California home prices

[Richard230]

Here is a story from California that I heard yesterday from one of my riding friends: My friend and his wife live in a beautiful home in the hills on the outskirts of the Greater Bay Area. They are looking to move nearer to the Bay where his daughter and her family live and have been checking out homes closer to San Francisco. Last week they were considering buying an older home in El Cerrito, CA (a town just north of Oakland) which he said was not quite as nice as his home, but still pretty decent. He said that the owners of the property were asking $1.5 million for their home. The listing realtor gave potential buyers 3 days to make a bid for the home at which time the sealed bids would be opened and the new owner would be contacted, along with everyone else who bid on the property. He told me that the winning bid was $2.5 million.

[rcb78]

Sounds about right, but using the title of California Home Prices is pretty misleading, this is a Bay Area problem not a California problem. I'm originally from the central valley where you can buy a really nice home in a really nice neighborhood for $1,000,000 and under on a good size lot. There's a place near my parents for sale right now for 1.5mil, it's a 5/5, just over 5k sqft on almost .5 acre and in a really nice neighborhood in the bluffs over the San Joaquin River. Then on the other hand if you buy in a newer development a few miles away that feels a little more suburban and less 'old money' you can still get a 3k sqft 5/3.5 on a 7500 sqft lot for $550,000. Branch out a little more and you can find neighborhoods that are as nice as anything you'll find here for about 1/3 of the price (3-5 million range,,, and up).
Here in the Bay Area your money buys you space, where I grew up in the valley your money buys you a nice home in a nice neighborhood. People that complain about the cost of living here need to consider moving, there are good opportunities all up and down the valley corridor.

[notacop]

The market is crazy. When homes were family abodes prices were stable for a long time. Then came investment buying and rentals. Now there are airb&b's
I bought mine 50 years ago for $18K, Zillow now suggests $1,029000. A lot of the homes in my area are like mine. Tear downs and replaced with a mini mansion.
Mine is definitely a tear down. Old, 1926, and substandard in many ways but still comfortable. I'll live out my days and the kids can worry about it.

[Richard230]

Here is another nutty story from California. This one ended up in Mariposa, CA in the Serra Nevada foothills:

My son-in-law just told me that the 160K-mile 2003 Honda Element that he bought for his 80-year old mother has now been registered in her name. And she managed to do it by herself.

The car was bought from a previous owner without a title as he couldn't find it. So it was sold without a pink slip and just a bill of sale. That fellow kept the car for two months and drove it around without registering the car with the DMV in his name before flipping it on Craigslist, where my son-in-law saw it and bought it for $5,700, also with just a bill of sale. He then gave it to his mother giving her a bill of sale, but still no title. She then took the car to her local CA DMV, with a handful of bills of sale and they had no problem registering the car in her name and will be sending her a new title in her name when they get around to it. All they really wanted was the registration fee. Cash on the barrel head, please. Surprise!