YOU ALL make good points; a few I find difficult to resolve (with data/proofs/information/etc.).
YOU ALL have likewise completely missed my original and basically only point. That being; this house, however attractive/acceptable/garish you may find it, doesn’t represent the typical house here in Amarillo. In fact, it represents basically a brand new, custom (built special with tons of upgrades) home.
Our median house price here is $111,000. We have a growing economy, albeit not high-tech, but nonetheless signficant, which grew 14% last year. I’ve offered State published articles on my website (read them if you choose) that will answer nearly all the questions posted here.
Nearly EVERY family I meet here in Amarillo that hails from the LA Basin or Sacramento or Stockton or the last one from Redlands has told me they cannot continue to live in SoCal because it has become too expensive in too many ways. I don’t live there, but they did. THEY are telling ME this. My experience with these families consists of 7 different family units. Once family, hispanic in culture, told me the racism was too difficult to cope with. They lived in Stockton. They wanted out and they are now happy. They lived in a 1300 square foot box but sold it for over $290,000. They bought a nice, 4/2/2 built in 1995 for $166,000 and are happy as clams because by trading their equity for a paid off home, they can afford to work a little less and still have money for their kids to attend Amarillo College (best community college in the State of Texas).
I came to this site thinking I would meet individuals who were looking for something else. What I found were bitter, angry, testy, aggressive people who seemingly have nothing better to do with their simmering thoughts than to unleash them on an “outsider” and enjoy the hell out of the heckling and cutsie commentary.
Many of you wonder “how dare I”. The last time I checked, Americans can pretty much say what they want. I’ve tried to answer your questions, but too many of your questions are poised at the comparison of SoCal to West Texas. Sure, there’s a helluva difference – but guess what CA? I’m not whining about bubbles and skyrocketing costs of living or, dare I say it; “Proposition 13”. My air doesn’t stink. I can drive as fast as I want because it’ll be a few miles before I hit lots of traffic. My rush hour is more like 5 minutes. I can clip along through the center of Amarillo on I-40 at nearly 70 mph on two lanes at 5:00 pm every day and be home in just under 6 minutes. My neighbors don’t look at me sideways and I don’t represent anything scary in my community.
Commerce, well, sure, we have 5 Walmarts for our little town of 188,000. If we don’t have it here, its because we didn’t need it. The next biggest town is Lubbock, two hours away and beyond that, its either Oklahoma City or Dallas.
Again, EVERYONE of you missed my point. If you have equity and are retiring or want to transfer that equity into outright ownership, consider us. Thats all, just consider us. There are roughly 260 million Americans in this country, and roughly 18 million of them live in California. But to listen to the media hype and politics, etc, you’d think you guys invented most of what happens in peoples lives. From the stories I’ve been told from those who have escaped CA, I’d more say its a little freaky and somewhat surreal to live there. I bet most of you are simply just indoctrinated into how things are there and its just what you know.
I’ve encourage anyone to contact me, pro or con on my posts. Instead, you’ve done the chicken-shit thing and responded negatively with all sorts of anonymous forum blasts/flame storms using some simple moniker like Josh or RE or slimyguy or whatever.
I’m done posting here. My message has fallen on deaf ears. I should have known. I will sell 21 Sandhills, I will collect the commission – and yes, you’ll still be sitting around, wringing your hands, seething about something and wondering where your equity went and whether or not you’ll fall into the Pacific when the big one hits.
