Hawk, thanks for the heartfelt words. Sounds like you and I have been riding in the same seat on this ridiculous roller coaster.
I noticed you said you bought in Alta Loma. Nice choice. Had we stayed up there, Alta Loma was where we wanted to be next. Unfortunately Fontana was where our last house was. Hated the town, but our place up in the north part of town was 75K cheaper than a similar 2200 sf 4/3 in Rancho Cucamonga. The cheapskate in me couldn’t justify the extra cost……….what a mistake THAT was!
Our neighborhood was nice, but as you know, Fontana is the armpit of the world. Our place was broken into twice by some local kids and in the spur of the moment we said “Fuck this shithole” and sold the place in Nov 2003.
Bought a boat in San Diego bay (where I was working a lot anyway) and talked the wife into living on the boat for 6 months while we figured out what part of San Diego to buy in. Of course the run-up in prices made me want to puke and that’s about when I stumbled across Piggington’s. Was quite a relief to find a group of really sharp people who agreed with me……that this bubble was real and was going to implode. That 6 months turned into over 4 years on the boat.
What’s pathetic right now is during these last 5 years I’ve seen this market do a entire 360 and is now apparently starting all over again! I went from cursing the fact that I sold the Fontana house too soon, (got 300K for it then watched it go up to 600K) to laughing my ass off when it dropped BELOW 300K last year. Now it’s on it’s way back up.
The emotional roller coaster in mind boggling isn’t it? You go from disgust of mis-timing the rise…..to lament for not having bought something again immediately before the prices get away from you. Then you feel vindicated for having stood your ground when the prices start falling, and now get transported back to 2004 with all this multiple offers stuff.
Amazing that about this time last year all of us Piggs were so proud that our predictions of the markets demise were being realized. Oh well, who would have predicted that the government was gonna step in and keep this train from derailing like we all knew it would.
