Affordable California Living?? - Beyond Tiki

H Hanalei_Pirate Member Joined: May 15, 2003 Posts: 136	H Hanalei_Pirate Posted posted on Tue, Aug 12, 2003 4:47 PM On 2003-08-12 14:03, PolynesianPop wrote: The payment on a $600,000 house at 6.25% APR is $3694.30. Property tax in my county would run around $750 per month for a home with that value. Of course, you may need to include Mello Roos and HOA fees of about $500 (depending on your community) per month and you are looking at almost a $5000 monthly house payment. That's right - MONTHLY! How the hell does anyone afford a $600,000 house? And these are selling like hotcakes??? Unbelievable... Yeah - Poly Pop, that is right! Don't forget about those HOA fees - then maybe one can't even afford a townhouse condo either! You should see what is going on in my home town territory of the South Bay. A cracker box in Manhattan Beach goes for no less than $600K - can't even get into the market with $500K! It used to be a community of middle class families who are all being supplanted now by the super rich - they come in and tear down the little 1950s ranch houses and build huge monstrosities on the lots! My friend from high school bought her parents house in Manhattan beach (the house she grew up in) - the parents had moved to Texas - she is now stuck there in that house because there is no way her and her husband could afford to buy a house in another area that has cheaper housing and then pay to put their kids in private schools (Manhattan Bch public schools are considered primo). She lives hand to mouth on one income - her husbands - and her kids go to school in Manhattan Beach where the average kid's parent is filthy rich. Their house is worth probably over $600K - I don't know exactly but she only paid her parents about $300K for it a few years ago. Elderly people still living in their houses there get offers all the time from developers to sell their house. They just want to mow down the house and build a several million dollar speck house for sale on the lot! In Redondo Beach the developers go after the little beach craftsman cottages - tear then down and build a two-on-a-lot type structure that is technically a condo - you are sharing a wall or at least the lot with another family and HOA money goes into an escrow account. We considered that option when we were looking down there but really wanted to live on our own piece of land - so we came to Glendale were it was a little more affordable. If you live in a craftsman house there in Redondo and someone is building on a lot next door, they just make it miserable for you to force you to sell your place so they can do the same thing to your house - tear it down and build another spec for some rich person.

On 2003-08-12 14:03, PolynesianPop wrote:
The payment on a $600,000 house at 6.25% APR is $3694.30. Property tax in my county would run around $750 per month for a home with that value. Of course, you may need to include Mello Roos and HOA fees of about $500 (depending on your community) per month and you are looking at almost a $5000 monthly house payment. That's right - MONTHLY! How the hell does anyone afford a $600,000 house? And these are selling like hotcakes??? Unbelievable...

Yeah - Poly Pop, that is right! Don't forget about those HOA fees - then maybe one can't even afford a townhouse condo either!

You should see what is going on in my home town territory of the South Bay. A cracker box in Manhattan Beach goes for no less than $600K - can't even get into the market with $500K! It used to be a community of middle class families who are all being supplanted now by the super rich - they come in and tear down the little 1950s ranch houses and build huge monstrosities on the lots! My friend from high school bought her parents house in Manhattan beach (the house she grew up in) - the parents had moved to Texas - she is now stuck there in that house because there is no way her and her husband could afford to buy a house in another area that has cheaper housing and then pay to put their kids in private schools (Manhattan Bch public schools are considered primo). She lives hand to mouth on one income - her husbands - and her kids go to school in Manhattan Beach where the average kid's parent is filthy rich. Their house is worth probably over $600K - I don't know exactly but she only paid her parents about $300K for it a few years ago. Elderly people still living in their houses there get offers all the time from developers to sell their house. They just want to mow down the house and build a several million dollar speck house for sale on the lot! In Redondo Beach the developers go after the little beach craftsman cottages - tear then down and build a two-on-a-lot type structure that is technically a condo - you are sharing a wall or at least the lot with another family and HOA money goes into an escrow account. We considered that option when we were looking down there but really wanted to live on our own piece of land - so we came to Glendale were it was a little more affordable. If you live in a craftsman house there in Redondo and someone is building on a lot next door, they just make it miserable for you to force you to sell your place so they can do the same thing to your house - tear it down and build another spec for some rich person.

Post #47535 by Hanalei_Pirate on Tue, Aug 12, 2003 4:47 PM