Meeting with a realtor tomorrow

The home we lost in the fire was truly home. We raised our boys there, we made changes over the years to make it so welcoming in a beautiful setting.
This house we live in is just that, a house. It's built better, it's well insulated, quiet, has a great floor plan.
I could go on, I just can't seem to take ownership of it. I don't know it.
We want to be excited about our home, we want to be proud of it like we were.
Or not.
 
Just don't stretch your budget so far that you don't have money for other things going into retirement. Circumstances that I've discussed here before meant we ended up spending way under budget on our retirement house, which has left us with the option to buy many other things, including the new shop. Of course my wife and I revel in rebuilding things to suit us. Which costs money, and takes time to make it our home.
 
woodchucker said:
I know CA has some really nice areas. But the cost of living seems to be through the roof. And your highways are packed. it takes you hours to go someplace.. at least that's been my experience many times... if you are moving, what is keeping you in CA??????
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We try to keep the nice areas quiet or everybody would move here. :grin:

Jeff's right all these people complaining about Californians moving to their state, don't realize we have the same complaint in the less congested parts of the state. The cities are full and people are spreading out into the countryside. When I was a kid living in the Bay Area it was people moving out to Contra Costa County, Eastern Alameda County (Livermore / Pleasanton), and Santa Clara County (now the heart of Silicon valley). Then it was Napa and Sonoma Counties (CA wine country), and San Joaquin County (first Tracy and Manteca, then Modesto). After the tech boom of the late 90s / early 2000s when Bay Area prices went vertical no place was safe and prices started going insane 3-4 hours out as people would sell their Bay Area home and offer $200,000-300,000 on homes that had been selling for $75,000.

All this talk of a California exodus is simply people that don't understand big numbers. California has almost 40 million people, 10% of the US population. Around 6 million people leave every year (like having Wisconsin or Missouri pick up an move), but the population just keeps going up. This year is the first time since 1850 (when California became a state) that the population actually went down (a net loss of 180,000 people, a decline of 0.005%).


There were only 20 million people here when I was born, the other 49 states need to step up their game and attract some of these people, the Hotel California is full. ;)
 
Janderso said:
The home we lost in the fire was truly home. We raised our boys there, we made changes over the years to make it so welcoming in a beautiful setting.
This house we live in is just that, a house. It's built better, it's well insulated, quiet, has a great floor plan.
I could go on, I just can't seem to take ownership of it. I don't know it.
We want to be excited about our home, we want to be proud of it like we were.
Or not.
Click to expand...

You have a nice house, but I get it. A home is very personal. When we moved here, the realtor took us to the house we ended up buying first. It is a large, 2 story built in 1910 on a decent size lot (for a city lot anyway, about 1/5 acre). It had been used as an office for 30 years and needed a lot of remodel work, but was structurally solid. We really took to it despite the issues (we actually found the needs work appealing because we are demented :D ).

He took us to 6 or 7 more houses, some were very nice but they just were not our style and he could tell. Finally he just asked if he should we keep showing us houses or did we just want make an offer on the first house. We did, an older house is a lot of work but at least for us that also makes it ours. You are probably feeling some of that with the Paradise house. The circumstances of your move don't help to make your current place home.
 
Aaron_W said:
There were only 20 million people here when I was born, the other 49 states need to step up their game and attract some of these people, the Hotel California is full. ;)
Click to expand...
Heck no. While your state has great weather, nice places to visit, the mentality of many is very demanding. They see a farm, they want to move there because it's quiet, and beautiful. Then they smell the farm... They want the farmer to do something, they go to town and argue to put limits, and make them change... I've seen it first hand with New Yorkers coming out here.

Also they have too much money, and think they can buy or change things.. again, seen it here.

I know this is a blanket statement, not looking for a war, but just better to not attract people.

I also watched two cases where New York city folk moved near two ski resorts. They both sued (different parties different ski resorts) to limit their hours and stop making snow. In their mind they moved here and don't like what you have been doing since the 40s. So cease and desist. Fortunately they lost, but not before the ski areas spent money to defend themselves. With global warming, that money is getting harder to earn.

When people move to an area, it's really unfortunate when they think they can come in and change it to what they left, or there vision of what it should be. In my mind, you picked the wrong area if you are trying to change it. I watch big money come in here , see farms, and decide to build mansions, then they push their agendas... Go some where else... Ok, I'm on a rant. XXXX brothers (name redacted to protect HM) bought a farm, wanted to build, they failed all the perc tests. They built anyway. What they did was drill through deep, they hit the aquafier. The town found out and fought them... They were poisoning our well water with sewage. Our town ran out of money to fight them, big money.. just kept bringing them to court until the town could not fight it anymore. I'm sorry, but I don't like the idea of taking your people.. I've seen the DISASTER IT CAN BE.
 
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Recently sold homes in my neighborhood . My very small road was all farm land up until 2 years ago . My neighbors across the street died and left the land to the children . They each got maybe 8 acre lots and sold the rest . I now live amonst the Mcmansions each of which are well over 700,000 Gs . I let you follow along with the demolition and building of the house next door ........................................well over a cool mil . Getting to the point , I haven't had a mortgage in over 10 years and couldn't afford one these days . I have my larger place which is more than I can ever use , but I kept my 1100 SF rancher also that is 150 ft away from us . Each is over an acre but even at that , the neighborhood is feeling mighty crowded to me and my wife . My choice would be to get up into NY or down into WV with a small lakefront/river log cabin . :encourage:

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Aaron_W said:
We try to keep the nice areas quiet or everybody would move here. :grin:

Jeff's right all these people complaining about Californians moving to their state, don't realize we have the same complaint in the less congested parts of the state. The cities are full and people are spreading out into the countryside. When I was a kid living in the Bay Area it was people moving out to Contra Costa County, Eastern Alameda County (Livermore / Pleasanton), and Santa Clara County (now the heart of Silicon valley). Then it was Napa and Sonoma Counties (CA wine country), and San Joaquin County (first Tracy and Manteca, then Modesto). After the tech boom of the late 90s / early 2000s when Bay Area prices went vertical no place was safe and prices started going insane 3-4 hours out as people would sell their Bay Area home and offer $200,000-300,000 on homes that had been selling for $75,000.

All this talk of a California exodus is simply people that don't understand big numbers. California has almost 40 million people, 10% of the US population. Around 6 million people leave every year (like having Wisconsin or Missouri pick up an move), but the population just keeps going up. This year is the first time since 1850 (when California became a state) that the population actually went down (a net loss of 180,000 people, a decline of 0.005%).


There were only 20 million people here when I was born, the other 49 states need to step up their game and attract some of these people, the Hotel California is full. ;)
Click to expand...
One of the things people tend to overlook is population growth. I'm 56 (almost 57) and when I was a kid there were half as many people on the planet.

My dad explained exponential math to me and now I understand why he was ZPG....

Something like this is going to impact every aspect of our lives, not just real estate.

Good luck finding your "forever home" but if it were me I'd wait to see who buys your neighbor's house. Never know, it might just be one of us....

John
 
Aaron_W said:
The circumstances of your move don't help to make your current place home.
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Aaron,
We are conscious of the possibility that a bit of PTSD forced us to buy when we did.
We rushed it. No question.
A neighborhood is a community. We miss the old lady that walked her dog every morning, I wonder what happened to her?
I buried two family pets. We miss our wonderful neighbors we had for over 30 years. We grew older together and raised our families.
There is plenty that goes into a home.
We won't find that in a different property but we can find something that better suits our needs.
 
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