<p>Everything’s going to look dated, there’s no question, as the home-improvement industry is always coming out with the next big trend. One can fear looking dated and race to make sure design choices are up-to-the-minute, which ironically can lead to the very result one was trying to avoid.</p>
<p>My plan is to pick materials I love and want to have in my home for a very long time as I hope to be in this house for the next 30 years. We’re going to incorporate aging in place ideas for the bathrooms and downstairs office/bedroom. I’ve loved grain matched walnut for 20 years, since my father used it in his furniture-building days, so it’s not something I’ll get tired of. The high-gloss white cabinet doors in the inspiration picture are a little out there, I admit, but can easily be swapped out for something more neutral in 10 years or so if I decide to use them now (I’m still reviewing options).</p>
<p>So the answer to the fear of being dated is to ask the question: can I comfortably live with this choice for many years? So far so good, but then again, I’m only a month or so into the design process :)</p>
<p>There are people with various amounts of stock options or stock rewards around…
So some can afford 1 to 2 million dollar homes and some can afford more…
Some people are financing their purchase and some aren’t.</p>
<p>People are talking about Facebook…</p>
<p>I think Apple is making people wealthy.</p>
<p>I heard today that Class A commercial properties in SF are selling for all time
prices. And very expensive residential real estate in SF is selling at all time high prices.</p>
<p>Young people in silicon valley want to live in SF.</p>
<p>I was on Union St. In SF today. St. Patrick’s Day. I could not believe all the young people standing in line to go into bars. Almost everybody was under 30. This was at 1PM. I couldn’t believe how old I was. I was one of the oldest people on that street for blocks and blocks. Gave me kind of a weird feeling.</p>
Well, there’s “dated but still looks good” and “dated, OMG what were we thinking”. What’s your reaction when you walk into an 80’s kitchen with dark brown cabinets and orange formica countertops? </p>
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Can’t go wrong with this strategy. As long as what you pick doesn’t become the next Harvest Gold. ;)</p>
<p>Well, IMHO, the cabinet style is none of anyone else’s business. As long as YOU feel good, you should be ok.</p>
<p>Have you seen this guy on HGTV buying a million dollar+ home only to rip everything apart to redo it for 250K? he could not even think of sit on a toilet bowl that others have used!</p>
<p>I was talking to a friend and he said a mutual acquaintance is seeing his rent go up from the low 2000s to the mid 3000s. This is in the south beach area of SF. I think this is a 1 bedroom.</p>
<p>So the acquantance is moving to Las Vegas where he owns a 1 bedroom condo that cost him 170,000. That is down from 600,000+ at the top of the market. He says prices have bottomed in Vegas.</p>
<p>I believe the real estate in the Silicon Valley has already been effected by all these New IPO’s and high tech companies made billions. It will have a ripple effect from the center of the activities to the outer skirt areas soon. Now it is a good time to buy real estate in the areas that price is still low.</p>
<p>Just returned from Vegas, and from what i saw,there is a significant amount of commercial real estate available…partially built hotels, other small places foreclosed,older motels vacant…Bottom in Vegas? Perhaps,but it will never recover…ever…</p>
<p>Well, the commercial real estate market might not recover but the residential might.</p>
<p>Singapore is going full steam ahead with developing additional tourism venues so I think that the demand is there.</p>
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<p>I’ve only been there once. I really didn’t like it there. My wife and her sister had a good time though. I’m not into gambling - away from my computer that is.</p>
<p>I go every year at this time for the past ten years…Always crowded,this year no exception…i was surprised at the amount of commercial properties shuttered along the strip and just off…the amount of homeless people was also surprising…speaking with employees of casinos and cabbies,they said volume on weeks where there is no convention or major sporting event is below average…</p>
<p>One woman i spoke with relocated from Colorado,her apt/condo,fairly new 1000sf, costs less then 1000, she was paying a few hundred more for a smaller place in Colorado…She makes less then 9 bucks plus tips per hour,no benefits…herein lies the problem in our economy…</p>
<p>“One woman i spoke with relocated from Colorado,her apt/condo,fairly new 1000sf, costs less then 1000, she was paying a few hundred more for a smaller place in Colorado…She makes less then 9 bucks plus tips per hour,no benefits…herein lies the problem in our economy…”</p>
<p>Doesn’t sound good.</p>
<p>Qdogpa…I like your summary of what is happening in Vegas.</p>