For decades, there's been peaks and troughs in the housing market.
But what happens is that prices mostly only go in one direction... up!
If the price of a house gets reduced, it's usually because it was over-priced in the first place.
The market can stagnate for a bit, but it always recovers.
But what happens is that prices mostly only go in one direction... up!
If the price of a house gets reduced, it's usually because it was over-priced in the first place.
The market can stagnate for a bit, but it always recovers.
Yep, with a long enough horizon, everything goes up.
In the meantime... I'm sitting on a bunch of very nice vintage audio units that have just been all fully refurbished ( rebuilt, not just "recapped").
I doubt I'll use them, since my other gear sounds so much better.... with the current inflated prices... should I sell now?
In the meantime... I'm sitting on a bunch of very nice vintage audio units that have just been all fully refurbished ( rebuilt, not just "recapped").
I doubt I'll use them, since my other gear sounds so much better.... with the current inflated prices... should I sell now?
Give them a try, usually ebay is best if you have patience. They have to look good and work ok.
If you want to be able to negotiate, start with a price higher than your minimum.
My stuff is usually, honestly, in almost perfect functional shape, with perhaps a scratch here and there.. otherwise I would not bother with the rebuilding. My instructions were simple: "make them last another 40 years and NO LEDs"...
I dunno, you know? Somehow these old units make me feel like a kid again... back to my early teens when I could barely afford my system then. Whereas my newer stuff just sounds soooo much better.
I have sold, to me regret afterwards, some things on Audiogon. The people there are audiophiles, whereas in eBay they are... well... you know... not really audiophiles.
But who wants to pay these crazy prices? Surely not audiophiles because they know better to pay more for a Marantz 2325 than an Audio Research VT200 MkII.
And I've had some bad experiences on eBay.
Marantz 2325 (747 cockpit, sounds dark, like Pink Floyd DSOM in a rainy afternoon ).
Marantz 4415 Quad with remote and SQ1 ( haven't really listen to it that much, but those are strong 15 watts per channel ).
Sansui G7500 ( Family affair. fragile output transistors... to the edge by design. Sounds like Steely Dan in a nice May afternoon by the Pacific ).
Akai AS980 ( Quad. Owned for only 10 years. Biggest receiver I've ever seen. Truly classic early 70s design. Sounds OK, but it's got all of the decoders you need/want).
Kenwood KA3500/KT5300. ( Very nice little pair, owned since '77).
Then I got a ton of other stuff, either newer so the work great or old and I don't really want it.
Like everybody needs two Laserdisc Players and a Top Of The Line Sony SL-HF1000 with the editing control board.... huh?
Imagine the working Laserdisc players are in high demand for those with disc collections.
Big receivers are also a thing now. Go for it. Just keep your favorite receiver.
Big receivers are also a thing now. Go for it. Just keep your favorite receiver.
To each his own but IF I had "expensive" stuff I am not really using , it´s only "an investment", I´d turn that into good money ASAP.
Simple Demographics: kids or youngsters are NOT interested in them, they are into Digital stuff, streamers, etc.
Only "we" feel a tingle when hearing the names Marantz, Harman Kardon, Scott, etc. , which started running down hill (as in appreciation by the masses) already in the 80´s (do the Math) under the Japanese onslaught (which is also fading from memory).
"We" meaning greybeards and older, into our 60s at least.
With the random exception here and there just to "prove the rule" he he.
Dear Cal, I understand your feelings, and in principle agree with you, but "Real Estate Prices" IS a Politically related subject,like it or not.
Simple question:
How many of you want to spend time riding the pine or be banned?
Keep it up, you're closer than you think.
BTW, whatever happened to the OT?
I have a lot of clean up to do and I am not happy about it. Think about that before you post again.
Not talking specific Political Party issues, who typically lead to cat and dog battles, and which have been avoided here (that alone shows much restraint by Forum Members which I applaud) but general Economics which by definition match the tyread spirit to a T , plus some on construction techniques which are also much related to .... ummmmm "housing".
Agree that the deviation into Health System comparison does not match the OT, but Health IS an important consideration to many, (all?) so I wouldn´t nuke thread or members just for that.
And it kept quite civil by all parties involved anyway.
Juan my friend, we are tolerant to a point, but we strive to adhere to the rules as set forth by the owner.
It escapes me how some members feel the rules do not apply to them, and they think this is a ‘public’ forum. It is privately owned forum that
welcomes members provided they comply with some very simple guidelines.
It escapes me how some members feel the rules do not apply to them, and they think this is a ‘public’ forum. It is privately owned forum that
welcomes members provided they comply with some very simple guidelines.
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At risk of being banned, may I add that the costs of medicines and medical procedures in different countries can be compared on line...
But for retired people, it is a struggle to survive on a limited income, and the big expensive procedures seem to come in old age...heart bypass, knee replacements, cataract, cancer. Hip joints also, and so on.
Like it or not, the children will grow up into their lives, and you will be empty nesters, with health issues, and your partner may depart earlier than you.
So see a financial adviser, and be prepared in all the ways you need to be.
And let go of things which are not essential, they may not be useful for the next generation.
And as for house prices, see the same property price 20 years back.
Unless it was inner city declining area, the price has gone up. Mostly multiple times.
If you are mortgaging, plan on being paid off by age 55, most of us here are older than that.
One more thing, some of the posters seem to be property magnates?
You don't buy houses regularly, maybe two or three times in life, and most times you let go of the old one.
Grumbling about house prices as if they were off season produce, or changing cars, and also mostly we are old people who should be experienced in life.
I do not understand that.
But for retired people, it is a struggle to survive on a limited income, and the big expensive procedures seem to come in old age...heart bypass, knee replacements, cataract, cancer. Hip joints also, and so on.
Like it or not, the children will grow up into their lives, and you will be empty nesters, with health issues, and your partner may depart earlier than you.
So see a financial adviser, and be prepared in all the ways you need to be.
And let go of things which are not essential, they may not be useful for the next generation.
And as for house prices, see the same property price 20 years back.
Unless it was inner city declining area, the price has gone up. Mostly multiple times.
If you are mortgaging, plan on being paid off by age 55, most of us here are older than that.
One more thing, some of the posters seem to be property magnates?
You don't buy houses regularly, maybe two or three times in life, and most times you let go of the old one.
Grumbling about house prices as if they were off season produce, or changing cars, and also mostly we are old people who should be experienced in life.
I do not understand that.
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I'm a collector as well as an audiophile... and some of those old components bring me back to my teenage years when I'd spend inordinate amounts of time at the stereo shops in the Navy Exchange and PX in Oahu...
Just imagine. the day I re-found Cecilio and Kapono in Tidal.... it was so awesome, I had to sit down to enjoy it, again.
Come to think about it, time to fire it up again... on my office system.
If this world were a flower garden
And your smiling face a flower there in
Sunflower with the golden hair
I would know you anywhere
I could visit you in moonlight
Wouldn't make no difference
In the darkness you shine bright
Sunflower with the eyes of blue
I'd do everything just for you
Going to High School in Oahu was simply awesome...
...After all of these eons, I find that I still love Hawai'ian country music. Just pass the El Bongo, eh bruddaH?
And those audio components of the 70s... well, I had a Marantz 2220B by the time I was a sophomore. Worked my butt off for it, but I bought it with my own money.
So, in some ways, just like I used to buy my kids all the toys I wanted when I was their age, plus pretty much what they wanted (*), so when I get an audio component from the age when I really, so, so, bad, wanted them and could not afford them... and now, WTH, it's not a sweat... I damn just enjoy having them.
( Maybe this is worthy of a new thread, huh?).
(*) I truly enjoy giving gifts, even when unexpected, so long as I know the giftee appreciates it... Nothing like finding a classic Marshall tube amp and gifting it to your son.... or a fine iron pan for my daughter... or a new Aleph amp for my wife... OK, OK... ;-)
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Cal, I actually did report a couple of posts that truly went off the rails with comments that, IMHO, were gratuitously political and had nothing to do with the main spirit of the thread, nor with any other first and second order deviations from the norm which are fun even if they tend to deviate from the main thrust of the OP's post.
Threads should be allowed to meander, that makes them interesting.
My first reaction to such political posts was to fire off some well deserved flames (*) which would showcase my spectacular ability to do such things and likely see me banned from a forum I really enjoy ( and need, since I got stuff from here...). But, I thought, WTH, why do that which I complain about others doing?
Now then, I understand the huge hassle you incur by reading a bunch of posts by the great unwashed that have no clue why a Sansui 771 should not cost $600 bucks on eBay because it's in "mint" shape... only to figure out which posts are worthy of being kept in the eternal pantheon of DiyAudio and which ones should go down in flames into the AOL archives.
But, freedom of expression is a measure of goodness in a forum... otherwise you get the likes of r/audiophile which is run by advocates of the Julian Hirsch Fan Club. In essence a worthless bunch of words posted on line. The Miss Manners of Internet audiophile forums. (**)
So, I would ask that you exercise a light hand. Doing so enhances the value of the product.
And to others, I would ask not to criticize the politics of other nations. We got enough common problems with the global political class, so let's just agree not to pick on each other's glass houses... except when in the appropriate forums.
Let's pick, instead, on the prick who wanted $26K for a pair of Aleph 2s because, get this.. THEY WERE HIS and that made them the best. Or the morons who want $4000 for a Marantz 2325 that is in "great" shape.. whatever that means. Those flippers are killing the fun of the hobby and deserve to be strung by their heels, with a very large Radio Shack Optimus speaker tied around their neck, along the Via Appia.
Via Appia satis erat pro spartaco sic satis est pro flippers.
(*) I got my flame training in the old days at the alt.evil newsgroup. My flaming technique got so good (still is) that my flamees actually congratulated me once they recovered from being crispier than an El Torito tostada.... Strictly from professional courtesy... nothing personal. ;-)
(**) OK, that was somewhat gratuitous but I got banned from that forum for telling the truth... That perhaps a '72 8-track or a '73 Superscope receiver were not High Fidelity nor worthy of an audiophile's time. I was accused of making people uncomfortable. God forbid I had actually flamed...
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TonyEE,
To build flimsy wooden framed buildings in a high fire risk area is just plain crazy. Here in Europe we saw in California whole communities where only the stone or brick chimney breasts were left. You also maybe unaware that Turkey which knows all about earthquakes along with Japan are the two countries that have the most experience with building earthquake proof homes.
Take a look at www.xella.com, a German company they have sites in lots of different languages. If I was living anywhere where fire or termites were a real problem then this is the only material I would use and will use when I buy land this year. If you take a look at this site you will find that you can build an earthquake proof home.
There is a fault line running from near the French border with Cataluyna right down to Agadir in Morocco. In Agadir in 1960 the loss of life was terrible and that was with a 5.8 quake but it was shallow and between 12-15000 people died and thousands more injured. With none of the over built coastal properties in Spain has any attempt to build in any kind of earthquake protection. When the two tectonic plates that created the Sierra Nevada mountains begin another samba the loss of life will be terrible with all the high rise apartment blocks. I for one would have liked to buy and renovate a cave house in or around Guadix where we have lived for use in the winter, which are very cold and dry, terrible in the summer months, normal heat approx 40C +. But even if I chose the right kind of strata - with low or non existent aggregate, it would still collapse with a big quake.
I rent a house built in 1965, it was built using the local white stone with a crepi finish. As I speak the stone is beginning to store up the heat which arrived early this year around 35C. Soon we will be sweltering. In the winter the stone will begin to cool so we will have to spend a lot on fuel oil heating since it will become like a fridge. Right across Europe the story is the same and governments irrespective of political hue have always allowed themselves to be dictated to by vested interests.
So, I will buy a plot with a positive CU (permission to build) on high ground - no risk of flooding. I will check the sub strata so I know what I'm going to be building on. Also from experience where I live now I will check to see that there is no bindweed infestation, virtually impossible to get rid of. I will not entertain building anywhere near woodland or forest. I am researching now to find good windy areas. The future of electricity independence is with wind not solar. The maximum efficiency has been reached at around 22%. Residential wind turbines with very few exceptions have faultered on using too small Txs because then you have to use much stronger towers to take the extra weight, ergo more expensive. The whole game plan is too minimise the use of electricity. By building a properly insulated home and using a properly designed wood burning stove, I will not be held to ransom with using gas or electricity for heating. Very important but missing form all Building Regs. in Europe AFAIK is the need for an air change system. Those on the market are an expensive joke. I have designed my own using existing products and will share the results good or bad only when it has been used - theory from practice. Why are properly designed garde de manger/ food larders not an integral part of all Building Regs. Just like restaurants have cold stores NOT in the cooking area so food should not be stored in the kitchen or fridges and freezers either, not difficult to implement into a house design but if the mind is closed impossible to create.
There really is no excuse for not researching what for 99% of the people is their biggest investment - their home.
To build flimsy wooden framed buildings in a high fire risk area is just plain crazy. Here in Europe we saw in California whole communities where only the stone or brick chimney breasts were left. You also maybe unaware that Turkey which knows all about earthquakes along with Japan are the two countries that have the most experience with building earthquake proof homes.
Take a look at www.xella.com, a German company they have sites in lots of different languages. If I was living anywhere where fire or termites were a real problem then this is the only material I would use and will use when I buy land this year. If you take a look at this site you will find that you can build an earthquake proof home.
There is a fault line running from near the French border with Cataluyna right down to Agadir in Morocco. In Agadir in 1960 the loss of life was terrible and that was with a 5.8 quake but it was shallow and between 12-15000 people died and thousands more injured. With none of the over built coastal properties in Spain has any attempt to build in any kind of earthquake protection. When the two tectonic plates that created the Sierra Nevada mountains begin another samba the loss of life will be terrible with all the high rise apartment blocks. I for one would have liked to buy and renovate a cave house in or around Guadix where we have lived for use in the winter, which are very cold and dry, terrible in the summer months, normal heat approx 40C +. But even if I chose the right kind of strata - with low or non existent aggregate, it would still collapse with a big quake.
I rent a house built in 1965, it was built using the local white stone with a crepi finish. As I speak the stone is beginning to store up the heat which arrived early this year around 35C. Soon we will be sweltering. In the winter the stone will begin to cool so we will have to spend a lot on fuel oil heating since it will become like a fridge. Right across Europe the story is the same and governments irrespective of political hue have always allowed themselves to be dictated to by vested interests.
So, I will buy a plot with a positive CU (permission to build) on high ground - no risk of flooding. I will check the sub strata so I know what I'm going to be building on. Also from experience where I live now I will check to see that there is no bindweed infestation, virtually impossible to get rid of. I will not entertain building anywhere near woodland or forest. I am researching now to find good windy areas. The future of electricity independence is with wind not solar. The maximum efficiency has been reached at around 22%. Residential wind turbines with very few exceptions have faultered on using too small Txs because then you have to use much stronger towers to take the extra weight, ergo more expensive. The whole game plan is too minimise the use of electricity. By building a properly insulated home and using a properly designed wood burning stove, I will not be held to ransom with using gas or electricity for heating. Very important but missing form all Building Regs. in Europe AFAIK is the need for an air change system. Those on the market are an expensive joke. I have designed my own using existing products and will share the results good or bad only when it has been used - theory from practice. Why are properly designed garde de manger/ food larders not an integral part of all Building Regs. Just like restaurants have cold stores NOT in the cooking area so food should not be stored in the kitchen or fridges and freezers either, not difficult to implement into a house design but if the mind is closed impossible to create.
There really is no excuse for not researching what for 99% of the people is their biggest investment - their home.
The place where I live didn’t flood when I moved in 25 years ago but it does NOW. Not because of weather pattern changes per se, but because everything around me is all built up now. The only fix would be to haul in about 2 or 3 feet of sand covering the entire acre and a half, and making the water somebody else’s problem. Basically doing unto others - payback’s a bitch. The buildings are safe and have never flooded, but the horse REALLY hates being hoof deep in muck for a week at a time. And I don’t like fighting with a flooded septic system (Which works perfectly the instant it dries out).
And the tax office raised the valuation the LAND from $50k to $106k this year. There wasn’t even close to that much of a jump on the HOUSE.
And the tax office raised the valuation the LAND from $50k to $106k this year. There wasn’t even close to that much of a jump on the HOUSE.
Developed real estate has an intrinsic value if it's located in an area where it's useful. If you buy the right house in the right area then you will not lose money in the long run. Money gets devalued terribly. Real estate keeps its value much better than money.
My father bought the house I grew up in for $12,500 in 1955. It was a brand new house in a newly developed area on the south side of Chicago. By 1970 or so, the house was worth $40K.
He sold the house in 1990 for $96K and bought a condo. I remember him saying "No house in this neighborhood will ever go for more than $100K." He thought he was selling at the top of the market but I already knew that wasn't true. Today this area is considered "affordable" by Chicago standards, but you'd be hard pressed to find a house for under $200K that wasn't a heap.
Dad payed $110,000 for his condo and it tanked as soon as he bought it. When he died it was appraised @ $78K. Half the building was perpetually for sale. Somehow he picked the worst piece of real estate in Oak Lawn.
My father bought the house I grew up in for $12,500 in 1955. It was a brand new house in a newly developed area on the south side of Chicago. By 1970 or so, the house was worth $40K.
He sold the house in 1990 for $96K and bought a condo. I remember him saying "No house in this neighborhood will ever go for more than $100K." He thought he was selling at the top of the market but I already knew that wasn't true. Today this area is considered "affordable" by Chicago standards, but you'd be hard pressed to find a house for under $200K that wasn't a heap.
Dad payed $110,000 for his condo and it tanked as soon as he bought it. When he died it was appraised @ $78K. Half the building was perpetually for sale. Somehow he picked the worst piece of real estate in Oak Lawn.
My cousin had a hard time selling her parent's house in St. Louis after her mom died. The house is right by the airport and Ferguson (an infamous neighborhood). 1952 Ranch and she could only get $86K for it after languishing over two years on the market.
Fast forward 8 years and you can add $100K to that price. The neighborhood is hot because it offers decent, affordable housing. She wasn't too happy when I told her that. She couldn't wait to get rid of the house in 2012.
Fast forward 8 years and you can add $100K to that price. The neighborhood is hot because it offers decent, affordable housing. She wasn't too happy when I told her that. She couldn't wait to get rid of the house in 2012.
Once again... you live in a glass house. so don't be throwing bricks.
The problem in California is not the location of the homes but the political power of the environazis. Indeed, you are not allowed to build any permanent property off grid. Even if you plan on fully self sustaining ( wind, solar, generators, batteries, fairies, unicorns..) you are required to connect to the grid and build a good access road, which makes it pretty prohibitive unless you are truly rich. And good luck with the septic tank...
The only way around it is to put a mobile home ( hence the rise of luxury mobile homes ). And your plan to build your house is completely impractical in most of the West due to local zoning regulations.
So what would you have us do? Live like the Australians, who in the middle of an empty continent live one of top of each other in cities with population densities more akin to Germany than the Western US?
And, as a matter of fact, I know a lot about Catalunya. A lot. The buildings there, and the tectonic forces there are nothing like here in SoCal. But even in Italy, which is more tectonically active, they don't have the kind of quakes we got here. The early missionaries learned their lesson when beautiful European style churches like the one in Mission Capistrano went down in a quake... so they ended up developing the Mission Style of thick adobe walls, with built in, THICK buttresses and heavy timber flat roofs. Something that would be extreme overkill in the Old Country, but somehow has managed to last at least 250 years.
Meanwhile in Barcelona, there are buildings almost 2000 years old. How long do you think the Roman Aqueduct in Tarragona would last in San Bernardino County? Not very long, I think. For sure not 2000 years.
Let me ask you... have you ever had to deal with an actual quake... You know... when the ground starts to shake and roll and the house makes groaning noises and you got to sit down because suddenly you feel drunk? Can you identify a rocker from a roller within two seconds of the S waves hitting the house? Most of us here do, since we've gone through many of them over the years.
When you do that, and turn on the TV afterwards and see all those masonry buildings down ( we don't have many left here ) while all of our "flimsy" wooden buildings survived just fine... well, then come back and tell us about our flimsy designs.
Then, when you do a bit of research and understand the environazi movement in my State then come back and tell us why it's inherently a bad idea to build on top of a ridge with a spectacular view of the ocean... things, BTW, that are customary all over La Costa Brava and La Cote d'Azur.
Besides, Nelson Pass likely lives in a wooden frame home too... so there! You couldn't fit the Pipe-Os in one of them tiny Euro houses.
And, if it's good enough for Nelson's El-Pipe-Os, it's good enough for me.
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Vancouver was a nice place to do a house purchase until about 1990. Then things went a bit off the rails. The house I bought in 1994 for 214,000 was (tax) appraised this year at 1.2 million (big city tax grab and a total joke). The Condo I bought in 2009 for 228,000 is now going for 595,000 (unimproved). Yes real estate is a good investment but like anything else it's not infallible. There are 'corrections' that happen just like what we are seeing in the markets right now