"

That reminds me, I knew a pretty cool guy in high school who had a Volvo. He was obsessed with the Smiths.

But could any VW or Volvo ever be considered a cool car?

Friends don't let friends drive exotic cars? :P

hate to rent,

I wasn't thinking a car would make me cool (God knows I've made my peace with being a dopey nerd wall flower), I was just afraid it would make me even less cool than I am.

astrid Says:

> LOL, I can’t imagine the state of a McLaren F1 owner.

Anyone that pays well over $1mm for a 10 year old car and another $250K to make it street legal is not a poser overcompensating for a small dick, but a serious car guy (I’ve met about 1/3 of the American F1 owners)…

astrid Says:

> What happens when girls buy a nice “fun” car?

Guys assume she has a rich husband or boyfriend…

hate to rent,

Hmm, my random advice on looking for a girl... I don't know, just fool around and don't be in a hurry to get tied down to a girl, until you're absolutely sure she's right for you. You got at least 15 more years and you'll probably be more desireable with time.

And even if you plan to buy her a diamond ring and give her the big wedding, at least first toss out the idea of eloping with a gold band. If she's okay with that and is without bitterness after two weeks, then she's halfway to being a keeper.

FAB,

"Guys assume she has a rich husband or boyfriend…"

You know, the Mini is known as the mistress car in Shanghai. It's so identified with being a mistress car that no self respecting woman would drive it.

SFWoman Says:

“Last year where I grew up in upstate NY a guy gave his 16 year old a Ferrari. The kid wrapped it around a tree killing one or two friends in the car. Do you know what my fifth grader will get to drive when he is old enough? That ‘92 Mercedes wagon in my garage. “

Giving a boy under 21 a super fast car is more dangerous than giving a 5 year old a loaded gun. I was at a table full of guys in Monterey after spending the day at Laguna Seca last year when one guy told us about a kid that got a 400hp Corvette ZO6 for his 16th B-day. The kid flipped off the road and died a few weeks later. Every one of us agreed that we would have also died before making it to 17 if we had a 400hp car at 16…

hate to rent,

And if you're just interested in some companionship rather than serious commitment, female friends can still work for that purpose. They might not be able to see you as a romantic interest, but that doesn't mean they can't see you as a friend with benefits and hanging out.

@Randy H,

"The Bubblizer" --sweeet! You obviously spent some time on this --thanks from all of us non-financier types.

Am I the first to notice that the default income & down payment is exactly ONE HAHA ?? :mrgreen:

hate to rent,

I don't think you really can. You can talk about blood diamonds. You can talk about how much that money can grow into in 30 years. You can talk about the de Beers cartel and the retail mark up for diamond jewelry.

But really?

Just stay away from the one with stars in their eyes. A diamond ring is no biggie, but marrying a materialistic harpie is a lifetime of emasculation.

Thanks HARM. There's still quite a bit of work to do on it, but once we get this thing settled I hope to turn it into a more accessible web-page for the masses.

And yes, I tried to use HaHa as inspiration when setting the defaults. Hey HaHa, you only need about 156% appreciation in a condo over 7 years to justify purchasing a home on 1-HaHa salary with 1-HaHa downpayment.

Bap33 Says:

> so FAB,,,,, what does that say about guys like me that lower their cars???

Guys that lower the car they drive every day usually fall in to a few different groups (guys that lower their M3s or GT3s with H&R coilovers don’t drive them every day) :

Lowered older American car = Hispanic Guy

Lowered late model car = Asian kid (or younger white kid who saw Fast and Furious too many times)

Lowered Mini Truck = White guy who worships Eminem

Lowered Full Size Truck = Older White or Hispanic guy who didn’t go to college (90% chance that a the truck has either a Raider or Harley sticker)

Ughh, good question. Get them while they're young and don't want to be tied up. Be reasonable generous to them. Be a good listener. At least hold out the option for more...

Lots of girls are lonely too. You just need to figure a way to tell them that it's better have a good time and have a trusted friend, until they find "the one."

skibum,

"I’m sure you received an excellent public education, but one andecdote doesn’t refute overwhelming data. We’re in deep doo-doo."

No, I was just giving my personal opinion. My personal experience is with mainly with other people who also received excellent public school educations. I guess I can't make a judgment on the matter so I'll go with your assessment.

Regarding the literacy issue of this country, or this state, here's a real story for you.

I walked into a Post Office the other day to ship off some packages and replenish my stamp stock. The postal worker at the counter asked me which stamps I would like to get, I said, the Ben Franklin collection would be nice. He was like, huh? Franklin What?

Judging from his accent, he was either born in the US or came here very early in life. I don't know what the school teaches these days.

Thanks HARM. There’s still quite a bit of work to do on it, but once we get this thing settled I hope to turn it into a more accessible web-page for the masses.

Randy,

I played around with the Bubblizer a little, and noticed a couple of small bugs:
1. You can't get an IAR figure if you hold property longer than 15 years (shows as "#DIV/0")
2. The columns on the right don't self adjust to show numbers greater than column width (shows "#######")
3. It's possible to enter a holding period longer than the mortgage itself (which produces a bunch of "#NUM!" errors).
4. The data on left only allows you to go up to year 30 (no 40 or 50-yr mortgages).

Howdy fellow bubble-heads; I have not posted in quite some time mainly because I've been really focusing on my CFA studies and consequently gave up my blog addiction for quite some time. And also it is quite clear that the housing bubble is on the way down, so not much to debate anymore!

Quick observation for you all that prompted my stop back: I checked the San Francisco MLS today, screened for condos under $350K in all SF Districts. There are 17 of them out there; last time I checked 2 months ago there were only 3. SF is still not budging much at all on prices but inventory is building; I'm not surprised that SF will be the last city in CA to take the hit as we are the strongest economically (yes it is true even though that is the favorite RE bull statistic).

And finaly, I'm sure pretty much everyone noticed the 30-year bond top 5% over the past few days, 10-year not far behind! With the interest rates further eroding affordability we are almost fresh out of buyers that can afford anything here in the Bay Area.

HARM,

Mind copy/pasting this to my blog for the record. I'll incorporate into the next rev.

The intent is only to allow for 30 year mortgages and 30 year holding periods, as it would require a two-step model to handle the "after the home's paid off" period.

Anyway, no one should ever get 40 or 50 year mortgages, so I don't want to encourage this.

(Anyways, you'll see the carrying costs of financing make it such that you should never carry an expensive home for very long on financing anyway. They are actually more affordable with shorter mortgages, which makes sense if you really think about it all from a high level and account for interest costs and alternative uses of those funds).

"the right one is suppose to be like"

First of all, I'm all of 25, so take all this with a big lump of salt.

Things to watch for unless you become fabulously wealthy and just want a trophy wife...or want to become a trophy husband.

Remember that a spouse is a life partner. You guys need to be able to communicate with each other, or at least figure out a pecking order so one person isn't constantly questioning the other person's decisions.

I'd say go with someone who is not materialistic, especially in their desire to have things just so. Apparently some materialistic wives drive their husbands to perform better...I'd say it's not worth the stress.

Get married because you love each other and are amazingly happy to be in each other's presence. Must have connections in your heads or your heart. Good sex is great, but don't trap yourself into a marriage where sex is the only thing that works.

Peter P,

No, a CRX is a small 2 seater from the late 80s/early 90s.

See this link

http://kumo.swcp.com/synth/crx/

I support adult supervision of teenagers. They can start driving by themselves when they turn 20.

HARM,
Mind copy/pasting this to my blog for the record. I’ll incorporate into the next rev.

Done. Btw, I wouldn't worry about your spreadsheet "encouraging" anyone to get a 40 or 50-year mortgage. In fact, by displaying the numbers, you'd actually be showing them quantitatively HOW BAD they really are vs. traditional 30 or 15-years.

Welcome back, San Francisco RENTER!

I'm for the compulsory state taking of RVs from old people.

astrid Says:

“hate to rent, Hmm, my random advice on looking for a girl… I don’t know, just fool around and don’t be in a hurry to get tied down to a girl, until you’re absolutely sure she’s right for you. You got at least 15 more years and you’ll probably be more desirable with time.”

More advice to hate to rent, do NOT talk about real estate with women, actually you are better off talking as little as possible and just letting her talk (there are many surveys that say women like talking more than we like sex)…

I support adult supervision of teenagers. They can start driving by themselves when they turn 20.

Sounds fair... actually, teenagers are the most dangerous drivers when friends are also in the car. Not many people can endure peer pressure like myself.

the details of the checklist might be different this time, but the overall big picture is similar:

don't folks remember what happened during early 1990's? I knew folks who felt they were fortunate to sell at a loss, even pay down their loans in order to sell at a loss.

It wasn't really all that long ago.

What about re-testing driving skills of folks above a certain age (70?) and revoking the licenses of those who fail?

Sounds good too... although an automated highway would be the ideal solution. Driving is too dangerous and boring for humans.

No, a CRX is a small 2 seater from the late 80s/early 90s.

OMG!

My dream car is also a Japanese car though: :)

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

"there are many surveys that say women like talking more than we like sex"

I don't know, I think that works for only so long. I'm in the stage of my relationship when I'm desperately trying to get my boyfriend to bring up something to talk about. I will even ask him about rotisserie baseball just to get him to have a conversation together.

The other negative of that approach is that women start projecting their fantasy vision of you. And you don't build communication skills you need for a long term relationship.

Peter P,

Isn't that a Japanese high government official car? Snooze.

I'll take any equivalent German offering first. :)

"What about people who “drive” a Yamaha SR-500 (kickstart single cylinder motorcycle) with a loud pipe"

Don't worry, they'll be dead soon enough.

Isn’t that a Japanese high government official car? Snooze.

Something like that, but it is also populat among Japanese businessmen and mafia bosses.

I’ll take any equivalent German offering first.

I guess it is comparable to S500 and A8L. But nothing is as conservative as the Century. Sometimes I fantasize being driven in one to eat sushi. :)

hate to rent,

From my narrow survey of my friends, I'd say the chance of finding you dream woman will get better if you look amongst smart engineer and scientist types. It will probably be quite poor (though by no means impossible) if you look amongst art history majors and comparative literature majors.