[poorgradstudent]

As a former tenant I can say that a 3% annual rent increase isn’t much. That’s $60/mo on a $2,000/mo unit. Every big complex in San Diego does small annual increases unless the rental market is truly in the toilet.

There are a few factors that could change things a little. If the tenant is handy and tends to fix things themselves and provides free sweat equity to maintain the property, they may be worth keeping at current rates. Also, if the property realistically will need repairs and upgrades like new carpets or appliances to rent out to new tenants, that can also change the math a little.

The bottom line is one 3% increase in three years is still a pretty good deal, especially if you’ve been actively maintaining it. If it’s a little run down the math might be a little different.

[poorgradstudent]

They are annoying to deal with and will look for any backdoor to avoid paying.

[poorgradstudent]

[quote=spdrun]

I’m confused by the huge divergence between Engineers and Scientists. Culturally we’re both Smart Nerds.

Stress == obesity. Working for corepirate America instead of in academia or government is more stressful.[/quote]

Corporate gigs in science are probably less stressful than corporate engineer jobs. My engineer friends who work for Qualcomm and Friends do seem to work a lot longer hours than those of us in Biotech. Most companies I’ve worked for in biotech pretty much encourage employees to take time during the day to exercise. Not sure if engineer-heavy companies do the same?

There probably is some difference between being glued to a computer all day and spending 50% of one’s time standing and walking in lab.

[poorgradstudent]

Capital Gains should be taxed as regular income.

[poorgradstudent]

I’m not too shocked. Buy a house with 3.5% down, market falls 4%, you’re technically underwater. And like others said there are markets that are still below bubble peak prices. In SD County right now a lot of the homes that are for sale are (poorly maintained) bubble homes that the owners are finally able to escape now that prices have almost caught up.

[poorgradstudent]

I’m confused by the huge divergence between Engineers and Scientists. Culturally we’re both Smart Nerds.

That said, I know a TON of scientists who are into marathons, biking and triathalons. Definitely way higher than the overall population.

[poorgradstudent]

Are you talking about the traditional big producers like Exxon, or the small shale oil boom companies that represent a fractured, fragmented market?

A lot of those small companies will eventually go bust or get bought out, probably by Domestic Big Oil companies or ones like BP or Shell.

Of course, I’ve been saying that there are too many microbreweries in San Diego for years, yet the number keeps going up. Sometime the craft beer market has to consolidate… right?

[poorgradstudent]

Considering it looks like we’re finally seeing significant jobs driven wage growth, that alone is going to fuel the housing market for a couple years until things slow down. Plus the economy usually loves it when the President and Congress are controlled by different parties; no one can change anything, and stability is good for making future plans. Of course the Dems will retake the Senate in 2016 and the Presidency may (but probably won’t) switch parties, so once the election rodeo starts up it may spook the market.

[poorgradstudent]

What browser are you using? Some browsers have notorious problems if you don’t occaisonally exit them completely or clear the cache.

[poorgradstudent]

Since this thread is still going I’ll pile on.

Mostly it comes down to being relatively socially liberal and generally okay with Big Government. Israel has socialized medicine and it works well there. So the two biggest rallying cries of the current Republican Party are ineffective.

[poorgradstudent]

My wife went crazy doing our actual holiday shopping on Amazon on Black Friday. I couldn’t keep track of everything she bought, but the good news is we’re mostly done with her side of the list, and came in at or under budget, i think.

[poorgradstudent]

It’s tighter than the bubble and looser than 2009.

Part of it depends on how much of a rate premium you’re willing to pay, along with suffering PMI. FHA loans are way less attractive than they used to be thanks to increasing fees.

My understanding is once the amount borrowing crosses into “Jumbo” loan territory, it becomes much trickier to get a loan. I think that limit in SoCal is 625,000? So it’s possible if your uncle is appraising a lot of North County McMansions, 20%+ is going to be the norm.

[poorgradstudent]

[quote=spdrun]Dive into individual stocks when hypersensitive folks sell slight bad news. I did well with Republic (parent company of Frontier), buying after the news that a suspected Ebola patient flew on their airline. Same as NFLX diving 25% in a day was a great opportunity to buy. Remember that chaos and irrational fear are your friends in this market.[/quote]

Yup. Mr. Market tends to overreact to news in both directions. NFLX is facing some serious structural challenges and 450 was probably a frothy price, but that 25% drop was definitely an overraction.

[poorgradstudent]

[quote=joec]Everything near all time highs again…I’m sure once I buy in, it will go down.[/quote]
If you’ve been sitting on the sidelines, I don’t think now is the time to dive back in.

October 13-15th would have been a fine time to dive back in. I’m shocked we’re up 10% since then, and I’m not the most bearish pigg. I’m seriously considering switching my 401k to bond funds in the short run.

[poorgradstudent]

[quote=Aecetia]Amen to that UCG. That was one nasty race, but I do not think we have heard the last of it.[/quote]

Looks like DeMaio conceded. It looks like the absentee ballots were heavily in favor of Peters and he jumped out to a lead of more than 4,000 votes after trailing on election night.

At least in San Diego it does seem like younger voters are more likely to vote by mail and tend to lean more Democratic than those who show up on election day.

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