Where Did All the Children Go?

The Washington Post ^ | Sunday, March 19, 2006 | John Pomfret

[umgud]

Without regard to all the social problems in the big cities, I have to wonder how young families can afford to live in them. You can't get a starter home in SF for much less than $750K. Not many young folks can do this.

[Zeroisanumber]

As Republican portions of the country outbreed DemocRAT portions, power will shift to the regions with more population growth.

People move though, and politics aren't genetic (ask my parents). South Dakota, for example, has a high birthrate but a low population because they lose many of their young people to Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Illinois.

[SuziQ]

Boston is not quite as bad as San Fran. You can still get a starter home for about 300,000, if you're willing to live outside the city, within commuter range.

[Paleo Conservative]

Massachussetts will actually lose population in the next census. They will lose congressional representation.

[umgud]

You can still get a starter home for about 300,000, if you're willing to live outside the city, within commuter range.

Just my point.

[Uncle Miltie]

Sending you child to Public School in Seattle amounts to child abuse.

[luckystarmom]

We live in the bay area. We'll stay here probably until we retire. However, we will have made a lot of money and will be able to use that money during retirement.

My brothers' bought houses in Texas and have never made any money off of their houses.

We sold our first California home for $850K. We bought it for $325K around 10 years before. We bought our new house for 1.1 million about 2 years ago, and we could probably sell it for 1.3 million today.

[opinionator]

Wow! Not one mention of rent control.

[Clemenza]

DINK = Double Income, No Kids

SINK= Single Income, No Kids

[bill1952]

>Nope.


Sorry, I don't believe you for a minute.
You know exactly what he meant. And you know it.

[bill1952]

Hmm. Bought my first home in 84 for 29K. sold it for 185K

Bought numerous empty lots for 2K+. All worth over 100K. Florida. So?

[newzjunkey]

I think the point is that home ownership is a good investment in some places but not others. I look at two bedrooms for $400K in San Diego and my brain wants to implode.

[Energy Alley]

please forgive me, militant homosexual slang isn't an are of my expertise.

i actually thought it might have been a racial remark.

[Energy Alley]

reminds me of a headline in the Orange County Register about a month ago... a shithole in Garden Grove sold for less than half a million and that appeared to justify the front page.

I anticipate moving back to California in about 5 or 6 years, I am hoping the real estate market busts really, really hard before then.

[Energy Alley]

I didn't buy it as an investment, I bought it because my wife didn't think my apartment in Hollywood was a good place for children. Although when the time came to sell I was pretty happy with the house I didn't want to begin with.

I am however starting to wonder if my new house might end up the same way. This town is filling up with other Americans who made a fortune selling their home in the US and are buying in a much less expensive market. A house nearby just went for about $600,000 US (very rough exchange rate estimate) and bidding wars are breaking out. I could be sitting pretty in a few years when I return to the states and its time to sell.

Not sure I could ever get into making houses a deliberate investment though or planning for retirement on one. In the early 80's my brother in law got hosed when he got transfered and sold his hould for $69,000 after building it for $110,000 a few years earlier.

The real estate market will crater again.

[bill1952]

Oh. I apologize for any misunderstanding.

I've seen the term 'breeders' applied to any number of people who squeeze out baby after baby that they can't possibly afford, and have no family structure for, as well.
The kids end up being supported by the state.

I don't see how it applies in this case.

[bill1952]

>Massachussetts will actually lose population in the next census. They will lose congressional representation

I don't see any downside to that!

Florida is set to surpass NY in the next census.
Unoffical figures here show that it has already happened.

[bill1952]

That makes sense.

I still believe that ownership in Florida makes tremendous sense, especially if you buy some raw land for the kids.

The dirt isn't going to get much cheaper, if it ever does.

[reformedliberal]

I live in SW Wisconsin. My son, a country kid, and his wife, who is from Baraboo, WI, (to out-of-staters, that is also rural) lived in Minneapolis for 15 years. Four years ago, they sold out and moved to SoDak. Their reasons were high city taxes and a nanny attitude from city government.

We have many kids who were anxious to move to the *happenin'* Big City who return after they find out what it is really like, there, or after they complete their education and work in the Cities for awhile.

Unfortunately, we also have drug dealers, gang-bangers and assorted welfare slugs who move here for what they think will be less visibilty to the LEO and space in which to manufacture drugs, plus higher welfare in a low cost area. They become more visible when the weather warms.


Not sure any of this specific movement changes voting patterns.

[Fintan]

 

Disposable income.