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250K buys a shack in socal

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yes, there is a bubble but bubbles can last for many years

if you're thinking about moving to socal you should rent for a while. if you still think living here is worth what it costs each month, then buy a place.
 
Originally posted by: jjones
I'm surprised you can find anything to own for 250k in SoCal.
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Yucca Valley and Joshua Tree (~120 miles equidistant from Downtowns LA and SD)are becoming "desireable" places to live with (nice) houses ~250K . . . . no problem less than 1 hour commuting to Coachilla Valley-LowDesert Cities/San Bernardino/Riverside . . . . and a better place to actually live than the much more pricey(and hot-as-hell) low-desert (Palm Springs area).

Just don't really move here . . . . it's getting CROWDED. 😛
:roll:
 
Originally posted by: Mill
I just know that I would never pay that much for a house. Yes, I know the weather is great, lots of culture, lots to do, etc. However, you can find the same thing in any state. You don't have to live in a Suburban hellhole just because you don't live on either coast. I'm very happy in my current neighborhood, although I wish there were more commercial things closer, but I really can't complain considering I used to live in a densely populated part of Atlanta, and it took 20 minutes to go a mile from my apartment. 20 minutes here takes me to Downtown, my University, any commercial restaurant or shop, or pretty much any entertainment venue. Heck, I didn't even want to pay over 150k for a home, but I guess I did in the end.

I have no problem with someone buying that expensive of a home, but I just can't understand it.

Especially when you consider this list: My Area has the 6th strongest Economy in the nation right now.

I feel very good about my investment and the area I live in.
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That's interesting, my grandparents live in the strongest metro-area.
 
haha i am from torrance. that shack is probably on a decent piece of land. tear it down and build a house on it later.

houses there average about 500-600k for a 4 bedroom now. no kidding.
 
Originally posted by: Staples
San Antonio is great. $250k would get you something really nice.
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Yup. I was just looking at some of these insane house prices listed in this thread and thinking of how nice of a place that would get you around here. Hell, a friend of mine has a house that's around $200k and it's at least as nice as many of these $700k+ houses in California...
 
Yeah housing prices skyrocketed in the past decade here in CA. My mom bought a house in the suburbs of LA 10 years ago for $180k. Now it's worth well over $700k. She did spend $100k in improvements and remodeling though.
She's made as much money from the inflation prices of housing than she has from her $50k/yr income from being an RN nurse. :Q
 
Originally posted by: jadinolf
Originally posted by: rh71
is torrance worse than compton ? We always hear about the latter in gangsta videos...
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Torrance is very good.
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yeah i'd say most of torrance is pretty nice. peopel get shot sometimes in north torrance. since well its near gardena. and well gardena becomes quite ghetto in some areas. (and for the countless nissan fan boys out there is also where nissan headquarters for america is, honda and toyota apparently decided torrance is where they wanted to be though)

carson also is on one side of torrance. and carson is in rap videos also. so yeah its funny how close things are.

i actually think torrance is like, a buffer zone between carson, gardena , etc for palos verdes, a town on a mountain with a golf course on a peninsula that is richer than beverly hills. those jackholes drive down to torrance and well... you can tell the sl65amg that passed you by is probably from upu there.
 
Originally posted by: Red Dawn
Originally posted by: tfinch2
Originally posted by: Staples
San Antonio is great. $250k would get you something really nice.
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Tell me about it. My parents bought a NICE 3 bedroom 2 bathroom house on 1.5 acres of land for 130k recently.
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So prices for Real Estate is cheap in Dumbfukistan?
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Don't worry. We also have some expensive ones in Dumbfukistan.

http://www.phyllisbrowning.com...DIV=&RELOREFERRER=

http://www.phyllisbrowning.com...DIV=&RELOREFERRER=
 
Originally posted by: Vic
I'm with your dad. I don't believe in mass calamity. But a lot of folks will take it in the shorts with all these zero down loans just from a stagnation in values.

Mortgage rates are NOT based off the Fed prime rates. That's a common misconception. The Federal Reserve Bank does NOT set mortgage rates in the US. Mortgage rates actually are their own commodity, called Mortgage-Backed Securities (or MBS), but they usually follow closely the yield on the 10 year Treasury Bond (note that this website always puts the decimal in the wrong place, it should be 4.285% today). In my experience, prevailing Fannie/Freddie mortgage rates used to always be 2% above that yield, or 6.25%. But right now, the spread has reduced to about 5.5%, an all-time low spread.
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If one is expecting prices to fall, isn't it actually better to put as small a down payment as possible? Say if you put 10% down, and house prices fall 10%, you're not upside down on the loan, but you lost all the cash you put down.

Or do you mean people will take it in the shorts from interest only loans? 😛 Or maybe interest only ARM loans? People using those are seriously gonna get messed up if house prices even fall and/or rates go up.
 
Originally posted by: tfinch2
Originally posted by: Staples
San Antonio is great. $250k would get you something really nice.
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Tell me about it. My parents bought a NICE 3 bedroom 2 bathroom house on 1.5 acres of land for 130k recently.
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I'm sure it's a nice house but they have to live in San Antonio. But if you can't appreciate the difference between living in Nowheresville and an urban location on the west or east coast, or even a better city in Texas, it's great.
 
Originally posted by: mercanucaribe
Originally posted by: tfinch2
Originally posted by: Staples
San Antonio is great. $250k would get you something really nice.
Click to expand...

Tell me about it. My parents bought a NICE 3 bedroom 2 bathroom house on 1.5 acres of land for 130k recently.
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I'm sure it's a nice house but they have to live in San Antonio. But if you can't appreciate the difference between living in Nowheresville and an urban location on the west or east coast, or even a better city in Texas, it's great.
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I guess Nowheresville is the 8th largest city in the US. I don't get what you're saying. What's in an urban location that SA doesn't have besides an assload of obscene traffic? Not to mention the weather is great.

 
Originally posted by: notfred
Originally posted by: HappyPuppy
That is why I have no plans on ever moving. Why should I? I would lose proximity to my family and friends in a community that I know and love in trade for living amongst strangers in a locale that is below my standards.
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People completely ignore this, and I think it's because they're used to living in Missouri or somewhere, where the landscape is identical for hundreds of miles in each direction, all the houses are part of identical looking subdivisions, and every town has the same Walmart, Home Depot, etc.

I honestly think that there's a lot of people out there who have no idea what it's like to live in a place that has character.

I know I moved away from my hometown (Santa Cruz), to somewhere only two hours away (Davis), and I still plan on moving back because I honestly miss the place I grew up. I like it more than anywhere else I've ever been.
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Is that how you rationalize such exorbitant prices, by calling it "character"? How much of the US have you actually seen? There are beautiful areas in almost every state.

You grew up in CA, so that's all you know; however, the rest of the world calls it nonsense. Keep your character and I'll spend the extra cash traveling the world. 😀
 
Originally posted by: OS
If one is expecting prices to fall, isn't it actually better to put as small a down payment as possible? Say if you put 10% down, and house prices fall 10%, you're not upside down on the loan, but you lost all the cash you put down.

Or do you mean people will take it in the shorts from interest only loans? 😛 Or maybe interest only ARM loans? People using those are seriously gonna get messed up if house prices even fall and/or rates go up.
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Correct, you would want to put as little down as possible in order to minimize personal risk (i.e. put the risk on the lender and not yourself). But, as I already implied in an earlier post in this thread, the value of your home is only important if you plan to sell or refinance. Otherwise, if you plan to live there forever, just get the best fixed rate deal that you can, make the payments, and acquire your equity the old fashioned way: by paying down your mortgage.

Not everyone with an IO mortgage is going to get slammed. Just those who take out a loan so big that they can't afford to make principal payments. Otherwise, IO loans have a cool feature that, during the inital 10 year interest only period, the payment re-amortizes everytime the borrower makes a principal payment -- a very handy feature for those with inconsistent income.

Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
Around my area, it costs $68k just for a 30 year old mobile home:
http://www.camoves.com/propert...b8b4ac&abrand=1406
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Even worse, that's a pre-HUD in a park. Almost un-financible except at a double-digit interest rate with a minimum 20% down. At least it's a double-wide, as single-wide pricing would be even worse. Otherwise, it would be easier to get financing on an RV.
 
Originally posted by: Red Dawn
Originally posted by: 5LiterMustang
250k here buys a very nice house, several thousand square feet...living on the east or west coast would suck
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Not if you could afford it.
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If I were a multi millionaire maybe it wouldn't, but if you're making less then 300k a year why would someone want to live out there? Making 100k a year here you can live like someone making 200ish out there.
 
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