on 8/27/04 7:21 PM, Mike at watershed@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>> ... And there are situations here
>> where people pay significant sums to buy a house in order to *tear it
>> down* because they wanted the lot and are going to build new. When you
>> figure that the average new single-family detached home here in SoCal
>> goes for $225,000 and up in outlying areas....
>>
> People do that here to get by the code and zoning restrictions. They
> tear everything down but the last stone and call it a remodel. Average
> housing values here are nearly 300k and climbing. I can foresee being
> driven out by the property taxes at some point in the future. Then I'd
> have to move to Idaho where I'd probably be as popular as the
> Californians are around here ;>) Truthfully though the CA influx has
> pretty much dried up as their market tanked and ours has caught up and
> passed it. I have friends shopping for bargains in northern CA.
>
> mike
They aren't shopping the SF Bay area... average house price here is nearly
$600,000. There is essentially nothing available under $200,000.-- including
1 bedroom condo's. The rate of appreciation in recent years has been slower
than in the past, but still 10-15% per year. This reverses in severe
recessions, with home prices actually dropping on average over a few months.
Of course you don't lose any money unless you are forced to sell into the
down market, and if you just hang on and keep making your mortgage payments
the market will rise again and you catch it all up. Even with one of the
highest average household incomes in the US, only about 1 in 5 households
can afford the 'average' house around here. That to me seems a recipe for
long-term disaster... but there's no serious discussion of opening up the
construction possibilities. As a result, people routinely drive 50-100 miles
-each way- commuting from 'affordable' homes developed in the Central Valley
(where prices come closer to those in Southern CA). I love it here, but I'm
never going to be a homeowner here... at one time CA was about 20% more than
the rest of the US, now its more like 300% more costly.
--
Jim Brokaw
OM-'s of all sorts, and no OM-oney...
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