real estate LA - banging my head against the wall

[wilburbear]

Anyone else realize that it costs *more* to live in the rat race? Like NYC for example. It costs more, and the quality of the rat race life is less (same with 2hr commute each way in LA). Now, let me see, it costs more and is worse. Hmmmm, don't tell me, I have an MBA (really), I can figure this out. I'll go with the medium size town in the sunbelt.

I've lived in a huge city for over 10 years. There's nothing to do. Everything is hermetically sealed. (Hope you don't have to go to the bathroom in NYC - patrons only). You only go out to eat (as if you have to go somewhere to do that), or see a movie - which is just big TV. They almost got me on museums - they're terrific, but I only did that 4 times a year. Go outside in Montana and there's a million real things to do.

 

[Maverick74]

Quote from wilburbear:

Anyone else realize that it costs *more* to live in the rat race? Like NYC for example. It costs more, and the quality of the rat race life is less (same with 2hr commute each way in LA). Now, let me see, it costs more and is worse. Hmmmm, don't tell me, I have an MBA (really), I can figure this out. I'll go with the medium size town in the sunbelt.

I've lived in a huge city for over 10 years. There's nothing to do. Everything is hermetically sealed. (Hope you don't have to go to the bathroom in NYC - patrons only). You only go out to eat (as if you have to go somewhere to do that), or see a movie - which is just big TV. They almost got me on museums - they're terrific, but I only did that 4 times a year. Go outside in Montana and there's a million real things to do.

Where do you live in Montana?

 

[Maverick74]

Quote from jasonjm:




yeah i actually been to chattanooga lots, I was a drifter in my early 20s
I used to go to lookout mountain to hanglide often

I've been to lookout mountain as well. Chattanooga, now there is a city that really surprised me. I use to drive through there on my way to college during the holidays and I loved driving up through the hills. If you didn't know any better, you would think you were in the Hollywood Hills in CA. Only the homes were nice and 1/10th the cost.

 

[Eliot Hosewater]

Quote from Don Bright:

(he's now flat or short the RE market in CA, BTW).

All the best,
Don

How do you short the CA RE market?

 

[jasonjm]

punch in laxx06 to your platform

laxq07



the aug 2007 future is about 6% lower hmmmm

 

[TRADERBM]

How about trying to find apartment complexes with a cap rate above 10% Difficult but not impossible.

This is probably a better investment than sf homes in LA.

comments?

 

[NasdaqTrader]

I moved out of NJ about a year ago and went to the Atlanta area. Homes are cheap here and the weather beats NJ.

 

[maxpi]

Quote from m4a1:

here's one benefit of immigration. both rich and poor want to come to the u.s. the ones with money buy up the houses and drive prices up.

and the poor immigrants (legal and illegal)? well, someone is getting rich paying them minimum wage or less than minimum wage. so more money left over to buy a bigger house.

Actually the "poor immigrants" bought houses in the last few years. They have 10 -20 people per house, probably 5-10 incomes, to make the vig and they are happy. That is who drove the prices up in my area. They are pretty good neighbors for the most part too. It helps to speak Spanish here in Southern Calif. nowadays but their second gen kids speak english. That is one reason you can't just grab them all and say "back to where you came from", not after you let them completely settle. The Mexican govt would do that to US citizens of course

 

[fecal_tdr]

Quote from TRADERBM:

How about trying to find apartment complexes with a cap rate above 10% Difficult but not impossible.

This is probably a better investment than sf homes in LA.

comments?

I could be wrong, but I was under the impression that most commercial investments in places like LA and NYC have cap rates between 5-7%. I heard this was due to the weak dollar and low interest rates in the past few years. Maybe the trend is changing? I would like to here your thoughts.

 

[ER9]

Quote from Don Bright:

We all moved from CA when we started making real money...heck, even at $200K, you're paying $1800 per month to Arnold....move to Nevada, buy a 5 bdrm with pool and all for $400K. You can take the new "mag-lev" train back and forth to visit any friends you might have there. (Of course, we've been waiting for that train to get built for a decade or more)..but it's only a 3.5 hour drive.

Don

lol....prolly so true. last i heard he owned half of santa monica.