“Where is the money coming from?????? Savings or sales of appreciated assets?”
OK, JWM, I’ll bite. A small part may come from savings, but the bulk is likely to come from the sale of appreciated assets. As in houses. Happy?
You may be under the impression that nobody in San Diego has any equity left in their homes anymore. You couldn’t be further from the truth. Small anecdote: my co-workers are mostly in their 40s and 50s, live in CV, and bought their houses a long time ago. I doubt they went to the housing ATM at all. They have (and still will have, even if the market goes down a lot further) enormous equity in their current homes. They are the “silent majority”, if you will. If they want to move up, they certainly can (and a couple of them just did recently). Again, they are just another piece of the market and bigger forces (foreclosures, credit tightening) are at play. But a pretty large pool of move up buyers with ample equity does exist and will continue to exist for a long time.
That’s basically it. And, frankly, I think this is rather obvious to almost anybody. With all due respect, I believe it is you who don’t get it.
PS: I didn’t bring my personal situation into discussion, as I don’t believe it is relevant. But, if you’re curious to know, I fit your description of “under 35 with very large cash reserves”. I also rent.
