Write Lightning is a blog from writer Deb Thompson.
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Mon, Aug 01 2005
We've Gone Upscale
We live in a modest, older subdivision that was based on the housing boom that followed WWII. The area is semi-rural, with land not far from us still in use as orchards, farmland or horse property. Though modern developers are encroaching, the general atmosphere of the area has been tasteful, median-priced, and not at all ostentatious. So, many of you reading from other states will gasp when you read the following.
Yesterday we went to an open house for a duplex listed for sale in our immediate neighborhood. It was an attractive, though not elaborate, two-bedroom, one-bath and one-bedroom, one bath combination that could be used as either a large family unit or as two entirely separate residences. The lot size was roughly the size of the lot our own little house sits on, and there was a one-car, unattached garage with a long driveway for additional parking or RV storage. The duplex is listed at $779,000. And it's one of a very few places that have even been for sale on that street in the past year. In the past couple of weeks For Sale signs have gone up on at least two more houses in the neighborhood.
It's beginning to happen. People who have lived here for many years are cashing out their homes at record prices. And they're going--where? If they buy in this area they'll be paying top dollar, plus they'll be stuck with property taxes on that higher amount. We can only surmise that most of them are getting out of town, and probably, out of state, taking their tidy little profit and retiring elsewhere.
It's going to be interesting to watch the next phase of this monster in California we dare to call real estate.
posted at: 09:26 | category: /Miscellaneous | link to this entry
We live in a modest, older subdivision that was based on the housing boom that followed WWII. The area is semi-rural, with land not far from us still in use as orchards, farmland or horse property. Though modern developers are encroaching, the general atmosphere of the area has been tasteful, median-priced, and not at all ostentatious. So, many of you reading from other states will gasp when you read the following.
Yesterday we went to an open house for a duplex listed for sale in our immediate neighborhood. It was an attractive, though not elaborate, two-bedroom, one-bath and one-bedroom, one bath combination that could be used as either a large family unit or as two entirely separate residences. The lot size was roughly the size of the lot our own little house sits on, and there was a one-car, unattached garage with a long driveway for additional parking or RV storage. The duplex is listed at $779,000. And it's one of a very few places that have even been for sale on that street in the past year. In the past couple of weeks For Sale signs have gone up on at least two more houses in the neighborhood.
It's beginning to happen. People who have lived here for many years are cashing out their homes at record prices. And they're going--where? If they buy in this area they'll be paying top dollar, plus they'll be stuck with property taxes on that higher amount. We can only surmise that most of them are getting out of town, and probably, out of state, taking their tidy little profit and retiring elsewhere.
It's going to be interesting to watch the next phase of this monster in California we dare to call real estate.
posted at: 09:26 | category: /Miscellaneous | link to this entry
