Our Oppressed Rich - Sales of $1-Million-Plus Homes Went Through the Roof in California

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US NewsJanuary 2014 • Views: 22,832

Crowned by the sale of a Malibu estate for $74.5 million, the number of houses sold last year at $1 million and above statewide jumped to a six-year high, according to real estate information service DataQuick.

In the strongest showing, the number of homes sold at $2 million and up set state, Southern California and L.A. County records.

“The luxury market did bounce back last year,” said housing market analyst Paul Habibi, a real estate lecturer at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. “A lot of people were stepping back into the waters.”

Among them were lucrative investors looking for a place to park their dividends.

“The stock market lined the pockets of high-end buyers,” Habibi said. “That translated into home purchases

More: Sales of $1-Million-Plus Homes Went Through the Roof in California

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106 comments

sizzzzlerz Fri, Jan 31, 2014 8:41:28am

But, then, million dollar plus homes are a dime a dozen in Cali. You can’t walk down a street throwing bricks without hitting the front window of one.

Skip Intro Fri, Jan 31, 2014 8:57:15am

re: #1 sizzzzlerz

But, then, million dollar plus homes are a dime a dozen in Cali. You can’t walk down a street throwing bricks without hitting the front window of one.

Yeah, but since we raised taxes to balance the budget all the rich people were supposed to have moved to Texas, causing a housing crash.

Try paying the property taxes on a $1.5 million home. They should run you around $30,000 per year. Yet the state is full of them, and there isn’t much problem in getting them sold.

BusyMonster Fri, Jan 31, 2014 9:27:18am

re: #2 Skip Intro

Yeah, but since we raised taxes to balance the budget all the rich people were supposed to have moved to Texas, causing a housing crash.

Isn’t it about time we took that whole logical construction and shat on it, flushed it down the toilet, set it on fire, and had it shot into space and vaporized by a solar flare? People who can afford to live in California do so because it’s nice to live there. It is not nice to live in Texas, you cannot dress it up at all (I have visited both places several times) it is hot, miserable, almost everything looks like it’s been left out in the sun for an extra 10 years, most of the communities are shockingly poor and run-down.

NOBODY is fucking leaving their coastal property in California and rushing to find a goddamn trailer in Texas because it’s so gol-durn cheap to live there!!!!! This is NOT how it ever works. NOBODY really goes Galt. Do these idiots ever get their heads out of their fiction?

Kragar Fri, Jan 31, 2014 10:46:17am

Obviously those high priced home cause a a trickle down effect making it easier for other people to buy homes in turn.
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Bulworth Fri, Jan 31, 2014 10:47:43am

The mere existence of this post confirms prooves a progressive kristallnacht. //

Kragar Fri, Jan 31, 2014 10:48:00am

re: #3 BusyMonster

CA has a few things Texas doesn’t

A functioning infrastructure, non-draconian healthcare laws, a good public school system, etc

Gus Fri, Jan 31, 2014 10:48:02am

Hate to be a pest but $1 million for a house in California isn’t exactly JP Paul Getty territory.

Targetpractice Fri, Jan 31, 2014 10:48:12am

Now how can that be, when I’ve been assured that millionaires and billionaires are fleeing in the wake of the election of that socialist Gov. Brown and his plan to tax the rich into poverty to redistribute to the poor?

////

sattv4u2 Fri, Jan 31, 2014 10:48:35am

California, Texas and New York hold 25 percent of the nation’s millionaire households,

cnbc.com

sattv4u2 Fri, Jan 31, 2014 10:51:15am

re: #8 Targetpractice

Like Gus stated,, a property valued at a million in Cali ain’t exactly an uncommon

Decatur Deb Fri, Jan 31, 2014 10:51:49am

Knew we were in trouble when the douchebag ‘House Flipper” shows came back on cable.

jaunte Fri, Jan 31, 2014 10:53:34am

re: #7 Gus

Here’s a 1-bath condo for 950k:
trulia.com

lawhawk Fri, Jan 31, 2014 10:54:28am

It’s not just California.

Sales of multi-million dollar condos in NYC are going through the roof too.

Developers are building out towers that are in the Empire State Building height range, with penthouse suites that are going for crazy money. Millionaires and billionaires are buying properties all over the City. Especially on 57th Street near Central Park South.

Upper West Side? Extell is building a complex along the West Side Highway in the 60s that have units going for up to $25 million.

Far from the image of the rich moving out of NYC, you’re getting an influx of buyers (who happen to be pricing out everyone else from parts of the city as gentrification means less affordable housing to go around).

The average sale price in Manhattan? $1.4 million or 40% higher than a decade ago.

Political Atheist Fri, Jan 31, 2014 10:54:30am

This is a far better marker of high housing prices & banking mortgage policy than high income demographics.

Plus look at who our “rich” are. Wall street guys? Not really. That’s a few time zones east. . A lot of our high income people are salaried at a very high rate. Actors. Athletes. Musicians. Silicon valley techs. Those people do pay taxes, and in great volume.

When we broad brush “rich” as a generalized pejorative we often depart reality.

Justanotherhuman Fri, Jan 31, 2014 10:54:56am

re: #7 Gus

Hate to be a pest but $1 million for a house in California isn’t exactly JP Paul Getty territory.

Yeah, back in 2005 in the heat of the time, an acquaintance in a chat room decided to sell her house in LA and sent me a photo. It was an older house, not even as nice as my 3BR, 2B brick house in Charlotte (for which I paid $80K in 1993) on a deep lot, but she sold it for $500K. People were actually bidding on houses then, paying even more than the asking prices. I was flabbergasted. She and her hubs moved to Ore to semi-retire and wound up driving long haul for extra money.

That was the time janitors and maids were buying those houses, too. Those “liar loans” that brought down the mortgage industry and crashed the economy.

sattv4u2 Fri, Jan 31, 2014 10:55:31am

re: #12 jaunte

Here’s a 1-bath condo for 950k:
trulia.com

heh

Buddy of mine just bought a 3 bedroom/ 2 bath FULLY FURNISHED 4 year old condo in Myrtle beach for $56,000!!!
!

Gus Fri, Jan 31, 2014 10:56:00am

re: #12 jaunte

Here’s a 1-bath condo for 950k:
trulia.com

$792/sq. ft.

Justanotherhuman Fri, Jan 31, 2014 10:56:28am

re: #13 lawhawk

It’s not just California.

Sales of multi-million dollar condos in NYC are going through the roof too.

Developers are building out towers that are in the Empire State Building height range, with penthouse suites that are going for crazy money. Millionaires and billionaires are buying properties all over the City. Especially on 57th Street near Central Park South.

Upper West Side? Extell is building a complex along the West Side Highway in the 60s that have units going for up to $25 million.

Far from the image of the rich moving out of NYC, you’re getting an influx of buyers (who happen to be pricing out everyone else from parts of the city as gentrification means less affordable housing to go around).

The average sale price in Manhattan? $1.4 million or 40% higher than a decade ago.

Well, I suppose I couldn’t rent a room in a desk-clerked SRO for $85/wk in mid-town anymore, eh?

lawhawk Fri, Jan 31, 2014 10:57:51am

re: #16 sattv4u2

There are still distressed areas of the country that have yet to recover from the real estate market crash. That includes parts of AZ, NV, and the Central Valley of CA.

NY metro didn’t experience the kind of major correction that other parts of the country did - it was lower to be sure, but not down to the degree that places like Phoenix or Vegas saw primarily because NYC metro is a fully developed area, where new construction frequently means redeveloping existing areas versus building on empty lots in suburbia.

lawhawk Fri, Jan 31, 2014 10:58:23am

re: #18 Justanotherhuman

That might be the hourly rate. /

Gus Fri, Jan 31, 2014 10:58:42am

re: #13 lawhawk

It’s not just California.

Sales of multi-million dollar condos in NYC are going through the roof too.

Developers are building out towers that are in the Empire State Building height range, with penthouse suites that are going for crazy money. Millionaires and billionaires are buying properties all over the City. Especially on 57th Street near Central Park South.

Upper West Side? Extell is building a complex along the West Side Highway in the 60s that have units going for up to $25 million.

Far from the image of the rich moving out of NYC, you’re getting an influx of buyers (who happen to be pricing out everyone else from parts of the city as gentrification means less affordable housing to go around).

The average sale price in Manhattan? $1.4 million or 40% higher than a decade ago.

Before the market crashed I was seeing fancier bi-levels on Long Island selling for 1 million.

Kragar Fri, Jan 31, 2014 10:58:44am

“Texas has lower taxes!”

And look at everything you don’t get with that.

klys Fri, Jan 31, 2014 10:59:15am

The only good thing about the CA housing market is what we’ll be able to afford elsewhere off the sale of the house here.

sattv4u2 Fri, Jan 31, 2014 10:59:43am

re: #19 lawhawk

There are still distressed areas of the country that have yet to recover from the real estate market crash

Actually, that area is vibrant as far as sales. I have a condo just south of Myrtle and I get calls/ letters on weekly basis from real estate agents asking if I want to sell because they want/ need inventory. it’s just that they are trying to keep the prices down so sales stay strong

Justanotherhuman Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:00:27am

re: #20 lawhawk

That might be the hourly rate. /

Yeah, actually, the bldg is a small hotel now that caters to Europeans.

hotel31.com

It still has the creaky elevator, too.

Political Atheist Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:02:06am

There are lots of better examples to illustrate how the rich are doing better than the middle. Heck, do we even know how much of Californias taxable income is salary vs unearned/cap gains income? Google ain’t much help.

Romantic Heretic Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:02:54am

re: #17 Gus

$792/sq. ft.

In other words, my disability will buy one square foot of that place, with a little left over for food.

Mattand Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:03:32am

Ugh. We’ve lost about 15 grand in value since buying about 9 years ago. The only sorta good news is that the refi we did knocked $400 a month of the mortgage.

Talk about buying at the absolute worst time.

Romantic Heretic Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:03:45am

re: #22 Kragar

“Texas has lower taxes!”

And look at everything you don’t get with that.

“I like taxes. With them we buy civilization.” Oliver Wendell Holmes

b_sharp Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:05:04am

re: #10 sattv4u2

Like Gus stated,, a property valued at a million in Cali ain’t exactly an uncommon

It’s the trend that’s important, not necessarily the number.

Ten years ago the average home price was less than $80,000 and we had only a few $1,000,000 homes. Very few. Now the average price is $350,000 and we have thousands of homes over $1,000,000.

However, it was the booming economy that brought the speculators who caused the prices to jump, followed by the thousands of people moving into the province.

Gus Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:05:45am

OK, so the $950,000 home shows a mortgage of about $5,000 month. Typically they say your mortgage should equal 1/3rd of your income. This equals an after tax salary of about $180,000/year. That would probably make Bay Area transit agency managers rich if we’re to use this standard.

Justanotherhuman Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:05:51am

@eu_eeas @MunSecConf SUDER,REUTERS how he worked and howmuch we have witheach other,USA,EU,ASHTON,11bilion pounds andVIENNA,CONCRETE.5LIONS
— TOTO MARC RADYS (@MarkUFO_u) January 31, 2014

Feline Fearless Leader Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:06:26am

re: #13 lawhawk

It’s not just California.

Sales of multi-million dollar condos in NYC are going through the roof too.

Developers are building out towers that are in the Empire State Building height range, with penthouse suites that are going for crazy money. Millionaires and billionaires are buying properties all over the City. Especially on 57th Street near Central Park South.

Upper West Side? Extell is building a complex along the West Side Highway in the 60s that have units going for up to $25 million.

Far from the image of the rich moving out of NYC, you’re getting an influx of buyers (who happen to be pricing out everyone else from parts of the city as gentrification means less affordable housing to go around).

The average sale price in Manhattan? $1.4 million or 40% higher than a decade ago.

If you’re wealthy and headed into retirement the two options seem to basically get a spread in the country and live away from people (or at worst among a community of other wealthy). Or, move into the city with the idea of being close to health providers and walking distance (or short taxi ride) to desirable places.

Gus Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:07:39am

Someone making $350K/year is not in the same category as Pierre Omidyar or Jeff Bezos. Nor the Koch brothers.

lawhawk Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:07:48am

re: #33 Feline Fearless Leader

If you’re wealthy and headed into retirement the two options seem to basically get a spread in the country and live away from people (or at worst among a community of other wealthy). Or, move into the city with the idea of being close to health providers and walking distance (or short taxi ride) to desirable places.

Why have either/or? If you’re rich, you can get to have both.

Just never mind. Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:07:57am

Property is only “worth” what someone can & will pay for it.

klys Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:08:12am

re: #31 Gus

OK, so the $950,000 home shows a mortgage of about $5,000 month. Typically they say your mortgage should equal 1/3rd of your income. This equals an after tax salary of about $180,000/year. That would probably make Bay Area transit agency managers rich if we’re to use this standard.

Goes back to a question I asked the other day: what’s “rich” versus “upper-middle class” and what distinctions do you use to drive the cutoff?

For what it’s worth, my definition of rich involves not having to work to maintain a desired level of income, and sufficient wealth to not pay attention to most expenditures and still be fine.

Putting a dollar value on what that amount is depends on the area of the country and what people want as their level of income.

jaunte Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:08:27am

We’re gonna need more categories.

Gus Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:08:51am

re: #38 jaunte

We’re gonna need more categories.

I think so.

b_sharp Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:09:19am

re: #36 Just never mind.

Property is only “worth” what someone can & will pay for it.

I’m looking for an abandoned farm house to live in.

Political Atheist Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:09:31am

Lets talk distorted market. Average home price-Riverside, CA

And Sacramento

And San Francisco

Isn’t San Francisco a progressive bastion?

sattv4u2 Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:10:06am

re: #33 Feline Fearless Leader

If you’re wealthy and headed into retirement the two options seem to basically get a spread in the country and live away from people (or at worst among a community of other wealthy). Or, move into the city with the idea of being close to health providers and walking distance (or short taxi ride) to desirable places.

we’re in the country, with many VERY nice homes (read; multi million dollar ones) nearby

Although not within walking distance, we can get to many great venues in/ around Atlanta within an hour or so.

Just never mind. Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:10:20am

re: #41 Political Atheist

And then there’s the inland empire of california, and Nevada….

klys Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:10:50am

re: #41 Political Atheist

Lets talk distorted market. Average home price-Riverside, CA

[Embedded image]

And Sacramento

[Embedded image]

And San Francisco

[Embedded image]

Isn’t San Francisco a progressive bastion?

It’s also a city extraordinarily constrained by geography.

Like Manhattan, there’s just no place left to build.

Stanley Sea Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:10:55am

re: #34 Gus

Someone making $350K/year is not in the same category as Pierre Omidyar or Jeff Bezos. Nor the Koch brothers.

Nor me.

Justanotherhuman Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:11:02am

re: #30 b_sharp

It’s the trend that’s important, not necessarily the number.

Ten years ago the average home price was less than $80,000 and we had only a few $1,000,000 homes. Very few. Now the average price is $350,000 and we have thousands of homes over $1,000,000.

However, it was the booming economy that brought the speculators who caused the prices to jump, followed by the thousands of people moving into the province.

Even up here in this BR community of Charlotte, you can’t find a new home that’s worth a crap for less than $250K; the developers built for the bank crowd that was moving into this lake area. All the hoi polloi live in much older, smaller homes or trailers.

There are lots of properties on the lake that sell for multi-millions. Some very wealthy people who have second or vacation homes, even corporate housing. Really funny story, though: There is a guy who has a prime spot on a jut on the main channel with the best view on the lake and it’s an older trailer—he keeps the property up, though, along with his flagpole. The land alone is probably worth $1M.

wrenchwench Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:11:04am

re: #41 Political Atheist

Lets talk distorted market. Average home price-Riverside, CA

[Embedded image]

And Sacramento

[Embedded image]

And San Francisco

[Embedded image]

Isn’t San Francisco a progressive bastion?

Those charts cover a period of three weeks. What is the intended point?

Decatur Deb Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:12:01am

re: #13 lawhawk

It’s not just California.

Sales of multi-million dollar condos in NYC are going through the roof too.

Developers are building out towers that are in the Empire State Building height range, with penthouse suites that are going for crazy money. Millionaires and billionaires are buying properties all over the City. Especially on 57th Street near Central Park South.

Upper West Side? Extell is building a complex along the West Side Highway in the 60s that have units going for up to $25 million.

Far from the image of the rich moving out of NYC, you’re getting an influx of buyers (who happen to be pricing out everyone else from parts of the city as gentrification means less affordable housing to go around).

The average sale price in Manhattan? $1.4 million or 40% higher than a decade ago.

Just for your astonishment: In 1964 I lived in a brownstone on 39th, a few yards off Park. It was a shared room and bath with board for $35 per week. The building is still there next to The Explorer’s Club, per Google Maps.

Feline Fearless Leader Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:12:17am

re: #35 lawhawk

Why have either/or? If you’re rich, you can get to have both.

True. The old standard of the estate, the city “house”, and the “cabin” out in the mountains where you roughed it with half the normal wait staff.

sattv4u2 Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:12:27am

re: #40 b_sharp

I’m looking for an abandoned farm house to live in.

A sharp Real Estate agent would cal this a HANDY MANS DREAM
Image: blog+%288%29.jpg

Kragar Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:12:48am

re: #44 klys

It’s also a city extraordinarily constrained by geography.

Like Manhattan, there’s just no place left to build.

The only solution is to begin the Mega-Blocks

Decatur Deb Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:13:12am

re: #40 b_sharp

I’m looking for an abandoned farm house to live in.

I have one in the country. Can you hack Midland City AL?

Feline Fearless Leader Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:13:25am

re: #39 Gus

I think so.

And a bigger boat. (Looks overboard at large toothy object.)

dog philosopher Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:13:38am

пчела
pchela
“bee” in Russian

russian was designed to be unpronounceable

b_sharp Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:14:15am

re: #46 Justanotherhuman

Even up here in this BR community of Charlotte, you can’t find a new home that’s worth a crap for less than $250K; the developers built for the bank crowd that was moving into this lake area. All the hoi polloi live in much older, smaller homes or trailers.

There are lots of properties on the lake that sell for multi-millions. Some very wealthy people who have second or vacation homes, even corporate housing. Really funny story, though: There is a guy who has a prime spot on a jut on the main channel with the best view on the lake and it’s an older trailer—he keeps the property up, though, along with his flagpole. The land alone is probably worth $1M.

Lakefront property prices (yes, SK does have lakes) have gone up from $10,000 to $100,000 in 10 years.

The booming economy has really inflated prices.

b_sharp Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:14:58am

re: #50 sattv4u2

A sharp Real Estate agent would cal this a HANDY MANS DREAM
Image: blog+%288%29.jpg

I could do something with that.

b_sharp Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:15:40am

re: #52 Decatur Deb

I have one in the country. Can you hack Midland City AL?

Who would I have to kill?

Gus Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:15:56am

re: #45 Stanley Sea

Nor me.

I spent a week in Bay Head NJ at my ex-gf’s family beach house. Maybe it was 2 weeks. Anyway, nice big house. Right on the beach. Worn down though. Her father started what became a well known retail analyst firm in Manhattan. He was a Republican but he wasn’t exactly a millionaire by any means. Drove around in an old beat up Toyota van. Now, the Bayers that had their summer home across the street? They were rich.

Decatur Deb Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:16:22am

re: #56 b_sharp

I could do something with that.

Mine’s better than that, especially since we moved the abandoned freezer full of meat.

Decatur Deb Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:16:39am

re: #57 b_sharp

Who would I have to kill?

Your soul.

Gus Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:16:42am

Talked for a while to a neighbor and friend of the Bayers during that week. She was a prig.

b_sharp Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:17:16am

re: #59 Decatur Deb

Mine’s better than that, especially since we moved the abandoned freezer full of meat.

Is it (the freezer) still capable of storing bodies?

bubba zanetti Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:17:30am

re: #31 Gus

Google is offering fresh college grads low 6 figures right now. I’ve seen them turn down offers in traditionally lucrative fields like investment banking.

b_sharp Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:17:33am

re: #60 Decatur Deb

Your soul.

That’s been dead for decades.

klys Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:18:16am

re: #63 bubba zanetti

Google is offering fresh college grads low 6 figures right now. I’ve seen them turn down offers in traditionally lucrative fields like investment banking.

My husband keeps telling me to interview there, but I’m not sure I’d make it through that gauntlet yet.

Gus Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:18:35am

What you want to look for is the RE investment firms buying up foreclosed homes by the boatload.

Justanotherhuman Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:19:18am

re: #63 bubba zanetti

Google is offering fresh college grads low 6 figures right now. I’ve seen them turn down offers in traditionally lucrative fields like investment banking.

That’s pretty fucked up. Reminds me of when I was in NYC in 1981—Wall St. firms were offering freshly minted MBA $80K to start back then.

We saw where that led.

lawhawk Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:19:59am

re: #50 sattv4u2

I call dibs on this one with this view.

Spoiler

(for those with sharp eyes, they’d probably realize this is the view from Cunningham Cabin and know that simply isn’t possible).

Dr Lizardo Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:20:40am

re: #51 Kragar

The only solution is to begin the Mega-Blocks

Image: mega-city-one-from-dredd.jpg

Yes!!

Political Atheist Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:20:55am

re: #44 klys

True.
Just having a coastline that has houses distorts our numbers up as compared to a landlocked state.

Pie-onist Overlord Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:21:27am

Location, location, location.

I’m pretty sure that the 2800 sq. ft. 5-bedroom house I live in, in the Detroit metro area, would cost >$1M in LA.

Charles Johnson Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:22:49am

Yes, a $1M home in California doesn’t necessarily mean you’re rich. However…

Sales of $1-Million-Plus Homes Went Through the Roof in California

In the strongest showing, the number of homes sold at $2 million and up set state, Southern California and L.A. County records.

“The luxury market did bounce back last year,” said housing market analyst Paul Habibi, a real estate lecturer at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. “A lot of people were stepping back into the waters.”

Among them were lucrative investors looking for a place to park their dividends.

“The stock market lined the pockets of high-end buyers,” Habibi said. “That translated into home purchases.”

Gus Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:22:55am

re: #71 Pie-onist Overlord

Location, location, location.

I’m pretty sure that the 2800 sq. ft. 5-bedroom house I live in, in the Detroit metro area, would cost >$1M in LA.

Even within California. Obviously obvious I guess.

klys Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:22:58am

re: #67 Justanotherhuman

That’s pretty fucked up. Reminds me of when I was in NYC in 1981—Wall St. firms were offering freshly minted MBA $80K to start back then.

We saw where that led.

Why do you think that’s fucked up?

No, seriously.

That’s what they need to offer in the Silicon Valley area to get folks to consider them. And remember, a large chunk of that salary ends up getting sunk back into some form of housing.

I don’t really think that programmers are going to crash the world’s economy by making bets they can’t cover with other people’s money.

Feline Fearless Leader Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:23:10am

re: #68 lawhawk

I call dibs on this one with this view.

[Embedded content]

What’s that place like in the winter?

Gus Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:24:10am

Yeah. What we need is a depressed real estate market.

klys Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:24:49am

re: #71 Pie-onist Overlord

Location, location, location.

I’m pretty sure that the 2800 sq. ft. 5-bedroom house I live in, in the Detroit metro area, would cost >$1M in LA.

Our 3-bedroom 1600sqft house is a hell of a lot closer to $1M than it has any right to be by any normal standard.

Hence I say again:

re: #23 klys

The only good thing about the CA housing market is what we’ll be able to afford elsewhere off the sale of the house here.

Decatur Deb Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:25:35am

re: #62 b_sharp

Is it (the freezer) still capable of storing bodies?

It’s in the landfill. It and the house were on a property we bought for Son1. They both were abandoned for several years. If I get ambitious, we’ll tear the place down for the 1900’s wood.

sattv4u2 Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:29:26am

re: #62 b_sharp

Is it (the freezer) still capable of storing bodies?

he did say “full of meat”,,, so ,,,,,,,,

Decatur Deb Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:30:13am

re: #79 sattv4u2

he did say “full of meat”,,, so ,,,,,,,,

We made obligatory Hoffa jokes all through the operation.

Justanotherhuman Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:30:50am

re: #74 klys

Why do you think that’s fucked up?

No, seriously.

That’s what they need to offer in the Silicon Valley area to get folks to consider them. And remember, a large chunk of that salary ends up getting sunk back into some form of housing.

I don’t really think that programmers are going to crash the world’s economy by making bets they can’t cover with other people’s money.

They’re not talking about just “folks”. They’re talking about new graduates.

Could you get a job making that much, even if you were up to speed technologically? People twice that age were making half as much money.

b_sharp Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:34:13am

re: #78 Decatur Deb

It’s in the landfill. It and the house were on a property we bought for Son1. They both were abandoned for several years. If I get ambitious, we’ll tear the place down for the 1900’s wood.

So I can’t have it?

klys Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:35:22am

re: #81 Justanotherhuman

They’re not talking about just “folks”. They’re talking about new graduates.

Could you get a job making that much, even if you were up to speed technologically? People twice that age were making half as much money.

I live in Silicon Valley and am working on getting a certificate in CS so that I can convince employers not to round-file my application because none of my degrees are in that field.

The job market for software developers is hot right now. Everyone’s competing. I fully expect to realize a job offer in at least the high 5 figures at the point when I start looking. I also have a pretty good idea of what compensation is like for folks who aren’t new graduates and it’s even better than that.

On the flip side, again, housing costs out here suck ass. A lot of that salary goes right back into the house/mortgage/whatever.

It’s worth noting that most of these jobs add a level of compensation specific to this area - Microsoft pays employees who live in Silicon Valley more than their employees in Redmond, for example, because of both cost of living and level of competition.

Charles Johnson Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:40:57am

The point of the article, by the way, is not that more people in California are becoming “rich” enough to afford $1M+ homes — it’s that large numbers of wealthy people are buying $1M+ homes as investments.

Decatur Deb Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:43:16am

re: #82 b_sharp

So I can’t have it?

It’s only a bit better than Satt’s picture, and it comes with my son. The place was built in the 1900’s, moved in the 1920’s. The electrical system is romex stapled to the walls. (If it were better, someone would have turned the place into a meth lab.) The septic system was a 4” PVC pipe.

Justanotherhuman Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:43:50am

re: #83 klys

I live in Silicon Valley and am working on getting a certificate in CS so that I can convince employers not to round-file my application because none of my degrees are in that field.

The job market for software developers is hot right now. Everyone’s competing. I fully expect to realize a job offer in at least the high 5 figures at the point when I start looking. I also have a pretty good idea of what compensation is like for folks who aren’t new graduates and it’s even better than that.

On the flip side, again, housing costs out here suck ass. A lot of that salary goes right back into the house/mortgage/whatever.

It’s worth noting that most of these jobs add a level of compensation specific to this area - Microsoft pays employees who live in Silicon Valley more than their employees in Redmond, for example, because of both cost of living and level of competition.

What the hell ever happened to a person’s worth?

In 50 yrs of working, no one ever told me they were paying me more because they wanted me to live in a nice house or drive a nice car. They barely paid me enough to put my kids in daycare. And that wasn’t because I wasn’t educated enough, or experienced enough.

The fact is, we have job inflation in some occupations right now. So, a young graduate, without the responsibilities of someone twice that age, can already get a leg up simply because they have a piece of paper that says they can help develop some program that no one will use in a few years?

Do you know what a starting teacher, fresh out of graduate school, makes? $30K around here if they’re lucky (and they must complete a master’s). Yet we trust our kids to them and expect them to fly to the moon at the same time.

Pie-onist Overlord Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:45:13am

re: #84 Charles Johnson

The point of the article, by the way, is not that more people in California are becoming “rich” enough to afford $1M+ homes — it’s that large numbers of wealthy people are buying $1M+ homes as investments.

Look at this infographic.

Rental securities: the hottest new scam since subprime mortgages!

How the fuck is this not illegal?

Pie-onist Overlord Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:48:35am

re: #86 Justanotherhuman

What the hell ever happened to a person’s worth?

Employees are expenses according to Teh Jrrb Creeyaters.

sattv4u2 Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:48:47am

re: #85 Decatur Deb

The septic system was a 4” PVC pipe.
And by “septic system” I mean a Home Depot paint bucket!!

UPSIDE,,, it’s a 5 gallon one so doesn’t have to be emptied but once every three days or so!!

b_sharp Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:49:51am

re: #85 Decatur Deb

It’s only a bit better than Satt’s picture, and it comes with my son. The place was built in the 1900’s, moved in the 1920’s. The electrical system is romex stapled to the walls. (If it were better, someone would have turned the place into a meth lab.) The septic system was a 4” PVC pipe.

Is your son trainable?

sattv4u2 Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:51:00am

re: #90 b_sharp

Is you son trainable?

he gets it into the bucket every time,, so ,, yes

Skip Intro Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:52:34am

re: #84 Charles Johnson

The point of the article, by the way, is not that more people in California are becoming “rich” enough to afford $1M+ homes — it’s that large numbers of wealthy people are buying $1M+ homes as investments.

Thank you.

That point appears to have been lost here.

klys Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:52:43am

re: #86 Justanotherhuman

What the hell ever happened to a person’s worth?

In 50 yrs of working, no one ever told me they were paying me more because they wanted me to live in a nice house or drive a nice car. They barely paid me enough to put my kids in daycare. And that wasn’t because I wasn’t educated enough, or experienced enough.

The fact is, we have job inflation in some occupations right now. So, a young graduate, without the responsibilities of someone twice that age, can already get a leg up simply because they have a piece of paper that says they can help develop some program that no one will use in a few years?

Do you know what a starting teacher, fresh out of graduate school, makes? $30K around here if they’re lucky (and they must complete a master’s). Yet we trust our kids to them and expect them to fly to the moon at the same time.

That young graduate is making less than their seniors in the company, believe me. If you’re comparing their salary to that of a teacher’s, well, I agree teachers are underpaid. I also agree athletes are incredibly overpaid. But like you said yourself, no one pays based on your worth as a human. They pay what the market drives.

I regard the ability to get a job in this field (which is still willing to accept experience in lieu of a degree, although that is becoming less common) as a much more equal opportunity than the genetic lottery. In the end, I’m not working on the certificate because it’s a good financial decision (although in the end it will be). I’m doing it because I like the work. Same reason a lot of teachers say they teach.

Decatur Deb Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:53:15am

re: #87 Pie-onist Overlord

Look at this infographic.

Rental securities: the hottest new scam since subprime mortgages!

How the fuck is this not illegal?

Beautiful plan—all the virtues of home flipping and CDOs.

Decatur Deb Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:53:57am

re: #90 b_sharp

Is your son trainable?

Neither of his ex-wives thought so.

Skip Intro Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:55:44am

re: #86 Justanotherhuman

What the hell ever happened to a person’s worth?

In 50 yrs of working, no one ever told me they were paying me more because they wanted me to live in a nice house or drive a nice car. They barely paid me enough to put my kids in daycare. And that wasn’t because I wasn’t educated enough, or experienced enough.

The fact is, we have job inflation in some occupations right now. So, a young graduate, without the responsibilities of someone twice that age, can already get a leg up simply because they have a piece of paper that says they can help develop some program that no one will use in a few years?

Look at it this way. Think of them as professional athletes. Once they approach 40, if they don’t have an equity position in their company, most will be shown the door to make room for the new young ones. If they don’t make their money while they’re young, they won’t make it at all.

Flounder Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:57:00am

re: #2 Skip Intro

That’s good

Justanotherhuman Fri, Jan 31, 2014 12:05:37pm

re: #93 klys

That young graduate is making less than their seniors in the company, believe me. If you’re comparing their salary to that of a teacher’s, well, I agree teachers are underpaid. I also agree athletes are incredibly overpaid. But like you said yourself, no one pays based on your worth as a human. They pay what the market drives.

I regard the ability to get a job in this field (which is still willing to accept experience in lieu of a degree, although that is becoming less common) as a much more equal opportunity than the genetic lottery. In the end, I’m not working on the certificate because it’s a good financial decision (although in the end it will be). I’m doing it because I like the work. Same reason a lot of teachers say they teach.

I’m not talking about “human worth”, I’m talking about experience, wisdom, proven ability, etc. My own high grades didn’t mean squat, really, if I couldn’t prove they would translate into performance.

I’ve worked with programmers before. Once I was secy to 40 of them before the company closed down the project and dept. I didn’t resent them, but I thought it was fairly odd that the limitations of their education had not permitted them to learn how to write a simple business letter. As the secy, at half the salary they were being paid, I had to write those letters for a good many of them. Not to mention, for instance, doing the same for young attorneys who couldn’t spell or didn’t know grammar.

There have been a few times in my life, in my 30s, 40s, 50s, that I felt I was babysitting, not working with peers. But, that’s life. It isn’t always fair.

Political Atheist Fri, Jan 31, 2014 12:09:58pm

re: #47 wrenchwench

Those charts cover a period of three weeks. What is the intended point?

The story is current, so current numbers seemed appropriate. My point is my first line in #14.

This is a far better marker of high housing prices & banking mortgage policy than high income demographics.

And from the article BTW-

In L.A.’s ultra-luxury market, locals, foreigners, flippers and celebrities came to the party, with billionaires playing musical houses in the $20-million-and-up price range.

latimes.com

Lot more going on here than cap gains winners.

100

klys Fri, Jan 31, 2014 12:10:27pm

re: #98 Justanotherhuman

I’m not talking about “human worth”, I’m talking about experience, wisdom, proven ability, etc. My own high grades didn’t mean squat, really, if I couldn’t prove they would translate into performance.

I’ve worked with programmers before. Once I was secy to 40 of them before the company closed down the project and dept. I didn’t resent them, but I thought it was fairly odd that the limitations of their education had not permitted them to learn how to write a simple business letter. As the secy, at half the salary they were being paid, I had to write those letters for a good many of them. Not to mention, for instance, doing the same for young attorneys who couldn’t spell or didn’t know grammar.

There have been a few times in my life, in my 30s, 40s, 50s, that I felt I was babysitting, not working with peers. But, that’s life. It isn’t always fair.

…I guess I’m failing to see how experience, wisdom, proven ability, etc. are not being taken into account by the fact that their seniors at the company are being paid more.

Google is paying senior engineers more than the low 6 figures. A reasonable ballpark is probably the mid-6s. Additionally, they are not paying their software developers for their interpersonal skills. They are paying them for their ability to write code, preferably code that delivers views/users/metadata/whatever to Google.

101

Pie-onist Overlord Fri, Jan 31, 2014 12:20:42pm

re: #100 klys

…I guess I’m failing to see how experience, wisdom, proven ability, etc. are not being taken into account by the fact that their seniors at the company are being paid more.

Google is paying senior engineers more than the low 6 figures. A reasonable ballpark is probably the mid-6s. Additionally, they are not paying their software developers for their interpersonal skills. They are paying them for their ability to write code, preferably code that delivers views/users/metadata/whatever to Google.

I’m a programmer and have worked for 20 years on various applications, having the latest and hottest tech skills is great, but industry-specific experience, at least in automotive, is valued.

Right now I’m working with a bunch of old geeks who swap tales about COBOL, PDP-8, Vax, Fortran, Y2K, Windows NT, EBCDIC to ASCII conversions, classic ASP.

Some of these old programs are still running in some places.

102

klys Fri, Jan 31, 2014 12:23:20pm

re: #101 Pie-onist Overlord

I’m a programmer and have worked for 20 years on various applications, having the latest and hottest tech skills is great, but industry-specific experience, at least in automotive, is valued.

Right now I’m working with a bunch of old geeks who swap tales about COBOL, PDP-8, Vax, Fortran, Y2K, Windows NT, EBCDIC to ASCII conversions, classic ASP.

Some of these old programs are still running in some places.

One of my friends works in the defense tech-contracting industry. Apparently one of her coworkers who just retired worked on some of the initial air traffic control systems early in his career.

Systems that were just phased out 4 years ago or so.

She says at least one of the programs they work with has been propogated forward from the 60s, if not earlier.

103

Decatur Deb Fri, Jan 31, 2014 12:25:32pm

re: #102 klys

One of my friends works in the defense tech-contracting industry. Apparently one of her coworkers who just retired worked on some of the initial air traffic control systems early in his career.

Systems that were just phased out 4 years ago or so.

She says at least one of the programs they work with has been propogated forward from the 60s, if not earlier.

Part of the healthcare.gov problem was that the ‘hub’ was pulling and pushing data with more than 50 legacy systems, many of them museum-quality.

104

klys Fri, Jan 31, 2014 12:26:42pm

re: #103 Decatur Deb

Part of the healthcare.gov problem was that the ‘hub’ was pulling and pushing data with more than 50 legacy systems, many of them museum-quality.

And good programming practices have evolved immensely in the past 20-25 years or so.

Of course, convincing people that they need to update is a different story…

105

GunstarGreen Fri, Jan 31, 2014 12:32:34pm

Programmers get paid a ton, flat out. As more and more of what we do every day becomes computerized, there is more and more demand for people with the technical knowledge necessary to make computers do what business wants them to do. I picked up an upper-5-figure paycheck right out of college, which over the past five (nearly six) years has progressed to just-under-6-figures (I was actually being paid at a 6-figure rate for a couple of months, doing contract work with my current company before being offered FTE — technically a 25% or so payhit back down to high-5-figures, but actually having PTO and a decent benefits package was worth it to me).

The senior-level guys get paid more. It’s a very lucrative profession to be in, if you can take the heat — average lifespan in a company is 5 years if you’re good, months if you’re one of the umpteen bazillion contractors. Extremely competitive and you have to be ready to be changing jobs a LOT, and dealing with a lot of corporate BS while you’re there.

106

Good Morning Fri, Jan 31, 2014 4:02:21pm

Inside ‘Billionaires Row’: London’s rotting, derelict mansions worth £350m

theguardian.com

Spy Mode Auto

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