[quote=sdrealtor]Just wanted to add one thing. I zillowed the house i described above and its worth about $220K today. The area, demographics and HH incomes are very comparable if not higher than where i live today but home prices area 1/2 to 1/3 of what they area here. This is just an expensive place to live and the rest of the country isnt like this. Most of the country is very affordable to average folk. This area has become much more desireable over the last couple decades relative to most of the country and housing prices reflect that.[/quote]
I agree. Understand everything here. I have a LOT of relatives whose net worth is very, VERY high but they live in their $180 – $200K +/- 2000 sf new(ish) “luxury” brick homes on 5-20 AC lots with their multiple pets, horses, livestock and equipment and drive American vehicles. They could all afford to pay cash for a property in “Nirvana” but would rather just visit places like that occasionally instead of live there. And only a couple of them have “flat screen” TV’s or even care about such things. Most can only get satellite svc.
I think it is mostly the “under 35” demographic who has a constant thirst for the latest electronics and gadgets. Of course, the interior of the US is not immune from “materialism,” but I think the need to financially over-extend oneself “because they can” and the “keeping up the Joneses” mindsets are mainly a “coastal phenomenon.” From what I’ve seen, many *wealthy* landowners and business people in WY, NE, KS, OK, AR and TX drive American pickups (some older). Most of these pickups look like they haven’t been washed in a year but the drivers don’t seem to care :=]
