Posted on 08/03/2015 9:17:46 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
I’m sure you accomplished that with smart planning, discipline and hard work, and it is commendable. The difficulty is, not everyone can work for themselves, and not everyone can leave California for the cheaper housing in Texas. You sound like a resourceful single guy? A woman is not going to have that degree of flexibility.
I’m thinking of friends of mine who live in the Frisco bay area. 2 ladies sharing an apartment, both widowed. One is retired with social security and a tiny pension as her only income. The other has a good job at a high-tech company.
Their rent is about $2000 per month for a 900 sq foot, plain apartment in a run-down area. The tough part is the rent goes up 20% per year no matter what, like clockwork. The reason they are in this lower-class area is they had to move out of their nice apartment because they could not keep up with the rent increases. Now in a few years they will be forced to move again. It’s simply impossible to keep up.
What I really don’t understand is how the rents can increase beyond people’s ability to pay, and yet the apartment complexes have waiting lists?!? Who are the people that can afford thousands of dollars each month just for rent?
I’ve never paid a service guy to come to my properties. I always fix things myself. I was blessed in the old day to be able to learn electrical and HVAC in high school and self taught plumbing and auto and small engine repair on my own. God has truly blessed me with skills. I was really really smart in school but always liked those dirty hand skills. Even today my mom still tells me but you could have done this or that but I repeatedly tell her God has blessed me with a truly fabulous life and I have always been happy. And say “even if I died now I would be so happy for what I’ve lived and been given.”
Good for you but don’t expect others to do what you do and make money from it. Owning homes and the maintenance of those are difficult things for most people. That is why you can not make any blanket statements about owning vs renting.
Well, that's easy to SAY, you know, but I have to admit that that's the way I feel after seeing Pluto, after all these years, ( of my life, that is. )
Your beginning tells it all, renting is bad. I can’t even imagine an older person on a fix income thinking they’ll be able to pay future rents. Sure property taxes are bad but not like rent. I have a wooded property here in Texas that I could easily convert into a million dollar ranch about 40/50 miles north of Houston but only pay now about 400 in property taxes. But once I convert the taxes would be catastrophic. I’d love to convert it to a nice ranch with steel fencing but they’ll tax the hell out of me for the buildings, meaning barns
hugh influx mostly from Asia
many Asians buying California houses directly from China, etc, not even coming here to look
many deals are all cash, too, so much so that escrow companies have printed up instructions in both English and Chinese that funds are not to be paid in cash, ... that certified bank cheques or wires (including now some international wires) are to be utilized for payment (the escrow companies tend to be little offices without significant security, they do not want tens of millions of dollars of cash sitting around there lest they become the victims of some very lucrative robberies)
and so the California housing market goes these days.
raising the minimum wage will have zero to do with it, zero
they are trying to get some of their money out of PRC before the commies re-impose stricter export controls like they used to have
It’s not helping that H1Bs will cram 4 to 6 people in a 1 bedroom apartment (more in a 2). There used to be occupancy laws addressing this, but they have been changed, apparently. I’d rather live in a tent or a van down by the river than live in an apartment. It was hell in the 80s.
Wow! I own a small house on a standard lot in a so-so Oregon town, decent but nothing special, and my property taxes are now over $1900/year! The problem is this is a county with many “entitlement” types renting, but long-term, and anytime these people want anything at all, they just vote in a bond measure. They think it’s like magic.
A new high school, when there was nothing wrong with the old one - some community group just started raising a ruckus about “the best for our children.” The next year they did it again for the grammar school. Then a new community college, with such low attendance it sits half empty! It’s not even fully accredited, it’s hardly even a trade school. Then a new animal shelter which is almost as elegant as Trump Tower, cost a fortune! For about 15 animals at a time We have very low population density here, these projects cannot be justified financially.
Now a new hospital, and they are not even adding medical services, it’s all glamour and larger offices and conference rooms for staff and doctors. But they say “community health” and people vote yes.
Also outrageous things like parks, community swimming pools, meal program, a constant stream of unnecessary things that usually are only affordable in wealthier areas. This is a rural area, it’s absurd to want more attractions than Disneyland!
These bond measures usually pass by a handful of votes; the homeowners are sick of this, but the deadbeats win. Some things do get defeated, but rarely. So consider that $400 a bargain! :-)
I live in Texas and we have all new schools, infrastructure and yes they keep passing bond issues and they pass with flying colors because yes our community is growing rapidly and these things are needed
Or you could move elsewhere in CA. I moved from the Bay Area to the Sacramento area about 12 years ago. Housing is about 1/3 what it was there.
That’s good, if the area is growing. Good for you. Here the town councils, board of sups, and community groups all are ANTI-growth. They want things to stay cute and small and folksy like Mayberry.
They have rejected applications from Burger King, Home Depot, Starbucks, Costco and others which would bring in not only tax revenue but tons of needed jobs. The “mom and pops” are failing because no one has any management skills and tourism is falling off. Store fronts are boarded up. The locals blame this on the residents for going to the “city” to shop or “online shopping”.
They are so stupid they cannot figure out that their “zero growth” policy hurts the local economy. The 2 major industries, timber and fishing, have been crushed by the EPA and State govt years ago, but the locals cannot adjust to reality.
This could be a successful tourist attraction, but they have no vision to create it, or, truth be told, to work hard enough to achieve it.
Things are crazy here (SF peninsula). I decided to live close to the city so as to avoid long commutes. A lot of people I know opted to move far away and accept long commutes. Guess what? Those locations in and near the city improved, were gentrified and are prized now. The far away locations deteriorated when poor misfits moved there, causing decay and crime. Those who had cashed out and moved far away can't afford to come back near the city, are in crime-ridden areas, and the commute has become increasingly harsher. Glad I stayed put, even though I have been wanting to move for decades (my wife nixed my ideas). Just glad I own free and clear, would hate to rent these days. Real estate is going up 5 to 10 percent per year here, and is being passed on in higher rents.
The renters always vote for new bike trails, more park subsidies, higher gas taxes.
All to be paid for by property owners.
Surprise! Property owners raise rents to pay for what you scrounging fools vote for.
You have more rights to do things in a place you own rather than rent, and I dont have to let strangers in if I dont want to to do maintenance or swap out shower heads and the like.
So you just called half the people here “scrounging fools?”
If you think that raising property taxes on land owners to pay for liberal BS you are a scrounging fool.
And where in the **** did I say anything about raising property taxes?
I did not say that to you about raising property taxes. But what causes renter income to go up here in Seattle is majoryly the liberal renters thinking that they can vote for a bunch of crap and it will not touch them because they rent. Then the folks who own rentals raise rates to pay for the stuff that the renters vote for that they think will be free.
When I sell my property and then rent I will not vote for a bunch of stuff that I think will be free but others will which will then raise my rent.
I live in a state where property taxes are capped and rents still keep going up. Hopefully apartment builders responding to demand and putting up new units will stem the surge soon.
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