californication...
during the month of july 2005....
the local area FSBO listings i found (on their website) were all sold by the time i'd call which would at times be the same day. and almost all of them sold for higher than asking price. during that terrible week, two of my friends bid on a HUD home appraised at $128,000. They bid for $132,000 just to be on the safe side cuz they loved the house. it sold for $145,000. a house that surely had potential but would need abt $10,000 to get it up to a liveable state...
the valley was on fire. and it was all thanks to california. they were coming in droves from santa monica and other northern CA cities. buying investment property. see, vegas was exhausted. phoenix almost - what with the uncertainty of lotteries that made real estate just as dicey as gambling. but here was placid old potato country... here they'd make a killing.
every residential road sprouted 'for rent' signs, like tulips in the springtime. near the uni, a dingy, dilapidated duplex that a couple of my friends are renting sold for $199,000. this same house was purchased for $149,000 in October 2004. and objectively speaking, this house is worth neither $149G nor $199G, rather, it needs to be demolished and rebuilt. but objectivity is not driving this market, it's speculation - it's the addictive euphoria that makes people put quarters into slot machines, but only for higher stakes.
meanwhile...every call i made was answered with the same words... sorry, it's sold. one person sold her house the day they were putting up the 'for sale' sign on their front yard. she said: 4 cars stopped while we were in the yard, the 2nd one made an offer. she was kind enough to add: it's sad really.
these homes were mediocre at best. and they were selling for higher than what i could afford. two years ago, my budget could have gotten me a more-than-decent house. now i was looking at places that were in the middle of corn fields and cattle farms, and still beyond my means if i thought abt it long enough. i was getting more convinced that i could not remain near the city center like i had hoped. here homes were already over the $130/sft range. if i found anything at all (which i began to question with increasing frustration), i'd have to settle for a 20-25 minute commute in a city where people did not know how to drive.
Towards the end of July, i went into a state of depresion. when friends wanted to talk about "the situation", i felt irritated. you can't help me, why can't you leave me alone? i did not want to talk to anyone, i did not want to "discuss" my options, or hold out hope for a goal that seemed to recede farther and farther as i tried to realize it. and what bothered me most was how hard it would be to back away after having come this far. two months earlier, i had no concrete plan to buy and it did not matter to me whether i rented or owned. but now it seemed like a massive failure to have to walk away. and yet i could not rule out that possibility. one thing was sure though - whatever happened, i would deal with it on my own. i wouldn't whine or complain or seek meaningless, empty words of solace and comfort. but humans are a social animal, so one can't always act as one feels. the phone rang incessantly, the questions were numerous and prying, the unsolicited advice was at times trite and patronizing. i knew that their hearts were in the right place, but they just didn't realize that none of their various minstrations helped.
all i remember is feeling powerless and small.
the local area FSBO listings i found (on their website) were all sold by the time i'd call which would at times be the same day. and almost all of them sold for higher than asking price. during that terrible week, two of my friends bid on a HUD home appraised at $128,000. They bid for $132,000 just to be on the safe side cuz they loved the house. it sold for $145,000. a house that surely had potential but would need abt $10,000 to get it up to a liveable state...
the valley was on fire. and it was all thanks to california. they were coming in droves from santa monica and other northern CA cities. buying investment property. see, vegas was exhausted. phoenix almost - what with the uncertainty of lotteries that made real estate just as dicey as gambling. but here was placid old potato country... here they'd make a killing.
every residential road sprouted 'for rent' signs, like tulips in the springtime. near the uni, a dingy, dilapidated duplex that a couple of my friends are renting sold for $199,000. this same house was purchased for $149,000 in October 2004. and objectively speaking, this house is worth neither $149G nor $199G, rather, it needs to be demolished and rebuilt. but objectivity is not driving this market, it's speculation - it's the addictive euphoria that makes people put quarters into slot machines, but only for higher stakes.
meanwhile...every call i made was answered with the same words... sorry, it's sold. one person sold her house the day they were putting up the 'for sale' sign on their front yard. she said: 4 cars stopped while we were in the yard, the 2nd one made an offer. she was kind enough to add: it's sad really.
these homes were mediocre at best. and they were selling for higher than what i could afford. two years ago, my budget could have gotten me a more-than-decent house. now i was looking at places that were in the middle of corn fields and cattle farms, and still beyond my means if i thought abt it long enough. i was getting more convinced that i could not remain near the city center like i had hoped. here homes were already over the $130/sft range. if i found anything at all (which i began to question with increasing frustration), i'd have to settle for a 20-25 minute commute in a city where people did not know how to drive.
Towards the end of July, i went into a state of depresion. when friends wanted to talk about "the situation", i felt irritated. you can't help me, why can't you leave me alone? i did not want to talk to anyone, i did not want to "discuss" my options, or hold out hope for a goal that seemed to recede farther and farther as i tried to realize it. and what bothered me most was how hard it would be to back away after having come this far. two months earlier, i had no concrete plan to buy and it did not matter to me whether i rented or owned. but now it seemed like a massive failure to have to walk away. and yet i could not rule out that possibility. one thing was sure though - whatever happened, i would deal with it on my own. i wouldn't whine or complain or seek meaningless, empty words of solace and comfort. but humans are a social animal, so one can't always act as one feels. the phone rang incessantly, the questions were numerous and prying, the unsolicited advice was at times trite and patronizing. i knew that their hearts were in the right place, but they just didn't realize that none of their various minstrations helped.
all i remember is feeling powerless and small.
