The Rent Is To Damn HIGH!!!

[marylander1940]

You're right on that. My first year escorting was based in Portland and I travelled to Seattle a lot. As I said earlier on this thread moving from Portland to SF increased my housing expense by 50 % or so but my income went up maybe 400 or 500 %. It was complete apples to oranges in terms of money to be made and fun to be had.

 

Brilliant! Wonderful change... btw still not clear which city CW means with Midwest...

 

Btw Portland is just weird!

 

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/cnVjkE87FDY/maxresdefault.jpg

[marylander1940]

Seriously? He's run up the debt (like all modern Republicans do). TX debt was 13.4 billion $ in 2001; it ballooned to 37.8 billion $ by 2012.

 

His business grants (over 400 million $) basically went to political contributors.

 

If you factor in voting rights, K12 education, and women's rights then he is a complete failure. And he thinks homosexuality is like alcoholism.

 

LOL, Scott Walker and Perry created a deficit just by giving tax cuts to their "supporters".

[rvwnsd]

Here's a site worth checking out:

 

https://www.rentjungle.com/rentdata/

[+ stevenkesslar]

Seriously? He's run up the debt (like all modern Republicans do). TX debt was 13.4 billion $ in 2001; it ballooned to 37.8 billion $ by 2012.

 

His business grants (over 400 million $) basically went to political contributors.

 

If you factor in voting rights, K12 education, and women's rights then he is a complete failure. And he thinks homosexuality is like alcoholism.

 

Add to that that his response to a drought in Texas was to hold a prayer meeting. He doesn't believe in climate change, but he does believe in God. I guess you can say God answered his prayers with rain, then some.

 

I am stickin with Rick on what I said though: housing and jobs. Housing is affordable across the state, except in Austin, where the liberals like me live. And Texas has been THE job growth engine in the US for years. You can debate how much credit Perry gets, but saying he gets none makes as much sense to me as saying Obama gets no credit for the national economic and jobs recovery.

 

K-12 is interesting. I'm the kind of sick data geek that actually reads these dry reports and keeps them on my hard drive, and I am on the road now. But as best as I recall Perry's educational record mostly made his predecessor George W. Bush (aka President No Child Left Behind) look bad. Despite the fact that Perry cut K-12 funding, both graduation rates and test scores went up measurably during his watch, as measured by national academic organizations that supposedly do fair comparisons. Because I'm a liberal Dem people assume I believe you can solve any problem by throwing money at it. I don't. I would not reach sweeping conclusions based on one or two reports, but the numbers I've seen suggest that Perry actually did improve K-12 performance by focusing on raising standards, not raising taxes and school budgets.

 

Republicans have zero credibility on deficits. Clinton got rid of deficits, W. brought them back, and Obama has cut them by 2/3rds despite being handed a mess. I have a lot in common with Jerry Brown, who like me is an aging, frugal and total whore. He's turned a huge state deficit into a surplus.

 

Several years ago there were all these articles that said California is the past, Texas is the future. I'm stickin with California. Like Arnold, we're back in a big way. But Perry or not, Texas has a lot of things going for it, and affordability and friendliness are among them.

[+ stevenkesslar]

That's not so easy anymore. "No docs" loans are pretty much a thing of the past. Lenders now require piles of documentation.

 

I've signed dozens of mortgages, and none of them were no doc. All required loads of cum, oops, I meant documentation. My experiences and views on fighting the subprime fiasco are deep and complex and merit a novella of their own. Actually, a bunch of books have already been written about it, so I'll save that for later.

 

Three things I want to say in response to this discussion.

 

First, anyone smart enough to run their own whore shop is smart enough to figure out how to buy a home and get a loan based on today's reasonable standards. FHA requires maybe 3-5 % down.

 

Second, you don't have to be a genius to recognize the media's Big Stupid Facts are sometimes wrong. As I said above, they were wrong in 2006 when they said home prices never go down. That should have been a clue that home prices were about to go down. The Big Stupid Fact in 2011 was that home ownership was dead. That's when I bought, and I'm glad I did. The Big Stupid Fact today IMHO is the middle class is dead. If that's so, why are home prices and rents moving up? The middle class, and the pattern of home ownership that cements it, are going to be just fine, I suspect. There are times to avoid buying, like in 2006, and mostly I think now is NOT one of them. Even in pricey California, most markets are still nowhere near their 2006 peak. I think just about anywhere in Texas is a safe bet. Especially if you do what several people wisely pointed out and balance off buying a home with saving cash reserves.

 

Third, on a personal note, my pity party which was driven mostly by the real estate mess has officially ended. When I bought my house my realtor Jack called it a perfect party house, and many of you helped to make that official at this year's Palm Springs pool party. Thanks again. A few weeks after the pool party, I invited my realtor Jack and his partner to my house for dinner, along with Oliver, who was the one who first introduced me to Jack. At some point during dinner, Jack asked Oliver how we met, and Oliver responded by telling Jack he'd hired me repeatedly, starting about a decade ago. I told Jack that when I was buying a house through him and getting a loan, I of course had wanted to disguise my occupation. Jack laughed and said I should have put the word "escort" as my occupation on the loan app, because the mortgage lender - who was really exceptional - would have had a good laugh before he told me to replace it with some other word. Jack was probably right.

 

All's well that ends well, and part of the reason I am posting this is I am grateful to Oliver and Epigonos and a number of other frequent posters who supported and encouraged me as I navigated the real estate market and plotted my exit strategy. I am not the only smart whore in the room. Chris and Killian are obviously bright and I wish you the best of luck and success using your well earned whore money to get wherever you want to go. You deserve it, along with the same support and encouragement I got from truly caring people.

[+ quoththeraven]

Moral of the story: No absolute is ever true. Possibly including this one. Markets rebound.

 

In other words, "Buy low, sell high." (Not that kind of high.)

[bigvalboy]

Moral of the story: No absolute is ever true. Possibly including this one. Markets rebound.

 

In other words, "Buy low, sell high." (Not that kind of high.)

 

Or, "Buy low, and hold em"..... because in the end, it's how well you play the game.

 

[+ stevenkesslar]

Or, "Buy low, and hold em"..... because in the end, it's how well you play the game.

 

 

That proves it.

 

You are Warren Buffet, aren't you?

[+ Charlie]

Like many Midwestern industrial cities, Pittsburgh has lost a lot of population in the past two decades, but apparently it hasn't collapsed economically the way someplace like Detroit has. I will be visiting there for a couple of days this summer, for the first time in many years, and I am curious to see what the vibe is now in the city. (BTW, my spouse lived there for five years, and after many years in both the Midwest and the East Coast, he says P-burgh is definitely Midwestern.)

 

But if I were going to live in a city again, now that I am old and sex isn't that important, I would put Portland first on my list, and not just because it is probably the only major city on the West Coast that I could afford.

[Rudynate]

The Big Stupid Fact today IMHO is the middle class is dead. If that's so, why are home prices and rents moving up?

 

Not sure about other areas, but one of the big market drivers in San Francisco is offshore investors who have cash. Sellers enter the market expecting that they will receive multiple offers and sell above their asking price. Early this year, two houses in my block went on the market priced at just under 1 mil. They both sold within a couple of weeks, one for 1.4 mil and the other for 1.5 mil. Another driver is dotcom millionaires.

[Steven_Draker]

http://i.livescience.com/images/i/000/025/298/i02/go-figure-coastal-population-120312.jpg?1331581331

[down_to_business]

What's Austin like? I hear it's actually a pretty gay friendly city.

 

Austin is one of the more tolerable places in Texas, but the cost of living is high so you negate a lot of the reason to move here by paying Austin prices. Just an hour south of here, in San Antonio, the cost of living is very reasonable. the contrast is nothing short of amazing. If Texas is your thing and money is no object, Austin is a good choice.

[+ Charlie]

I get a kick out of maps that include Riverside and San Bernardino counties as "coastal," even though neither one has any coastline, and are mostly empty desert (SB includes all of Death Valley NP).

[bigvalboy]

That proves it.

 

You are Warren Buffet, aren't you?

 

Two words...Compound Interest.

 

[+ stevenkesslar]

Two words...Compound Interest.

 

Okay, WB, I can do it in one word ...

Leverage.

So as not to ruin my reputation for being long-winded, I'll elaborate.

 

The down payments I made ranged from 10 to 20 percent. So I had between 5 to 1 and 10 to 1 leverage, meaning the bank I got the mortgage from paid 80 to 90 % of the home price, but I got 100 % of the home appreciation. One of the homes I bought as a rental in Portland cost me $7500 down. My equity in it now is about $250,000, and the rents covered mortgage payments plus expenses for almost 20 years. So what is that? Not counting net rental income, like a 3300 % return on investment?

 

Now that I'm really sizing up I'll give you three numbers that say a lot to me: 1, 13, and 17.

 

1 % is the approximate rate of return my 93 year old Dad gets in the $250,000 or so he has invested in CDs. He bitches all the time about how low interest rates suck. He's done quite well, but he doesn't always feel that way.

 

13 % is the approximate annual rate of return on $1300 in Baxter stock my Mom bought in the late 1970's. We are liquidating it now to pay for her nursing home care, but she kept reinvesting dividends and Baxter kept spinning off new companies she got shares in like CVS, Cardinal, and Edwards. The total value of her $1300 ended up being over $50,000. I love to joke about it in my family because my Dad is a college educated man who started his own small business, and my Mom was a housewife who only had a high school diploma, and was generally viewed as somewhat ignorant and a little crazy. And yet she made the single best investment decision of anyone in my family.

 

That's the line I use at home to celebrate my Mom, but the thing I don't say that is true is my annual rate of return on real estate since I bought my first home in 1990 is about 17 percent, largely because of the leverage I described above. With all due respect to my Dad, I am my Mother's son.

 

In addition to being self-congratulatory, the reason I'm spelling personal financial stuff out in detail is that as much as it pains me when I see other escorts blowing their hard earned cash on drugs or alcohol or cars, it pains me only slightly less when escorts I care about keep paying rent year after year, which is the subject of this thread.

 

Maybe my Mom got lucky with Baxter stock. As some of my clients know my own experiments in stock market timing have consistently and miserably failed. Real estate is a whole different animal. I ain't no Warren Buffet, but I am a smart whore, and it makes me happy when I see other whores being smart about buying homes.

[+ stevenkesslar]

Not sure about other areas, but one of the big market drivers in San Francisco is offshore investors who have cash. Sellers enter the market expecting that they will receive multiple offers and sell above their asking price. Early this year, two houses in my block went on the market priced at just under 1 mil. They both sold within a couple of weeks, one for 1.4 mil and the other for 1.5 mil. Another driver is dotcom millionaires.

 

Sounds about right. I ran into a few young SF techies when I was on a boat from Positano to Amalfi last year, who were loudly bragging about their great tech jobs, vacation pay, concierge travel planning, and how they could either play video games or do work on the free bus ride to work in the morning. I made a tactless joke about the Google bus protests, and they started to get a little defensive.

 

Then I explained that it was a bad joke, and I had very little sympathy for people getting kicked out of SF (me included, since I could not afford to buy a house there) and I was actually very happy that Silicon Valley and California are as always at the heart of the global economy. They both smiled and the woman said, "I have no complaints. It sure got me to Positano."

 

God bless Google, I say.

[Steven_Draker]

The other plus to Texas is no state income tax.

 

Neither has Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Washington and Wyoming.

 

But visiting an area may be way different than living there.

 

[+ quoththeraven]

Nor has Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Washington and Wyoming.

 

But visiting an area may be way different than living there.

 

Neither does New Hampshire, not that I think it's a hotbed of escorting.

[Frequentflier]

For those on the Rick Perry bus:

 

1) for 2014, Texas ranked 6th for households in poverty - behind DC, Mississippi, Louisiana, New Mexico and Alabama. Yes, Texas has had good job growth but what are average wages for all workers? A paycheck is nice but if you're still living in poverty it sucks. By the way, what do all six of these states have in common?

2) Texas does have a very good high school graduation rate but low comparative percentage of residents with bachelor or advanced degrees

 

Anyone care to email this information to Democratic headquarters?

[+ Chris Eisenhower]

Rick Perry bought cute new glasses. Other than that…

[mike carey]

Rick Perry bought cute new glasses. Other than that…

To quote someone else, 'You can put lipstick on a pig'.

 

Or, you can't polish a turd.

[+ stevenkesslar]

Texas ranked 6th for households in poverty - behind DC, Mississippi, Louisiana, New Mexico and Alabama...By the way, what do all six of these states have in common?

 

Duh.....that's easy.

 

I lost my virginity in all 6 if them.

[+ stevenkesslar]

http://lifehacker.com/top-10-things-you-need-to-know-before-you-buy-a-home-1709505200

 

From Lifehacker when you decide to stop renting, "Top 10 Things You Need To Know Before You Buy A Home"...

 

Great article. As it points out, buying a home right now is way cheaper than renting in most major cities. And not to sound disrespectful, but not every client is a piece of cake. If you can navigate being an escort, you can navigate tenants if you decide to rent the house out after you buy.

[bigvalboy]

http://lifehacker.com/top-10-things-you-need-to-know-before-you-buy-a-home-1709505200

 

From Lifehacker when you decide to stop renting, "Top 10 Things You Need To Know Before You Buy A Home"...

 

#2 and #1...in that order. IMHO

[+ stevenkesslar]

#2 and #1...in that order. IMHO

 

#2. Buy Less Than You Can Afford

# 1. Take Your Time

 

Hate to say, WB, but I think you're confused. We're talking about buying homes now, not buying escorts or having sex with them.