Author Topic: Here's a new option, stay in your car.  (Read 7484 times)

Offline chocolateshake

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Re: Here's a new option, stay in your car.
« Reply #15 on: March 13, 2019, 02:39:36 PM »
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There are some nice luxary shacks (condos) in Mission Valley.  Thought about picking up a 2bed/2bsth as an investment.

Factor global warming into that decision.  Even when it lightly rains, parts of Mission and Fashion Valley are flooded.  Both are built on the San Diego river.  Historically, it was more like the San Diego dry river bed.  It's not dry anymore.  If there's appreciably sea level rise, much of that will be underwater.

Sea level rise isn't something for the far future.  It's here.  Imperial Beach is already getting swamped on king tides.  The city announced a plan to relocate the city further inland which upset the residents who's land would be underwater.  So the city is back to defending against the sea.  It's a fight they will lose.

Offline TardisMom

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Re: Here's a new option, stay in your car.
« Reply #16 on: March 13, 2019, 08:47:17 PM »
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In San Francisco a condo like that in a similar neighborhood is closer to $1.5M.

Triple OUCH!!

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Re: Here's a new option, stay in your car.
« Reply #17 on: Today at 01:33:30 AM »

Offline geek_girlie

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Re: Here's a new option, stay in your car.
« Reply #17 on: March 14, 2019, 09:38:18 AM »
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In San Francisco a condo like that in a similar neighborhood is closer to $1.5M.

I can totally empathize living in the DC Metro area myself. However, I do know that it is much, much worse in San Francisco!!  :(
« Last Edit: March 25, 2019, 06:40:12 AM by geek_girlie »

Offline perc2100

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Re: Here's a new option, stay in your car.
« Reply #18 on: March 14, 2019, 11:12:22 AM »
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I remember my first comic con, where I asked the taxi driver about housing costs and he sighed, " I paid $400,000 for my house and I live in a shack!".  At the time I thought he was joking.  He was not.   ???

For reference:
* 15 years ago, right before the housing crash, my wife and I bought a 2 bedrooms/2 bath 1100 square foot condo in Poway Unified school district (where I teach and where she taught at the time; one of the best districts in SD county) for around $300,000.  Now if we sold it we'd get around $400,000. 
* my parents live in an upper-class suburb in Columbus, OH very similar to Poway district area.  They have an acre of land in a 4 bedroom/3 full + 1 half bath probably around 5k square feet and when they retire in a year they'll likely be able to sell their house for a little over $300k (which is good for that area).  Crazy.
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Same.  The housing situation is out of control in California.  I don't know what it's like in the rest of the country.  People with middle class jobs living on the street and in their cars is a common sight here in California.  They can no longer afford housing.  That's not sustainable.
Part of the problem, especially in San Diego, is there is a significant housing shortage (note: pretty sure this is the same in all the major CA cities), and in far less than a decade I think we'll have a lot more families than housing units.  SD is working on that, but there are still going to be problems with housing.  The shortage means rentals and 'starter homes' are at a huge premium (supply/demand) and thus hard for families to afford.  I think a one bedrooms/one bath in my complex would still be pushing $300k nowadays which seems insane: any my mortgage is similar/LESS than what some of our neighbors are paying to RENT a 2 bedroom/2 bath unit!

Offline FBS

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Re: Here's a new option, stay in your car.
« Reply #19 on: March 14, 2019, 11:27:04 AM »
Whenever me and the better half have stayed in SD the days after comic con we've always looked at the houses for sale in the agents windows.
Even with the great UK to US exchange rate we would be living in a 1 bedroom apartment if we sold our house here in the UK.
It really did shock me as to how high the prices are.

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Offline Angel_

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Re: Here's a new option, stay in your car.
« Reply #20 on: March 14, 2019, 12:30:52 PM »
All this price talk makes me cry.  I live in Hawaii.  A two bedroom condo is over a million dollars.   :-[

I currently pay $1300 a month for a a 150 square foot studio apartment. 
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Offline cabler30

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Re: Here's a new option, stay in your car.
« Reply #21 on: March 14, 2019, 01:41:13 PM »
All the talk of high price live in San Diego or even visit for the con, the price just keep going up and get no cheaper.

Offline vegasndn

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Re: Here's a new option, stay in your car.
« Reply #22 on: March 14, 2019, 04:01:07 PM »
Come to Las Vegas, a lot of Californians have moved here and to Arizona. We bought 2k sq ft house w/ pool near southpoint casino for 265k a few years ago. This area is growing and prices are going up, yes it’s hot during the summer but from fall to spring it’s nice. Plus you can still drive to comic con.


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Offline f22raptor

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Re: Here's a new option, stay in your car.
« Reply #23 on: March 14, 2019, 04:04:47 PM »
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Come to Las Vegas, a lot of Californians have moved here and to Arizona. We bought 2k sq ft house w/ pool near southpoint casino for 265k a few years ago. This area is growing and prices are going up, yes it’s hot during the summer but from fall to spring it’s nice. Plus you can still drive to comic con.


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Offline Poggledoo

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Re: Here's a new option, stay in your car.
« Reply #24 on: March 25, 2019, 12:52:29 AM »
Wow, while it's crazy that things have come to this point, I'm glad that this is another option open to people.

Offline marcia29

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Re: Here's a new option, stay in your car.
« Reply #25 on: March 26, 2019, 08:10:49 AM »
I admit I was a bit shocked at the official approval of living in a car/van, but after looking at housing prices...I feel your pain. 
It is 2024, and I am still asking...where's my flyin' car??!! @fannishmarcia

Offline chocolateshake

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Re: Here's a new option, stay in your car.
« Reply #26 on: March 26, 2019, 11:22:17 AM »
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I admit I was a bit shocked at the official approval of living in a car/van, but after looking at housing prices...I feel your pain.

The previous law, like they still have in LA, was nonsensical.  It was illegal to sleep in a parked car but it was legal to sleep on the street.  So people would bed down on the street next to their cars at night.  For everyone involved from the homeless to the people with homes in that neighborhood, I think allowing people to sleep in their cars is a better way to go.  Really, the only people complaining are some with houses along the beach.  Their complaint is that it's basically unfair that they had to pay millions for a ocean view and now anyone with a camper can pull up and get it for free.  I'm crying crocodile tears for them.

Housing prices in California are unsustainable.  Many of the homeless have full time jobs.  But even with a full time job in California, people making minimum wage can't afford housing.  That's even with a Californian minimum wage which is higher than federal.  Something is wrong with our society.  Companies are making record profits yet they don't pay their employees enough to put a roof over their heads.  Here's an example.



Offline hikanteki

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Re: Here's a new option, stay in your car.
« Reply #27 on: March 26, 2019, 02:50:20 PM »
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We have my dad in a tiny 650 sq ft condo in Pacific Beach, about 5 blocks from the ocean.  We paid $405k.  Ouch.

When I read that the first thing that came to mind was that 400k for a beachfront condo is a bargain.

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For reference:
* 15 years ago, right before the housing crash, my wife and I bought a 2 bedrooms/2 bath 1100 square foot condo in Poway Unified school district (where I teach and where she taught at the time; one of the best districts in SD county) for around $300,000.  Now if we sold it we'd get around $400,000.

Honestly, that price made me do a double take not because it seems expensive, but because it seems like such an incredible bargain especially for a 2br. I'm also really surprised that things haven't gone up that much in 15 years, although I guess there was a bubble or two in between that. But I admit that my perspective is horribly skewed being in the Bay Area, where it's not just SF city, but literally EVERYTHING within a 1 hour radius is $1 MILLION minimum. The entire peninsula, all of San Jose, most of the inner East Bay, etc...I know this is the most expensive part of CA (and the country) but I didn't realize that other desirable parts of CA were that much cheaper.

At one point my well-intentioned parents suggested I move out to a suburb where things are cheaper. LOL, it doesn't work that way here (and in fact, many of the suburbs are a lot more expensive.)
« Last Edit: March 26, 2019, 03:05:39 PM by hikanteki »
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Offline chocolateshake

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Re: Here's a new option, stay in your car.
« Reply #28 on: March 27, 2019, 01:19:17 PM »
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Honestly, that price made me do a double take not because it seems expensive, but because it seems like such an incredible bargain especially for a 2br. I'm also really surprised that things haven't gone up that much in 15 years, although I guess there was a bubble or two in between that. But I admit that my perspective is horribly skewed being in the Bay Area, where it's not just SF city, but literally EVERYTHING within a 1 hour radius is $1 MILLION minimum. The entire peninsula, all of San Jose, most of the inner East Bay, etc...I know this is the most expensive part of CA (and the country) but I didn't realize that other desirable parts of CA were that much cheaper.

At one point my well-intentioned parents suggested I move out to a suburb where things are cheaper. LOL, it doesn't work that way here (and in fact, many of the suburbs are a lot more expensive.)

Tell me about it.  20 years ago, the owner of a house I was renting offered to sell it to me for $200,000.  That house is worth between $1.5M to $2M now.  Even back then, for $200K it was cheap.  The problem was, I hated that house.  That's the rub about housing in the bay.  If it was expensive and nice, then maybe.  It's not.  It's expensive and trash.  That house I was renting would have been a tear down in most parts of the country.  It was cheaply built to begin with, it was one of those post WWII put it up quick houses.  The slab was cracked with leaky pipes.  The carpet was perpetually wet.  The windows only kind of kept out the wind.  I thought the furnace would explode every time it turned on.  Flames would shoot out of the vents.  I had to keep the cap off of the sewer pipe outside since it would clog all the time because the pipe was cracked and roots had grown into it.  I made the mistake of putting the cap on when I first moved in.  That lead to a backup flooding the house.  The landlord yelled at me and told me to not put the cap on.  The neighborhood was not good.  The barking dogs and loud music killed any thoughts of buying it for me.  I drive by it every once in a while when I'm back up north.  It looks exactly the same as the day I left.  So does the neighborhood.  But it's in the heart of the Silicon Valley.  A few minutes from Google, Yahoo, Adobe, Microsoft or Cisco.  Location.  Location.  Location.  That's why it can sell for that much.

I've seen some pretty trashy apartments in San Francisco.  One sticks out.  It had a ragged basketball size hole in the wall between the living room and bedroom.  I asked the landlord if he was going to fix it before renting it.  He said no.  He didn't have to.  He didn't.  5 minutes into the open house, he already had a stack of applicants.

Offline omraged9

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Re: Here's a new option, stay in your car.
« Reply #29 on: March 28, 2019, 10:13:24 PM »
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Honestly, that price made me do a double take not because it seems expensive, but because it seems like such an incredible bargain especially for a 2br. I'm also really surprised that things haven't gone up that much in 15 years, although I guess there was a bubble or two in between that. But I admit that my perspective is horribly skewed being in the Bay Area, where it's not just SF city, but literally EVERYTHING within a 1 hour radius is $1 MILLION minimum. The entire peninsula, all of San Jose, most of the inner East Bay, etc...I know this is the most expensive part of CA (and the country) but I didn't realize that other desirable parts of CA were that much cheaper.

I think a few lesser popular cities left in the Bay Area might be slightly cheaper like Hayward or the far northeast cities like Brentwood. But supposedly the housing will drop a bit this year.