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That's all great. People still want to buy a house in CA so bad that it costs a million bucks. Political conservatives go on and on about the free market and

by jbooth 13y ago

That's all great. People still want to buy a house in CA so bad that it costs a million bucks. Political conservatives go on and on about the free market and then say with a straight face that a single government policy, income tax rates, is the most important thing to business, more so than market conditions, even if that narrative conflicts with the empirical evidence. We've been hearing about the decline of liberal CA and the northeast for so long now, and it hasn't happened yet. House prices will probably come down and soak some of the new dumb rich, and things will proceed as before. Texas is doing great, and all power to them, but by the time they eclipse CA/NY, they'll be liberal too.

Domenic_S 13y ago
Outside of celebrities I don't hear of many folks who move to California to buy million-dollar homes. The handful of people I know who made it big in business have moved out. California's a big place. You can get an awesome house on some property for $150k in many many places in CA. The million-dollar homes are concentrated mostly in SF (+Napa/etc) & LA (+Santa Barbara/etc). IMO a lot of it is the tradeup nature of housing - buy a $300k house, sell it 10 years later for $700k, buy another at $800k, sell 5 years later for $900k, buy at $1MM, on and on. And since SF/LA are centers of business, that's where the people earning that kind of dough live. The $500-700k inventory in the Bay is fiercely competitive, and what do you know, that's the price range two young married techies are looking in. Not a coincidence. I agree with the poster upthread who predicts that once the new generation realizes they're basically permanently priced out the whole area will collapse. > We've been hearing about the decline of liberal CA and the northeast for so long now, and it hasn't happened yet. It's been in progress for a long time and shows no sign of slowing. We've got big swaths of folks who are protected in the armored bubble of technology, but for the average folks things are worse than ever. I could go on and on about business owners I know making plans to evacuate, or the scores of friends rich and poor who have fled, or the stories of the behind-the-scenes trouble from friends and family in the CA government, or just plain looking around up and down the state, but the bottom line is that only time is going to tell. Eventually, one of us will be proven right and I sincerely hope it's you.

by jbooth 13y ago

Domenic_S 13y ago

Outside of celebrities I don't hear of many folks who move to California to buy million-dollar homes. The handful of people I know who made it big in business have moved out. California's a big place. You can get an awesome house on some property for $150k in many many places in CA. The million-dollar homes are concentrated mostly in SF (+Napa/etc) & LA (+Santa Barbara/etc). IMO a lot of it is the tradeup nature of housing - buy a $300k house, sell it 10 years later for $700k, buy another at $800k, sell 5 years later for $900k, buy at $1MM, on and on. And since SF/LA are centers of business, that's where the people earning that kind of dough live. The $500-700k inventory in the Bay is fiercely competitive, and what do you know, that's the price range two young married techies are looking in. Not a coincidence. I agree with the poster upthread who predicts that once the new generation realizes they're basically permanently priced out the whole area will collapse. > We've been hearing about the decline of liberal CA and the northeast for so long now, and it hasn't happened yet. It's been in progress for a long time and shows no sign of slowing. We've got big swaths of folks who are protected in the armored bubble of technology, but for the average folks things are worse than ever. I could go on and on about business owners I know making plans to evacuate, or the scores of friends rich and poor who have fled, or the stories of the behind-the-scenes trouble from friends and family in the CA government, or just plain looking around up and down the state, but the bottom line is that only time is going to tell. Eventually, one of us will be proven right and I sincerely hope it's you.