patrick.net

tiny tina says

RentingForHalfTheCost says

The inability to answer yes/no is a sign that you might be slipping on that virtue. Just an observation from a stranger.

Ok. Here's one for you:

Did you stop beating your significant other?

1) Yes

2) No

Please stick to your requirement of only selecting Yes or No because there is no possibility of it being anything else.

My answer (and it is of the Yes or No form) is the opposite of your answer to the following question.

The last time you cheated on your spouse did you feel any guilt?
1) Yes
2) No

There, you have my answer and it met your requirement. ;)

SiO2 says

Mr. Wong keeps bringing up Silver Creek as a comparison to Cupertino. It's true that the houses in Silver Creek are nicer, for the same $. But:

If your gonna buy a $1M home than buy a $1M home that feels like $1M home.. and not some cottage that feels like a $200K home.

thomas.wong1986 says

If your gonna buy a $1M home than buy a $1M home that feels like $1M home.. and not some cottage that feels like a $200K home.

Exactly. Why spend $1M on a house just to be shame of it. LOL

bob2356 says

So what is your point? Don't move places you won't be accepted, that's not rocket science.

This land is your land/This land is my land...

RentingForHalfTheCost says

My answer (and it is of the Yes or No form) is the opposite of your answer to the following question.

The last time you cheated on your spouse did you feel any guilt?
1) Yes
2) No

There, you have my answer and it met your requirement. ;)

Your answer did not meet the requirement. And it's not my requirement, it's your stupid requirement.

The requirement was selecting only yes or no, not merely having yes and/or no in the answer. Learn how to comprehend. Your attempt to be clever backfired.

Anyway, if you ever have some cash and want me to represent you for your purchase in Monta Vista, let me know and I'll go take the test. Otherwise, keep hoping for prices to drop to $300k when they are currently selling for $1M+. What's the saying...put hope in one hand and crap in the other and see which fills up first.

tiny tina says

Anyway, if you ever have some cash and want me to represent you for your purchase in Monta Vista, let me know and I'll go take the test.

Don't really need any representation. The cash in hand is representation enough. Soon 600K cash will get me that Saratoga/Monte Vista house that can be lived in. I'll wait. If the gov't keeps pumping up the market it will only mean the inevitable will happen even harder. This country is on a one way road. The only plan we can develop right now is how to pick ourselves up after we fall. The time it took me to write this note, we just went another 10 million in the hole. That is about 1000 houses in Stockton right now. Kapput! Gone! Never to return.

http://www.usdebtclock.org/

RentingForHalfTheCost says

Soon 600K cash will get me that Saratoga/Monte Vista house that can be lived in. I'll wait. If the gov't keeps pumping up the market it will only mean the inevitable will happen even harder.

Except that the scumbags at the Fed are printing money to keep nominal house prices from correcting. Got to protect the Big Banks from their own mistakes.

That's the problem. The Fed holds the cards in this sucker's game. Will the Fed keep printing money for a decade? If so, maybe you should get into debt and "buy" a house. Will the Fed opt for sound money and low inflaction? Then rent until prices correct.

We're at the mercy of the Fed.

RentingForHalfTheCost says

tiny tina says

Anyway, if you ever have some cash and want me to represent you for your purchase in Monta Vista, let me know and I'll go take the test.

Don't really need any representation. The cash in hand is representation enough. Soon 600K cash will get me that Saratoga/Monte Vista house that can be lived in. I'll wait. If the gov't keeps pumping up the market it will only mean the inevitable will happen even harder. This country is on a one way road. The only plan we can develop right now is how to pick ourselves up after we fall. The time it took me to write this note, we just went another 10 million in the hole. That is about 1000 houses in Stockton right now. Kapput! Gone! Never to return.

http://www.usdebtclock.org/

If they put us on the Amero, those Dollars may not go as far as you planned.

Keep in mind what Lou Rukeyser always said. People have been betting against us since 1776 and they're always wrong. Talk to people who were around during the Great Depression. Talk to people who were in World War II, a war in which the Germans almost beat us and didn't only because of our natural resources. They're all gonna tell you the same thing.

My realtor got a call on Friday from a friend of hers, demanding to know why the house we bought sold as cheaply as it did. I guess there's a foreclosure at the other end of the street, that smells like mold inside and they're asking $799K for it. We got ours for almost two hundred thousand less.

If you're actually waiting on Saratoga to come down to the $600K range, you're gonna wait a long time. Bernanke would never allow it to happen and the next Fed chief (coming sooner than you think) won't either. People would be standing outside their offices with pitchforks.

And don't bother with the snide, silly comments. I was raised in this business and in the financial services business, remember? I thought everyone's dad owned three pairs of wing tips, a suit for each day of the week and got rid of his cars every three years. No one told me different.

tiny tina says

Patrick: Is there any city in the US where the upper tier of housing is in line with rents? I checked into San Antonio (very little bubble if any) and Asheville, NC (not sure if there was a bubble there) and they have plenty of million dollar houses with rents around $3k.

Edit: A list of cities would be better than just finding one.

Yes, pretty much everything in the middle of the country is reasonable even at the high end. It's the coasts that are bad deals for high-end buyers (compared to renting the same thing there).

I should definitely do an analysis and publish a list of cities.

tiny tina says

Patrick: Is there any city in the US where the upper tier of housing is in line with rents? I checked into San Antonio (very little bubble if any) and Asheville, NC (not sure if there was a bubble there) and they have plenty of million dollar houses with rents around $3k.

Edit: A list of cities would be better than just finding one.

Yes, pretty much everything in the middle of the country is reasonable even at the high end. It's the coasts that are bad deals for high-end buyers (compared to renting the same thing there).

I should definitely do an analysis and publish a list of cities.

That doesn't tell you anything?

Where I went to college, they would tell us it's about supply and demand and it's also about attracting talent for the jobs that exist in those regions which DO NOT exist in flyover country. That's precisely why my wife and I ended up here. This is one of the issues no one's talking about that's hurting Ohio right now. All the talent is gone or planning on leaving due to the demographic death spiral that's going on there. Upper and upper middle class Ohioans retire to Arizona and Florida leaving behind legions of half blind diabetic retired autoworkers and their families who never saved a dime. Forty percent of Ohio's state budget goes for indigent health care...and the aspiring young professionals fleeing those conditions are being sucked up into the maelstrom of housing markets like San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle.

It also means the situation isn't likely to change. This is why Danville, Alamo, Lafayette, San Ramon (to a lesser extent because it's bigger and newer) and Saratoga haven't come down a whole lot. Yeah...you can go live in Fremont or Hayward but who the fuck wants to do that unless you have to? Who wants to do that if you worked your ass off for four years of college only to end up living in the United Colors of Benetton?

rootvg says

Bernanke would never allow it to happen and the next Fed chief (coming sooner than you think) won't either. People would be standing outside their offices with pitchforks.

Yep. The Fed holds the cards in this game.

rootvg says

Upper and upper middle class Ohioans retire to Arizona and Florida leaving behind legions of half blind diabetic retired autoworkers and their families who never saved a dime.

Thats' the best description of the Rust Belt I've seen so far.

wthrfrk80 says

rootvg says

Upper and upper middle class Ohioans retire to Arizona and Florida leaving behind legions of half blind diabetic retired autoworkers and their families who never saved a dime.

Thats' the best description of the Rust Belt I've seen so far.

I can describe it because I've seen it up close.

wthrfrk80 says

RentingForHalfTheCost says

Well, we are close. We have money being lent to people who know how to use creative income reporting.

True that. That's the downside of lending to "creative" people. From what I can see of the whole housing bubble fiasco out there, there are a lot of "creative" people in the Bay Area. And they caused plenty of "collateral damage" to the rest of the economy.

There are a lot of "creative" people in the Bay Area who don't have a lick of common sense and have been raised in upper middle class circumstances which they take for granted.

That IS the issue here, and it's everywhere. When you hire a general contractor, you see it. When you go to a restaurant, you see it. When you go to work and look at people in the other cubes, you see it. When I come back from a few hours with a flight instructor and see a Baby Boomer wench in the expensive jogging outfit who's paying her bill at the FBO, I see it.

I guess the point I want to make is, what we see here is NOT NORMAL. People do not carry on like this in other parts of the country. People do not have money like this in other parts of the country. This is an economic and cultural BUBBLE. It's Disneyland...but if you're gonna live in Disneyland, you have to make some adjustments. You need to make good money. You need to have a solid moral foundation. You need to have some discipline.

You also need to be realist...and if that means you want to live a certain way or if you don't want your wife to work or if she can't for whatever reason, you might have to leave the area. A lot of the issues I see posted here about cost of living and housing, etc in the various parts of the Bay Area could be easily interchanged with Arlington (northern Virginia) or Brookline (Boston suburbs) or Chevy Chase (southern MD burbs of DC) or even Plano (far north Dallas suburbs) or a dozen other places. It costs money to live in a desirable area especially when the Chinese are flooding in here with Dollars we gave them, looking to invest.

Here again, is there some important point I've missed?

rootvg says

is there some important point I've missed?

rootvg, It sounds like the point you are missing is that you don't belong here. Your opinions about many of your neighbors proves it:
rootvg says

the Bay Area IS irrational behavior and the sick part of it is, it pays.

rootvg says

Did you also know SF was at one time a Republican town? Yes! Before the military started discharging faggots here

rootvg says

I'm not phobic at all. I don't like them. I think they're subhuman. They're chronically angry at the world, perpetually unstable emotionally and aspire to corrupt everything they touch. They hate middle America and everything it stands for.

They also just about own the Democratic party.

It used to be a faggot couldn't get a security clearance to do defense work because someone could blackmail them

What that tells me is you're one of them, looking to score points.

Take your best shot, but remember I'll look upon that as a license to chew on you like a rabid dog. I've been doing this for VERY long time.

I stand behind everything I've said...and there's NOTHING you can do about it.

Aren't there laws against such hate-filled bollocks? Rootvg, it's not gay people who are the problem, it's people like you.

Bigsby says

Aren't there laws against such hate-filled bollocks? Rootvg, it's not gay people who are the problem, it's people like you.

You've been in California too long.

I haven't committed any crime and I won't. Being an perpetually unstable drama queen accustomed to people genuflecting in your presence is YOUR problem, not mine. Where I'm from, you shut up and behave like an adult. You're not royalty there because you don't control the political process. You don't have a mob to do your bidding.

rootvg says

Bigsby says

Aren't there laws against such hate-filled bollocks? Rootvg, it's not gay people who are the problem, it's people like you.

You've been in California too long.

I haven't committed any crime and I won't. Being an perpetually unstable drama queen accustomed to people genuflecting in your presence is YOUR problem, not mine. Where I'm from, you shut up and behave like an adult. You're not royalty there because you don't control the political process. You don't have a mob to do your bidding.

I don't live in California. And hell, why don't you follow your own bloody advice - "Where I'm from, you shut up and behave like an adult." That would be preferable to your frothing-at-the-mouth, bulging-eyed bigotry.

Bigsby says

rootvg says

Bigsby says

Aren't there laws against such hate-filled bollocks? Rootvg, it's not gay people who are the problem, it's people like you.

You've been in California too long.

I haven't committed any crime and I won't. Being an perpetually unstable drama queen accustomed to people genuflecting in your presence is YOUR problem, not mine. Where I'm from, you shut up and behave like an adult. You're not royalty there because you don't control the political process. You don't have a mob to do your bidding.

I don't live in California. And hell, why don't you follow your own bloody advice - "Where I'm from, you shut up and behave like an adult." That would be preferable to your frothing-at-the-mouth, bulging-eyed bigotry.

Here again, I'm not the type who's easily intimidated.

I'm not a drama queen. I'm not unstable. I'm not a flake.

You'll just have to deal with me another way.

Remember: wings level, nose down, flaps up.

Think, don't feel. Feeling is destructive. If you're flying an airplane, feeling will get you and whoever is with you killed. Thinking and acting accordingly will probably save your life.

Hey rootvg,

where do you work?

B.A.C.A.H. says

Hey rootvg,

where do you work?

Wouldn't you like to know!

Hey rootvg, are you telling some of your coworkers and some of your management what you think about them?

Most of the people I work with are in another state and the ones I do interact with on a daily basis think as I do.

I'm not giving you any information. You may as well stop digging.

Hey rootvg why not? Won't you stand by what you wrote?

rootvg says

the Bay Area IS irrational behavior and the sick part of it is, it pays.

rootvg says

Did you also know SF was at one time a Republican town? Yes! Before the military started discharging faggots here

rootvg says

I'm not phobic at all. I don't like them. I think they're subhuman. They're chronically angry at the world, perpetually unstable emotionally and aspire to corrupt everything they touch. They hate middle America and everything it stands for.

They also just about own the Democratic party.

It used to be a faggot couldn't get a security clearance to do defense work because someone could blackmail them

B.A.C.A.H. says

Hey rootvg why not? Won't you stand by what you wrote?

rootvg says

the Bay Area IS irrational behavior and the sick part of it is, it pays.

rootvg says

Did you also know SF was at one time a Republican town? Yes! Before the military started discharging faggots here

rootvg says

I'm not phobic at all. I don't like them. I think they're subhuman. They're chronically angry at the world, perpetually unstable emotionally and aspire to corrupt everything they touch. They hate middle America and everything it stands for.

They also just about own the Democratic party.

It used to be a faggot couldn't get a security clearance to do defense work because someone could blackmail them

There is one story I want to tell.

During the Kerry campaign in 2004, there was a meeting of supporters that was carried by C-SPAN. Everything they've ever done is catalogued now and I've been trying to dig it up but can't remember the details. There was one gay supporter (a real drama queen) who went off like a mental patient on whoever it was chairing the meeting, saying Kerry wasn't a strong enough supporter of their cause. It was really something to watch, saying his support "wasn't good enough". This is a grown man squealing like a pig and squirming in his seat like a little girl who had to use the restroom, all caught on live on camera by C-SPAN. That was when I thought back to what my prof had said in 1991 about how everything these people touch, they seek to corrupt. In one flash, it all came together.

I have other stories like that to tell. If you keep picking a fight, I'll tell them here.

rootvg says

Think, don't feel. Feeling is destructive. If you're flying an airplane, feeling will get you and whoever is with you killed. Thinking and acting accordingly will probably save your life.

Give me strength. Why don't you follow your own advice? You're not thinking at all.

rootvg says

There is one story I want to tell.

During the Kerry campaign in 2004, there was a meeting of supporters that was carried by C-SPAN. Everything they've ever done is catalogued now and I've been trying to dig it up but can't remember the details. There was one supporter who really went off on whoever it was chairing the meeting, saying Kerry wasn't a strong enough supporter of their cause. It was really something to watch...saying his support "wasn't good enough". This is a grown man squealing like a pig and squirming in his seat like a little girl who had to use the restroom...all caught on live on camera by C-SPAN. That was when I thought back to what my prof had said in 1991 about how everything these people touch, they seek to corrupt. In one flash, it all came together.

I have other stories like that to tell. If you keep picking a fight, I'll tell them here.

Wow, that's a stunning story. Really, I'm stunned. Stunned at how ridiculous it is. What exactly has all that got to do with you calling gay people sub-human?

Is Bay Area housing crash over?

ask the same question next year this time.

rootvg says

I'll tell them here.

Please do.

Your gay neighbors, gay vendors, gay coworkers, gay management, gay customers, gay civil servants like the gay coworkers and gay management of your public sector spouse and the gay taxpayers who support her, are also Americans like you and like me and like Bigsby.

It's not just your bigotry against gays that is offensive. It's your bigotry against Americans that is offensive, too.

Please tell us, please educate us.

Patrick: Please don't allow your site to become yet another extension of the extremist, bigoted, christainist, right wing blogosphere. "rootvg" has absolutely nothing constructive or reasoned to say about anything and is only here to show off his anti gay hate and intellectually stunted brain. I am not against hate speech of the likes of rootvg's posts, I just prefer not to go to places where such hate is tolerated or supported by the blog owner or blog community. Please censor this ass. Thanks.

I also just noted your comment policy: "Comment Policy: Insult Another User, Go To Jail" Please send rootvg to jail. Thanks.

Buster says

Patrick: Please don't allow your site to become yet another extension of the extremist, bigoted, christainist, right wing blogosphere

Im also a Christian and a Republican Conservative... Am i yet another extension of the extremism you dislike.. dont you think you need to re-edit your comments ?

There are plenty of left-wing bigots on Patricks, but who complains ?

Buster says

Patrick: Please don't allow your site to become yet another extension of the extremist, bigoted, christainist, right wing blogosphere. "rootvg" has absolutely nothing constructive or reasoned to say about anything and is only here to show off his anti gay hate and intellectually stunted brain. I am not against hate speech of the likes of rootvg's posts, I just prefer not to go to places where such hate is tolerated or supported by the blog owner or blog community. Please censor this ass. Thanks.

He is entitled to his opinion and let's face it . It is much better to have these people express their views online rather than in the real world .

Bigsby says

Think, don't feel. Feeling is destructive. If you're flying an airplane, feeling will get you and whoever is with you killed. Thinking and acting accordingly will probably save your life.

ah, but science has proven that cognition is not separate from emtions; no decision can be arrived at without feelings. Feelings are important! AND I HAVE THEM!

I think you'll find that it was rootvg who said that rather than me.

JodyChunder says

Bigsby says

Think, don't feel. Feeling is destructive. If you're flying an airplane, feeling will get you and whoever is with you killed. Thinking and acting accordingly will probably save your life.

ah, but science has proven that cognition is not separate from emtions; no decision can be arrived at without feelings. Feelings are important! AND I HAVE THEM!

I'll make sure and tell the NTSB guy what you said.

thomas.wong1986 says

Buster says

Patrick: Please don't allow your site to become yet another extension of the extremist, bigoted, christainist, right wing blogosphere

Thomas, I don't have a problem with you being a conservative christian republican. I do have a problem with bigoted christianists spreading hate. I have not known you to be part of this club.

Im also a Christian and a Republican Conservative... Am i yet another extension of the extremism you dislike.. dont you think you need to re-edit your comments ?

There are plenty of left-wing bigots on Patricks, but who complains ?

JodyChunder says

Bigsby says

Think, don't feel. Feeling is destructive. If you're flying an airplane, feeling will get you and whoever is with you killed. Thinking and acting accordingly will probably save your life.

@Jody; So true. And those that cut off their feelings remain disconnected and miss out on the best things life has to offer.

ah, but science has proven that cognition is not separate from emtions; no decision can be arrived at without feelings. Feelings are important! AND I HAVE THEM!

Yes, pretty much everything in the middle of the country is reasonable even at the high end. It's the coasts that are bad deals for high-end buyers (compared to renting the same thing there).

Is that statement based on fact/data? As I said, I checked San Antonio, where there was little if any bubble, and a $1M home was definitely much cheaper to rent than to purchase based on craigslist and current list prices. Keep in mind that TX has very high property taxes, I think ~3%. I just checked Omaha, and based on craigslist, it looks like a $1M home rents somewhere between $3600-$4000. If you get a 30-yr fixed mortgage at 4.6% for $800k (assuming 20% down on $1M house), your P+I alone is $4100/mo. I don't know property taxes in NE. Unless property taxes are negative, you are paying more to own than to rent, and that doesn't include maintenance. That's 2 places that I would consider middle of the country, where higher end housing (comparable to Cupertino in terms of sales price) is not balanced as far as rents justifying purchasing.