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CricketOnTheHearth
ParticipantIt’s not just the comps, Zillow is so handy for a world of other things.
I have Zillowed potential rentals to check them out. Armed with the starting info I got from Zillow, I was able to detect flopped flips, less-than-honest rental “agents”, and other hazards to a prospective renter.
I used the mapping function of Zillow, along with a list from a local news station, to figure out where all the houses that burned in 2007 were located. (Hint: avoid a house that is just west of an expanse of brush.)
I love the “historical price” graph at the bottom of a listing, and being able to see what the house cost 10 years ago, etc.
Also that you can see when the house was last purchased, and for how much.
Combined with data from the Treasurer/Tax Collector, Zillow is a huge all-round resource. I hope it, or something like it, stays around.
ParticipantIt’s not just the comps, Zillow is so handy for a world of other things.
I have Zillowed potential rentals to check them out. Armed with the starting info I got from Zillow, I was able to detect flopped flips, less-than-honest rental “agents”, and other hazards to a prospective renter.
I used the mapping function of Zillow, along with a list from a local news station, to figure out where all the houses that burned in 2007 were located. (Hint: avoid a house that is just west of an expanse of brush.)
I love the “historical price” graph at the bottom of a listing, and being able to see what the house cost 10 years ago, etc.
Also that you can see when the house was last purchased, and for how much.
Combined with data from the Treasurer/Tax Collector, Zillow is a huge all-round resource. I hope it, or something like it, stays around.
ParticipantIt’s not just the comps, Zillow is so handy for a world of other things.
I have Zillowed potential rentals to check them out. Armed with the starting info I got from Zillow, I was able to detect flopped flips, less-than-honest rental “agents”, and other hazards to a prospective renter.
I used the mapping function of Zillow, along with a list from a local news station, to figure out where all the houses that burned in 2007 were located. (Hint: avoid a house that is just west of an expanse of brush.)
I love the “historical price” graph at the bottom of a listing, and being able to see what the house cost 10 years ago, etc.
Also that you can see when the house was last purchased, and for how much.
Combined with data from the Treasurer/Tax Collector, Zillow is a huge all-round resource. I hope it, or something like it, stays around.
ParticipantLarge acreage is also an insurance policy, because if things go to **** you can raise a large portion of your own food on it.
I’m serious.
The place I’m renting now has a lemon tree in the front and a loquat in the back. Both trees bombard us with way more fruit than we can ever eat. If I had access to enough space to store it (don’t, the one housemate is a pack rat), I could do some serious canning. As it is, we keep half the neighborhood in lemons and they really appreciate it, b/c lemons are expensive in the stores.
San Diego is a great place to raise fruit, potatoes (in the winter), chickens, avocados, you name it. What you don’t eat yourself you can barter off to others for what they’re growing. Farmer’s markets are booming and are all over the county now.
First thing to do when you get that house is to pick a patch of ground and start improving it for growing garden crops in it. Work in lots of compost, that stuff that “breaks up hard soil”, maybe some sand also to loosen the dirt. Start now and in a couple of years you’ll have some pretty good soil. Don’t stint on developing the dirt, then you can get good crops out of it.
Oh, and yes, you could raise chickens. They are legal in San Diego, Poway, Escondido, and quite possibly other municipalities too. Also, you can buy just hens, so you don’t have a rooster crowing to get the neighbors upset. And their are egg-laying breeds (that lay like mad even w/o a rooster) if you are not into killing and plucking chickens.
Although a friend once told me that his neighbors’ home-grown chickens were hands-down the most delicious chicken he had ever eaten.
ParticipantLarge acreage is also an insurance policy, because if things go to **** you can raise a large portion of your own food on it.
I’m serious.
The place I’m renting now has a lemon tree in the front and a loquat in the back. Both trees bombard us with way more fruit than we can ever eat. If I had access to enough space to store it (don’t, the one housemate is a pack rat), I could do some serious canning. As it is, we keep half the neighborhood in lemons and they really appreciate it, b/c lemons are expensive in the stores.
San Diego is a great place to raise fruit, potatoes (in the winter), chickens, avocados, you name it. What you don’t eat yourself you can barter off to others for what they’re growing. Farmer’s markets are booming and are all over the county now.
First thing to do when you get that house is to pick a patch of ground and start improving it for growing garden crops in it. Work in lots of compost, that stuff that “breaks up hard soil”, maybe some sand also to loosen the dirt. Start now and in a couple of years you’ll have some pretty good soil. Don’t stint on developing the dirt, then you can get good crops out of it.
Oh, and yes, you could raise chickens. They are legal in San Diego, Poway, Escondido, and quite possibly other municipalities too. Also, you can buy just hens, so you don’t have a rooster crowing to get the neighbors upset. And their are egg-laying breeds (that lay like mad even w/o a rooster) if you are not into killing and plucking chickens.
Although a friend once told me that his neighbors’ home-grown chickens were hands-down the most delicious chicken he had ever eaten.
ParticipantLarge acreage is also an insurance policy, because if things go to **** you can raise a large portion of your own food on it.
I’m serious.
The place I’m renting now has a lemon tree in the front and a loquat in the back. Both trees bombard us with way more fruit than we can ever eat. If I had access to enough space to store it (don’t, the one housemate is a pack rat), I could do some serious canning. As it is, we keep half the neighborhood in lemons and they really appreciate it, b/c lemons are expensive in the stores.
San Diego is a great place to raise fruit, potatoes (in the winter), chickens, avocados, you name it. What you don’t eat yourself you can barter off to others for what they’re growing. Farmer’s markets are booming and are all over the county now.
First thing to do when you get that house is to pick a patch of ground and start improving it for growing garden crops in it. Work in lots of compost, that stuff that “breaks up hard soil”, maybe some sand also to loosen the dirt. Start now and in a couple of years you’ll have some pretty good soil. Don’t stint on developing the dirt, then you can get good crops out of it.
Oh, and yes, you could raise chickens. They are legal in San Diego, Poway, Escondido, and quite possibly other municipalities too. Also, you can buy just hens, so you don’t have a rooster crowing to get the neighbors upset. And their are egg-laying breeds (that lay like mad even w/o a rooster) if you are not into killing and plucking chickens.
Although a friend once told me that his neighbors’ home-grown chickens were hands-down the most delicious chicken he had ever eaten.
ParticipantLarge acreage is also an insurance policy, because if things go to **** you can raise a large portion of your own food on it.
I’m serious.
The place I’m renting now has a lemon tree in the front and a loquat in the back. Both trees bombard us with way more fruit than we can ever eat. If I had access to enough space to store it (don’t, the one housemate is a pack rat), I could do some serious canning. As it is, we keep half the neighborhood in lemons and they really appreciate it, b/c lemons are expensive in the stores.
San Diego is a great place to raise fruit, potatoes (in the winter), chickens, avocados, you name it. What you don’t eat yourself you can barter off to others for what they’re growing. Farmer’s markets are booming and are all over the county now.
First thing to do when you get that house is to pick a patch of ground and start improving it for growing garden crops in it. Work in lots of compost, that stuff that “breaks up hard soil”, maybe some sand also to loosen the dirt. Start now and in a couple of years you’ll have some pretty good soil. Don’t stint on developing the dirt, then you can get good crops out of it.
Oh, and yes, you could raise chickens. They are legal in San Diego, Poway, Escondido, and quite possibly other municipalities too. Also, you can buy just hens, so you don’t have a rooster crowing to get the neighbors upset. And their are egg-laying breeds (that lay like mad even w/o a rooster) if you are not into killing and plucking chickens.
Although a friend once told me that his neighbors’ home-grown chickens were hands-down the most delicious chicken he had ever eaten.
ParticipantLarge acreage is also an insurance policy, because if things go to **** you can raise a large portion of your own food on it.
I’m serious.
The place I’m renting now has a lemon tree in the front and a loquat in the back. Both trees bombard us with way more fruit than we can ever eat. If I had access to enough space to store it (don’t, the one housemate is a pack rat), I could do some serious canning. As it is, we keep half the neighborhood in lemons and they really appreciate it, b/c lemons are expensive in the stores.
San Diego is a great place to raise fruit, potatoes (in the winter), chickens, avocados, you name it. What you don’t eat yourself you can barter off to others for what they’re growing. Farmer’s markets are booming and are all over the county now.
First thing to do when you get that house is to pick a patch of ground and start improving it for growing garden crops in it. Work in lots of compost, that stuff that “breaks up hard soil”, maybe some sand also to loosen the dirt. Start now and in a couple of years you’ll have some pretty good soil. Don’t stint on developing the dirt, then you can get good crops out of it.
Oh, and yes, you could raise chickens. They are legal in San Diego, Poway, Escondido, and quite possibly other municipalities too. Also, you can buy just hens, so you don’t have a rooster crowing to get the neighbors upset. And their are egg-laying breeds (that lay like mad even w/o a rooster) if you are not into killing and plucking chickens.
Although a friend once told me that his neighbors’ home-grown chickens were hands-down the most delicious chicken he had ever eaten.
ParticipantSeveral thoughts:
Solar electric is indeed still more expensive than natural gas turbine electric, and pretty resource-intensive to make the panels. Solar hot water heating, however, would save us a bundle of energy and it is cheap, simple technology.
I figured Prop 23 was kind of bogus when I saw their graph of when unemployment was under 5.5% in California. It’s like 10% of the past 10 or 20 years. So what the prop is saying is, “we will cap our emissions… like… never.”
I also appreciate the clean-air standards, especially whenever I am in traffic behind a ’60’s or ’70’s-vintage car and smell its exhaust. That’s a distinctive smell that takes me back to my childhood, and when I imagine an entire LA Basin full of such cars and their resulting stench, I wince and think, “thank goodness for catalytic converters and pollution controls”.
ParticipantSeveral thoughts:
Solar electric is indeed still more expensive than natural gas turbine electric, and pretty resource-intensive to make the panels. Solar hot water heating, however, would save us a bundle of energy and it is cheap, simple technology.
I figured Prop 23 was kind of bogus when I saw their graph of when unemployment was under 5.5% in California. It’s like 10% of the past 10 or 20 years. So what the prop is saying is, “we will cap our emissions… like… never.”
I also appreciate the clean-air standards, especially whenever I am in traffic behind a ’60’s or ’70’s-vintage car and smell its exhaust. That’s a distinctive smell that takes me back to my childhood, and when I imagine an entire LA Basin full of such cars and their resulting stench, I wince and think, “thank goodness for catalytic converters and pollution controls”.
ParticipantSeveral thoughts:
Solar electric is indeed still more expensive than natural gas turbine electric, and pretty resource-intensive to make the panels. Solar hot water heating, however, would save us a bundle of energy and it is cheap, simple technology.
I figured Prop 23 was kind of bogus when I saw their graph of when unemployment was under 5.5% in California. It’s like 10% of the past 10 or 20 years. So what the prop is saying is, “we will cap our emissions… like… never.”
I also appreciate the clean-air standards, especially whenever I am in traffic behind a ’60’s or ’70’s-vintage car and smell its exhaust. That’s a distinctive smell that takes me back to my childhood, and when I imagine an entire LA Basin full of such cars and their resulting stench, I wince and think, “thank goodness for catalytic converters and pollution controls”.
ParticipantSeveral thoughts:
Solar electric is indeed still more expensive than natural gas turbine electric, and pretty resource-intensive to make the panels. Solar hot water heating, however, would save us a bundle of energy and it is cheap, simple technology.
I figured Prop 23 was kind of bogus when I saw their graph of when unemployment was under 5.5% in California. It’s like 10% of the past 10 or 20 years. So what the prop is saying is, “we will cap our emissions… like… never.”
I also appreciate the clean-air standards, especially whenever I am in traffic behind a ’60’s or ’70’s-vintage car and smell its exhaust. That’s a distinctive smell that takes me back to my childhood, and when I imagine an entire LA Basin full of such cars and their resulting stench, I wince and think, “thank goodness for catalytic converters and pollution controls”.
ParticipantSeveral thoughts:
Solar electric is indeed still more expensive than natural gas turbine electric, and pretty resource-intensive to make the panels. Solar hot water heating, however, would save us a bundle of energy and it is cheap, simple technology.
I figured Prop 23 was kind of bogus when I saw their graph of when unemployment was under 5.5% in California. It’s like 10% of the past 10 or 20 years. So what the prop is saying is, “we will cap our emissions… like… never.”
I also appreciate the clean-air standards, especially whenever I am in traffic behind a ’60’s or ’70’s-vintage car and smell its exhaust. That’s a distinctive smell that takes me back to my childhood, and when I imagine an entire LA Basin full of such cars and their resulting stench, I wince and think, “thank goodness for catalytic converters and pollution controls”.
ParticipantIt depends on which financial blogs are saying these things.
Every blogger has their own bias, and half the trick of reading them is to figure out what their bias is. Then keep in mind that their comments are shaded with it.
For instance, gold bugs are sure that hyperinflation is around the corner and cash will be worthless. Mish hates public unions. Dr Housing Bubble keeps pointing out the signs that piles of foreclosures are going to come onto the market any time now. Karl Denninger is positive that the US’ debt load is going to blow up, possibly with riots in the streets following. The Archdruid argues that we are have passed peak oil, so it is time to prepare for a postindustrial world.
Many of their arguments made perfect sense to me over the past 3 years… only to see virtually none of their predictions come true yet. It seems the Wall-street/DC complex has succeeded in casting our economy in amber, preventing a crash of any sort– bank, stock/bond market, or housing prices. I’m starting to wonder if Adam Smith’s invisible hand, and the rest of him, are bound and gagged to a chair in a dark room somewhere.
The best I can do is hedge my bets around. I don’t invest in the markets any more, I don’t contribute more than a pittance to my 401(K) (because the only place that money goes is into the markets). I am stashing cash as fast as I can, some of it literally under my mattress, because even Union Bank or my credit union could go under, who knows. I am also buying physical silver (dimes). I don’t know if this is the right path but what else can I do? It’s all clowns to the left of me and jokers to the right. Wish I could buy a farm in the Midwest, then at least I’d have a place to grow food.
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