patrick.net

I’m not sure overpopulation is a problem; it’s just that so many people are clustered because of poor transportation options. (Though, cutting down on kids would help a great deal.)

If people is the problem that having too many people will be a big problem.

Upholding tradition aspect only works if you have a relatively homogenous group of individuals sharing similar views and objectives. It's no good if you live next door to a flipper owned house rented out to four illegal migrant families or a meth brewer.

Even well intentioned new immigrant families tend to neglect outside upkeep.

requiem,

The truth is that the base housing in Long Beach at the time (early 80's) wasn't all that enviable. It had been built in WWII and was showing it's age. But it was affordable and orderly and just outside LB was Hell Hole of the first and worst order!

At the time LB had a higher per capita murder rate than Detroit. Property crimes were so commonplace the PD didn't even respond. Santa Fe Ave. that ran along the east side was known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail b/c it was wall to wall Vietnamese strip clubs etc. To their credit LB has cleaned up somewhat but even Ocean Blvd. was scary. It was a hangover from the Viet Nam era (and boy did it look it). Tattoo parlors, peep shows and pawn shops. In contrast base housing looked LIKE utopia!

Even well intentioned new immigrant families tend to neglect outside upkeep.

Is this a cultural issue or an available-time issue? (serious question) The case of the flipper and the migrant workers seem solvable by the application of sane economic/immigration/security policies. The meth brewer, well, that's what the local police are for. So, if we end up with a rational environment, will the immigrant family still be neglecting the upkeep?

In contrast base housing looked LIKE utopia!

Perhaps Utopia is relative.

austingal,

I tend to lean toward your vision. People that live in climate extremes may want to consider earth sheltered options, folks in moderate climates probably won't worry about it.

The reason I got interested in water catchment systems was for all the rain we get in Oregon our shared well was a pain in the a$$. Always needed work, parts or maint. and by August you couldn't do laundry and dishes at the same time. Is that crazy or what? The spring break quake of 1993 changed our water table that much!

I think it's more a cultural and a learning curve issue. Chinese people (and presumably Japanese and Koreans) don't really know how to take care of grass. They're also cheap, so they won't water enough to keep the grass green and doesn't seed or fertilize on time.

The best way to get an immaculate lawn/garden is to have the HOA hire an outside contractor to do all the work. You get efficiency of scale and it cuts down weekend noise pollution, and enforcement becomes a non-issue.

Just for fun!
Put your utopian ideals to the test by creating your own nation state over at

www.nationstates.net

Your government can accept, reject and dismiss an outstanding issue every day, and your answers will affect how well or how badly your country turns out.

You can join together with others to create regions and when you get big enough you get admission to the United Nations.

/Just for fun!

The building is filled with mostly quite wealthy people who live in gorgeous rentals because there is absolutely no incentive for them to move out of those apartments, ever.

But are they updated with modern kitchens and marble baths? There is not much incentive for landlords to renovate rent-controlled buildings, right?

Rent control is quasi ownership. The renters can afford to update the interior at their own expense.

The main point is that while there are many problems with rent control, I don't think you can blame EPA on rent control.

The main point is that while there are many problems with rent control, I don’t think you can blame EPA on rent control.

Must be the feng shui.

Prop 13 is vaguely a form of rent control. This is why I am not a supporter.

It is a mistake. We will see more and more examples of resource misallocation because of Prop 13.

I think the bubble blogs are driving some Realtors insane.

I like marinite, but I am against making accusations against realtors or other individuals.

One of my friends lives in that building and she did a major renovation of the kitchen and baths and redid the floors, major paint job, gorgeous curtains, etc.

If there is a legally-enforcable long-term lease, why not?

Has anybody read this?
http://marinrealestatebubble.blogspot.com/2006/09/local-broker-slams-this-blog_11.html

I think the bubble blogs are driving some Realtors insane.

As the bubble collapse becomes undeniable to even the most obstinant perma-bull, watch out for idiots like this to start wagging an accusatory at blogs like this one. Who know? Maybe LAY will sue Peter P for personally lowering her house value by 40%.

I guess we'd better start wearing camo & body armor --"shoot the messenger" season's just started and there are millions of FBs with itchy trigger fingers out there.

watch out for idiots like this to start wagging an accusatory finger at blogs like this one

Maybe LAY will sue Peter P for personally lowering her house value by 40%.

It is impossible that any blogger can affect the market as a whole.

This blog is not even targeted towards any particular local market.

Moreover, everybody knows that the bubble collapses because the Fed has increased interest rate 17 times straight. ;)

@ newsfreak re: opals

One reason why opals in Oz cost more is that they're probably 'solid' opals - ie a whole stone, rather than a 'doublet' (where a thin section of opal is glued under glass - looks almost the same, but isn't nearly as costly). As well as doublets, many stones touted as 'opals' are in fact synthetically made in a lab.

As for them being more expensive....I bought my opal direct from e-opals. It seems that the link isn't working any more, but I know that many smaller opal mining communities in Aus (including Coober Pedy) have online sites to sell stones - easier, and much cheaper for everyone, than travelling to the Nulllabor to pick your stone by hand!

As with all gemstones, the better the quality the more you pay. I'd have to see the descriptions of the US ones vs the Oz ones to see if they're comparing apples with apples, so to speak. Having researched opals quite a lot when buying the stone for my ring, I got quite good at finding the duds and reading between the lines.

A bit like the 'true' reading of Realtorspeak......

How about a vertical city in which elevators are all you need to get around?

Diminishing returns Peter. THere’s a reason why increasingly higher buildings are approaching asymptotic limits.

interestingly, elevators turn out to be relatively energy efficient, in that it takes energy to raise them, but they return energy to the grid on the way down by using the electric motors for regenerative braking... apart from losses in the system and maintenance costs, they're not too environmentally unfriendly... or so i've been told...

interestingly, elevators turn out to be relatively energy efficient, in that it takes energy to raise them, but they return energy to the grid on the way down by using the electric motors for regenerative braking… apart from losses in the system and maintenance costs, they’re not too environmentally unfriendly… or so i’ve been told…

For really tall buildings, we probably need a whole new paradigm because the cables will be too long/heavy.

well, yeah, we don't want to build them to the moon...

you could have 'stepped' elevators that go to some number of storeys, then you have to change...

potentially, more people get sunlight and 'a view' with taller buildings rather than 4-5 storey buildings, but I'm presently fighting the state govt who want to put 100 m towers near my place to help their crony capitalist mates who are selling the land... the towers just won't be human scale and will be intimidating, which is admittedly a somewhat subjective architectural appraisal, but not without its adherents...

alien Says:
Concrete is DEFINITELY bad karma - beyond even a hummer! Check the carbon cycle figures out…

just on that, i'm actually quite interested in polystyrene mouldings with 5mm concrete render (despite what people say about them - this is not a joke! you haven't seen the dreary buildings here) and general rendering as a business idea going forward, in conjunction with some more 'green' ideas around water tank designs -- is there a greener material to do exterior mouldings and rendering than using cement? even firing bricks is pretty energy intensive. are there any other formable and smooth finish rapid cladding products out there that are low EE?

you could have ’stepped’ elevators that go to some number of storeys, then you have to change…

This is necessary. There can be express elevators that take people only to Lobby, 30, 60, 90, 120 while local elevators can take people to any floor within a 30-level block.

With the ongoing commodity crash following the ongoing housing bust we'll have Eutopia with low cost gasoline, copper, gold etc... This will allow for the finest finishes in your home at little to no cost. You can live in exurbia and drive your Hummer for hours to get to civilazation and it will cost next to nothing!

HARM,

The Marin Bubble Blog link was hysterical! Randy H and others have shared their stories of watching the canary perish and have been met with "I'm sure things will get better for you" etc. Mr. Realt-whore goes for the ultimate in low blows by implying that the blogger has "lost" his home and it's doubled in value since then!

So that particular blog is HOW old? What, maybe 2 years? So Assuming the Marin blogger lost his on Friday and had his blog up and running the following Monday Mr. Realt-whore thinks a doubling in price every two years is normal? Sure, why not? Makes perfect economic sense to me.

Lastly, the idea that they guy "doctored" or outright falsified data and in effect is "creating a crash" shows how ignorant and desperate these people are becoming. I don't blame the guy for remaining anon. As things heat up I'm adopting a lower profile my damn self!

Argghh! Why are we mistaking decent public conduct with a "police state"? In spite of what people might have heard about Singapore there are plenty of places where you can get as rude and ignorant as you wanna be! And for a reasonable fare the cabbie will take there. They just ask you conduct yourself in a presentable manner when in public view.

(it's not that big a deal)

Most people here aren't yet at an age where their children remember the dude urinating in an alley just off the main street. I've been through it and it's hell raising two daughters when it seems just about every public place you go it feels like you walked on to the set of "Jackass".

Please check out the link on Fox News of the reporter in San Diego and listen to "Rosa's" mouth. Now imagine your kids are old enough to know what just a handful of those words mean?

No one is saying we can't be nasty, just not in public. Can we at least give ONE generation the chance to be kids? No Dad, I DON'T want to get "high" with you!

Utopia - beatiful high end homes falling in price. Everyone can get what they want if they just wait.

Yesterday I had a call from a desperate realtor. This house I have been watching, a 3400 sqft beauty on a 2 acre lot, has already been marked down $70,000. The realtor called to say that if I was still interested I could name my price, and not by "just a few thousand off." I was polite, but told him there was plenty of competition in that price range and I'll call if interested.

Actually, this trend is a relief. For awhile, I was wondering if that damn "soft landing" was going to be real. It seems the downside momentum was long in coming, but is quickly picking up steam.

DinOr,

Enforcement of decent public conduct you say? Such as not throwing cigarette butts out the car window into yards, not blasting a radio, getting a real muffler for your harley, using a rake instead of a leaf blower louder than an afterburner, cleaning up after your mutt, not spray painting messages, taking that barking lab inside after midnight, etc. Try to enforce these and hear the cry of "police state"

But no outcry for the arrest of the girl who sunbathes topless on the beach or the big fat guy who goes nude from his house to the mailbox at the end of his driveway.

It's the stereotypical American public - obnoxious AND judgmental.

Headset,

Well yeah, something like that. All I know is I could be having a really good day and either I get in my car and drive or walk a few blocks and things "can" head south quickly.

It's like we're constantly trying to have some kind of "who can be the most rude, complacent or ignorant contest". If I'm at a bar at closing time, yeah, I expect it but going to check your mail?

Ha Ha,

If there is "no national real estate market" and no bubble how can we already be having Senate Hearings about a crash?

Is this the equivalent of drawing a chalk outline of a body on the sidewalk and THEN throwing a corpse into it?

I think the Marin RE blogger he was attacking was Marinite, who used to post here very regularly. I occasionally post on his blog; and I certainly did on this thread.

That realtor(sm) is very typical of South Marin mindset. The agents here are incredibly snobbish and often outright corrupt. But not corrupt in the normal way. Corrupt in the "we're special and the normal rules don't apply here" way.

It's bad enough up here with agent incest that I'd be willing to pay FAB a broker commission to secure a fair deal for us.

Headset,

That wasn't a realtor calling; that will opportunity knocking.....

If, after you've done ALL your homework, financing is prepped, you've run the numbers, and it's *the* house; here's a couple of things that will rachet up the pressure when you are ready to buy:

Invest in a RE attorney and have him approve something like this as legal and binding in your state:

"This offer is tendered as part of a Multiple Purchase Offer. The buyers named above are making simultaneous offers on one or more additional properties. This offer and all of the other offers tendered are conditioned upon and subject to the final approval of the buyers, which will be delivered in writing within 3 days of sellers' acceptance of this Purchase Offer, unless deadlines are extended by written agreement of the affected parties. Immediately upon transmittal of the buyers' final approval of one of the sellers' acceptance of the offer tendered to those sellers, all other offers in this Multiple Purchase Offer will be unilaterally withdrawn by the buyers."

Submit with the price YOU want to pay and with no contingencies of having to sell on your part; a nice clean QUICK deal for the seller.

Do so on the 1st Tues. of the month after another the seller has had another weekend with no offers and the ink is still wet on the mortgage payment he mailed within the past week and it's fresh on his mind.

Offer is valid for 24 hours which makes for a sleepless night for the seller. He's got to make a decision NOW and not have the time to try some silly counter; which you won't accept anyway. For him, it's time to "fish or cut bait".....

If he accepts, you've got the house you want at the price you are willing to pay. If not, wait a month and run it past him again or move on to the next one on your list. You could send out the same to two or three at the same time and, since you have the right to withdraw the others if you accept one; no downside.

Realize you will not get a Christmas card from either the seller or his agent; but you have probably worked as tough a offer as the listing agent has ever seen AND will probably be the topic of a few RealtorSpin Blogs.

Best Wishes

thanks alien. are you working in construction/development/drafting?

I have seen the polyblock construction technique - it is very fast to put a place up and it has excellent insulation (on a par with strawbale), but there is a lot of embodied energy in the materials, so its not on my list of favorites.

is this the stuff with 2" of polystyrene as sound and heat insulation? rendered after fixing to timber frame or similar.

can you do mouldings in cob? isn't it basically just clay, sand and straw? hmmm

randy, i wrote a disturbing answer in the 'quotes' thread 2 threads back...

The witness list has not been confirmed for the hearing on non-traditional mortgages tentatively scheduled to be held next Wednesday, September 20.

Sen. Allard said that hearing would help lawmakers who “want to get a better understanding of these (mortgage) products and what they mean for the homebuyer, the financial institutions and the economy.”

c'mon guys, who's flying to DC to testify for the american people? i think we should start with surfer as opening speaker to stress the nature of the problem... :P

Prefab is the future!

There is really no reason to build houses on site. Labor costs are just too high.

I think someone should open a prefab factory in Northern Mexico and ship modules to California by truck.