It's crazy, we bought 20 years ago, it's tripled in price (market value is ~3.3X the original purchase price).
3 bed 2 bath, 1500 SQFT $2.9 million
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It's crazy, we bought 20 years ago, it's tripled in price (market value is ~3.3X the original purchase price).
Eric
Mama's lil stinker
As with any financial investment there's risk.
One of two things will happen, people will either buy their own home and let the money work for them, or they'll pay someone else's mortgage and while they'll have a roof over their head, they'll have nothing to show for it. If they do buy and the market fluctuates they'll be able to withstand it unless the goal is to sell during a downturn. Buying a home is a good long term investment for anyone able to do it.
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Which many can't, especially with corporations and foreign cash-rich investors are given equal treatment, and in some cases even preferential treatment.
IMO home ownership should have stopped being a key to growing wealth many, many, many decades ago but/and here we are. When a good percentage of the population can’t afford to keep a roof over their head or are constantly getting gouged in the process there is something seriously fucked up about society. I don’t think it would take many strands of yarn and pins to connect this situation as one of the main causes of our extreme polarization, just mainly differences of opinion on what the root cause is.
We're ~2 blocks from the ocean, anything with close beach access is nuts.
Yeah, we may sell soon, and make a big move (see "What are you doing today ..." thread).
We've never bought because we weren't motivated to. Our place/location is very nice and we invest $ that we couldn't with real homeowner expenses. Our financial advisor has always said it should theoretically work out nicely, and we're comfortable. Accounts look good.
However, this recent real estate surge has shaken my faith a bit. I always thought that, in my late 50's, if I decided I wanted a house, I'd just buy it without worrying much about the $, presuming our portfolio was sound. With how it is now, I'll always worry about it. We meet with the advisor every May and I'll be bringing this up. What looked like a temporary housing shortage triggered by COVID is now appearing more long term in northern New England.
However, this recent real estate surge has shaken my faith a bit. I always thought that, in my late 50's, if I decided I wanted a house, I'd just buy it without worrying much about the $, presuming our portfolio was sound. With how it is now, I'll always worry about it. We meet with the advisor every May and I'll be bringing this up. What looked like a temporary housing shortage triggered by COVID is now appearing more long term in northern New England.
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You can skip the northern part of the state. LA (Lower Alabama), OTOH, has great weather most of the year and there’s always Mardi Gras.
The house we just bought is larger than the one in the original (crazy!) post and has a pool. We’re going to fix up the current house after we move out and should be able to sell it for 3 times what I paid for it 25 years ago.
Yoused
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Apparently we should study on Tom Clancy,
Somehow he managed to grow land. Over 450 acres of it (way more than half a square mile). If we can figure out how he did that, we could make a fortune.
Clancy's 80-acre estate, which was once a summer camp, is located in Calvert County, Maryland. It has a panoramic view of the Chesapeake Bay. … As of November 2018, (it was) listed for sale by his estate. The property is described as approximately 537 acres by the realtor.
Somehow he managed to grow land. Over 450 acres of it (way more than half a square mile). If we can figure out how he did that, we could make a fortune.
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Growing up in the SF Bay Area, it's always been tough buying a first home there. Even in tech, decades ago. Many had to do something unusual in order to qualify and make it work. Some bought with a friend (co-ownership) and was a good way to build equity and credit-worthiness over a few years. Another was buying a fixer-upper, or a small home to start, or a first home in a less desirable area.
Eric
Mama's lil stinker
Unless you're filthy tech-stock rich you're not going to be able to afford a home in the bay area unfortunately, all I could ever do there was rent and it was always a short term goal. I had to move out of the area entirely to the valley where I could afford to buy and the house payments are still cheaper than the rent I had to pay in the bay area.
The median income needed to buy a home there is around $350K a year, I mean what average person makes that? I know just to rent a house in Daly City was nearly $50K a year alone and as I mentioned above, that was just me paying someone else's mortgage for them.
Ulenspiegel
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I know the solution.
The Chesapeake Shores (drama series) was shot there and he managed to push the fence further everyday by some inches.
fischersd
Meh
Well, with so many companies embracing "work from anywhere" because of Covid, you would think that would signal a reversal? (we're seeing areas in the lower mainland, far from Vancouver where the property prices have been booming because of the pandemic). People are leaving the outrageously priced city in droves.
It would make me physically ill to throw this much money away for that. I’d want a hell of a lot more for my money. Now if you can just forget location, my house would be worth $5M.Worthy of its own domain name, apparently. Bay area homes are still off the charts, this is Menlo Park, home of FB.
725 Coleman Ave
Loads of character and charm is what you'll find here at 725 Coleman Ave. Charming Single Story home in the heart of the Silicon Valley, surrounded by soaring trees that provide a serene & private ambiance. 3 Spacious beds and 2 full baths. Zoned to top Menlo Schools! Open and bright floor-plan...www.725colemanave.com
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California has always been crazy. When I bought my first house 2400sf in Kingsville, Texas for $42k, circa 1979, I went on a cross country to San Jose, Ca and stayed with a pilot student’s family in a 1500sf that was going for $260k ish, then in 1980 I purchased a 1300sf house in Rancho Penasquitos, San Diego that I could barely afford on a USNavy Lt salary for $93k a relative bargain.
Hindsight is 20-20, should have kept that house for investment. 
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I was only able to afford it because I bought 20 years ago during a little home price recession, and my boss heard a rumor I was looking to buy a house - he arranged a bonus plan for me that gave me enough up front money to make the down payment. The dude is a real mensch.
D
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There was the slightest dip in rents in places like SF at the beginning of the pandemic, but for the most part, it's gone back to people willing to sell their left nut to live here. Because it's just paradise on earth, I guess? Horrible traffic, outrageous gas prices, months of wildfire smoke, and likely water restrictions due to never-ending drought...
Don't get me wrong, I don't hate where I live, but there are so many reasons against living here...it's unclear to me why demand is still so incredibly high given that many of the biggest tech companies are still mostly work-from-home.
Yoused
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Under a normal situation I wouldn't have been able to. Half way through my engineering degree I paused and went to work at an aerospace tech company in Sunnyvale to earn income. A few years latter there was a contract opportunity through the company to work at a location on the other side of the world for a year and a half. Because it was very remote, my salary was doubled (with no Federal income tax at the time if out of the US for 18 months), and no place to spend it. I finished my degree a few years later after working longer at the company. If it wasn't for that, I would have had to partner with someone on ownership ramping up equity to get a home.
throAU
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joke is on anyone who buys this sort of thing in the era of telecommute
