patrick.net

Very nice! and reasonably priced if the area is a nice as in the picture. Here in the SFBA you get a crab-shack with "charming industrial views" for that money ;)

Here's a taste of what we deal with out here. You may want to sit down for this one:

http://www.vflyer.com/home/home/flyer/218038010

CMY says

Here's a taste of what we deal with out here. You may want to sit down for this one:

http://www.vflyer.com/home/home/flyer/218038010

Yawn, just another day in The Fortress.

: )

Lot less spare time this year, and it's going to get worse.

Gotta get my ass back to Mars Japan . . .

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=gOE

ISTM they're shooting for a ¥150 yen regime again.

Get my USD income stream going again, and life there would be pretty good.

As long as I didn't blow it every month at Costco Japan, or, worse, import shopping from the US.

Bellingham Bill says

F- Me

See, I always pictured you as more of a manifesto shack type...huh.

BTW - Japan is insane. Why anyone would fixate on that place is weirder than the place itself.

Looks like a dump.

My house(s) are waaaaay nicer and cost half that.

1+ mil. lol?

No seriously. Looks like a dump.

Cool place for 4 or 5 large.

/we're all still suckers

Is it high property prices, or is everyone simply poor and underpaid?

http://www.youtube.com/embed/QPKKQnijnsM

A million dollars is worth much less than it did in 1990.

JodyChunder says

Japan is insane. Why anyone would fixate on that place is weirder than the place itself.

Fiscally, the Japanese just want to have their cake and eat it too (ie pay low taxes).

Denmark 49.0%
Belgium 46.8%
Sweden 45.8%
. . .
Japan 28.3%
. . .
United States (all levels) 26.9%

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

At least the Japanese just owe all that money to themselves. We, on the other hand, are much more like Greece, in that we are dependent on our trading partners to keep our economy going.

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/NETEXP

Japan is the richest country in the world by far, with something like $3T in NIIP.

The US is about $3T in the hole.

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

Demographically, they are shrinking now and will continue to ungrow for the remainder of the century.

Their baby boom was a small burst in the late 1940s, while ours went on and on for almost 20 years.

This means their baby boom is currently in their mid-60s, while ours is in their late 40s to late 60s now, all 80M of them.

Their medical system is one of the more cost-efficient in the world, while ours of course is the most wasteful.

Not that I'd prefer a Japanese doctor or hospital over a good American one, but I'd rather pay Japanese prices than American prices (actually, ObamaCare kinda does that, as long as *my* taxes don't go up to pay for it all).

I'm just looking down the road, where I want to be in 2020 and 2030.

Sitting by Lake Whatcom or Arrowhead is one attractive vision, preferable to going back to Japan I guess.

But I think we're going to be hitting some turbulence again later this decade, and Japan is much better set up than we are, even with their insane fiscal policy.

The best place to go might be Sweden, Norway, Denmark, or even Germany, but those societies are as weird as the Japanese, in their own ways.

Bellingham Bill says

One thing that interests me about Japan is that since their population is
declining, their land is going to opening up, reducing ground rents.

Here in the US, we're looking at 400M people by 2050.

It would depend on the type of people . In CA for example, between 1985 and 2005 , 10 million people moved in. But, the number of taxpayers only increased by 150,000. CA has 12% of the nation's population, but 33% of the welfare cases. 1 out of 5 people in Los Angeles area is on welfare. When you have these kind of stats, population increase does not help.

http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/cris-sheridan/california-bow-titanic-united-states

lostand confused says

1985 and 2005 , 10 million people moved in. But, the number of taxpayers only increased by 150,000

bullshit.

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=gPA

shows employment was up 4M from 1990 to the top of the bubble.

The green line is total income in California showing how bifurcated the state is becoming, with an all-time high in personal income while employment is down too much still.

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CATOTLTAX

shows income tax collection is all-time high.

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=gPD

shows that in real terms social insurance contributions are DOUBLE what they were in 1980 (and were TRIPLE during the bubble).