Bubble, Bubble — Toil and Trouble

Being a rational sort, we have entertained the hope that the 2008 collapse of the California housing bubble may have taught us Californians a lesson. But maybe not. The latest dispatches from the California housing front indicate that home prices are moving up again and in areas where people want to live — not some selected posh enclaves — are once again moving into the area of unaffordability for most people.

Thus, the median home price in California has just hit $319,600, up 7.5% from last month. And remember, to state the obvious, median means that half the houses in the state fetch prices that are higher than that. Of course, this seems to be the case all over America. House prices seem to be on the rise lately. People are taking much better care of their homes by ensuring that the curb appeal is high. To do this, homeowners are contacting their local lawn care providers, such as trugreen in michigan, to help them prepare their homes for the market. This helps homeowners to add value to the property.

Desirable cities in the state, go like this. San Francisco – $517,7000, up 12.1% from last month, San Jose – $618,000 – up 13.4%. In Los Angeles, which is a huge metropolis that includes some posh places, but also has a large working class population, the median price is $408,900, up 6.%.

Take note, however, that should you be able to find a home in our neck of the woods (the East San Fernando Valley) it is a certainty that it would be a lot more expensive than that — and Burbank, where we live, ain’t no Beverly Hills. But even here, should you find a house for sale for a mere 400K, chances are you wouldn’t want to live in it. At the same time, in depressed areas of the state, like Riverside county, for example, the median house goes for just under $200,000.

Whilst this could be in the price range of most potential homeowners, for some people, it can still be really expensive. And this is on top of the other finances you need to think about when buying a house. Depending on how old some of your appliances are, you may decide that taking out something like a California home warranty would be cheaper than having to think about repairing and replacing them further down the line. Of course, some things will be more expensive than others, so you need to take this into consideration when it comes to becoming a homeowner.

When you think about it, It ultimately depends on the type of home they are looking to move into. As such, the likelihood of them moving to an area that they can’t afford is slim, and so they will be looking at alternative locations instead. Granted that they have professional realtors on their side, finding a home that is significantly cheaper than some of the prices listed above is heightened, and to prevent them from going into debt, this is probably the most popular option. You could get in touch with your real estate agent to find properties for sale, or for rent by owner leads, if you do wish to go down the route of renting and not owning.

A note of caution: these figures may be distorted by the fact that recently an unusually high number of people have been buying homes for cash — free and clear — so it seems reasonable to suppose that they want to put their money into housing to avoid the likely coming inflation surge. But there can’t be that many people with a few hundred-thousand dollar bills under their mattresses, so that does not look like an enduring trend. But then again, this is California, man. Who knows what will happen?