Hope our members are all okay

[MoodyBlues]

The median price in LA county--and keep in mind the truly crappy areas that includes--is up to $750,000-ish. And I think it's around $800,000+ in Orange county, and even higher up in the bay area. Crazy.

When my grandmother bought the two houses we had in Arcadia, in 1970 and 1971, she paid $30,000 for the small one and $50,000 for the bigger one. The bigger one fell to a wrecking ball some years ago, and now contains a $5M McMansion. The little one is....where I live!!! And the last [unsolicited, firm] offer I got for it was $1.7M. I got so tired of real estate agents pestering me to buy my house, I finally told them to stop because I will NEVER, EVER sell and let this property be razed. The big house my uncle bought in the foothills of Arcadia, paying $60,000 in 1967, is now worth well over $2M--similar houses near to it have sold in the $3Ms recently. Luckily, the McMansion craze hasn't hit up there--they've been very proactive about prohibiting them--so that entire area looks just like it did when I was a kid. My old street? Barely recognizable.

Just to be sure, you're not a vet yourself, are you? (Sorry, it's hard to keep everyone straight.) If you were, you could use a VA loan--like my husband and I did to buy our house in Dallas. Of course, they're capped at a ridiculously low amount, in California housing terms, but it could at least get your foot in the door, so to speak.

We did most of our grocery shopping at the BX at MacDill, because their prices were *so* much lower than Publix or the other supermarkets. It's funny that my one biggest memory of shopping there should be bacon (considering I'm vegan), but they had slabs of bacon, and you could slice it as thick as you wanted. We'd buy a slab and slice them like 1/4" thick. Yum!! No wimpy thin read-a-paper-through-it bacon for us!

By the time the Sunshine Skyway collapsed, we were long gone. What an awful tragedy that was, and such a beautiful bridge, too.

 

[Dngrsone]

Just to be sure, you're not a vet yourself, are you? (Sorry, it's hard to keep everyone straight.) If you were, you could use a VA loan--like my husband and I did to buy our house in Dallas. Of course, they're capped at a ridiculously low amount, in California housing terms, but it could at least get your foot in the door, so to speak.

I did my 21 years, am retired with 50% disability. I'm still trying to finish selling my last home, and a VA loan would certainly help, but there's only so much money in the pot, you know? At my age, taking up a new 30yr mortgage is not a pleasing prospect, but the house I live in now is a tiny bit too small (and decrepit), and we need some property instead of having to pay a space lease every month (that is more than my mortgage payment).

For all the young'uns, the Sunshine Skyway collapsed in 1980 when a freighter ran into the supporting pylons during a sudden squall. The span collapsed after the hump, so with zero visibility in the rain, something like six cars and a bus just drove off the span before traffic stopped. Thirty-five dead doesn't seem like a lot nowadays, but 40 years ago, it was devastating to us in the Bay area.

 

[MoodyBlues]

I did my 21 years, am retired with 50% disability. I'm still trying to finish selling my last home, and a VA loan would certainly help, but there's only so much money in the pot, you know? At my age, taking up a new 30yr mortgage is not a pleasing prospect, but the house I live in now is a tiny bit too small (and decrepit), and we need some property instead of having to pay a space lease every month (that is more than my mortgage payment).

I'm sorry, I should've remembered that you're a vet, and a disabled one at that--as my husband is (40%). Luckily, I can pick from a menu of reasons: old age, brain tumor-related brain fog, sepsis-related brain fog, senility, you name it!

Isn't there land out there in the middle of nowhere that can be bought for a song? You might have to cough up money to string electricity and plumbing, etc., but that could be an idea. My parents bought a piece of land in Lancaster when I was a baby; I never was sure what they planned on doing with it, because LIVING out there was not their cup of tea. I think they intended to hold it, let it increase in value, then sell it. It got lost in their ugly divorce. Mom and I drove out there once to try to find it. Unfortunately, we never did find the exact lot--but it looked like their hope of the area really taking off as a commuter town never happened--all the lots were still empty. My actual long-winded point is that I know I've seen houses AND empty lots advertised for very, very low prices--by SoCal standards--in some of the more remote areas, and maybe that could be an option.

For all the young'uns, the Sunshine Skyway collapsed in 1980 when a freighter ran into the supporting pylons during a sudden squall. The span collapsed after the hump, so with zero visibility in the rain, something like six cars and a bus just drove off the span before traffic stopped. Thirty-five dead doesn't seem like a lot nowadays, but 40 years ago, it was devastating to us in the Bay area.

It was a beautiful, visually stunning bridge. News of its collapse and fatalities was truly shocking. These days, it seems like there's some shocking event almost daily, but at that time? Not so much.

 

[Dngrsone]

Isn't there land out there in the middle of nowhere that can be bought for a song? You might have to cough up money to string electricity and plumbing, etc., but that could be an idea. My parents bought a piece of land in Lancaster when I was a baby; I never was sure what they planned on doing with it, because LIVING out there was not their cup of tea. I think they intended to hold it, let it increase in value, then sell it. It got lost in their ugly divorce. Mom and I drove out there once to try to find it. Unfortunately, we never did find the exact lot--but it looked like their hope of the area really taking off as a commuter town never happened--all the lots were still empty. My actual long-winded point is that I know I've seen houses AND empty lots advertised for very, very low prices--by SoCal standards--in some of the more remote areas, and maybe that could be an option.


It was a beautiful, visually stunning bridge. News of its collapse and fatalities was truly shocking. These days, it seems like there's some shocking event almost daily, but at that time? Not so much.

We had it pretty good back then, or so selective memory tells us, eh?

Yeah, there are 5 acre parcels all over the place in the desert, but the weed farmers have taken over, and most of them are illegal, so no one wants to venture far from town, and the undeveloped patches in town are insanely expensive. Even those with Joshua trees on them! Like I'm going to pay $70k for a 2 acre plot full of plants you can't cut down, so there's no reasonable way to place a building of more than 100sqft.

 

[MoodyBlues]

We had it pretty good back then, or so selective memory tells us, eh?

Yes, indeed!!

Yeah, there are 5 acre parcels all over the place in the desert, but the weed farmers have taken over, and most of them are illegal, so no one wants to venture far from town, and the undeveloped patches in town are insanely expensive. Even those with Joshua trees on them! Like I'm going to pay $70k for a 2 acre plot full of plants you can't cut down, so there's no reasonable way to place a building of more than 100sqft.

You could get creative, and build AROUND the Joshua trees! Have an open floor plan--the weather's certainly good for it, you know, indoor/outdoor living--where the house and outdoors sort of meld into each other. I can see lots of sliding-glass doors, or French doors, opening out onto patio space...

As for the illegal weed farmers, stay the hell away from them. They're not to be fooled with.