[quote=joec]BG, a post I actually don’t disagree with. Anyhow, I think a lot of my point is that we are a product of our environment and what we experienced ourselves. I also feel the real estate market now is very different from 20-30 years ago. I do have family and friends in the coastal areas both here, LA and in the bay area and they bought a long time ago paying a handsome sum even back then, but you talk to a lot of these people now and most would say they wouldn’t be able to afford buying anything here “now” based on their pay/job, etc. I don’t think the situation on the coast in terms of pricing, fixers is what it is now with the amount of buyers shopping in those areas and the amount of money and ease of financing compared to 30 years ago. Also, a lot of these folks back then had regular jobs being able to buy these properties, most now are probably move up buyers or higher paying professionals.[/quote]
Yes, joec, not only are we each a product of our environments but the “habitability” preference is generational.
Even if they grew up with enough money, of course an older “baby boomer” (=>55 yrs. old) would NOT have grown up with granite/corian counters, category 5 wiring, cable TV, internet, portable house phone, slate and “S” tile roofs, double/triple paned vinyl windows, plug-in house phones, cell phones, computers, convection and microwave ovens, wood-look laminate and parquet flooring (i.e. “Pergo”), stainmaster carpet, jacuzzi tubs, rollout cabinetry, 18″ tile floors, wide variety of mosaic and marble tile, wide variety of innovative window coverings, wide variety of patio doors and security screens, drop-in and “prefab” fireplaces, waterless “flushmate” toilets, sink sprayers, dual-head showers, built-in dishwashers, trash compactors, frost-free refrigerators, color TV, tankless water heaters, bread warmers, wine refrigerators, wide variety of concrete finishes, wide variety of brick and block, hot tubs, in-ground jacuzzis, gas BBQ grills . . . there’s a lot more but you get the drift. Either these things did not exist or they had just become available and were VERY cost-prohibitive.
Not only does *newer* construction today HAVE the bulk of these amenities, much of it is now considered “standard equipment” in a home.
If I were a current buyer and saw a property in a GREAT location with good bones for a price I could afford and it had grandma’s immaculate gold/white “marble-look” formica on the kitchen counter and immaculate linoleum floor with a thick black or maroon speckled stripe going up the walls, I might just want to leave it be for awhile. It it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! I’m COMFORTABLE with that. You may not be. I’ve seen A LOT of houses in Pt. Loma (some with awesome views) that looked just like this!!
Yes, my generation was able to purchase houses in your “dream” areas with their union jobs at Solar Turbines and Gen’l Dynamics Convair or Navy/Port Dist/City/County/State Civil Svc position. Most didn’t have a college degree. SD was NOT considered a “world class city” or “America’s Finest City” back then. It was STILL hard for workers to qualify to purchase an $80K to $120K home when the vast majority of homes were $40K to $60K. I think more were able to do it because they didn’t have the expectation of owning multiple new cars and there wasn’t the proliferation of gadgets available to spend $$ on as there is today. There also wasn’t near the amount of consumer credit available to the average consumer then as there is today. Buyers EXPECTED to work on a house when they bought it and didn’t mind doing it little by little. Most younger buyers bought properties in the neighborhoods they grew up in. They were “content” if that home may have been a 1100-1500 sf 3/1 with a one-car (or 1-1/2 car) garage. They also got married younger and bought their first home a lot younger than today’s buyers do.
