Nothing quick about getting rich with real estate

[Ginger]

Ex-Jarhead,

Our home is modest, a one-story home in a great location, good school district. Taxes on house approximately $2,200 a year... Pretty great considering it is worth $600,000 --

[charlie]

Ginger,

In North Texas you can buy a very nice new home
for less than $100/ft sq, *Here I sit in slack-jawed
amazement at the inflated housing prices in your
neck of the woods.

I don't know your situation, but if it were me I
would take the money and rent until the bubble
burst. *

I think you people out in La La Land have really,
really gone bonkers sometimes ...... *

Cheers,

Charlie *

I agree with Charlie...

If the Californians with huge equity sell their homes and move to the Dallas area they could buy an exceptionally nice home AND retire early with the difference.

There is a lot to be said for the Dallas area. It is much nicer than Houston and there is plenty to do for entertainment and recreation. There is also cheap travel (because of Southwest Airlines) to neighboring states like New Mexico for vacations.

It is a great place to call home!

[charlie]

There goes the neighborhood!

Cheers,

Charlie

[Hyperborea]

Quote:

In North Texas you can buy a very nice new home for less than $100/ft sq, *Here I sit in slack-jawed amazement at the inflated housing prices in your neck of the woods.

As they say, the three most important things in real estate are location, location and location.

The price isn't higher because somebody mandated it so. It's higher because more people want to buy than there are places available. When that changes the prices will come down.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I doubt there is a lot more appreciation left in CA for the next 5+ years as well. Which is why we're selling the wifes old place instead of hanging on to it.

In fact, I would expect the air to come out of the 'less desireable' non-urban areas. LA and SF will hang on, but I cant see some of the podunkier areas that are now commanding $350k+ for a fixer upper to hold that.

On the other hand, in 1996 I said I thought Bay Area real estate was highly overpriced and couldnt go any higher. I also said the IBM PC was "overpriced, had more memory than anyone would ever need and has a lousy keyboard...plus it runs that lousy 'MS-DOS thing nobody's every heard of instead of CP/M ...it'll never sell!" and "Theres no way we'll ever get networks to run over phone wire...hell, they barely work over coaxial cable!".

So dont listen to me...

[Hyperborea]

Quote:

In fact, I would expect the air to come out of the 'less desireable' non-urban areas. *LA and SF will hang on, but I cant see some of the podunkier areas that are now commanding $350k+ for a fixer upper to hold that.

I think that a lot of that depends on how the tech industry keeps doing at least for northern California home prices. *There's still net inflow of people to the bay area, community planning departments are planning on fewer new residential spaces (homes and rentals) than new jobs, and it's becoming hard to hire computer geeks again.

This is pushing up the prices of homes not just in Santa Clara Valley but all areas within a 2-3 hour driving radius. *I know people here at my company that drive in from Sacramento once a week, stay overnight, then return home to work the other 3 days there. *Some drive in from Dublin 2 or 3 days a week. *They could afford to live here but they've made the choice to have a bigger home than they could afford in the centre of Silicon Valley at the cost of the commute. *As you get further out than that though the number of people who'll commute drops a lot.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Yeah, I'm talking about Barstow, Red Bluff, Redding, Oroville...uncommutable to the major urban areas, not a lot of non-farm business going on. You would be stunned to see what real estate is selling for in areas that are a 2 hour drive to Sacramento, let alone the bay area...

[Jarhead*]

Quote:

Yeah, I'm talking about Barstow, Red Bluff, Redding, Oroville...uncommutable to the major urban areas, not a lot of non-farm business going on. *You would be stunned to see what real estate is selling for in areas that are a 2 hour drive to Sacramento, let alone the bay area...

TH: The housing prices in Chico, are mainly fueled by well to do move-ins. (L.A., Bay area retirees).
The stance that Chico has taken is to keep a green-belt, and attempting to limit growth.
Again, supply and demand.
Take a drive some-time to Lake Almanor (60 miles east of Chico.) Prices there are starting to approach Lake Tahoe $$$$$$$$$'s. Anything close to the lake is over $l,000,000.00. (Most of these are 2nd. homes, as they don't want to be there when the snow flies).

[MRGALT2U]

And then there is our house. I paid 68K in 2001
for 1200 SF with 100 feet of water frontage.
Our Texas condo (1000 SF in a luxury resort property
within a nine iron of the biggest lake in Texas) was even
less. These are not fixer-uppers, but are in the upper
layer for their neighborhoods. There are quite a few
cars that would go for more than our homes. But, do you need that. Of course not.

JG

[Jarhead*]

Quote:

Ginger, In North Texas you can buy a very nice new home for less than $100/ft sq, *Here I sit in slack-jawed amazement at the inflated housing prices in your neck of the woods. I don't know your situation, but if it were me I would take the money and rent until the bubble burst. * I think you people out in La La Land have really, really gone bonkers sometimes ...... * Cheers, Charlie *

Charlie: How would you like it if all of us Calif. "wierdos" decided to sell our homes and move to Austin?
Scary thought, huh?

[MRGALT2U]

If all the Calif. "weirdos" moved to Austin, that would be fine with me. It's already a "blue" city in a"red" state. But please do not move into Texas and settle
elsewhere. Charlie and I like it just the way it is.

JG

[Hyperborea]

Quote:

If all the Calif. "weirdos" moved to Austin, that would be fine with me. *It's already a "blue" city in *a"red" state. *But please do not move into Texas and settle elsewhere. *Charlie and I like it just the way it is.

Isn't Austin where the Texas high tech industry is located? Lots of educated well paid people?

[Ol_Rancher]

"Isn't Austin where the Texas high tech industry is located? Lots of educated well paid people? "

No, Austin is where there is no solution to gridlock traffic except to charge tolls to use fly-overs already paid for with tax money. It is the place that the city pays a PR firm t o produce bumper stickers saying, "keep Austin weird" which in itself is an admission that Ausitn no longer has its once unique character.

Austin is the place of high taxes, fees, declining school district. The place where a local writer bemoaned that to attend any public event is near impossible as he had to view this year's Zilker Park Kite Flying Contest from a parking lot three miles away.

Austin is a place where the Californication process is almost complete. Where the once "laid-back" music capitol of the world is now populated by rude, angry, motorists, tech immigrants who push up real estate, and a liberal city government that thows obscene amounts of tax dollars at any project of politically correct interest groups.

The place that has a metropolitan population change from 285,000 in 1973 to 1.3 million now.

The place so out of synch with the tradtions, character and spirit of Texas as to be an island culture in the midst of the southern plains that hopefully can be contained.

[charlie]

Austin is the home of Dell Computer and ever major
semi-conductor mfg has a facility there. Of course
Dallas is the home of TI and many of its offspring.

Cheers,

Charlie

[MRGALT2U]

Hello Ol_Rancher! Man you got Austin right on the money. Yeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaah!
(Howard Dean scream)

JG

[wildcat]

I liked Austin during my visits but I think it is becoming a tad too popular. Thank the press!! I tell people it is like a west coast city stuck in Texas. And Cali problems are starting to sprout by the day.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Quote:

I don't know your situation, but if it were me I would take the money and rent until the bubble burst.

Havent I thought about *that* idea. Rents severely trail home values here. Oddly, they're building apartment buildings left and right, then offering months of free rent to try to get people to move in. Homes seem to rent out pretty quick.

If I hadnt just moved myself and my wife in the past 2 years, and if our little cul de sac wasnt the perfect place for a young boy to grow up, I'd think about it.

Just as an example, we just sold my wifes old house for $240k - thats in an iffy neighborhood with a next door neighbor thats a junk and junk car collector. We could maybe get 1000-1100 a month renting it out. About the only thing that even produced a twang of wanting to keep it is the 14 year old sub $500 a year prop 13 property tax bill...

I could sell our current place for ~$350k and rent a nice 2000 square foot ranch house on a couple of acres for less than $2k a month. Heck, just the interest on the 350k on a 5 year CD would pay most of the rent...

The only problem is I 'called the top of the bubble' in the SF bay area 8 years ago and its only gone up more. I did the same in sacramento 2 years ago, and its also continued to go up.

[MRGALT2U]

Hello all. I just worked this out today. We can use the Texas condo for 2 -3 months per year and still have positive cash flow for the year. Such a deal!

JG

[MRGALT2U]

I was reading the th post about his wife's former house
and the "junky" neighbor. For us (low budget and
backwoodsy but fussy) that neighbor thing can be trouble.
In our subdivision, all of the houses with water frontage
for quite a distance both upstream and down are pretty nice.
Just lucky there. Mostly Chicago area owners. Weekenders
with a little more money and upscale attitudes.
I think the Texas condo will be okay too, but we have
not actually used it for an extended period. In our case, unless we could live way out on a large piece of land
the neighbors are always a worry. The bottom line is
it would be a real financial strain to have to buy a lot of space
between ourselves and "trailer trash" if it came to that. (no offense
to you mobile home and RV people).

JG