San Diego Housing Bubble News and Analysis

So you're saying the average home in Seattle is only 1215 square feet? Think I'll stay in So Cal, as much as I like the scenery, that's just too much per sq. ft. IMO homes in both areas need to be less than $200 a ft. before I would even consider buying.

Seattle was never cheap. Too many Amazon and MSFT millionaires

But people are pretty cool there. You want to talk about cultured people, it's a great place to be. Just have to deal with the rain.

If Seattle had even close to SD's weather I'd much prefer living up there. Much prettier, more character, more culture, better class of people... the weather just sucks 9 mos a year.

It will be interesting if Portland and Seattle get hammered in price as bad as Cali has. They peaked later.

I remember thinking it crazy that Las Vegas and Phoenix had much higher medians than Denver during the height of the bubble. That has corrected itself big time. Denver is back to having a higher median than those 2 towns.

Agree. Why pay prices set by people with huge sources of wealth? I'll enjoy my visits to Seattle, and let others pay the price to live there.

I don't think Seattle will fair that bad, because again i think the commerce/business activity is pretty good there.

Where it think things are going to get really ugly is Portland (and Oregon in general). I was considering buying an investment property there (I have a friend that works there). While housing prices were much cheaper than here in CA ($500k can buy you good homes in Portlandregion), the biggest issue i have is the price/income in Oregon (from my guessimate) seems really really bad. Oregon wages are nowhere near what we see out here in CA. Oregon has historically had unemployment problems. Property tax in Oregon is also not cheap (since it has no sales tax). It's a nice area, but most homes should not be in the $400k-$500k region. Back when I was looking, inventory was ridiculously low(you had to buy preconstruction). Partly was because a lot of CA folks were buying there.. Today, if you take a glance at the MLS in Portland area, you'll notice it's flooded with inventory.

Then again, what do I know....I'm just an idiot saver.

how many can there be?

the Seattle MSA has 25 Million are there 250,000 Millionaires there?

I don't think Seattle would have the culture/character you describe if they had our weather. Up there when it rains, you go into your garage and make some music, or read a book, or paint a painting, etc. Why do any of that here when you can just go to the beach? The weather of any particular city shapes its culture a lot more than people think. Seattle also has one of the highest suicide rates in the country -- coincidentally it also has one of the highest cloudy/rainy-day rates.

Don't take me literally... My point was that I believe employment in the Seattle area is still pretty strong. (I still get calls from headhunters asking if I want to move there for opportunities). Yes yes, microsoft had a layoff...But, again, if was such a problem, I wouldn't be getting recruiters calling.

What do you mean when you say that Seattle has better culture? How does that affect you in your day to day life? Do they have cashiers at Wal-Mart quoting Sartre and Nietzsche?

"Oregon has recorded the steepest year-over-year rise in unemployment rates among the states, and now its jobless rate ranks second among them.
This week, the state Employment Department said the Oregon unemployment rate jumped to 12.1% in March, matching the highest rate of the recession of the early 1980s."

http://www.qualityinfo.org/olmisj/ChartV...

I lived, and bought my first house, in Bellingham - north of Seattle... back when it was cheap. (1991). I paid $72,500 for a 2 bedroom SFR. It sold in 2005 for $237,280. The bubble definitely inflated up there. And seems to be staying inflated. My best friend owns a home in Mt. Vernon, WA. She's seen the value of her house double in 5 years. Her house is closer to Seattle than Bellingham... many of her neighbors commute to Seattle, despite it being a 60-90 minutes commute.

I loved living in the Northwest. You learn to do stuff in the drizzle. (It doesn't rain hard every day - more drizzling.)

Sartre and Nietzsche? Are you a teenager?

Seattle is nice place

One to two months each year in summer. Did a project there years ago and was nice place but too much rain for me. Good to know that San Diego is actually cheaper! But still, Texas is a lot less expensive than San Diego.

I came here from Washington, D.C. The folks there and in the surrounding MD and VA burbs (especially Montgomery and Arlington counties) are very nerdy and supposedly cultured - lets just say they all seem to vacation in Tuscany! Well I got sick of "those people" (as I called them) whose highest values seem to be Art, Eating Well, Travel, Expertise, and Health. Anyway, although I can't define "culture"... in excessive doses it definitely got on my nerves after 25 years (I had grown up here). Nevertheless, I would have stayed in D.C. despite having grown to despise those people except for the fact that there are no BEACHES there - all those years away from SoCal I was California dreaming, more specifically dreaming of surf.

So assuming I could tolerate the wet weather up there (Seattle or Portland) and the supposedly more refined people, how does the surf compare? Anyone know?

Back to culture - IMHO people who engage in extensive international travel thinking they are expanding their cultural horizons but without learning the rudiments of the languages spoken in the countries they go to are really just monied rubes.

Side thought - average education level attained might serve as a practical measure of "culture" in the sense that anything learned in school from the ABCs to elite science and humanistic studies is for the most part what constitutes culture. I just spent some time looking for some tables that could accurately place San Diego relative to other metropolitian areas. I'm sure the information is out there I just couldn't easily find it. So I will hazard a few guesses. San Diego is more "cultured" (educated) than Bakersfield and the Inland Empire. In fact it might be more cultured than any place between here and Washington D.C. where I guess that the suburban counties mentioned would rank considerably higher than here. Likewise, Long Island and parts of New England may be more highly cultured (using the education as a surrogate for culture). Compared to Oregon and Washington - I wouldn't have a clue.

Excuse the rambling. Best, pertinazzio

every place is cultured. some places are a little freakier than others. temecula seems like a heavily republcian, sel-proclaimed christian, lots of jesus stickers and little churches and dirt bikes...that's culture. nothing better or worse ... i think the whole "culture" thing makes more difference when you're looking for a potential mate. i'd rather look for a mate ina less churchy, more cosmopolitan place.

"every place is cultured. some places are a little freakier than others."

I can't disagree with you scaredycat. Even so-called primative peoples as bushmen and various amazonian tribes are endowed with culture. After all they all have languages, customs, rites, crafts etc. Nevertheless, when we speak of someone as being a "highly cultured individual" I think we generally mean something more than the fact that the individual in question belongs to some human society or another.