End California.

 

all you can do now is move east

 

Well, Bay Area housing prices make me want to cry since I'm going to be looking this year, but at least we don't live in some totally bass ackwards state like this.

 

Consider the alternative....living in Tennessee. There you go, feel better about life

 

I think I've resigned myself to the fact that, to own a house, I will likely have to leave the Bay Area. This seems obvious when a one-bedroom apartment (oh, I'm sorry..."condo") in San Mateo sells for $350,000 and a fairly-new house in the Philadelphia suburbs with three bedrooms, a full basement and an inground pool goes for around $230,000.

I love a lot of things about the Bay Area, from the weather to the roads to the culture, but in the six years I've lived here I've never believed that it would be my permanent home. It's just too expensive.

 

My parents bought thier house for little or 200k, They plan to sell in a few years when it will be worth over 1mil. They're gonna move to Colorado and buy a few houses for cash.

Meanwhile, I can't find a 2 bd. "condo" for under 350k in the east bay. Think I'll buy an RV and live in the UCKK parking lot.

 

haha im going to own a ****ing mansion by the times you guys can buy a shack..

 

http://www.newhomes.com/homedetail.j...32558&siteid=1

 

YES! That would rule!

 

I think I'll never be able to afford another house. My ex husband and I bought a house in 2002 in the sh*ttiest area of town (in Santa Rosa) for $310k.. it was a TINY little house with basically no yard, a TANDUM garage, the only redeaming quality was that it was only 1 year old and had some nice upgrades (berber carpet, full deck). Now the house is appraising for $415 which is INSANE.. the area is a total ghetto crap hole and the house is mini.

Since he kept the house and I used my first time home buyer break with him I doubt I'll ever afford a home of my own on one income. I was looking at condos around here and all you can get is a pile of sh*t for $350k... which I can't even afford ANYWAY!

 

I'm assuming you're talking about Mortgage underwriters, right? Consider this: many have purchased homes with interest only loans. When rates go up, do you think all these people are going to be pay the bank their interest only payment which is now gone up? My guess is that this will put some downward pressure on real estate in the next 2-5 years. I predict that there is going to be a lull, dip, whatever you want to call it because of this phenomenon. If I'm right, there are going to be some lenders holding the deeds to houses for which they loaned too much money, which should negatively impact the equity value of their institution. I could be wrong, happens more often than I like to admit, but even if I am, the risks involved in both real estate and mortgage underwriters are similar if you are considering a short time frame for your investment.

 

Wow, that sounds familiar... my ex-hubby bought a house in Rincon Valley in 2001 for $339K shortly before we married. It was basically a tiny 20 y.o. shoebox with dry-rot under the bathrooms, peeling paint, hardly any insulation and appliances left over from the early 80's... neighbors on 3 sides too. In 2003 the house next door (which is totally identical in size and layout) sold for $450K. So now we're divorced and he kept the house, and I'll never make enough by myself to own a home in this area... and I sure as hell won't be moving to the ghetto parts of Santa Rosa just to make it happen. Sucks, but such is life, I guess...

 

You just "let" him keep the house? What did you get?

 

For some it may be.

But if you can manage to do it then it's not too late.

My grandparents bought a home in Sacramento for 15k way back when. That same home is well over 300,000 now. They always say "I should have bought more then." Just think of what we'll be saying years from now.

It is unfortunate though... if you can't afford 300k then you might as well start looking in other distant parts of CA and house in AZ etc. Sorry... It’s damn unfair for Generation X’ers and Millenniums.

Like DLUX WRX, I too am a Mortgage Broker and my wife's an Real Estate Agent with Century 21 so...

 

It will NEVER be too late for anyone who plan to be living in the expensive house from when he is 26 until he becomes grandfather.

Allow 20 years of time and I can almost assure anyone that he/she made the right investment by buying a house. This is the very same thing you will be told if you ask an agent, a banker or someone in their mid-ages. They just tell you the true and positive thing, but the problem is they skip the "timing" part of the story.

Think of it this way: if you buy a house now, how big is the chance that someone, who will be buying a similar house 4-5 years later, end up gaining more than you do 10 years later?