patrick.net

Bellingham Bill says

Apparently the space rents are capped or something? I'd hate to have the land inflate out from under me.

Sunnyvale and Santa Clara county lack rent controls although a 2-3% increase is typical (about $25/month) plus a $50 increase every time a property is sold.

We're gambling that the cash flow situation will remain better than the alternatives for long enough to cover maintenance, transaction costs, and drops in value less equity accumulation. That seems near certain given 1) the huge gulf between renting land and either renting land plus housing or renting money to buy land plus housing and 2) monthly housing rental prices increasing hundreds of dollars each year.

San Jose was capped at 3% annually but is now 75% of the area CPI increase with a floor of 3% and ceiling of 7%. Milipitas and Los Altos also have rent control.

Where I'd want to work and therefore live there's no way to win at housing without owning a time machine that lets you retroactively purchase before the bubble, although some options are arguably less bad than others.

@Bill (Troy)

>I don't see how California is going to turn things around at all.

>But Fukushima-I really did a number on my retirement plans. Tokyo might still work, I don't think the Cesium release is a present health threat, but who the hell knows.

I may be buying a house in Mejiro... more to come.

Mejiro is nice. A bit too far from the National Azabu, but I guess with the internet you can get home delivery now.

I used to ride my motorcycle from Takadanobaba to Azabu to get stuff like applesauce, peanut butter, taco shells, etc.

Got tired of that so I just moved such that National Azabu was on the walk from the station.

Wish I was still there, sigh.

@Bill (Troy)

Actually, National Azabu closed last month (at least the one in Hiroo). I am not sure if it is gone or will reopen. A bit shocking...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWaLxFIVX1s

ah, just going to refurbish it maybe:

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20111008f2.html

One more month to go...

Bought a house in Monterey. Nice view of the bay. No idea how much more prices will go down, but we've been waiting 6 years now and this is the nicest house we've seen in that time (that we can afford). Time will tell, but I'm happy with what we got and that's all that counts as far as I'm concerned.