[tdadams]

Do you know many professions including medicine that can afford a mortgage of 600,000 dollars if they have to purchase the investment without the help of mommy and daddy- which I suspect is how many of the flamers on this board "earned" the houses that they live.

Not exactly. The area where I live has undergone a few years of unprecedented property appreciation. Some 2500sf homes which sold for $70K 20 years ago are now selling for $450K. That's a house that's probably been paid off, so the sale price is pure profit (no tax if held for more than 2 years).

Combine that with the fact that the seller is probably someone in their late 40s to early 50s (their prime earning years) with a good income and has been investing for 15 or 20 years.

That makes a $700 to $800K house within reach of some who makes less than a doctor's income.

[Porterville]

Exactly, chiefly retiree's which is fine; but how does CA attract young professional with families? Yeah, I know a fair amount of people who make over 100 K per year but with children, in their early 40's... with the State and Fed Taxes... college around the corner... it is tough stuff.

I am working on ways to pull off a property here along the coast; but I'm not sure I want to pay for a lot the same it would cost me for a ranch in Idaho along a river bed.

If all you attract are retiree's, then all you are those not producing. The renters, are the young. The professionals are all looking for jobs outside the state.

What is left?

[luckystarmom]

We bought a home in Ca. for 300k and sold it for 800k. It was a 2000 sq ft home that needed lots of work. We just moved up to our million dollar home. It's a 3400 sq ft home that has been redone totally.

We started doing the financing, and we figured we were going to be spending more on fixing up our old home.

The only thing that is bad is our taxes. We were paying property tax on a 300K home, and now we're paying property taxes on a million dollar home. Ouch!!!!

[Irish Eyes]

Capital Gains??