Posted on 06/01/2014 8:57:37 AM PDT by artichokegrower
In one of the most agonizing disconnects of the Bay Area's surging economy, far more people want to buy a home than want to sell one, making this the tightest housing market in the nation.
Would-be homebuyers are crowding into scarce open houses and battling for the few available, leading to rising prices, rapid sales -- many homes sell within a week -- and frustrated house hunters.
"This is the most sustained period of low inventory I've seen in 20 to 24 years," said Chris Trapani, head of the Sereno Group in Silicon Valley.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Excellent question and I've wondered that myself. Without wanting to sound callous, I refer you to the phrase "the world needs ditchdiggers too." And no matter how technologically advanced we become, I believe the world will always need common laborers.
That said, I want to make it clear that I do not intend "common laborers" to be a pejorative term at all. There is a certain dignity in a simple job well done, be it painting a house, landscaping a lawn, or performing maintenance on an automobile. I'm not sure we will ever have robots perform those (and many other) menial tasks anytime soon.
In recent years, I have begun to hire people to do things around the house I used to do myself. For instance, I have my landscaping done by others, I pay an independent businessman to come plow and shovel my driveway everytime it snows. I also hire a husband/wife team to come clean my house every two weeks and have a handyman that comes periodically to do things around the house like hang ceiling fans or repair/paint window casings. All of this I could do myself if I wanted to save the money but I feel good about helping them make a living. Also, they tend to do these things way better than I would.
I think if everybody who could afford to do so took that approach, we'd have plenty to do for everybody.
Which is what illegals are for.
Sounds like your ship has come in. Call your realtor ASAP.
It’s interesting to see how many wealthy Chinese there are.
What’s up with so many wealthy people from a communist country? What would Chairman Mao think of today’s China? Is he turning in his grave at what free market reforms have done to his country????
Point being, there should be no wealthy people under communism. The concept of private ownership is against the theories of communism. The concept of millionaire business people in communism, making so much money, runs counter to communist theory. The concept of them then taking money out of the country and buying real estate, real estate which is individually owned, is also against communism.
China has changed, no question about it.
Actually, Fort Collins CO is worse.
1% vacancy on rentals.
Lots of homes are being bought up by speculators and landlords.
Lots of stuff is being built but it won’t come on line for a couple years.
China sells America approximately 440 billion dollars / year now.
America only sells China approximately 122 billion dollars / year.
That leaves almost one billion dollars America sends to China, every single day of the year. Every single year.
Constantly.
We are selling out America.
Good points.
I remember when candidate Barack Obama was angry that we borrow so much money from China to fund deficit spending. He was frustrated at a $9 trillion national debt. He said it was unpatriotic to borrow so much to run deficits, with our creditor being the Bank of China.
President Obama has pursued policies which have driven the total official debt to $17 trillion and counting, and freely borrows from that Bank of China to finance his deficit spending.
Well the houses are dinky and run down
I know you must not know what I am talking about because when people come from the Bay Area to where I live, they go wow, this would be a multimillion dollar house where I live, wow, everything is so big here, wow, everything is painfully clean and fixed up here
So, hit flyover country sometime, then you will know what I am talking about
I work anytime, any day from anywhere, not necessarily great if you are stuck answering emails and putting out fires on spring break.
Yeeeeeeeeeeah Or even on Sundays from the back yard
You must be blind not to see the communists
Heck, on my European vacation, I was connecting into the company VPN from a tour bus in the South of France, to put out a fire.
Go to North Dakota
AIG just told their staff not to buy in NYC
The problem in the Bay area is the extreme environmentalism that prevents anything new from being built. No increased supply, but naturally increasing demand => increasing prices.
As for the Chinese, if you have an excess of dollar bills you are trying to get rid of, you are more likely to buy US denominated assets such as stocks and real estate in the US.
I know what you mean
Beat me to it.
I’ve lived in what is ow the oh-so-trendy and hip area of East Nashville for 20 years now and prices are ridiculous. Probably time for e to sell, downsize, get away from the crowds and take a big profit.
“Unfortunately, that affects the comps for existing homes and we get to pay more in property taxes.”
That is a dangerous situation that basically can price people out of their own homes/neighborhoods; it happened in northern NJ as NYC fell. Rural areas along the NJ/NY border were built up to accomodate the flight of wealthy whites from NYC, and the original people there couldn’t afford to stay (property taxes rose so quickly because the NYC transplants wanted every amenity imagineable).
Gov. Christie’s 2% property tax cap would prevent something like that from happening today.
“I’ve posted here for years that people should be willing to relocate and go where the jobs are. So I’m basically following my own advice on this one.”
Not sure where in the NYC area you’re moving, but be careful: this area is continuing to lose a lot of jobs, and homes here in northern NJ often are hard to sell due to sky-high property taxes (I believe this same problem affects areas north of NYC).
Good luck!
Dilbert wrote: “The concept of them then taking money out of the country and buying real estate, real estate which is individually owned, is also against communism.”
are you kidding?
this guy was a supposed leftist who was against further market reforms
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo_Xilai#Downfall
turns out he was one of the most personally corrupt and wealthy of the whole leadership gang
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo_Xilai#Downfall
all the “princelings” in china are fabulously wealthy due to corruption
right now in china i would say they are operating under the idea that “Plutocracy is the highest form of socialism”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
