[Rich Toscano]

[quote=spdrun]Jeebus X. Khrist on a unicycle, no sense of humor here?

I’m all for watching a good political fight. ding-ding-ding BRING IT![/quote]

I don’t see where sense of humor comes into it… nothing Brian said was funny (at least not on purpose — I found the phrase “As a political sportsman” quite hilariously lame, but I don’t think that was the intended effect).

Anyway, this site is not for political fights… if that’s what you are looking for there are plenty of other places on the net to find it. FlyerinHI is well aware of the site policy towards this kind of thing (which is pretty much the only policy there is… you’d think it would be easy to follow that one rule, but apparently not).

[Rich Toscano]

[quote=FlyerInHi]Policywise, the Supreme Court spared the country a bruising, divisive culture war that would have eventually resulted in legal gay marriage nationwide anyway.

I admire Justice Roberts for guiding the court so far. But in this case he sided with the wrong side of history. And that will negatively affect his legacy.[/quote]

See, now that’s sticking to the issues. Nice work. Is that so hard?

[Rich Toscano]

[quote=FlyerInHi]

A major victory for your team calls for celebrations and gloating. Likely one of most significant civil rights advancement in a lifetime.[/quote]

A victory for civil rights (which I agree with) –> awesome, bring on the celebration

A victory for your “team” –> not interested, please go elsewhere with your “team” nonsense

There are a million places on the web to get into left vs. right flamewars. This isn’t one of them, despite your repeated efforts.

If you want to talk about policy, be my guest. But take the tribalism elsewhere. I’m serious.

[Rich Toscano]

[quote=FlyerInHi]As a political sportsman….[/quote]

Barf.

Brian, due to your checkered past, you have very little leeway on the political flame war front. Please dispense with your attempts to rekindle the right vs. left tribalist bullshit — now, and forever.

[Rich Toscano]

Thanks so much for the kind words TG… the feeling is mutual!

[Rich Toscano]

TG!!! Nice to hear from you, and I’m happy everything sounds like it’s going well. Congrats on future Mrs. TG.

[Rich Toscano]

In SD anyway, I feel like they got back to normal more than 5 years ago:

[Rich Toscano]

Good idea to use Wayback to check some individual listings, and thanks for sharing.

FWIW, looking at the BLS numbers (Rent of Primary Residence for San Diego) and combining with Zillow’s figures for the most recent year, it looks like SD rents in aggregate have risen over 10% since the end of 2010 (4.5 years ago). That’s probably understating it a wee bit due to lag in the data, whereas your wayback comparison is looking at today’s prices… but it’s probably a decent ballpark.

So it’s definitely not the case that you could rent the same unit at the same price 5 years ago (or if you can, it’s a matter of a lucky find, and not a statement on the rental market in general).

[Rich Toscano]

This guy installed my AC and he did a great job:

John Hurn
HURN Mechanical
P: 619.312.1924
E: [email protected]

[Rich Toscano]

[quote=kiki]Separate question: How do i put the text/comment that i am replying to at the beginning of my reply? I hit REPLY to a comment but still doesn’t show. Sorry, i am long time lurker, and rarely posting (maybe 6 years ago was the last time)[/quote]

Hit “quote” instead of “reply”. 🙂

[Rich Toscano]

I basically just meant if the cost per kWh is reasonable, you are probably fine. You didn’t need to live in the place beforehand to determine this — some leases charge by the kWh, but for other ones, you can just ask for data on how much the system generates per year, and how much the lease costs, both of which should be easy for the owners to document. Then you can just compare that cost/kWh number to (for example) what you pay for your own electricity at your house, and if it’s similar, that’s “reasonable.”

[Rich Toscano]

BTW my answer is A, I’d be fine to take over a lease assuming the terms were reasonable.

[Rich Toscano]

Hi Kiki — Sorry you couldn’t create a poll. I don’t know what the issue is; I tried creating one and it worked ok for me. Do you remember the error message? BTW: I added you to the spam filter whitelist, which you weren’t on before… if that was blocking you somehow, it should not be an issue for you any more. Still, I’d be curious to hear the error message you encountered, if you remember it. Feel free to private message me. Thanks.

Rich

[Rich Toscano]

[quote=Escoguy]Personal theory, Rich may have liked watching the market go down while it did, and of course seeing a recovery is also interesting up to the normal level, but then it keeps going. Somehow it seems distasteful that the same scenario could play out again. But it takes a lot of work to show why 2015 is different from 2005.
Higher population, tighter lending, lower energy prices, lower interest rates.

Makes for a mix which any rational economist may find annoying and unpredictable, but when all’s said and done, the Fed is afraid to raise rates, the stock market keeps going, there is not enough new supply and more and more folks both legal and illegal are coming into Cali.
So, no I don’t think Rich is bored, I just think it’s hard for him to be excited about seeing things develop exactly the way they are because it doesn’t quite fit with the world view. Just thoughts.[/quote]

Hi Escoguy — Yeah, I’ve been pretty up front about the fact that the RE market isn’t as interesting as it used to be… first it was an insane bubble, then it was an unprecedented crash that followed that bubble. Now the whole thing is a bit more pedestrian.

However, I don’t agree that the current situation is even remotely comparable to 2005. Homes are nowhere near as overvalued as they were at the 2005 peak:

(more here: http://piggington.com/shambling_towards_affordability_housing_valuations_surpass – btw this is from last year, but it hasn’t changed all that much since then)

Eyeballing it, aggregate home prices would have to rise 50% from here — with no commensurate increase in incomes or rents — to become as expensive as they were at the 2005 peak. 50%! (That’s before even considering the impact of low rates… which could very well be transitory, but for as long as they do last, it’s plausible that they could support a higher-than-normal level of valuations).

Yes, the market is overvalued compared to its history for sure — but it doesn’t hold a candle to 2005.

You seem to be ascribing a “world view” to me… I’m not sure what that might be, but as it relates to this kind of thing, I would sum up my views thusly: market prices frequently become dramatically disconnected from their fundamentals… and when they do, it’s really interesting.

Because bubbles don’t usually hit the same market twice in a row, a 2005-style housing bubble would be surprising to me — but it certainly would not be boring! 🙂

[Rich Toscano]

[quote=svelte]
We shall see if prices are truly rising…and what has happened to the monthly Housing Data Rodeos, Rich? Looks like you’re getting bored of those, or maybe too busy?[/quote]

That second thing… just been really busy lately. Sorry. I’ll put up a double feature once the April numbers are available. Also, I think we’re due for an update on the “shambling towards affordability” series (looking at valuation ratios).

[Author]

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