Changing the balance of quality of life and financial independence

[CRABBY JERRY]

CFB, Just curious as what price range is the new Mcmansion?. I'm thinking of down sizing to a condo and am not sure if it's the right thing to do. I can drop my taxes by a 12000.00, but then I would have the 400.00 a month maintenance a month so in effect I would be saving about 7000.00 a year. I would also be saving by not having a mortgage as the house has appreciated over the last 12 years. I thing it was easier for you to make the move as there are several benifits to the move.I've been reading this post and keep going back and forth because I don't want to make a big mistake selling the home.I'm not to worried on the condo as there are always some for sale for different units in the complex we have to get, to keep the kids in the same good schools.I know none of this pertains to your situation, but I feel like it the same quality of life issues and wanted to bounce it out there.Nothing is ever easy with a situation that effects your life. Good luck with your purchase.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Congratulations. With my son (Gabe, by the way) moving to the San Mateo area you may have to spot me a beer some day. How far are you from there?

About 4-7 hours, depending on what day of the week and what time of the day.

Jerry...in the half mil range. Cheap for a big wood box to put my stuff into.

By the way, if anyone feels I was rough on the seller, I should probably disclose at this time that he's a financial planner.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

By the way, sears is having a nice one-day sale on tractors and mowers...

 

[scrinch]

Congratulations. With my son (Gabe, by the way) moving to the San Mateo area you may have to spot me a beer some day. How far are you from there?

About 4-7 hours, depending on what day of the week and what time of the day.

I think Rich meant by car....not walking. Or is your new house in Nevada?

Seriously, from San Mateo to the foothills east of Sacramento is about 2-1/2 hours plus traffic delays. Rich, I'll buy you the beer...I live 1-1/2 hrs north of San Mateo in wine country.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Its the "plus traffic delays" I was figuring in!

I used to do the drive a couple of times a week when the corporate jet was full. It can be pretty quick at night but during the day...

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

About 4-7 hours, depending on what day of the week and what time of the day.
Seriously, from San Mateo to the foothills east of Sacramento is about 2-1/2 hours plus traffic delays. Rich, I'll buy you the beer...I live 1-1/2 hrs north of San Mateo in wine country.

You're on. But in your case, it'll be a bottle from Silver Oak .

Moving south toward San Jose where, if anywhere, do the housing prices start dropping back into earth's atmosphere? That is, how far out til it approaches plain old expensive in the "reasonable reader" sense?

 

[honobob]

Moving south toward San Jose where, if anywhere, do the housing prices start dropping back into earth's atmosphere? That is, how far out til it approaches plain old expensive in the "reasonable reader" sense?

I believe there's been a recommendation for Newport Beach shortly.

The outlying areas are dragging down the immediate SF area figures. I'm 30 minutes away and YOY median is still up!. I can show you how to get 10% annual appreciation and 40% return on your money.

Oh, I'll buy the first beer also!

 

[wabmester]

Latest Bay Area stats:

http://www.dqnews.com/RRBay0307.shtm

Hmm, it looks like you would have been better off investing in just about anything else for the last year....

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Rich, theres nothing even close to plain old expensive unless you want to drive a good distance or you want to plug yourself into a bart train for a couple of hours a day. Or go for something pretty old and small, although sometimes those come with a bit more back yard to them. Up east of concord, east of livermore, or down on the way to gilroy there are some decent buys for the area. But you're not gonna like the traffic at commute hours. You could probably still snap up something near santa cruz like around scotts valley, but again the commute into the bay area is ugly.

Holy COW...I just checked realtor.com in my old neighborhood in Santa Clara. 1000 square feet on a nice 5000-6000 square foot lot is running over $600k. I sold something similar in 1995 for a little over $215k and felt like I was ripping the buyer off. A few years ago when they were topping 400k I thought it was pretty stupid

If you're just looking for something in the vicinity of the kids, you might have to get about halfway up towards sacramento or inland up the coast halfway to fort bragg before the prices start dropping.

 

[Michael Moore]

In re Bay Area prices:

My 98 year old next door neighbor just sold her house and moved into a retirement center.

She's got the same basic 1948-vintage house/lot we do - 1100 sq ft, 3BR, 1BA, 25'x120' lot located 2.5 blocks south of GG Park and 3 blocks in from Ocean Beach. We haven't heard a definite selling price, but it sounds like it was $700K or a bit over that.

cheers,
Michael

 

[scrinch]

Moving south toward San Jose where, if anywhere, do the housing prices start dropping back into earth's atmosphere? That is, how far out til it approaches plain old expensive in the "reasonable reader" sense?

I'm not sure what a "reasonable reader" thinks expensive is....$300K, $400K, $500K? You'd probably have to go at least 2 hrs in any direction from San Mateo to find a 2000 sq ft house in reasonable condition in a reasonable neighborhood for less than $500K. To the south...possibly in Gilroy, definitely by the time you reach Salinas.

 

[Sam]

http://www.dqnews.com/RRBay0307.shtm

This is a great link for Cali. Is there one for Florida, Mass, Texas too?

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I've got a nice place in yuba city to sell you...

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Well 3 cheers to vanguards bureaucracy and last minute shenanigans...when I went to wire the funds to the escrow account, they told me they needed ten days to approve of any new banking 'connections'. After a fun and entertaining half hour of funny business, I figured out I could wire the money to our existing 'connection', which is our local credit union, and then back out tomorrow to the escrow account. Both transfers hopefully to actually occur in a timely manner and be completed by wednesday...

Otherwise, come thursday me and a plumber, the comcast guy, the painter and a few other people are all gonna be standing around in the driveway swapping stories and waiting for a call from the title company...

 

[FIRE'd@51]

Gee, CFB, that's really strange. Are you sure they knew you meant a Federal wire, and not one of those electronic funds-connected bank accounts? When I bought my house, I had the funds wired to my lawyer's escrow account the day before the closing. The only 10-day requirement they had was that I had to have had the funds at Vanguard for 10 business days before I could write checks, do wires, etc.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Yeah they knew. Check it out...go to their site, choose 'sell' on a fund and the first page that comes up has you choose the redemption amount and type...pick 'wire' and it'll put up a drop-down box of the bank accounts you've already registered with them...and a blurb that says that if the bank in question is not in the drop-down box, that it'll be 10 days for them to work it out.

They did say that if they faxed me a form, my wife and I could sign it, have it medallion stamped and overnight it to them, and they might be able to do it in a day or two.

"Uhh..hello? Can my wife leave the emergency room for a couple of hours to go sit at the bank to get a form signed so our brokerage will give us our money?"

*I'm* a moron for not doing it last week like I planned. Every time I've tried to move a lot of money within or outside of vanguard, it does take a lot of time. They're not a bank and they like things to move slowly with plenty of paperwork.

I feel like a money launderer at this point. Somewhere in DC a homeland security guy has a screaming red beacon going off on his screen.

 

[Nords]

I feel like a money launderer at this point. Somewhere in DC a homeland security guy has a screaming red beacon going off on his screen.

Eh, tell 'em that the Lexus, the house, and the contractors are your own personal jihad against LBYM and a conservative SWR-- you're single-handedly keeping the economy afloat through the subprime-mortgage crisis.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Hey, if they didnt drop by for a visit after paying off my (then) girlfriends mortgage in cash because I got ticked at the mortgage company for not dropping her PMI after 7 years of good payments...

"oh, you dont want to drop the PMI for a good paying customer? How about you get no PMI *and* no interest on the money anymore?"

By the way, paying off your girlfriends mortgage is a clear signal to her that you're getting serious...

 

[donheff]

I feel like a money launderer at this point. Somewhere in DC a homeland security guy has a screaming red beacon going off on his screen.

I kinda like the delay feature on any account with hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in it. The idea of someone getting my info and draining my accounts is pretty scary. Passing the transfer through a regular bank seems safer to me. My regular bank wouldn't allow an immediate large EFT to a new source but they know me so I could call them and arrange it.

Are you guys comfortable with banks immediately establishing new external linked accounts online?

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

when its to an escrow account established in my name...yes.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Change of subject...a minor item that amused me greatly. Contrasting where I used to live and where we're going to live.

We left our current place last week, stopped at a store. Couldnt put gabe down while I was breaking out the stroller as there was a bunch of broken miller lite bottles all over the parking lot. Later as we drove up the main road from the highway at our new town, theres an empty red wine bottle sitting off to the side of the road...didnt catch the label but it didnt look like glen ellen.

 

[justin]

Contrasting where I used to live and where we're going to live.

Similar story: I hosted a "Cops n 40's" night at my house last month (you know, the kind of event where you watch a dozen cops episodes while drinking the cheapest malt liquor you can find from 40 oz bottles?). My buddy bought the 40's for the party. My buddy is used to shopping at the high end stores where he lives in the high end suburbs. He stopped at the ghetto grocery store in my neighborhood and was AMAZED at the sheer quantity and wide selection of 40 oz malt beverages available. Guess you can't get good 40 oz malt liquor in the nice suburbs.

 

[laurence]

Cops and 40's?? My world has just been expanded!

Yeah, that's strategic marketing for you!


Dude, we so need to party.

 

[justin]

Cops and 40's?? My world has just been expanded!

Yeah, that's strategic marketing for you!

Dude, we so need to party.

Synergies at their best.

After we finished watching the Cops, we went out back and shot stuff with my BB pistol. Laurence, let me know next time you're in Raleigh - I'll get a couple extra 40's for you!

 

[honobob]

Latest Bay Area stats:

http://www.dqnews.com/RRBay0307.shtm

Hmm, it looks like you would have been better off investing in just about anything else for the last year....

Actually the "median" person made 18.5% on his down payment in Marin!
I know in my local market I did way better than that. Unfortunately alot of people let their decisions be overly influenced by "medians".

My county is showing a slight increase in appreciation and that figure is held down by all the new construction in the new neighborhoods. I never suggest buying there.

As long as I get the 11% annual average appreciation per year I'm happy. You got a better place to get 18.5% in a slow year?