patrick.net

PockyClipsNow says

Housing is luxury item like diamonds. NO ONE needs one (SFR that is). Might as well complain about the Debeers diamond monopoly as well as the 'governemnt making prices always go up in RE'.

Only purpose of diamonds is to make jewelers rich, enhance ego/status of buyers. Same with housing.

Anyway I still like complaining.

In California, a buying a house is a luxury. In Texas, it's like food...and almost as affordable.

wthrfrk80 says

bmwman91 says

The day of reckoning is coming. It may not even be in my lifetime, but it is coming. That much is crystal clear.

Yep. History shows that when complex societies unravel, it's sudden and nasty.

An intresting article linked from Pnet yesterday covers this:
http://hipcrime.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/what-if-collapse-happened-and-nobody.html?source=Patrick.net

leoj707 says

wthrfrk80 says

bmwman91 says

The day of reckoning is coming. It may not even be in my lifetime, but it is coming. That much is crystal clear.

Yep. History shows that when complex societies unravel, it's sudden and nasty.

An intresting article linked from Pnet yesterday covers this:

http://hipcrime.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/what-if-collapse-happened-and-nobody.html?source=Patrick.net

That reads like a Kunstler post. He's full of shit, too.

We have a hundred years or more of natural gas. We have about the same amount of coal. There IS still oil here but it's becoming increasingly more difficult to obtain.

Did you know the Germans almost beat us in World War II? Yes...and they didn't because we dwarfed them in natural resources. Our war with Japan was almost exclusively about natural resources.

Since it's all about resources, right there you know America isn't over but that's not the message most people who post here want to send. They would rather be miserable and it seems to me life's too short for that.

rootvg says

Since it's all about resources, right there you know America isn't over but that's not the message most people who post here want to send. They would rather be miserable and it seems to me life's too short for that.

When it comes to resources, we're ok. But it seems everything else is imploding.

wthrfrk80 says

rootvg says

Since it's all about resources, right there you know America isn't over but that's not the message most people who post here want to send. They would rather be miserable and it seems to me life's too short for that.

When it comes to resources, we're ok. But it seems everything else is imploding.

If we're okay on resources, we should be able to fix the demographic bubble issue. If they're gonna ask all of us to work a little harder and pay more in taxes, I'm good with it as long as we make sure we're paying what we need to pay and that money isn't being squandered.

Our physical infrastructure is a mess...and we fixed that before and we can fix it again. Public education is a mess...and we can fix that as well. Our universities are already the best in the world.

I don't think Gen X or Y or the Millenials are the problem. The barrier to progress is among the Baby Boomers who still have a weed up their ass about the sixties and Nixon and Vietnam. This is the group from whom "the agitators" here in California and especially the Bay Area always come. The earliest memory I have of that era is the moon landing and then the earliest days of elementary school which takes us up to about 1972. It was a LONG time ago.

I think you just warned a lot of Bay Area folks to stay out of the bidding wars.

rootvg says

I don't think Gen X or Y or the Millenials are the problem. The barrier to progress is among the Baby Boomers who still have a weed up their ass about the sixties and Nixon and Vietnam. This is the group from whom "the agitators" here in California and especially the Bay Area always come.

I hope you're correct.

wthrfrk80 says

rootvg says

I don't think Gen X or Y or the Millenials are the problem. The barrier to progress is among the Baby Boomers who still have a weed up their ass about the sixties and Nixon and Vietnam. This is the group from whom "the agitators" here in California and especially the Bay Area always come.

I hope you're correct.

We live here. We see it on a daily basis.

They aren't in huge numbers down around San Jose where I work but in the more affluent, demographically older parts of the East Bay they seem to be everywhere. Go downtown Danville on a Friday or Saturday night and you'll see them driving incredibly well restored late fifties or early sixties Corvettes with women half their age or more riding along...usually the second or even third wife.

Weather is supposed to be perfect this weekend, so I'll post some images here. You'll love it.

rootvg says

Go downtown Danville on a Friday or Saturday night and you'll see them driving incredibly well restored late fifties or early sixties Corvettes with women half their age or more riding along...usually the second or even third wife.

Danville, Monterey, Woodside...yup, sounds about like that.

So let me get this straight. While the east bay RE may be on fire, the barrier to progress are baby boomers driving well restored Corvettes with trophy wives in Danville.

rowemoore says

So let me get this straight. While the east bay RE may be on fire, the barrier to progress are baby boomers driving well restored Corvettes with trophy wives in Danville.

Well, duh. I doesn't take a rocket scientist to put 2 & 2 together. Isn't it obvious?!

leoj707 says

An intresting article linked from Pnet yesterday covers this:
http://hipcrime.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/what-if-collapse-happened-and-nobody.html?source=Patrick.net

I stand corrected.

Darn, what's Apocalypsefuck going to do with his stash of weapons and potatoes?

rowemoore says

So let me get this straight. While the east bay RE may be on fire, the barrier to progress are baby boomers driving well restored Corvettes with trophy wives in Danville.

Woodside is in a whole other league. I don't think you could buy anything over there under a million, even a shack.

The barrier to fixing our problems is the oldsters who think it's their turn to dictate our societal priorities and they have the numbers to make it stick through the elections process. It's the same way in other countries. BusinessWeek did a story on this same issue in Germany several years ago. Old folks are a potent political force there, even more so than in this country. They are truly a royal class which I guess has something to do with their traditions. It's a very conservative nation by European standards.

I'm on the clock for a few more hours, after that going to put batteries in the camera and go people watching. Should be interesting.

You're right, it isn't funny. NE Ohio has devolved into this ugly miasma where people point fingers at each other and the overall situation every year gets worse. You can see it when you fly up there.

Why do you think we left?

rootvg says

Why do you think we left?

Cuz' that's what Ohioans do. They move everywhere. I swear like half of my parent's state ( NC) is now composed of OH former residents. Seems like at least 30% of the population of Cali is from there too.

edvard2 says

rootvg says

Why do you think we left?

Cuz' that's what Ohioans do. They move everywhere. I swear like half of my parent's state ( NC) is now composed of OH former residents. Seems like at least 30% of the population of Cali is from there too.

There aren't a huge number of ex-pat Buckeyes near us but we see them often enough. I see buckets of Michigan, Penn State and Ohio State license plate frames. Maryland is also a favorite college among technical folks. Go to the Specialty's (popular sandwich shop and bakery) at Santa Clara and you'll see at least one Cornell or Carnegie Mellon alum per day.

rootvg says

There aren't a huge number of ex-pat Buckeyes near us but we see them often enough

There seems to be a disproportionately large number of people here from a select few places: Ohio, New Jersey, New York, and a smattering of Midwestern states. Back home in TN we used to have a joke about how every summer Ohio just simply had emptied out entirely by the sheer volume of cars and campers with Ohio license plates.

rootvg says

The barrier to fixing our problems is the oldsters who think it's their turn to dictate our societal priorities and they have the numbers to make it stick through the elections process.

You're right. Things would be different if young people had more say.

Someone's complaining about "oldsters".
Would that be the oldsters like my father who was in the Battle of the Bulge? Or my uncles who were in the Pacific and another who parachuted into Anzio Italy?
Maybe you refer to "boomers". Well my friend the boomer studied mechanical engineering. His daughter studies psych and his son film or some such.
They might as well take underwater basketweaving.
Slacker idiots with tattoos and pierced ears, nose, etc can complain all they want. Just get that money up to buy more Apple junk pal, I'm counting on you and 100 million Chinese to make me comfortable in my old age.

gregpfielding says

eastbay19 says

Last week I did searches at foreclosureradar.com and Redfin for the city of Oakland, where I'm hoping to buy my first house. I found about 600 active listings and 1,650 houses in some stage of foreclosure, for a ratio of 2.75 to 1.

It's been that way for 6 years now and the bulk of those foreclosures have not and probably will not come to market. Most will be modified or maybe even sold to institutional investors. It's true that the shadow inventory is huge, but Uncle Sam and the big banks have been able to keep those home off the market and I don't expect them to change.

East Bay Real Estate Agent and Blogger

What has been the same for 6 years - the ratio of shadow to active inventory?

The number of houses for sale sure hasn't been the same; per Redfin, SFR inventory in March was down 43 percent in Oakland compared to March 2011.

APOCALYPSEFUCK is Tony Manero says

It ain't funny. In parts of the rust belt, Cannibal Anarchy has well and truly arrived. The survivors who can read pick up the papers and see ultra-rightists shrieking for the disbandment of unions, looting of social security and total deregulation of the financial crimes industry. In some towns, with the last job packing up to China, there's nothing left but a WalMart full of crap surrounded by decaying foreclosures, and scuffling retirees, babbling to themselves, begging strangers for food, a job, a bullet to the forehead. Occasionally, a GOP presidential candidate will drive through tossing packages of Fig Newtons to the starving throngs and entreating the survivors to help him or her take back America from the marxist dystopia that has made it impossible for business to prosper.

That sounds a lot like Binghamton.

edvard2 says

I swear like half of my parent's state ( NC) is now composed of OH former residents.

Charlotte is considering changing it's name to New Pittsburgh.

rowemoore says

rootvg says

The barrier to fixing our problems is the oldsters who think it's their turn to dictate our societal priorities and they have the numbers to make it stick through the elections process.

You're right. Things would be different if young people had more say.

But, they don't. And they won't.

I've told you over and over, it's not the United States of San Francisco.

clambo says

Someone's complaining about "oldsters".

Would that be the oldsters like my father who was in the Battle of the Bulge? Or my uncles who were in the Pacific and another who parachuted into Anzio Italy?

Maybe you refer to "boomers". Well my friend the boomer studied mechanical engineering. His daughter studies psych and his son film or some such.

They might as well take underwater basketweaving.

Slacker idiots with tattoos and pierced ears, nose, etc can complain all they want. Just get that money up to buy more Apple junk pal, I'm counting on you and 100 million Chinese to make me comfortable in my old age.

The only problem I have with the World War II generation is their flat out spoiling the hell out of their kids. Their theory was simple, that NO ONE should have to go through what they went through in the Great Depression and the war and THEN the early days of the Cold War. Most people don't know the early and even the mid fifties were still very lean times. The country was deeply in debt from all it had just been through. People were exhausted.

wthrfrk80 says

edvard2 says

I swear like half of my parent's state ( NC) is now composed of OH former residents.

Charlotte is considering changing it's name to New Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh is doing better than it had been. We drove through there on the way to State College awhile back and I was surprised at how bad the traffic was. If I were younger and had a different career path, I might consider moving there.

rootvg says

Pittsburgh is doing better than it had been. We drove through there on the way to State College awhile back and I was surprised at how bad the traffic was. If I were younger and had a different career path, I might consider moving there.

Yep it's doing better than a lot of other Rust Belt cities. Pittsburgh's mass-exodus happened back in the early 80's when steel collapsed. It's been fairly stable since then. Compared to Upstate NY, Pittsburgh seems like a boom town. I still have family in the area and would like to move back.

wthrfrk80 says

rootvg says

Pittsburgh is doing better than it had been. We drove through there on the way to State College awhile back and I was surprised at how bad the traffic was. If I were younger and had a different career path, I might consider moving there.

Yep it's doing better than a lot of other Rust Belt cities. Pittsburgh's mass-exodus happened back in the early 80's when steel collapsed. It's been fairly stable since then. Compared to Upstate NY, Pittsburgh seems like a boom town. I still have family in the area and would like to move back.

Most people who grew up where I'm from have that nasally midwestern Chicago sounding accent. I used to sound like a Pittsburgh native because of the family connection and then not so much after moving away from there.

After ten years in California, I sound like everyone out here.

rootvg says

rowemoore says

rootvg says

The barrier to fixing our problems is the oldsters who think it's their turn to dictate our societal priorities and they have the numbers to make it stick through the elections process.

You're right. Things would be different if young people had more say.

But, they don't. And they won't.

I've told you over and over, I'm a homophobic bigot!.

rootvg says

I used to sound like a Pittsburgh native because of the family connection and then not so much after moving away from there.

Have you ever heard the WDVE routine about a fictional second-hand clothing store named "Pants n' at" and Donnie Iris? :-D

wthrfrk80 says

That sounds a lot like Binghamton.

Oh man don't remind me. Lived in Binghamton while going to college. That place is the Twilight Zone, for sure

rootvg says

it's not the United States of San Francisco.

It is were I live.

Now get the hell off my lawn.

rowemoore,

There is no such thing as "homophobia." That word is a contrived, purely political term.

It's sort of like the term "death tax." It used to be called the inheritance tax, but the aristocracy figured they could get what they wanted by playing word games.

wthrfrk80 says

rootvg says

I used to sound like a Pittsburgh native because of the family connection and then not so much after moving away from there.

Have you ever heard the WDVE routine about a fictional second-hand clothing store named "Pants n' at" and Donnie Iris? :-D

No, sorry.

1sfrenter says

rootvg says

it's not the United States of San Francisco.

It is were I live.

Now get the hell off my lawn.

No problem. If you want to live in a politically correct bubble, so be it.

Just don't expect that sphere of influence to extend beyond the bridge.

1sfrenter says

rootvg says

it's not the United States of San Francisco.

It is were I live.

Now get the hell off my lawn.

I'm not on your lawn and I'm not going to be.

We don't live in the United States of San Francisco!

You can't get it done, now or EVER!

East bay, violent crime, bad schools, terrible commutes and a feeling of "are we even in the USA?"

yes, lets have bubble 2.0 in the hills where we can get a good whiff of the sweage dump near McCarthy Ranch.

rootvg says

buying a house is a luxury

What? A mold infested asbestos laden piece of 1950's dry rotted junk which is sub-ducting over landfill at 1200 sq ft on a 4000 sq ft lot with no garage is luxury, yes sir ree!

California is garbage. And the housing stock is trash. And it cant be rebuilt due to zoning moronacy and the fact that the land alone will have the morons inside paying the thing off for 40 years.

Bay Area, the most aggressively anti middle class dump in the country. Lots of money, but the opportunity is for the landed gentry and the rentier class. You have to love the most "liberal" area of the country is the one with the most brutal anti middle class disposition and the worst wealth disparity and the worst still extant red-lining. (Bad schools in redline areas and good schools in the sanctioned areas)

Mick Russom says

East bay, violent crime, bad schools, terrible commutes and a feeling of "are we even in the USA?"

yes, lets have bubble 2.0 in the hills where we can get a good whiff of the sweage dump near McCarthy Ranch.

LOL

Now now, the East Bay is really not all like that. It lacks the peninsula's posh douchbaggery and forested hills, but it isn't exactly a cesspool. I rather like Fremont...lots of great trails up in the hills to jog on, although I'll need a hat since it is all grassland!