December 14, 2005

When I was little...

...I thought that when you grew up and made $30 an hour, that meant you were RICH!! If you made $30 an hour, you could certainly afford to buy a house. Boy, those were the days, huh?!

I was just now, this very minute, reading the article about the least affordable rental markets in the US. Surprise!!! I live in one of them. (Duh.) Orange County, California is #4 on the list. You need to make at least $26.77 per hour to afford a 2-bedroom rental.

That has to be assuming that you don't have a lot of debt to pay, too, like credit card bills, student loans, and rather large car payments. As two decently paid professionals, we don't really have 'a problem' paying the rent but I can only imagine that LOTS, and I mean LOTS of people here do not make that much money. Two people working minimum wage could not possibly get by unless they each worked two full-time jobs or had a lot of roomates. Both of these things occur here, often, and it makes me a little sad to think so many people are working so hard just to get by. This is why so many 20- and 30-somethings are still living with Mom and Dad. Not that there is anything wrong with that!

As I was reading the article and thinking how terrifically depressing it all is, I got an email from our Realtor (who sends us listings every day for shits and giggles). We are not in the market to buy a house right now and with a median home price of nearly $600,000 I don't think I would buy one even if I could.

The listing she sent us, goes a little like this:2 bedroom, 1 bath, 866 sq ft condo in (insert name of crappy neighborhood here). View of the parking lot. Garbage Disposal and gas range included. But wait there's more! As a bonus you get an actual 2-car garage. That's rare! All for the low, low, low price of $387,000!!! (Reduced from $390,000 - wow three grand, how generous). Monthly association fees are only $200 per month (because there is a community pool). No picture available? It's been on the market since 11/29 and you haven't published a picture yet. That means... it's not your average dump. It's even worse.

That's it. I'm either:

a) moving to Duluth.
b) becoming a hobo.
c) starting a hippie commune in the woods.
d) going into Cardiology so I can rent something decent.

I see b) or c) as the only reasonable alternatives at this point. Unless anyone knows where I can get my MD really, really fast and really, really cheap!

 
 

7 Comments:

At 20:15, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Personally, I would opt for (c) start a hippie commune out in the woods.

However, if you are looking at relocating, why not consider Canada? You could get this beautiful 2400sqft home on a 10724sqft lot just off the island of Montreal for $379,000 Canadian

 
At 21:26, Blogger Anita said...

Richard, now THAT's what I'm talking about!! I am packing right now. I just have to convince the husband that cold weather is good for our complexion!

 
At 23:02, Anonymous Anonymous said...

cold weather would suit me great at that price!!!!

 
At 09:17, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Real estate prices are equally obnoxious here. Two bedroom condos are starting easily at $350k. I don't get it.

 
At 09:23, Anonymous Anonymous said...

MA isn't terrible but I can't wait to go back to MN (the cornfields part, not the cities part) where a 4 bdrm 3 bath house is $30,000.

Or maybe Norther IA. Either way, I loved MN and I want back there in the worst way.

 
At 10:11, Anonymous Anonymous said...

You know, there actually is some kind of hippie musician commune close to Idyllwild. Although, it's probably not for you if drum circles and group sex with sweaty, unbathed Deadheads isn't your cup of tea.

 
At 10:28, Blogger Anita said...

Jofo, you just made me spew coffee on my keyboard! And, um, this may be TMI but Mr. Q would be all over that! Me, not quite so much. If you hear of a good Bohemian commune, I'll be there. I am more of a book reading, clove smoking, coffee drinking, black turtlneck wearing, bubble bath taking, bongo player type. Mr. Q is the Deadhead drum circle group sex guy! But he does smell really good!

 

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