agentofoblivion

I’m sure you can, but you can qualify for loans that do not make for a happy life. You start calculating CA taxes and what that monthly house payment is with todays interest rates and I don’t think you’ll be feeling rich. Broad strokes: while salary is double compared to Seattle, home prices are triple or more.

Quick numbers: monthly take home on $800k in CA is $33k (40% tax rate!). Monthly payment on $3M according to Zillow is about $20k a month. That leaves $13k for all family expenses and saving for retirement. In Seattle, our credit card statement averages $8k, so I wouldn’t feel great about that margin.

$800k sounds like a lot of money, and it is of course. I considered chasing it, because it’s within the realm of possibility for me. But when I looked at housing in the area, I was shocked to find that $800k was not enough. Regular ol’ houses are $3M plus, and the schools are shockingly not that great. I live in Seattle, where I own a home that’s expensive compared to most other places, and still I couldn’t make the math work without taking a big drop in quality of life. You could, of course, just rent, but $800k is such a big number that I just assumed if that was my salary, I wouldn’t have to think twice about affording a nice house.

Downvotes by those that were in on the hysteria and don’t like to have to face that about themselves.

If your algorithm worked better, don’t you think that would be the algorithm? You think those models don’t consider recent sales?

This article works hard to paint one picture, and then presents arguments and evidence to the contrary. It’s basically a sob story about local musicians and ski lift operators not being able to afford housing, as if that’s a new problem. Then:

> Even as Summit County adds waves of remote workers, it has experienced net negative migration since 2020

You click the link of that data and it talks about how the local government is desperate to attract workers and full time residents, rather than having mostly vacant second homes.

I presume they want to attract wealthy workers, given the choice, since that spending will be local and help the economy. So, assuming they get what they want, which is an influx of wealthy, employed people, it’s entirely clear what will happen to real estate prices. I’m sorry, but no one ever said you’re entitled to only having to play guitar in coffee shops to support themselves. That’s what college kids do, who don’t own houses.

a.k.a., "that's not real communism".

I remember reading plenty of thought pieces a few years ago saying this was impossible, and that Uber was a house of cards gaining market share by subsidizing rides with investor money. That there were no economies of scale to bring costs down, etc., etc. I would love to see a "what we got wrong, and what we still have right" post from one of these people, but I won't hold my breath.

Headline in 5 years: “Endowments from alumni down 50% and no one knows why!”

Yes, pride -> fall, I get it. Although it's the celebration of the fall from the sidelines that I'm questioning. I can feel the spite in your words--towards me, towards Musk, and the "other side", which are a faceless group you call the Volunteer Musk Defense Brigade, of which I'm apparently an unknowing member, I guess because I don't think some technical glitch is that big of a deal. You seem to feel lots of spite for people you've never met. I think there are plenty of tragedies written of people destroyed by their spite--maybe Notes from the Underground qualifies.

And in an irony of ironies, you crawl through my post history and take objection to me expressing my lack of empathy for those that make repeated bad financial decisions, but you're not only defending that very sentiment, but taking it a step further: enjoyment of the suffering. I hope you find peace, brother. I'm going to put my robes back on and get those last few meditation hours in now.

I’m pretty sure those are supposed to be moral lessons, not misery porn. But hey, you seem to openly accept the idea of enjoying another’s suffering, and I admire that kind of honesty. I hope it doesn’t end up causing you misery.

I watched a few of these a long time ago. Looking at the list of videos, it's funny that nearly half of them are basically, "I've lived here X months now!" I guess not much happens in ghost towns.