Comments on: You snooze you lose 2: $219,000 house in the Peninsula

By: austindweller

austindweller — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:10:30 +0000

Welcome Malcolm (well that rhymes).

I don’t know why people think they save money in BA because they get more salary there. Last 2 years that I lived in BA, my saving per annum went down. My single income in non BA saved a little less than our double income in BA. Frankly, I felt it was not worth for my spouce to toil for that small increase in net saving and the previous equation was better. I have to accept that I got a very small actual pay raise when I moved to BA. In fact, if one subtracts the state tax it was a pay cut(my previous state has no state tax). I also agree I was one of he top earners for my skills when I was not in BA. So my case maynot be the norm, but I feel, saving per annum as a couple has to grow signficantly to take on the hardships BA makes one face. Even then it may not be worth for a long time.

By: DensityDuck

DensityDuck — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 23:57:12 +0000

Malcolm: Uh, you shouldn’t call someone a pretentious douchebag if you’re going to follow it up with the pretentious-douchebag move of announcing that you’re “leaving forever” on the Internet.

By: madhaus

madhaus — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 22:41:44 +0000

bob, you gotta learn to take yourself a little less seriously. It’s just a song, it doesn’t need footnotes.

By: bob

bob — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:21:34 +0000

I think some edits are required for that tune. I’m no tunesmith, but here are the corrections:

43 miles from our jobs, that does it, we’re leaving, we’re priced out

Commute doesn’t bother me. Our car get 53 MPG. Our rent is dirt-cheap. We aren’t priced out.We could afford but choose not to waste money.

43 miles from our jobs, commuting, polluting, we’re priced out

The car is a Prius, which is a near-zero pollution vehicle.

Counting the money we save, invest it
Watching the stock market crash, forget it

Yup, we are counting the money, which even now is quite a lot, thanks to our jobs, cheap-o rent,frugal living standards, and high MPG car. 50% cash, 20% overseas stocks, the rest in conservative mutual funds. Combined, my investments are up 6% YOY. Not bad.Right now is the time to buy stocks. They’re nice N cheap! I get all giddy when people panic like rodents on Wall Street.

Seeing the price on each lot, we’re crying

Maybe laughing actually. I’ll feel sorry for people who bought over the last 5 years. I feel sorry for people who can’t move as easily as us. Happy that what we’ll buy elsewhere will be nicer and people aren’t stuck-up. I’ll still be laughing when I have a large yard in which I can’t see the neighbors and think of all those fine folks back in the BA crammed together in their PA pink houses.

Oh well. I guess I’m just too “stoopid” to understand the precious attributes of the BA.

By: madhaus

madhaus — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:02:53 +0000

Tune: 99 Miles from LA (Art Garfunkel)

Engine’s too quiet to hear, we’re crawling
Engine’s too idle to run, we’re stopping
43 miles from our jobs, commuting, polluting, we’re priced out

Passing the crackerbox tract, we’re laughing
Seeing the price on each lot, we’re crying
43 miles from our jobs, we work here, we live there, we’re priced out

The freeway is covered with slicks, I’m slipping
An accident ahead stops us all, I’m flipping
43 miles from our jobs, I hate this, we’re late sis, we’re priced out

Counting the money we save, invest it
Watching the stock market crash, forget it
43 miles from our jobs, that does it, we’re leaving, we’re priced out

By: bob

bob — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 19:50:33 +0000

err… 43 miles each way…

By: madhaus

madhaus — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 19:38:24 +0000

DreamT you forgot all the other things you are missing out on:
– The joy of living among historic properties in quiet and pleasant Alameda and commuting 75 miles each way to work
– The excitement of describing your gun collection while threatening liberals with them
– The thrill of buying investment property in edge zips and hoping you picked the right one
– The thrill of someone whose house got called out showing up on the blog to defend their outragious tax break
– The suspense as two otherwise affable posters go after each other over whether home prices reflect job opportunities or racism
– The tedium of angry renter droning
– The predictability of another song parody

Well, you get the idea.

By: bob

bob — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 19:36:30 +0000

Well Malcom,
Can’t say I blame you. But… Austin isn’t technically “The South” TX is its own little area in my opinion. The South stops past Arkansas in my boat.

Anyhow, I am not influenced by anything in regards to my own BA exodus other than using common sense as well as personal preference.

All I can say is that I have a friend in NC. He lives in a small town and works in lumber sales. He and his Wife bought a home 4 years ago. Now they’ve sold that one and have bought a bigger one. He’s also 3 years younger than me. My best friend in High School lives in Knoxville,TN. He and his Wife bought a house for cash 7 years ago. Now they live in a nice house on 3 acres. They’re the same age as me and she doesn’t work. My Brother bought a house while he was in college working as a waiter. He sold it afterwards and made 20k.

Basically, just about every person I know back home makes a fraction of what I make, are in house No.1, or in most cases, no.2, drive decent cars, spend time at the lake or in the mountains, and live like decent people should. Out here, it seems like everyone is at least 40 before they buy crappy house no.1, and do so by the skin of their teeth. Then they wait around for crashes and stuff to allow them to move up.

I don’t want to live like that. So I’ll probably be out there, or somewhere else sooner or later.

By: DreamT

DreamT — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 19:10:20 +0000

Which is worse, RealEstater nagging non-homeowners and non-RBA-ers that they are missing out, or Malcolm nagging BA residents that they are missing out? I may need a margarita to settle on that.

By: Malcolm

Malcolm — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 19:02:00 +0000

Well, I can see this website has pretty much degraded into little more than the Real Estate Blog equivalent of the Jerry Springer show.

And I see that little, pretentious douchebag RealEstater is still spouting nonsense, acting like a 4 year old child and spreading dis-information. How surprising.

As for me, after some soul searching, I decided to vacate the Bay Area and ended up transfering to Austin, TX. And I have to say, my only regret is NOT DOING THIS SOONER!

This city is incredible. A stellar nightlife. Good culture. Nice weather and trails. And southern belles are VERY cute!
And it is VERY affordable. So on that note, I do have to thank RealEstater since he gave me an epiphany. Realizing just how asinine and moronic individuals like him are gave me pause and made me re-evaluate my life choices. And being someone who made decent money via the dot com bubble, I can now live infinitely more comfortably here than I ever could in the Bay Area.

So I bid everyone adieu. Enjoy your “shack” RealEstater and try not to breathe in those toxic fumes from the copious wildfires in California. As for me, I am going to sit by my pool and gaze at my new 3200 square foot home. Enjoy a margarita while I am at it.

See yah. And California: GOOD RIDDANCE!