patrick.net

Hey MarinaPrime, does Sushi Groove requires reservation? Is it a tiny restaurant?

Generations Boomer, X, Y, Echo, and Slacker? Just in the last 45 years?

Yes, those are human generations.

If we are talking about bateria, that can happen at the blink of an eye. ;)

Hard to see them continuing the RE run-up unless they get fat inheritences, but the boomers seem determined to spend all of their money. We’ll see.

Their party can continue only for so long; credit issues are following close on their heels. I've seen a lot of frustration (counting myself) due to looking at the past 10 years, and assuming that's "the norm". Imo, the speculative RE run-up has been going for a bit longer than many assume, and the local demographics/economy (even Marin) cannot support these prices forever. Given the current situation, many people regard RE as an entity that's self-pricing, when in truth it's driven by real homeowners with jobs.
Well, this has all be said before. Bottom line: no reason to be fatalistic, correction coming.

I used to live kitty corner to the Haut shop.

I bought my board there back in high school. I was always a crappy surfer, but I should've kept the board.

Hey, Surfer-X, looks like we have mostly Gen-Xs and some Boomers here. :)

I can remember my father-in-law shaking his head mumbling something about Gen-X whenever my husband did something to infuriate him. Hilarious.

Just ignore it and it'll go away. He's just baiting everyone to get attention. Besides, tried banning, but he's got nothing else to do so he keeps changing his email address to get back in.

MP voice = charlie brown teacher voice "waa wa wa waa"

I predict his brain will shrivel up and die from lack of use.

I think I'll take off, no point in feeding the troll.

Nice way to get around the fact you GUYS CAN’T MAKE A NEGATIVE PREDICTION EVEN THOUGH U MAKE NEGATIVE ARGUMENTS ALL YEAR LONG

I iwll make a prediction if you tell me more about Groove Sushi.

he’s got nothing else to do

I simply cannot believe someone "highly paid" in finance would act so irrelevant--and immature.

Laters folks!

So long--and DO NOT return.
Don't tempt me to chase your ass down.

Someone explain why the big difference between San Diego and Los Angeles???

Someone explain why the big difference between San Diego and Los Angeles???

Differenct point in the cycle?

Interesting how the biggest increases down South took place in the "ghetto" counties - San Bernardino and LA. OK, LA is not **entirely** ghetto, but a large chunk of it is.

Voluntary simplicity is the way to go. If this bubble has a silver lining, it could be that people who get burned have an epiphany and realize they’re happier when they’re not up to their ears in debt trying to keep up with the Jones’.

Lisa, I think you're onto something; I think this is a future trend. After things come crashing down, many people will emerge from the wreckage, brush themselves off, and realize they didn't need all that crap to live happily. A pretty hefty price for a lesson learned, but that's often the best form of education.

Voluntary simplicity? Wouldn’t that be nice? I wouldn’t bet on it, though.

It's an emerging trend that started on the fringe and has picked up steam.
There's a growing list of books on Amazon.com on the subject:
http://tinyurl.com/bj2qc

Here's some contrarian "concrete" evidence for our resident trolls. 1044 Wickham Drive, Moraga, 2820 square foot, 0.27 acres. Moraga is a PRIME East Bay location with top schools and VERY low average active listing inventory. Went on market on June 20th for $1,350,000. Month goes by, no offers. Price reduced to $1,199,000 on July 11th. Almost a month later on August 6, offer accepted at $1,125,000. Escrow closed on September 9th.

So the anecdotes indeed cut both ways.

My friend said that recently much of the open house traffic is from the neighborhood. If this is true, sellers have their fingers on thr triggers already.

Hatred of ANY generation is misplaced.

I agree... but if we have to hate one generation it is more politically correct to target someone who does not come here. ;)

It’s very nice to sit down at that solid wood refectory table for your simple meal of soup and $5 a loaf artisan bread.

Lmao! I'm sure there's some "peasant chíc" element to it, but all the same, finding a purpose outside consumerism is a noble, and dare I say--fulfilling goal. Ok, we're nowhere near poverty, but it's been a refreshing change, all the same.

It’s very nice to sit down at that solid wood refectory table for your simple meal of soup and $5 a loaf artisan bread.

Lmao! I’m sure there’s some “peasant chíc” element to it

This brings to mind the scene from Ben Stiller's Zoolander when Mogatu unveiled his new line of high fashion, based on homeless people: "Derelicte". Maybe life will imitate comedy and this will become the new rage.

Easy... Mr.Right is a friend. :)

Just a thought, but have you considered not reducing yourselves to deleting MP’s comments and simply refusing to give in to the wind up? After all, he does post empirical facts, no?

It is a very delicate balance to maintain... I afraid of losing readers... and I do not like to be in the business of deleting comments at all.

Technically, he posts anecdotes, not empirical facts. But I do not want to go into the discussion of empiricism...

Surfer-X, I can assure you that Mr.Right is not MP (with 99.5% confidence).

Surfer-X,

Mr. Right and MP are definitely NOT the same person --their addresses alone prove that. Honestly, I don't see how you could confuse the two --Mr. Right is relatively bullish, yes, but also a polite, mature reasoning human being capable of social interaction with others. Not all the same style or tone IMO.

u r most welcome, sir ;-)

Honestly, I am more convinced than ever regarding the October financial/credit market event. I am completely unprepared at the moment. I just do not how what to do anymore.

Read Mish’s blog entry today about a “credit event” (he’s uncertain on timing): globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

I did read his blog.

I probably want to be more speculative than buying gold. But that may not be a bad idea after all.

This thread is so weird that the Google Ads cannot figure out what we are doing.

>

Flak, excellent point about the voluntary simplicity movement. If it's coming back into vogue, that's certainly a sign of recession/people tightening their belts.

You mentioned the consumerism inherent in it, and I think that represents a bastardization of the heart of the movement, caused by marketing people latching onto the idea and figuring out how they can make people spend more money to feel like they're simplifying. That ridiculous magazines Real Simple is a perfect example. It's one big advertisement for how to buy your way into "simplicity."

I have a few of the books on the list KurtS posted. I bought them in the 90s when the movement was popular, and the ideas have always appealed to me because I'm naturally very frugal (AKA cheap-ass :-)) and have a tendancy toward simplicity.

I just went back and re-read some of The Simple Living Guide, and it's all about being mindful of every choice you make and how it impacts your life. It's filled with examples of people making choices to downscale in order to live they life they want. Living debt-free, rejecting consumer culture, etc. It's a very inspiring book, overall. Really helped me think about what I want out of life.

I have friends who have chosen to go into deep debt rather than stop and be mindful of what they're spending their money on, or why they feel like they need all the stuff they have. Just thinking about their financial situation gives me a headache. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night.

I should amend all this by saying that I'm not a hippy living in a straw bale hut and eating vegetables grown from my own garden. :-) I'm a typical middle class person with a very comfortable middle class life, but we save way more money than the typical family (including ALL of my income) by simply being frugal and looking for unconventional ways to get what we want. We save partly for retirement and partly to be able to buy a house someday when we're ready.

Nothing. Everyone is simply afraid of “missing out” and being “priced out forever”.

Priced out? Who will support the market then? MIRAGE?

hymie,

C'mon. Everyone "knows" that renting is bad for you. Long-term it leads to jealousy, bitterness, crime, job instability, bad relationships, unwanted pregancies, etc...

You will *never* be complete as a human being until you've owned a home, or rented money to live in a home that the bank really owns. Some people consider falling in love or having children to be the most fulfilling experience a person can have in life. Let me tell you, it PALES in comparison to making those mortgage payments every month, my friend.

It has just come to me why the Gen X crowd is so angry

Who says we are angry?

Instead of being angry, channel that energy to something useful/positive!!

Please suggest a strategy to capitalize on the demise of the marginal recent homeowners/speculators. That is the positive thing I have in mind.

Man, I wish I had gotten out of college and earned 50/60/70K a year! I thought I was a big shot if I was earning 20K.

I think there is a lot of social pressure to own. When I tell people I rent, boy do I get some looks. But the house I'm moving into costs 60% less to rent than to own. Why the hell would I buy? But everyone always says "but you have money, you could buy?" Or here's my favorite, "you gotta stretch to get into that first house."

The gov’t encourages us to spend (propping up a faltering economy), therefore, I save.

To be fair, "not spending" alone is insufficient. Having a sound investment plan is essential. As we have discussed before, supercharing the rate of return by just 2% per year will improve end result by more than 100% over 40 years. To match this with increased saving alone one will need to put away more than 100%!

Why do you think that it’s only the boomer causing all your woes?

I'll toss in this rant I posted elsewhere...

I don't want to nail the "Boomers", because I think it's more a mentality than a demographic. It has much more to do with chasing after "the good life": consume until you die, and common sense be damned.

This mentality gets hooked easily on a herding lifestyle that appeals to vanity, greed, and the hoarding mentality. Much of product marketing targets this impulse; they see their friends doing/buying it, and they follow. The readily buy into crazes: beanie babies, those trite Kinkade paintings (or Leroy Nieman), Y2K survival, huge SUVs, execrable Lladro figurines, junk dot-com stocks, Amway, new age tchotchkies, dieting supplement resale, and now real estate.

Once bitten by the fad, by overnight they become experts, spinning wide-eyed yarns about health supplements, heralding dot-coms as the "New Economy", smugly gloating that "real estate never goes down". It's impossible to objectively engage them in their mania and bring them down to earth; that would burst their illusion. If they're banking on quick profits, critical thinking goes out the door.

Fittingly, there are businesses who play these foolish minds, promising wealth, luring them into half-baked schemes--and parting with their cash. Such was the dot-com--a well-engineered ploy to overmarket bad business and sell high before the little guy spun his head around. So do we have a similar situation today? Certainly the noise from the RE pundits sounds familiar: "Act Now or Miss a Unique Opportunityâ„¢". And once again, as greed often prevails over critical thinking; the sheeple will get royally fleeced.

I think there is a lot of social pressure to own. When I tell people I rent, boy do I get some looks.

I do not care how other people see me.

To be fair, “not spending” alone is insufficient. Having a sound investment plan is essential. As we have discussed before, supercharing the rate of return by just 2% per year will improve end result by more than 100% over 40 years. To match this with increased saving alone one will need to put away more than 100%!

My husband showed me some spread sheets showing how much more money you have after investing long term at a fixed percentage rate can earn you. It just shows that even "mediocre" investing is worth it long term.