7.17.2005

Sigh

An article in Saturday's The Santa Fe New Mexican about the record-setting home prices in Santa Fe (they're approaching Boston levels). Of course, it's not like our old neighborhood is getting any more reasonable.

11 comments:

andy said...

High comparred to what ?

Last year one month, median house price in New York was over $1 million. They failed to mention that 100 of 122 sales were for new Trump building. Real estate comps are very hard to do as no two residences are the same.

Doesn't this also mean that you made a fortune on that condo you bought a few years back ?

Things are tough all over.

Anonymous said...

Hey, I'm looking at making about 6% pure profit on my house in Minnesota, baby! That's cash money. We may be relatively bust-proof, but nobody makes a damn nickel when they sell, either. And further, we have to decorate everything in honey oak and decals of ducks wearing aprons on all the cabinets if we ever do want someone to buy it. Philistines!

AJ said...

The "hate dc" blog is balls-on. Just moved 2 zipcodes last month from a townhouse to a single family home. 7 competing bids drove up the price 11% above asking! With the neighborhoods it's simple supply and demand--you'd need to commute from Kentucky to escape the sprawl. Anyway, it's not a zero-sum-game. Being consumed by the yard and upkeep saves you cash on all that fun, quality-of-life stuff we used to do.

Mel said...

I'm with AJ on the upkeep and yardwork (especially when porcelain berry vine is such a scourge in my town that the Town Council is entertaining bids from removal companies...hey, I don't have like $150,000 to have it removed from my yard...so how much "Brush & Shrub" strength Round-Up am I going to need...but I suppose on a positive note - Netflix is now only $9.99 a month - though cable is $85 (and there are NO local channels without cable - unless, of course, you go for the $600 antenna which is super cool looking on the side of the house as well as being so cost-effective)

Confidential to Paul, if I'd known you were looking, I would have retained the duck hunting paneling which was in our upstairs bath when we moved in...and the fake brick backsplash in the kitchen...however, if you are interested, I have an ass-load of cans of honey-oak stain in the basement left by the previous owner...no use throwing good stain out - a little turpentine and it'll be as good as new...our house has appreciated over the past three years which you know mostly from anecdotal evidence from the neighbors...the house across the street from us - one story (we have 1 1/2), no basement, no garage, no woodstove or fireplace, 1 bathroom and no landscaping except for one tree on the corner...and they got $40,000 more for that thing than we paid for our house...which is good, because then if I have to sell the house - my portion may actually be enough to rent a 1-BR apartment in the DC region, somewhere East of West Virginia (okay, maybe not), for a year...and no more of those pesky $700 a year property taxes to pay either. Paul - I'm guessing the salaries by you are enormous too -- just like here.

Bram said...

Geez, I thought long and hard about putting such up such a downer post, but I guess not enough.

Look — down there, A SWIMMING PUPPY!

Mel said...

Not a downer dude...the universal equalizer...real estate...

Hey, cute guy in the goggles with the puppy...

andy said...

$700 a year for property. In MAssachusetts (which now only has average taxes) we almost pay that monthly for a 3 bedroom 2 bath house.

As for $85 cable, it's time to go satellite.. I've been tempted to make the transition and my bill clocks at $45 month ("basic").

andy said...

May have been a downer but look at the response.

Mel said...

and no sales tax...DE makes it just from the businesses that incorporate here..and speeding/parking tickets issued to summer people.

I too seriously hate the cable picture...but there is just too much shit to deal with if you have to have cable for the networks (including PBS) and the dish for everything else....

andy said...

dsl rocks...but if you're paying more for cable than property tax, count your blessings !

AJ said...

"dsl rocks"? That's so last year. A positive of living in FC-22043... Fiber Optics!!! Verizon's first-in-the-nation test area. So, for about $5 more than I was paying for DSL I get Speed of Light data (aside to Bram: remember Cogent?). Then, because I get all this Verizon crap on one bill they knock $5 off the Direct TV and FIOS.