Construction starts today on my new studio space...

Our new house was just shy of $200k, in a nice "historic" neighborhood. The same house in my old hometown would have been $300k, in Ault Park (a popular area adjacent to downtown) it would have been $500k, and in Hyde Park (just ten minutes from Ault Park) it would be $650k EASY.

I guess that whole "location, location, location" thing isn't bullshit.
 
Our new house was just shy of $200k, in a nice "historic" neighborhood. The same house in my old hometown would have been $300k, in Ault Park (a popular area adjacent to downtown) it would have been $500k, and in Hyde Park (just ten minutes from Ault Park) it would be $650k EASY.

I guess that whole "location, location, location" thing isn't bullshit.

Yup. Location is everything. I paid more money for a smaller house closer to my job. The houses in my area aren't much to talk about, but the location is one of the most ideal in San Diego county. It is literally right in the middle, so nothing is too far away.

Where Mark lives is one of the nicer areas of Orange County (but then just about anywhere in Orange county is better than LA or the inland empire). The homes are older, but the neighborhoods are nice and the crime is generally low. Honestly I miss living there myself. Again from there nothing is too far away since it is fairly central to the metropolitan area.

Another thing driving up real estate prices in most of southern California is that there isn't much room to build new houses, and despite the stupid politics and the insane cost of living here, there are a lot of people moving here from out of state, so the supply of homes on the market is very low. In some areas a house will sell after a few days on the market, and generally way over the asking price since there are multiple bids.

Although the state of California is doing all it can to drive businesses out of the state, I don't know how much longer this can be sustained. At some point the bubble will pop.
 
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The real contractor is here!
 
Nice!

To throw in another data point for the real estate market comparison going on here: our new place was ~$650k, but it's a 2 flat (2 ~11oo apartments) in a nice, but not-as-hot/expensive-as-downtown neighborhood in chicago. Chicago makes the rest of the midwest look expensive, but is nothing compared to CA; there's no way we could have even considered buying in a neighborhood we would have wanted to live in when we lived in LA..
 
Nice!

To throw in another data point for the real estate market comparison going on here: our new place was ~$650k, but it's a 2 flat (2 ~11oo apartments) in a nice, but not-as-hot/expensive-as-downtown neighborhood in chicago. Chicago makes the rest of the midwest look expensive, but is nothing compared to CA; there's no way we could have even considered buying in a neighborhood we would have wanted to live in when we lived in LA..


Yeah. We live in a little notch here that is surrounded by the "better" neighborhoods. The schools suck but everything else is pretty nice. We originally wanted to buy in the Orange "Historic" downtown but even during the recession those houses were twice what we could afford for 100 year old craftsman houses on tiny lots.
 
Yeah. We live in a little notch here that is surrounded by the "better" neighborhoods. The schools suck but everything else is pretty nice. We originally wanted to buy in the Orange "Historic" downtown but even during the recession those houses were twice what we could afford for 100 year old craftsman houses on tiny lots.
My best friend lived in one of those on Shaffer St. You're not missing much IMO.
 
My best friend lived in one of those on Shaffer St. You're not missing much IMO.
Yeah. I llike the area but I know people who live there that are over the traffic from evens like the street fair, the Chapman University students and the homeless people shitting in their yards. The shitting might also be from the Chapman students though.
 
Yeah. I llike the area but I know people who live there that are over the traffic from evens like the street fair, the Chapman University students and the homeless people shitting in their yards. The shitting might also be from the Chapman students though.
And if you thought your house was small, those are even smaller. They would not suit your family or your music stuff very well. I remember my friends house had a pool table in the detached garage, and it was so small that you didn't have enough room for the pool cue at certain angles and you would hit the wall when trying to make a shot.
 
And if you thought your house was small, those are even smaller. They would not suit your family or your music stuff very well. I remember my friends house had a pool table in the detached garage, and it was so small that you didn't have enough room for the pool cue at certain angles and you would hit the wall when trying to make a shot.
Thats another thing right there. Since they are a historic district you can't really modify the houses too much.
 
those houses were twice what we could afford for 100 year old craftsman houses on tiny lots.
heh, our 'new' place is 107 years old and on a tiny lot, but everything in the city is on a tiny lot, and we were specifically going for vintage-but-in-good-shape. We also couldn't have afforded anything decent in the neighborhood we're in without it being a multi-unit where we live in one unit and rent out the other.
 
Not the most exciting pics but they framed the ceiling and mostly sheeted the attic yesterday. Insulation and drywall today.


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