[quote=SK in CV][quote=bearishgurl]
If you never leave your “planned development” except to go to work in your “planned office park” and shop in your “master-planned strip mall,” you’ll never be able to see up front and personal how the (gritty?) “real world” operates :=0[/quote]
Actually, I grew up a stone’s throw away from one of those areas you mentioned and my sister still lives there, (in a house 3 blocks away from where we grew up, that she purchased with 20% down and a mortgage) and I have many friends that still live there. My sister certainly could have acquired through inheritance my mother’s house 8 years ago and kept the low taxes, but she chose not to. (Her taxes, btw, dated back to a pre-prop 13 assessment, and were over $1,000 a year.) It was a bigger and nicer home, but it wasn’t worth the hassle to her.
I’ve seen no evidence that anywhere near half of the homes there are being purchased for cash. Of the scores of people that I know that still live there, only two acquired their homes from their parents. I’m still waiting for any real evidence that there are neighborhoods were most homes are purchased for cash. My anecdotal evidence says otherwise.[/quote]
SK, if you are referring to “her” as your mom, why didn’t your sister “buy” your mom’s house from you and your other sibling(s)? Had she done so, she would have had a much lower tax bill and a bigger house in the same area she lives in now.
In light of the tangible benefits of taking over your mom’s home, I don’t understand why your sister thought it would be a “hassle” to do so.
Perhaps the area where you grew up (Del Cerro?) is now too expensive for most people to purchase with all cash or mostly cash. I was referring to neighborhoods in the $200K to $350K range in recent years as having a lot of all-cash or nearly all-cash purchasers (and they are not ALL “investors”).
Those with well-established parents who have real property holding(s) in CA are the ones who have and will end up being the “haves” going into the future while newcomers who come in and buy in newer areas will end up being the “have nots” due to the combination of taking out high-LTV mortgages plus having high carrying costs in the form of MR … and often HOA dues as well. This is just my opinion based upon what I’ve seen the combo of these monthly charges do to family finances in the long haul.
I would have to pull actual plat maps and then examine the corresponding titles to show the prevalence of recent all-cash or near all-cash sales in different areas. This would be a time-consuming but yet “interesting” endeavor.
Just like the “real” cause of the Vallejo (CA) BK which I had posted late last year that I planned to examine in detail and report my findings here, I just haven’t had an extended block of time to devote to the project.
I’m getting ready to leave on another road trip so won’t be able to devote any time to this right now. I promise that I am putting this task on my “to-do” list for my spare, spare time for the balance of 2013 :=]
Luckily, I already have a nice selection of county plat maps from “well-established” areas in my possession 🙂
