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“Caption Call Interpretation Services” is a top employer.

Yikes, “closed captions writer” has got to be the most vulnerable job to offshoring and AI in the world.

The free Youtube automatic captions feature gets better every year.

I guess live TV sports will keep the elite human ones in business, but it does seem to be a task that AI will be better than any human being eventually.

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I just got a no-cost 15 year fixed mortgage for 2.375

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Do it now and put it all into bonds that yield 6%. What could go wrong?

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I don’t think $300 sq foot is happening in 2021, not all in costs at least.

I actually got a quote from a coastal small complex developer circa 2016. It was $500 sq foot.

Saying it doesn’t have to be “high end” doesn’t actually save you much. Nice fixtures barely add to the cost, which is why mid-range apartment complexes intended to rent for under $1000 a month in the midwest still have granite countertops.

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Unbuilt lots in those areas usually have issues that kept them unbuilt.

Now if you’re talking about a teardown, that’s different.

Honestly I would drop the idea of developing something unless you are well financed and willing and able to devote 20+ hours a week to it.

I know two incidents personally in San Diego where amateur housing development was a financial disaster.

In general, in business, the successful founders learned their industry as employees of prior successes first. True in my case and industry and many others.

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Is the ROE so low for the primary because it isn’t rented?

You got to live there however, so you need to add what the government calls owner’s equivalent rent into the returns there.

Kudos for twice pulling the trigger during the pandemic too.

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My three places have better percentage gains, but where it counts, net profit, you got me beat!

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Were there ultra low fee index funds in 1981, which automatically reinvested dividends?

Also, to be a true apples to apples comparison, the excess rent over expense would also need to be “reinvested.” Otherwise you are giving the S&P 40 years of compound interest but no interest whatsoever counted in favor of the housing investment.

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That penthouse is beautiful, love the marble floors and bathroom designs.

The kitchen screams 2007-ish renovation, but is perfectly nice. Funny how a million year old stone can look 15 years out of date, but about 6 colors of granite got way overused during the bubble.

I think the current trendy solid white quartz looks like an apple store or biotech clean room and will age badly as a matter of style.

If I had to do a reno I’d use forest green countertops and classic colors of marble and travertine for bathrooms. Travertine looks amazing as flooring but isn’t strong enough and requires a lot of small patching. It is great on walls however.

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Separate water and power meters greatly increases cost versus keeping it on the main house’s bill.

Permit and site prep could be under 15k in ideal conditions

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“ also prompted the high-earners to pick low-cost, low-tax areas ”

Citation needed.

You do sound increasingly bitter and engaging in confirmation bias reasoning to justify your decisions.

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Esco’s post illustrates something important with crypto: 99% of people don’t actually own the crypto, they own an account with an “exchange” that claims to own it.

These exchanges are regularly hacked or just giant frauds.

They also I suspect don’t have giant amounts of US dollars sitting around ready to redeem. As long as more money comes in than out, they can pay people who want to withdraw money. But if, say, 10% of people want their funds out, they will just say “sorry don’t got it.”

But in the meanwhile, people log in, see their account value in US dollars that do not actually exist on the exchange, and are happy and keep sending the exchanges more money.

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1. None. If the growth of squalor in SF causes a condo to go from 1.3 to 1.1 million, that’s not going to affect population in any material way.

Long term, the reason SF Bay is losing population is that as people get richer, they want more living space and to live with fewer people, and are willing to pay a lot of money to do so, but there’s not a corresponding increase in livable space.

2. It’s part of it for sure. I think we’re just about the best run large city in the USA.

3. California does well at both attracting and creating rich people, and then taxing them. The fiscal situation of the state is very strong with a gigantic surplus. SD will continue to be a better place to live, and people will continue to pay more and more to live here.

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SF homelessness is much worse in 2021 than late 2019. Major shopping streets are 1/3 boarded up and covered in tents that block 80-100% of the sidewalk.

The sidewalks are also heavily blocked by homeless people selling all the stuff they shoplifted on spread out on blankets. Just random CVS type stuff in its packaging.

It was really a sad sight. My girlfriend had never been there and I was looking forward to showing her around, and we repeatedly had to walk down the street to because the sidewalks were completely blocked.

All of this was normal in the Tenderloin area before, but now it has spread all over the city.

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“Ive seen no evidence of groups holding them as rentals”

This giant private equity SFH landlord has some properties in SD City. None are currently for rent, but you can see they have 20+ for rent the greater LA and IE area.

https://www.invitationhomes.com/

The SD one I saw earlier on their website I think was in San Carlos.

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