louisgray.com - Latest Comments in louisgray.com: Bay Area Real Estate Like a Hamster Wheel

Re: louisgray.com: Bay Area Real Estate Like a Hamster Wheel

Webomatica — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 23:35:00 -0000

Some links for you (especially read the comments)

http://finance.yahoo.com/ex...

http://matthewyglesias.thea...

Although I enjoy living in California and the weather here, I definitely question whether it's worth taking on such a huge mortgage especially if it doesn't enable one to save for retirement (leaving one house-poor).

When I went to college in Oregon all the locals complained about Californians coming in and snatching up the $75K to $150K homes and bidding the prices up. Now those homes are $400K which still looks awfully cheap. Now, I see the other side of the story and now that we're californians, everything elsewhere looks like it's on sale.

I think you can see what exit strategy of the hamster wheel I'm hinting at.

Re: louisgray.com: Bay Area Real Estate Like a Hamster Wheel

60 in 3 — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 21:16:00 -0000

A few items to think about:

1. Saving more is possible. Most people tend to spend way more than they should. Obviously, I have no idea about your financials but I have seen people save up for first homes or larger homes. Did it happen overnight? Of course not, but it can happen.

2. You can also get the value of your home to increase faster than other homes with some simple fixes. Planting trees, adding solar panels, fixing up a run down property are all possibilities. My in laws are currently in their third years of fixing up an older home in San Jose. They're putting in a lot of sweat equity but their equity appreciation is much higher than the valley average.

Gal