Homes Worth More than $1 Million by State

[garbribre]

To parallel the discussion that began with statler's post in the open thread--

Choke on this info!

It's all relative because the prices out here in California are so far off base in comparison to even NYC Metro and Boston and the DC area.

Sales of homes worth $1 million or more, by state

State/ 2000/ 2005/ % Change

California/ 11,365/ 48,666/ 328%
Florida/ 2,703/ 14,567/ 439%
New York/ 1,074/ 6,784/ 532%
Maryland/ 604/ 3,323/ 450%
Massachusetts/ 1,408/ 3,292/ 134%
Arizona/ 640/ 3,175/ 396%
Illinois/ 931/ 3,082/ 231%
Virginia/ na/ 2,799/ na
Washington/ 712/ 2,404/ 238%
Connecticut/ 1,187/ 2,401/ 102%
Nevada/ 294/ 1,898/ 546%
New Jersey/ 406/ 1,796/ 342%
Colorado/ 341/ 1,682/ 393%
Hawaii/ 320/ 1,537/ 380%
Pennsylvania/ 281/ 923/ 228%

U.S./ 26,800/ 109,113/ 307%

I still find it infathomable that homes in my neighborhood in Oakland are routinely going for over $1M now. Most are still in the $750K-950K region. And they're not that big, either, just old(er).

[Edit--Sorry, cannot figure out how to maintain the column format. Separated the diffierent columns of info by slashes: ' / '.]

[Patrick]

I wonder how much of the high home prices in oakland is attributed to the high incomes that people earn over there (which would drive up the bargaining power of all buyer's leading the prices to rise while quality stays put)? For instance, the house i grew up in in portland would go for over a million dollars in wellesley, mass, simply because everyone down there is willing and able to pay for the convenience of living near boston....same thing going on in cali? do the people in oakland where you live make ginormous salaries, or is a 1 million dollar home crippling to most of the locals there?

oh yeah and where are the rest of the states on your list, like the more rural places like maine and new hampshire etc? was the list only of the larger and more populated states? the reason i ask is because there was an article in the portland papers over the winter about the increase in sales of $1 million homes in maine last year...

[garbribre]

This was just the top tier of the list. I didn't copy the rest of it, and I've since lost the source material. Doh!

Salaries are not all that different here than in NYC or Boston. Well, not mine anyway. In fact, I was making more in 1995 than I make now. Most of my friends have moved (Chicago, DC, Atlanta, southern California, or overseas, back where they were born) to escape the outrageous cost of living here. Many have tried to move with their companies and maintained their 'inflated' Bay Area salaries.

My friends who have remained are not living easily or well out here. Most are struggling and, like me, wondering if they have an immediate future in the Bay Area. I cannot afford the kind of home I'd want here. I refuse to commute long distances. Some of them have moved 30-50 miles away in order to pay 300-400K for a two bedroom suburban sprawl condo, just to get into the housing market. And to choke your wallet further, they are all paying well over $2,500K or more a month mortgages. Add to that the $3.50 gas prices and the overall higher energy costs (all those sprawl development areas 30-50 miles away are essentially in the desert), and many of them cannot buy decent groceries. It's not living; it's merely existing. (to misquote Nona Hendrix--another overlooked Soul/Blues/Rock singer/songwriter--reference to another thread--sorry.)

Oh, the stories I could tell you about my house hunting. (I've given up and resigned to renting.) My friends in throes of buying something, who I mentioned in an earlier post, have gone through hell to get what they want. They get excited about something I'd call marginal and an extreme fixer-upper. They just got lucky and swooped in on a house in a good area but outside their distance radius, and still had to go $50K over asking just to be taken seriously. They are considering the counter offer today. They are so desperate to complete the process they've added $30K beyond their limit. Between them they have a fairly deep into $100K combined income, and they are completely priced out.

[Patrick]

sounds rough out there...why not move back east?

[Patrick]

Maine -

The $110 million Westin Hotel and Residences was approved in December. Ralph Izzi, a spokesman for the Procaccianti Group, said from that company?s offices in Rhode Island on Friday that the project is going ?full force ahead,? even though demolition of the old Jordan Meats building, originally scheduled for January, won?t happen for several more weeks.

He said sales of 70 luxury condominiums, priced between $550,000 and $5 million, are where the company expected, although he would not provide specifics.The project is targeted for completion in early 2008.

http://www.theforecaster.net/story.p...5&ftype=search

[garbribre]

Why not move back to Boston, you ask? Do you read the humorless, pissy shit posted here. That's one reason. :roll: Plus Boston is no economic picnic either, at least in the inner-belt burbs. The other place I could live, outside New England, would be NYC. Again...unlikely. One of my sister's friends sings the praises of PHOENIX :?: :!: , but...um...it's the desert. I don't know...it all seems okay on the surface...if you like LA sized sprawl...which I don't.

Another reason: the Bay Area has everything I want. I am never at a loss for anything I want to experience, explore, do, eat, indulge, and the wine wine wine. Recall, that my favorite place on the planet is the Mediterranean Coast. The Bay Area is the most equatable...weather-wise and terrain. I never thought I could 'fall in love' with a place. I have.

So... you suffer with a cost of living that people in Monaco might envy. (jk!) Feh! as my Eastern European granny would say.

BTW--my friends won their recent bidding war (after six previous bidding attempt on other properties). Their first victory. Now the roughest part--the real games begin. Every monkey wrench has been thrown at them since their offer was accepted--over their limit, an unexpected ding on a credit report, a suddenly decreased credit score on the principal borrower due to one late truck payment, and a mortgage broker who screwed up and didn't lock them in soon enough creating a 7-1/4% interest rate, when they could have been locked in at 6% or even under. (Shopping for a new broker now.) The whole industry is such a scam. Typical human-harangued game. People needlessly complicate everything, eh.

And you wonder why it can take so long to develop properties.

BTW--you aren't working this summer, interning at some development company, or at the Portland city or Maine state economic development office? What's with that, doughboy?

[Patrick]

Originally Posted by garbribre

Why not move back to Boston, you ask? Do you read the humorless, pissy shit posted here. That's one reason. :roll: Plus Boston is no economic picnic either, at least in the inner-belt burbs. The other place I could live, outside New England, would be NYC. Again...unlikely. One of my sister's friends sings the praises of PHOENIX :?: :!: , but...um...it's the desert. I don't know...it all seems okay on the surface...if you like LA sized sprawl...which I don't.

Another reason: the Bay Area has everything I want. I am never at a loss for anything I want to experience, explore, do, eat, indulge, and the wine wine wine. Recall, that my favorite place on the planet is the Mediterranean Coast. The Bay Area is the most equatable...weather-wise and terrain. I never thought I could 'fall in love' with a place. I have.

So... you suffer with a cost of living that people in Monaco might envy. (jk!) Feh! as my Eastern European granny would say.

BTW--my friends won their recent bidding war (after six previous bidding attempt on other properties). Their first victory. Now the roughest part--the real games begin. Every monkey wrench has been thrown at them since their offer was accepted--over their limit, an unexpected ding on a credit report, a suddenly decreased credit score on the principal borrower due to one late truck payment, and a mortgage broker who screwed up and didn't lock them in soon enough creating a 7-1/4% interest rate, when they could have been locked in at 6% or even under. (Shopping for a new broker now.) The whole industry is such a scam. Typical human-harangued game. People needlessly complicate everything, eh.

And you wonder why it can take so long to develop properties.

oh man the bay area sounds so beautiful. lots of filipinos over there? My girlfriend has family in the surrounding area, and I think we will have to go there sometime soon because it sounds like probably the best city in america. I was going to apply to LS out there, but my gf thought it was too far away from her family and our "home," maine. But, at least we are now living in the number two city in terms of restaurants per person, san fran being number one.

your friends hassles seem outrageous but believable at the same time, that must be rough.

Originally Posted by garbribre

BTW--you aren't working this summer, interning at some development company, or at the Portland city or Maine state economic development office? What's with that, doughboy?

I will soon begin working this summer at the Boys & Girl's Club in downtown portland as a coordinator for the reading and learning centers. I think it will be a very meaningful job as I will get to help many kids who are economically disadvantaged, im sure. I dont know too many of my friends who would take a job like this, and it makes me wanna take it all the more.

In my "extra" time I will be gutting hotel rooms and turning them into Condominiums in Kennebunk with an old wrestling teamate of mine. Just havent started work yet because Im trying to secure a loan for next year, and that is proving to be quite difficult (proof of income when i have none, proof of enrollment for next year when I am not yet in fact enrolled until AUgust officially, and co-signer needed etc etc etc). plus i need the time to rest after such a LONG 4 years in dreery vermont.

But you are right on the doughboy part, i put on 70 lbs in college, and i have the stretch marks on my left arm to prove it. I have been running every day for two weeks to counter my fat ass attack, but so far no luck. haha we'll see how the rest of the summer goes, hopefully better.

[garbribre]

^Lots of Filipinos out here to allow you to indulge in your fetish. :wink:

Sounds like a good combination of summer jobs--away from the studies you plan on immersing yourself in for the next three years--a bit of mind and a bit of matter--to sweat away the NNE winter blubber. Ha!

Here's a link to one of the premier palatial estates in the Bay Area. Scroll down below the text for good pics of SF Bay (as well as the house). Purportedly listing for $50Mil, but I cannot get confirmation.

http://www.deckerbullock.com/scripts...p_homes_id=282

[Patrick]

Originally Posted by garbribre

^Lots of Filipinos out here to allow you to indulge in your fetish. :wink:

Sounds like a good combination of summer jobs--away from the studies you plan on immersing yourself in for the next three years--a bit of mind and a bit of matter--to sweat away the NNE winter blubber. Ha!

Here's a link to one of the premier palatial estates in the Bay Area. Scroll down below the text for good pics of SF Bay (as well as the house). Purportedly listing for $50Mil, but I cannot get confirmation.

http://www.deckerbullock.com/scripts...p_homes_id=282

fetish? nah...

girlfriend of ten years who is filipino? yeah...

she has lots of family out there and I hear many more have relocated there as well. I was curious if they had a noticeable presence. One reason she told me I could not apply to law school in san diego is because of all the filipinas there (about 20,000)....she was half kidding, but that means she was half serious too.

those houses/estates look breath taking.

[bosdevelopment]

Originally Posted by garbribre

^Lots of Filipinos out here to allow you to indulge in your fetish. :wink:

gross.

[Patrick]

Originally Posted by bosdevelopment

gross.

?? he was just joking.

[Waldorf]

He got scared because he saw the word fetish.

[garbribre]

^ **snicker**

Like ya'll on this forum aren't fetishizing buildings and skyscrapers... :P

I have a good friend who is 1/4 Filipino 1/4 Mexican 1/4 American Indian 1/4 German. What an intriguing mix, eh? She's into all things Filipino. :wink: (If I posted her pic here, she'd kill me.)

BTW--I frequently attend the Filipino Festival in SF. It's not much, but there's an active community center in the SOMA area.

There are a number of Pacific Islander festivals here throughout the summer/fall. One year, I learned to make poi (yuck!). Another year, some dish, I forget the name and ingredients, served in banana leaves. These festivals conduct workshops, teaching traditional beading, cooking, music, dancing, etc. Each year, I do a new one.

[Patrick]

Originally Posted by garbribre

^ **snicker**

Like ya'll on this forum aren't fetishizing buildings and skyscrapers... :P

I have a good friend who is 1/4 Filipino 1/4 Mexican 1/4 American Indian 1/4 German. What an intriguing mix, eh? She's into all things Filipino. :wink: (If I posted her pic here, she'd kill me.)

BTW--I frequently attend the Filipino Festival in SF. It's not much, but there's an active community center in the SOMA area.

There are a number of Pacific Islander festivals here throughout the summer/fall. One year, I learned to make poi (yuck!). Another year, some dish, I forget the name and ingredients, served in banana leaves. These festivals conduct workshops, teaching traditional beading, cooking, music, dancing, etc. Each year, I do a new one.

nice, sounds very cultural there, as I imagined it would be from the stories I hear.

I know that dish to which you are refering in the banan leaves, i have had it before. cant remember the name, but there is some yellowish/whitish semi-solid substance in it if i remember correctly that is rather sweet....right? or am i thinking of something else. filipino food is tremendous in my opinion. Boston has a large filipino festival/convention every year put on by PAMAS, but im sure its nothing like in cali.

[bosdevelopment]

some Filipinos are still practicing cannibals.

[statler]

Please ignore the obvious troll.

[garbribre]

Originally Posted by statler

Please ignore the obvious troll.

gross.

[Patrick]

Originally Posted by bosdevelopment

some Filipinos are still practicing cannibals.

Statler, your image comment is appreciated. But I am still going to respond, though not angrily.

Bosdev - I think those to whom you are refering are what are known as "natives" of the P.I. and they live in remote areas of the jungle...there is very little connection between them and a filipino-american, or even a mainstream filipino from the P.I.

it is similar to how some aboriginal tribes practice swallowing semen as a right of passage to adulthood, but of course not all australians drink up.

the filipinos on the discovery channel are not the type of people that exist in manilla, one of the biggest cities in the world. and they're not the types that exist in the bay area or elsewhere in the u.s

most of them, in fact, are more similar to the spanish, since the P.I. were a colony of spain over 500 years ago. most filipino names are spanish in origin, and many are light skinned.

are you aware of the difference?

[garbribre]

Originally Posted by patrick

most of them, in fact, are more similar to the spanish, since the P.I. were a colony of spain over 500 years ago. most filipino names are spanish in origin, and many are light skinned.

So that's why my friend's last name is Chavez?!

I never knew that, patrick.

archBost educates me in ways I never knew possible!
(And in ways I've regretted.) :P

[Patrick]

Originally Posted by garbribre

So that's why my friend's last name is Chavez?!

I never knew that, patrick.

archBost educates me in ways I never knew possible!
(And in ways I've regretted.) :P

yep, and that's also why the P.I. are named what they are, after King Philip of Spain.

The islands were later annexed by the U.S. I believe in 1898.