Home Prices in LA

[86Dùde]

Different strokes I guess. I'm wearing short sleeves today. That makes the bad totally worth it.

Yes, but you miss the fun of dynamic weather. We don't have many fires here. What we do have are MASSIVE temperature swings. I'm wearing short sleeves right now but tomorrow it could literally be 20 below zero. From Feb 2011-August 2011 the temp difference was nearly 100 degrees. -18 to 117 degrees F. It's not your climate that I dislike, but rather, the crowds. Can't stand being cooped up.

[Notalibtard]

To those of you who don't like SoCal, I have a simple request. STAY OUT. And, if possible, encourage all of your friends to leave as well. There are plenty of other places on earth to live. Pick one and leave us with lighter traffic.

I think my favorite L.A. bumper sticker has got to be "Welcome to L.A. Take someone with you when you leave."

I did not mean to come off as hating SoCal, I was just saying that if you have a middle class income, it sucks to find a decent home. I was stationed in San Deigo when I was in the Navy and loved it there.

[Manu]

That's the biggest problem with S. Cal and California in general. You can't get ahead. My BF still owns a home there but he bought before prices went crazy and he rents it out now. I wonder if people have compared buying with simply renting. My gut says it's smarter to rent in the long run and maybe invest somewhere else, e.g. Arizona or Florida. Maybe the smartest thing is to figure out where you want to retire and have that place paid in full. I would never be able to justify paying $500K plus for a place.

There are an article I read a while back about younger home buyers doing that. Buying a rental property in vacation spots or cheaper cities and then continuing to their their primary residence.

[Dreamy]

No worries, I won't be going to that shit hole any time again soon, hopefully never.

I would never live there either. Love to visit but that is it. The Pacific water is too cold too.

[Dreamy]

That's the biggest problem with S. Cal and California in general. You can't get ahead. My BF still owns a home there but he bought before prices went crazy and he rents it out now. I wonder if people have compared buying with simply renting. My gut says it's smarter to rent in the long run and maybe invest somewhere else, e.g. Arizona or Florida. Maybe the smartest thing is to figure out where you want to retire and have that place paid in full. I would never be able to justify paying $500K plus for a place.

Wise to always retire where the cost of living is reasonable. The Northeast and the west coast are not those places. The problem is I want to retire near the ocean and so that eliminates many states that are dirt cheap to live.

My plan tentatively is to keep my almost paid for home up here where so much of my family is and then rent during the winter months wherever our hearts desire.

[Šñøü†ê®]

Not trying to be a conspiracy theorist or anything, but the scumbags who work for the local government get salaries, pensions, benefits via real estate taxes. IF home prices go down to a fair value, they will have to find real jobs.

[Dreamy]

Not trying to be a conspiracy theorist or anything, but the scumbags who work for the local government get salaries, pensions, benefits via real estate taxes. IF home prices go down to a fair value, they will have to find real jobs.

Not sure about all states but Massachusetts is truly a hackorama when it comes to government jobs.

Just curious, what are the property taxes like across California?

[medlar]

Vancouver’s a city with a high cost of living, and was just recently ranked the most unaffordable for housing..Second place with Hong Kong being the top of the list. Capitalism!! As it seems high housing costs = demands for higher salaries = businesses moving or shutting down. But still, let's not build affordable housing, in fact let's do what we can to force house prices to go up, because no politician here will put any plan that will cause housing prices to drop. There's just too much profit in it for some of these guys. I've got a good stable job that pays well, but I could work 24/7 and make 80k a year and still not affford a house in this town. Vancouver, the second most exensive city to live globally will rape your wallet. Then again it's not like you can get some financial management to help you out if you can afford their services. Vancouverites love to whine about the unaffordablity of living here, I do too but perversely enough, it's still not going to send me back to scotland. I'm happy enough to be a renter because I'm living just fine and my quality of life is far better than what it would be anywhere else, even though that sucks alot out of my savings. I just don't want what I can't afford I guess but the beauty of this most desirabel city is what makes a simple life bearable. As long as you don't foresee having a family forced to live in a cramped apartment in the near future.

Thing is since I've moved here six years ago, the current theory is that the high rise in housing prices has been due to alot of foreign money being used to purchase residential real estates. Asian real estate agents actualy organize bus tours for foreign buyers and they tour through the neighbourhoods and you can be sure it isn’t uncommon for two or even three homes to be purchased by one person or family and in alot of cases renoviction might well be handed out to family that happen to live in a home that just doesn't conform with the rest of the monster homes sprouting up around it. As a result any hovel of at least thirty years old will go for just shy of one million $ and more for the property alone. It will be rased and a massive home will be built up in less than seven months. So folk here who will never be able to buy that dream home assert that foreigners will keep driving prices up. But when the whiners start with the 70% of sales are going to foreign investors! it is in actuality what also will drive native-born Vancouverites to buy in. Don't know if this is the case elsewhere.

For a 300 k 2 bdrm "house", meet your neighbours;

[Manu]

Not sure about all states but Massachusetts is truly a hackorama when it comes to government jobs.

Just curious, what are the property taxes like across California?

1.25% of assessed home value at time of purchase, paid annually. So, the tax amount does not change unless the house is sold.

[Dreamy]

1.25% of assessed home value at time of purchase, paid annually. So, the tax amount does not change unless the house is sold.

So the tax payment never goes up while one owns the home? We get reassessed here periodotically as well as after doing any remodeling or additions. And of course the tax rate can also go up.

[Manu]

So the tax payment never goes up while one owns the home? We get reassessed here periodotically as well as after doing any remodeling or additions. And of course the tax rate can also go up.

Correct, the tax rate does not go up during the course of owning a home. There have been some initiatives and candidates who've wanted to raise the effective rate (but not reassess properties) but it hasn't happened. I think the biggest concern was the sky rocketing home prices and ensuring that homeowners did not find themselves unable to pay tax on a home they've owned. The downside to that is that (for the state) a lot of homes haven't been sold / re-purcahsed, so revenues are lower than they could be.

[kylestrover]

Nowadays, as the real estate sector is booming in all over the price of property booming day by day. So it is better to invest in real estate business in current scenario as price of property will more increase in near future.

[Charles]

The mortgage is manageable and I put an extra $200 a month towards the principle.

I realize everyone's situation is different but why would anyone pay down a (probably something like) 4% mortgage?

[Charles]

Snouter, if you live in suburbs or outside of 'LA proper' prices drop very fast. My friend lives in Ventura, about 10 minutes from the beach, and they bought a brand new 4BR home for 500K. Still pricey compared to the rest of the US, but nothing like in the city.

Depends on where your job is. If he works at Point Mugu or Port Hueneme or somewhere in Oxnard or Ventura, or even the Conejo Valley, that's great. But what if he has to commute into the SF Valley or worse, LA?

[Charles]

I actually got site unseen job offer for a place on Hun Beach back in 1999. I figured I couldn't afford to live there even though the pay was great. Fuel Cell stuff.

It was cheap back then too.

[Chachma v'Oz]

I realize everyone's situation is different but why would anyone pay down a (probably something like) 4% mortgage?

Because you're paying yourself a guaranteed return of 4%. Unless you can get a guaranteed return above that on the money you're using to pay down that debt, it's smart to pay off the 4% debt. Guaranteed 4%+ returns these days are scarce.

[Charles]

Family, friends, weather. Moving isn't really an option. AND...basically the only thing that sucks about socal is housing prices (fine and traffic) Otherwise, it's amazing.

I pretty much agree. Another way of looking at it is, a person doesn't need as big of a house in SoCal since he can spend so much time outside having fun. No need for theater rooms, indoor gyms, etc. No need for big yards as there are plenty of parks and community pools open all year.

Traffic is a problem if you have to commute through LA but if you live near where you work then it isn't too much of a problem. Also, starting early (I start at 6AM) and you beat just about all traffic.

[Charles]

Just curious, what are the property taxes like across California?

Around 1% to 1.3% or so.

[Charles]

Correct, the tax rate does not go up during the course of owning a home. There have been some initiatives and candidates who've wanted to raise the effective rate (but not reassess properties) but it hasn't happened. I think the biggest concern was the sky rocketing home prices and ensuring that homeowners did not find themselves unable to pay tax on a home they've owned. The downside to that is that (for the state) a lot of homes haven't been sold / re-purcahsed, so revenues are lower than they could be.

It does go up but not by much due to Proposition 13. And, if you property value goes down you can get your property taxes lowered too.

[Charles]

Because you're paying yourself a guaranteed return of 4%. Unless you can get a guaranteed return above that on the money you're using to pay down that debt, it's smart to pay off the 4% debt. Guaranteed 4%+ returns these days are scarce.

"these days" are "these days". Over the course of 15 to 30 years, the stock market has rarely if ever returned an annualized return that low.