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Thanks for the update sdrealtor.

I’m not a real estate guru or anything, so I don’t quite understand why if inventory is going to spike it must happen in the next 30 days. What would prevent it from spiking 40 days from now?

Thanks in advance.

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Yeah, $200 on a designer outfit is ridiculous.

Now I’ll admit, my husband and I have some debt, but I’d like to believe that we’ve taken on our debt cautiously and with good purpose.

Yes, I have a student loan, but I borrowed as little as I possibly could, and consider my modest loan amount to be an investment in my future.

Yes, we have auto loans, but the total balance of both our loans is less than the price of one brand new Toyota or Honda sedan.

We do have some credit card debt, but it is small, and can be paid off in 1-2 years.

I suppose I’d like to think that we’ve taken on “necessary debt.” In today’s society, one needs a car. To make more money, one typically needs a degree. And sometimes life comes at you faster than you thought, and you need a little help. But I feel that my husband and I have taken on these “necessary debts” as frugally as we possibly could.

We try to apply this to all other aspects of our life, as well. Clothes from the GAP? No way! Target and CostCo, baby! I buy all my books and movies used and for ridiculously cheap prices on half.com. We keep rent as low as it is possible to keep, and don’t spend more on entertainment than our budget will allow.

Pretty much our only expense is a trip to Ireland every 18-24 months, to visit my husband’s family, and we always save up for it and pay cash.

There just isn’t enough to be said for the benefit, nay, necessity, of living below your means. But I’ve gotta agree that it’s the “Lexus factor” and not the “latte factor” that’s dragging the middle class down.

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Come on, I’m sure we could all cull a few frappucinos from our budget and dine out less, but I doubt that those frivolities are what is breaking the bank for the middle class.

Looking at my own budget, even I did cut out what I would call “luxuries” from my life, I wouldn’t be saving a siginicant enough amount of money to make it worth cutting out in the first place.

A lot of older people I talk to about the financial situation of young people today give me the same stock answer: “Well, you just have to not buy designer clothes, live a simple life, not use your credit cards, and you’d have a lot more money.” And while that is true for some people, I really don’t think it applies to most. I don’t think the older generations realize that what has increased isn’t luxury spending, it’s cost of basic living. If the rent on my quite modest 2 bd apt wasn’t so ridiculously high, I’d have a lot more money to put towards savings.

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My link to the article didn’t make it in, here’s another attempt. Click Here

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Congratulations to you for being in such a desirable position, able to move up into a better house- I, for my part, would be happy to just get into a house period, but it looks like my generation is screwed.

My only comment would be that Murrieta/Temecula/Winchester are NOT priced with any sanity when you consider where they are located- just because the price is lower doesn’t mean that it isn’t vastly overvalued.

I would consider what would bring more joy to my way of life- a bigger house and 2 hours on the highway everyday, or making my life fit into my current house, and having 2 more hours per day to spend with family. Whichever one works better for your family, there’s your answer.

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Congratulations to you for being in such a desirable position, able to move up into a better house- I, for my part, would be happy to just get into a house period, but it looks like my generation is screwed.

My only comment would be that Murrieta/Temecula/Winchester are NOT priced with any sanity when you consider where they are located- just because the price is lower doesn’t mean that it isn’t vastly overvalued.

I would consider what would bring more joy to my way of life- a bigger house and 2 hours on the highway everyday, or making my life fit into my current house, and having 2 more hours per day to spend with family. Whichever one works better for your family, there’s your answer.

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Could these optimistic viewpoints from Ben and the Realtors (sounds like a band name!) be regarding the national housing outlook, rather than Southern California’s housing outlook? It seems at least somewhat believable that the worst may be over for the nation, but I find it laughable to think that SoCal’s current prices are sustainable.

Hipmatt, you hit the nail on the head.

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Here here, csr_sd!

We bought a futon from someone on Craigslist last night, and when we went to pick up the futon, we found that the seller lives in a McMansion development (in the IE). It was really kind of creepy how the houses all looked like they were made of plastic, and couldn’t have been more than 10 feet apart from each other. They kind of look like all the fake buildings in Toontown at Disneyland!

On top of it all, they had absolutely no furniture or decorations- fair play to the minimalist style of decorating, but you’d think you’d at least have something to sit on– like a futon! It looked to me like he didn’t have any money to make his payments.

I’m with you csr_sd, I want a regular home, with some semblance of a backyard in a regular area. No Toontown for me!

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I feel your pain, csr_sd.

My husband and I (no kids yet), at 24, don’t have terribly well paying jobs (perhaps because we live in the Inland Empire?), but we still have a $90k household income, which I think is probably a little better than a lot of other couples our age.

I feel like we would only be able to comfortably afford a house around $300K, and even that would be stretching it. $300k will get you a tiny, run down house in a crime and gang ridden area. If you want to even live anywhere without living in fear of the roof collapsing or having drive-bys, it’ll run you at least $375-$400k.

Yet I see other young people buying these $400K homes, with a Land Rover and BMW in the driveway, and wonder how in the world they are doing it?

Is there something I’m missing? Is wanting to have a down payment, 80% LTV, 30-yr traditional mortgage with a payment that I can comfortably afford the “chump’s” way of doing things?

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People are crazy. Oh honey, let’s start a wonderful life together $50,000 in debt (after a $30K wedding, $10K ring, $10K honeymoon). Whatever happened to the union of two sould being more important than having all the designer bells and whistles for a wedding, right down to monogrammed napkins that people will use and throw away?!!!

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Thanks for posting this article- as a resident of the IE myself, I appreciate seeing data/news on my region (especially since data/news on just the IE seems hard to come by).

I live in Riverside, and believe that my husband and I probably represent your slightly above average first-time home buyer- I only mean “above average” in the sense that at 24 yrs old we have quite a lot less debt than our peers, have a higher household income for our age (~ $85K), excellent credit scores, save as much as we can, and spend prudently.

If the only thing we can afford in the Inland Empire is a dilapidated shack in a neighborhood with the twice the national average crime rate, how are all these other people snapping up $400K houses? Jobs in the IE don’t pay all that well (my husband and I were lucky to have found two of the quasi-exceptions), there’s NO WAY people can afford these homes….yet the market here is still going up!

I think I’m living in a parallel universe…

Just and example of how crazy the IE is: in 1999 my mom bought a house for $92,000. She sold it in 2004 for $245,000. A few months ago, it was listed at $380,000. This house, in reality, isn’t worth more than $150,000.

If this whole bubble debacle hadn’t happened, my husband and I would have been able to buy the equivalent of what is now a $375,000-$400,000 house, for a much, much lower price.

Boils my blood, so it does.

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The interesting question is, given that homosexuality doesn’t result in offspring, why has it survived, genetically?
My husband’s family are farmers (cattle and sheep primarily), and he has pointed out to me that homosexual behavior is quite common among the animal kingdom. He also said he doesn’t believe that the animals that exhibited homosexual behavior helped to raise any other’s offspring, so I’m not too sure about that hypothesis.

Also, the research regarding whether the homosexual brain is different from the heterosexual brain is still in the early stages, and at this point there is not enough evidence to say conclusively that they are physically different.

A personal hypothesis of mine (which I will make clear is not based on any research, I merely think it could be an interesting point), is that homosexuality could be nature’s population control. In the animal kingdom, an excessively large population of species in a certain habitat can be harmful to that species (limited resources, etc.), and it could be that having a few homosexual individuals within the population that do not have offspring is a way to stem the population tide, so to speak.

My views: Yes to civil unions
Yes to adoption by a LGBT couple or individual
Yes to stem cell research

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I really don’t feel that this is a “silly” thread. Some people may have resorted to name calling, but overall the discussion has been insightful. Debate is useful, and it’s nice to see people actually thinking about the issues at hand, rather than taking the typical American “La la la, I can’t hear you, I’ll pretend that nothing is wrong and I’ll just keep buying and increasing my debt to make myself feel superior to my neighbors!” stance, complete with fingers in ears.

By the way Concho, you aren’t obligated to read every thread on the website. The title obviously let’s potential readers know that the thread has nothing to do with housing, and if you’d prefer to limit your reading experience to housing threads, then I suggest that you do just that. If you feel this thread is silly, then don’t read it.

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Well said, PerryChase. I know far too many people in America who couldn’t be bothered to visit neighboring counties, let alone other countries. When I’m abroad it always amazes me how much citizens of other countries pay attention to what is going on in the world- they pay close attention not only to their own politics, but also the politics of many other countries.

I’m not sure if that has something to do with the media though, as American media tends not to report on foreign politics (unless it has to do with some fear-mongering subject like nuclear war), while I’ve noticed that news programs in other countries include news from many different nations and cultures in their reports. It can’t all be blamed on the media though, a certain amount of personal responsibility for being aware of the global community that one is a part of is necessary, and certainly is found wanting in most Americans today.

I think the bubble analogy applies not only to housing, but to most Americans themselves- they’re bubble people, living inside their own bubble and totally unaware and uninterested in anything that happens outside of their bubble.

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Gonna throw my 2 cents in…I don’t really consider myself GOP or Democrat, but I can say I’m not particularly happy with Bush. However, I don’t believe him to be the maniacal evil genius some make him out to be- he just could have done a much better job than he did.

Some points:
-It is true that Europe looks down on Americans. While it is due in large part to our President’s performance and the questionable nature of our dealings in the Middle East, it is also due to the American people themselves and our general ignorance about any country besides our own. I don’t think that really applies to the people on this board, but I think we’ve all seen the “Jaywalking” segment of the Tonight Show. ‘Nuff said.

-Arguing about whether or not we should have gone to war in the Middle East is a moot point at this stage in the game. While I don’t necessarily agree with the fact that we went out there in the first place, I do think that it would be a huge mistake to leave Iraq now and pull out our troops. It’s not about “winning,” it’s about the Iraqi people- we promised them freedom, we took away their government and promised them a better one. We should, on principle, follow through with our promise- pulling our troops out now would make the situation much, much worse. I may be optimistic, but I don’t believe the Democrats will just pull the troops out, it would be disastrous.

There is much wrong in our government, but I don’t believe that just the government is to blame- the American people voted those politicians into office. And the typical American way of life is completely out of hand- it only takes a visit to a few other countries to see how ego-centric, wasteful, and obsessed with possessions Americans can be.

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