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Posted on 03/18/2006 6:20:48 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
SAN FRANCISCO -- Monica Burton did not want to leave San Francisco. Born and raised in the city and a train driver for the Muni transit system for the past 16 years, she loves her home town, volunteers in its women's jail and prays weekly at her church in the Hunter's Point section along the San Francisco Bay.
But as the main breadwinner for her family, which includes a 22-year-old daughter and two granddaughters, she faced some hard choices. Stay in San Francisco and abandon the dream of owning her own home because of skyrocketing housing prices, or leave. In 2004, Burton left with her grandchildren, buying a three-bedroom house in what she calls a "Leave It to Beaver" neighborhood in Sacramento, a 158-mile round-trip commute from her job in the city of her birth.
People like Burton have been leaving U.S. cities because of high-priced housing for some time. But according to researchers and urban leaders, the trend has accelerated in recent years and is threatening to reshape many of the nation's major cities. Between 2000 and 2004, all eight metropolitan regions from Seattle to San Diego lost middle-class families.
On the East Coast, a similar trend is underway, with middle-class families fleeing the New York region and Boston for the South. The District has been in the buffer zone, losing middle-class families with children to the Sun Belt but gaining some from the Northeast, said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution.
"There's a middle-class flight on both sides of the country," said Frey, who has analyzed county-level census data on both coasts. He has found that real estate costs more than schools are what is driving the migration.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Great grandmothers at 50... the 'blue-state special'.
BTTT
My husband and I have always said that you buy a house to make it your home.
We're just real glad that we're also making money off of it. It makes it easier to spend the outrageous money for a house.
Our other home stayed flat for about 5 years before it made money. However, we liked the house and we were in a great neighborhood. We didn't have a need to move.
We also could have made do with our old house. It was okay. However, our twin girls were older, and having difficulties sharing a room. One of them is special needs, and she can be very difficult. We finally could afford to buy a new bigger house, and we did.
Now, we're in a house that we will never grow out of. We can stay here forever if we want. However, I think we'll move some place much cheaper when we retire, and we'll get a smaller house.
You've done good on your investments.
I always felt sorry for one of my brothers. He lived in Houston, when he bought and sold his first house. It was a small 2 bedroom patio home. They needed to move out of it because it was too small for their growing family.
He had to take a loss on the first house in order to buy his next home.
That's the one thing you don't want to have to do when you buy and sell a home.
People complain about the high prices in California, but once you get in you usually make money. You may have to wait a few years, but it's a pretty good investment.
MILLIONS OF THEM GOT ABORTED!
I hope, of course that you waited until after they signed.
Welcome to FR.
They paid almost a million, and bid it up to that, for a house that needed a new roof, a garage that was basically decomposing, and in need of major landscaping because of a wicked slump block on the hill in the back yard.
The house looked something like the one on Malcolm in the Middile.
Who knows, maybe they just really appreciated being walking distance from the Ricard Nixon birthplace.
This woman is a fool and an idiot. The move does not make economic sense, let alone practicality.
158 miles, each day??
Assume 18 mpg --->> 8.8 Gallons per day
Assume 2.59 $/gal --->> $22.79 $/day
Plus bridge tolls ---> $6.00 $/day
$29.00 $/day x 5 d/wk x 4.16 wks/mth = approx. 600.00 per month just to get to work!
Plus wear and tear on her car ---> 158 x 5 x 4.16 = 3,280 miles per month!
She passed over: Vallejo, American canyon, Fairfield and Suisun. All of which are almost as affordable as Sacramento and about half the distance (Vallejo/America Canyon).
She did not need a "Leave it to Beaver" neighborhood, but maybe a George Jefferson one would have sufficed and she would have saved money and time.
with:... Zaria Ivory, Ajianah...Tyria
And those names are not going to help those kids much to change their lot in life.
Maybe the plan was to tear it down and build?
Maybe the plan was to tear it down and build?
JOHNSON'S GREAT SOCIETY DID HUGE HARM TO BLACK FAMILIES...HUGE.
I suppose at the time, my greatest concern was getting sued... you guys do realise what your buying, right?
It seems par for the course these days, people will buy anything they can get their hands on.
"where did all the children go"
Aside from the suburbs - I'd check the trash cans in back of the abortion clinics.
The total number of abortions are now declining.
About 40 million late!
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