The tulip bubble craze is alive and well in San francisco as real estate soars

Parent Cafe
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<p>Median home prices up $106,000 in a year. Population growth is flat. Average household income is slightly north of $70,000 a year. People now make more money in real estate than in their jobs.</p>

<p>In Marin County, the largest industry is real estate.</p>

<p>Two thirds of home buyers now use interest only loans. People are bragging about buying homes with this kind of financing. Nobody has to build equity over time because prices always go up. </p>

<p>Personal finance should be a mandatory course in high school.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.sfgate.com%5B/url%5D”>http://www.sfgate.com</a></p>

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<p>Well Dstark, sounds like you made three-quarters of the cost of 4 years at a private college last year! You no longer need CC for merit ideas!!</p>

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<p>That is, as long as you’re willing to sell your house and live outdoors!</p>

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<p>Or just move to Arizona where $300K buys you a beautiful home…</p>

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<p>idler, you are right. Shacks in SF cost close to a million. zagat, what part of Arizona do you like best for $300,000?</p>

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<p>So, how does this bubble work with financial aid. I am from San Francisco. We bought our home 9 years ago, got a great deal, now on paper, well, yikes, but that’s just paper. And property taxes. But no real “we are living SUCH a better life cause our house appreciated like 3 times”…</p>

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<p>Dstark, We have been experiencing similar growth down here in San Diego…but, an article in our local paper this morning suggests that the rate of growth is cooling. Number of home resales have been slowing and home prices are not increasing as quickly has they have over the past two years. I don’t expect a total crash, but I do think that the days of double-digit home value increases are nearing an end. Seems like it may be time to cash out and head to Oregon. :)</p>

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<p>I’ve been meaning to start a thread on this but too time crunched and here one appears:</p>

<p>Things are cooling but not by much.</p>

<p>A couple of weeks ago, there was a new condo <em>conversion</em> project in town…apartment building built in 60’s or 70’s being coverted into condo. Five units on the market, both 2- and 3-bedroom.</p>

<p>I had clients bidding on two units, a 3-bedroom and a 2-bedroom.
Both units wound up having five offers each.</p>

<p>The 3-bedroom was asking $675K…my clients got it for $728K…beating the next best offer by $3K.</p>

<p>The 2-bedroom was asking $550K and my client bid $610K…and didn’t get it…tied on price but other Buyer waived loan contingency.</p>

<p>===</p>

<p>Don’t be too impressed by continuing education for real estate agents. My license is up this year and I need the usual 45 hours of renewal.</p>

<p>You can get a home study kit for $59. Go in to take the test, it’s open book, True-False, and you need a 60 percent to pass. You have to wait five days between picking up the study materials and taking the class. This is absolutely disgusting. It’s also against the best interests of clients and consumers. </p>

<p>I’m not looking for a Bar Exam or something like that but even the initial licensing exam was much more difficult.</p>

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<p>I think you can do extremely well in Tucson. If you’re selling a CA house and can spring for a half million, you’ll get great views, a nice home and be near culture! For $300,000, you can still live in what a million buys you in a desireable CA location. I also love Sedona.</p>

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<p>Or you can move across the country like we did to Carolina!!! Who needs ocean views when you can sit on your front porch all day and drink sweet tea!!</p>

<p>Magnolia trees and my roses are just starting to bloom and I paid just a few cents under $2.00 for gas. Have lots of Carolina pines in the backyard and its just a few hours to the Outer Banks if I really need an ocean fix. We have been here a year and a half from moving from Northern Cali, via Vegas. It hasn’t been all gravy, the snow was new to us and sometimes the southern drawl is a little thick, esp. eastern Carolina but we have been enjoying the new locale. The move made our family’s financial situation very, very different.</p>

<p>But it is somewhat of a culture shock coming from the Bay area.</p>

<p>Kat</p>

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<p>Just think what that would get you in Idaho :stuck_out_tongue: (not including Sun Valley, of course :eek: )
In fact, affordable housing was one of the only reasons H was able to get me to agree to move here in the first place! For what we paid for our house, we’d be lucky to get a trailer in many metro areas.</p>

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<p>Now, lets see, I have the coast, the warm weather, little pollution, restaurants, can drive to Tahoe, LA…</p>

<p>I love where we live, the middle of one of the world’s greatest city. From my house I can see the Bay Bridge and the Ocean. This week we are having a movie fesitval all with movies filmed in SF. (never say frisco, btw)…okay off to get my kid and find parking!!! And my husband loves that he can golf year round. Never too hot, never too cold…</p>

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<p>Citygirlsmom-</p>

<p>I spent the better part of last week in your city. Had a wonderful time, as always. </p>

<p>One evening it poured cats and dogs (Sunday, 4/3). We caught a cab to McCormick and Kuleto’s on the bay and were drenched by the time we arrived. I decided to sit with my back to the window because the view was ruined by the rain. Just before the wine was brought out a warm glow overtook the dining room. My colleagues (there were 6 of us) all dropped their jaws and stared out over the bay…the clouds had totally cleared and the sun was setting…and there I was with my back to the window:( </p>

<p>People are also very friendly. Parking stinks - I paid $50/nt to park at my hotel. FIFTY! Sheesh.</p>

<p>Anyway, I had the best steak of my entire life at some little Argentinian restaurant…I mean THE BEST! </p>

<p>Love SF…sorry it’s so expensive to live there. Who knows…maybe someday I’ll join you over there on the left coast.</p>

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<p>Is SF, or any high real estate place, worth it in the end? Think of the trade offs. $2 million gets you into the bottom of what’s called the luxury housing market. Most people whould choke if they saw what that is. Anything with a view would be a fixer upper of maybe 2500 sq. ft. In a town convenient to jobs with a good school district, you’re mostly talking a single story unimpressive house on a third of an acre at most.</p>

<p>For the same $2 million, one can have three lovely homes. One for winter in Arizona in a neighborhood as safe and comfy as the CA neighborhood. A summer home on a lake in Maine. And a third in most people’s home town!</p>

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<p>We bought a nice vintage all brick southern colonial with 3,000 sf in a great neighborhood for under $250k in Lynchburg, VA. We just bought another smaller 1900 sf all brick ranch in the same area for $119,000 as a rental unit. It will pretty much breakeven on rents in year 1. We can’t wait to buy another next year or so. The Burg is a nice college town just under an hour from Charlottesville and all that has to offer.</p>

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<p>I love San Francisco, the food, the air, the hills, the diversity- losing the diversity would be hard. When we travel, we are so suprised when we go through some airports- all the same. We have all kinds of people here. My Ds want to go to college in NYC!!! . A house is a place to sleep, be a family, and take care of each other. We don’t miss a big yard. We can go to Golden Gate Park, the Marin Headlands, Crissy Fields. I walk an hour with my two Border Collies every morning in a park with trees, birds, small ponds and wide open fields. We have wild flowers, cherry blossoms, Haight Ashbury, Uniion Square, festivals, concerts, </p>

<p>We have less square footage, sure, but we have so much out there. We have parks, we have dogs, we have skateboarders, we have museums, art galleries, politics, colleges, good shopping, great neighborhoods, the views to die for, we.</p>

<p>Could I ever live in the burbs…no way…my D;s can go downtown on the bus- one volunteers with the Mayor in City Hall (yeah the cute one) my H golfs at a great course, my D’s go to a nice Catholic Schools, I volunteer at City Hall as well. We are not rich. We do okay. But could never give up our lives for more land or more closet space.</p>

<p>Is it worth it, I think so.</p>

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<p>CGM, I think the cosmopolitan atmosphere is worth it as well. Plus the world-class cultural opportunities. Signs and conversations in English and Spanish, yes…also Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Japanese, Thai, Russian, Yiddish, Hebrew, Armenian, Farsi (Iran), French, German, and accents of England, Ireland, Canada (eh?!), Australia, South Africa…
And then there are the ones that I don’t recognize…</p>

<p>I love it. </p>

<p>With the concommitant restaurants, music, etc.</p>

<p>Some people extoll the small town virtues…I get claustrophobic at the thought of enforcement of narrow social norms in a whitebread setting.</p>

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<p>citysgirlmom, I guess the bubble means you are screwed at most colleges. </p>

<p>Carolyn, you know cashing out is on my mind all too often. Maybe, I will follow your family up to Walla Walla. :)</p>

<p>Thedad, I can infer from your first post that people are flocking to the real estate business.</p>

<p>Zagat, I have a friend that sold his house in the SF bay area and bought a condo in Marin, a house in Palm Desert and a condo in Seattle. Then he decided that was just too much and sold everything except his Palm Desert house. And oh yeah, I like Sedona too.</p>

<p>Barrons, I do like those prices in Va.</p>

<p>I guess people do think SF is worth it since they are paying the money. The air quality is really good here. :)</p>

<p>Well, I just saw in the Marin paper that house prices are also up $100,000. The only difference between Marin and the rest of the Bay Area is that is just in the last month.</p>

<p>With all the talk about rising interest rates, treasury bond and note interest rates dropped .2 percent this week. Mortgage rates are going to be lower in the near future, not higher (except for interest only). Looks like the frenzy can continue for a wee bit longer.</p>

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<p>My mom, my 2 d’s and I went to see the King of Jordan speak. We have the United Nations Anniversary and World Environmental Day. We have Fashion Week. One day we were in the park, and turned the corner, and Japanese Dance troop was putting on a show under the cherry blossoms while a comedy show was on in the park. Yeah it is so worth it. </p>

<p>As far as colleges go, well we will be paying back some loans. Ah well. Would I want to live somewhere else? No way.</p>

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<p>Or cash out and move to a country where the currency is $.42…and rises to $.70 over three years. ;)</p>