13-06-2004 23:48									#61
	Re: Re: Re: Fargo Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

quote: Originally posted by Provost Harrison 532 people and a 100k place is 45 minutes away...that would drive me utterly insane

It drives ME insane.

	14-06-2004 00:07									#62
	Tired of ads?

MtG can buy property in Mexico because he is married to a Mexican citizen. US gringo's cannot legally buy property in Mexico. We can get leases for up to 99 years on property but foreign ownership of land is anathama to Mexican nationalists.

	14-06-2004 00:23									#63
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

quote: Originally posted by Oerdin BTW as an update the old man and I went looking in the Mira Mesa area today. I found a detached town home for $395,000. It's a 3bd/2bath 1350 sq ft place with a two car attached car port. There are no front yards but there are lots of green open spaces in the common area plus the units were built in the late 70's so the trees are all mature. My parents actually own three places in the same complex which they rent out including one they bought in 1979 for $68,000. It's in a nice middle class area with two parks, a good elementry school, a good middle school, and a community college with in .75 miles. There's also the same high school I graduated from with in 1 mile. The place is even at the end of a cul de sac.

sounds good

	14-06-2004 00:24									#64
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$400,000 doesn't even buy you a yard?

	14-06-2004 00:32									#65
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quote: Originally posted by JohnT $400,000 doesn't even buy you a yard?

I'm thinking 3000 sq.ft on the lake, with a boat dock for that in West Knoxville, wouldn't you say John?

	14-06-2004 00:33									#66
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quote: Originally posted by JohnT $400,000 doesn't even buy you a yard?

So with the JohnT revolution, will you give every homeowner their own yard?

	14-06-2004 00:41									#67
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Most homeowners have their own yard.

California must be a great place, but I would evaluate how great it really is versus the cost to live there. There are some really nice places to live in the U.S. at very reasonable cost.

In suburbia Columbus, Ohio where I grew up, $400,000 would buy quite a spread. Even today, after prices have gone up. The economy is doing well too.

	14-06-2004 01:05									#68
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Oerdin

You could always just move to Barrio Logan.

	14-06-2004 01:07									#69
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$400,000 gets you a small backyard with an 8ft grassy border around the front of your house house and along the sides. The grassy border belongs to the homeowners association though and not you. BTW only the older town houses have the grassy border while the newer ones have found that if they eliminate the grassy border then they can squeeze in X number of more units.

This complex is quite nice though with several grassy fields, a children's playground, and a soccer field/baseball field. If I wanted a house with a yard I could buy a 1920 through early 1950's fixer upper near the international border (the closer you get to Mexico the worse the neighborhoods get) for around $400,000 or I've found a 1911 vintage cottage in El Cajon (which is in east county and tends to be a problem area) which is very run down but does have a large yard. I'm thinking it is better to buy the smaller place in the nicer area then the larger place in the bad area. At least that is where the best asset appreciation should be.

	14-06-2004 01:11									#70
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

quote: Originally posted by Lonestar Oerdin You could always just move to Barrio Logan.

I honestly haven't been to Barrio Logan more then two or three times in my life and even it was by accident. It didn't look good but you never now how things are now considering how fast redevelopment is going.

	14-06-2004 03:11									#71
	Got spare money?

$200,000 can get you a nice 3500-4000+ sq. foot home in North Texas.

	14-06-2004 03:13									#72
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations: Deluxe Edition

quote: Originally posted by Oerdin Smiley: Downtown is absolutely full of high rise construction. I was down there yesterday and counted no less then 20 brand spanking new high rises (meaning more then 30 stories) being built. The city has spent alot of money expanding the trolley, building the new base ball stadium, and the new central library downtown and people are now flocking there. I'd say downtown San Diego is one of the few places in California where New York style Apartment living is the norm. There is supposedly 300,000 new high rise housing units being put in over the next 8-10 years.

Well there needs to be large scale construction like this. They have a similar scheme in London (Thames Gateway), I think that is supposed to generate something like 150 000 new homes. I reckon that this needs to continue...if there is much greater supply in the housing market (preferably oversupply ), the property prices should become far more sane.

	14-06-2004 03:25									#73
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quote: Originally posted by Provost Harrison Well there needs to be large scale construction like this. They have a similar scheme in London (Thames Gateway), I think that is supposed to generate something like 150 000 new homes. I reckon that this needs to continue...if there is much greater supply in the housing market (preferably oversupply ), the property prices should become far more sane.

We need to address the almost myopic focus on London/SouthEast and realise there are other bits of this country that people can live in.

	14-06-2004 03:46									#74
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quote: Originally posted by Starchild We need to address the almost myopic focus on London/SouthEast and realise there are other bits of this country that people can live in.

London/South East is the main choking point in terms of supply of property. But I also think there should be more onus on companies to perhaps relocate to other cities in the country where feasible. But the nature of this place and the jobs it provides almost makes it inevitable that someone of my educational background is going to end up down here...

	14-06-2004 03:50									#75
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They're doing some lovely stem cell work up in Scotland. :innocent:

	14-06-2004 03:53									#76
	Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

I ain't going back into academia, where I couldn't afford a pot to piss in.

	14-06-2004 04:03									#77
	Remove this text

Next up on Poly: Why Oerdin is leaving the South.

	14-06-2004 04:16									#78
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Oerdin divides his time between San Diego/Sacremento/Iraq. There is no "South"!

	14-06-2004 04:44									#79
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Sad but true!

	14-06-2004 05:00									#80
	Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

BTW I got "pre-qualified" for a home loan today because it seems no one wants to bother talking to you unless you are pre-qualified for a loan. I didn't even bother trying to qualify by myself because all the loan calculators told me that a debt free man with my income could only afford a house up to $285,000. Since that won't get me a card board box in a trash dumpster I submitted paperwork with my father co-signing. One hour later the bank faxed us a form saying I was pre-qualified for a loan up to $800,000. Woot! Go dad!

I also called back that fellow with the nice town house I looked at earlier today. I was intending to make an offer which would be contingent upon inspections, home appraisals, and all the other normal home buying formalities but the guy told me he'd decided to raise the price $35,000. What the price went up 35k in five hours?! He said he'd looked at the other open houses in the area and had decided to revise his price.

It's true that several owners in this area have asked up to $490,000 for homes in this track but the most recent sale price was $430,000 for a four bedroom 1800 square foot house. This one is only 3 bedrooms with 1350 square feet. $395,000 seems to be about the correct valuation. I'm sure if he waited a couple of months he could get the extra $35k but right now it seems unreasonable.

I'm already going to be in debt up to my eyeballs with $395k what with taxes and home owners dues. I'll avoid PMI by getting a second (I don't have the $79,000 cash to put down which is needed to avoid the costly mortgage insurance) but that shouldn't be a problem as property in this city appreciates like the last snickers bar in a concentration camp. I figure I can rent out one or two of the three bedrooms since the area is close to both UCSD and a junior college. Renting the rooms shouldn't be hard since it shouldn't be hard since California seems to have the strange phenomenon of hordes of well paid 20 something college graduates who never the less can't afford to buy a house and so must rent.

Last edited by Oerdin on 15-06-2004 at 05:12

	14-06-2004 05:55									#81
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God, Oerdin, that's tragic.

	14-06-2004 06:40									#82
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Unexpectedly salvation may be at hand.
http://www.realtor.com/FindHome/Hom...02&lnksrc=00002

This house is in Escondido which I have always considered the domain of poor white trash and addled speed freaks but it is a small though reasonably sized starter home which has a yard, a two car garage, and all of the accouterments that young 20 something yuppies are preprogrammed to expect in a starter house. It's closer in then the houses in Riverside County which were spoken about in previous posts and it is higher up in the foothills so it isn't nearly as hot as East County. Sure, it isn't the perpetual perfect weather I've become accustomed to but it is affordable.

Predictably the realtor isn't available so I left a message and hopefully he will call me back in the morning. Of course tomorrow is the last day I have in America before I return to Iraq but my dad has a power of attorney for me so if I like the place he can finish all of the associated paper work. Luckily, he loves that sort of stuff. My father just seems to think business negotiations and haggling are the stuff which life is made from.

	14-06-2004 08:55									#83
	Re: Re: Re: Cost of housing. Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

quote: Originally posted by Oerdin $450,000 comes to be around $2200 per month for 30 years.

You're paying way too much interest on 30 years.

	14-06-2004 10:28									#84
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quote: Originally posted by PLATO If you want to maximize the kind of house you can have in 5 years, then bite the bullet and buy smaller in a high appreciation area.

I looked at a tiny two-bedroom cottage up the street from me. Asking price: $465,000.

	14-06-2004 17:29									#85
	Re: Re: Re: Re: Cost of housing. Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

quote: Originally posted by Urban Ranger quote: $450,000 comes to be around $2200 per month for 30 years. You're paying way too much interest on 30 years.

A quick sum of digits calc says thats less than 5%. I don't know what the mortgage lending rate you're comparing to is, though.

	14-06-2004 18:02									#86
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

well, good luck with finding the house.

	14-06-2004 20:25									#87
	The North is worse Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

As bad as these stories of Southern California sound, it is worse in Northern California. The townhouse Oerdin describes for sale at $395,000 (now $420,000) would easily be going for $550,000 to $600,000 in San Francisco. As for the owner raising the price, you can always offer the original $395,000.

	14-06-2004 23:53									#88
	Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

Which is exactly what I did today. The owner said two other people are seriously interested but as of right now I am the only one who's filled out the paper work and offered a deposit. He told me he'd give me the final word tonight and that he is motivated to sell. Apparently he's owned this place as a rental for 20 years and his granddaughter is getting married and buying a house. This guy is giving his granddaughter and her husband the $300,000 or so he will make off of the deal.

	14-06-2004 23:56									#89
	Increase the size of your Attachments

What would be a lot cheaper is to build your own life-size home out of a couple billion lego blocks.

	15-06-2004 00:22									#90
	Enter the AD-FREE zone

Real estate should be more affordable in Iraq too - in case you want to go native (a la Lawrence).