Where do the mac heads live?

[britboy]

at the time of writing

i am in Aachen, German.

If i had any choice as to where i would be living, it would have to be the east coast of spain, somewhere where there aren't too many tourists to mess the place up. One of my brothers moved there and i was visiting him last week, and it's nice, real nice!

 

[Taft]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Location and School.

Originally posted by Quark

Hey Mrtrumbe, are you sure you went to school for this and designed a "RISK" chip.

Reduced Instruction Set... uhmmmmm.... Komputing?

I said I went to school for CS, not writing. If I had gone for writing, maybe I'd proofread my posts and eliminate spelling errors and grammatical paux pas. Sounds like too much work. Slap it together and out the door, thats my motto.

About real estate, Chicago is really rough too. When I got a real job after college, I briefly looked into buying in the city. Condos cost more than most houses where I grew up. Townhouses cost as much as hometown mansions.

Needless to say I wasn't willing to dive face-first into debt so early in my career. Maybe when I get more yuppy-ish...

Matthew

 

[oldMac]

We've got it easy in Chicago...

Hi mrtrumbe,

I lived in San Francisco for a while. Trust me, we've got it pretty easy on the housing costs here.

Of course, coming from a smaller city in Ohio, Chicago looked pretty steep when I first came here.

Guess it's all relative.

San Francisco / Silicon Valley property values are just completely outrageous. It's like some kind of giant conspiracy. I can understand such a thing if you're living in Manhatten, but come one... it ain't like there's a lack of space out there.

 

[Gelfin]

Re: We've got it easy in Chicago...

Originally posted by mrtrumbe
About real estate, Chicago is really rough too. When I got a real job after college, I briefly looked into buying in the city.

Dude, if you could even think about buying a house right out of college, then you're not quite grasping the magnitude of the problem. And I mean magnitude as in "order of" magnitude. I've been in the workforce for around seven years. I make at least 50% more here than I'd be making in most parts of the country, and I haven't a hope of buying even a modest home unless I marry someone with a similar income.

Originally posted by oldMac
San Francisco / Silicon Valley property values are just completely outrageous. It's like some kind of giant conspiracy.

Well, "conspiracy" implies there's some kind of secret to it. It's pretty much

1. You want or need to live here.
2. We want your money, and lots of it.
3. If you won't pay what we ask, we can find someone who will.

The dot-com bust has made prices a little more reasonable recently (compared to what they were before). For instance, my landlord has not arbitrarily raised my rent this year. I think he knows if he did, I'd be gone in a cold minute, because I could get a nicer apartment cheaper right now. The cost and hassle of moving keep me where I am.

I can understand such a thing if you're living in Manhatten, but come one... it ain't like there's a lack of space out there.

Well, it's odd. The transit infrastructure in the Bay Area is so bad that people cluster themselves naturally. You can get a cheaper place if you're willing to commute two hours each way to work daily, and that's a tradeoff some people are willing to make. I'm not one of them. In the city, of course, space is EXTREMELY limited.

 

[Taft]

Re: Re: We've got it easy in Chicago...

Originally posted by Gelfin

Dude, if you could even think about buying a house right out of college, then you're not quite grasping the magnitude of the problem.

I know a few people only a couple years out of college (2-3 years)who have bought. Three single people I work with have bought *condos* in Chicago proper (notice I also considered a condo). Another coworker and his wife (who works) bought a 3 flat in the city and rent out two of the floors. And a friend of mine and his new wife are currently looking to buy a house in the suburbs.

I don't think buying *something* out of college is an impossibility. I just didn't care for the level of responsibility and debt required to do so.

Oh, and there are government programs and other debt and down-payment financing programs available to people who don't make enough to cover such endeavours. They aren't always great deals and often have "catches", but I think they are at least worth a look for someone who want their own place.

Matthew

 

[Gelfin]

Re: Re: Re: We've got it easy in Chicago...

Originally posted by mrtrumbe
I know a few people only a couple years out of college (2-3 years)who have bought. Three single people I work with have bought *condos* in Chicago proper (notice I also considered a condo).

I looked at condos. I could buy a 500 square foot condo in an aging building for as low as $450,000.

Oh, and there are government programs and other debt and down-payment financing programs available to people who don't make enough to cover such endeavours.

Those programs generally have income restrictions which don't account well for parts of the country with outrageous real estate prices. I make far too much money to go around asking for government assistance.

 

[cornelius]

...Well, i live in Puerto Rico, but i go to USF= University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida.

 

[cornelius]

ah yeah,forgot to say, i'm a "machead" since 99.i got tired of my dad's compaq computer,and asked for the imac dv-es.since then i love mac, there arent a lot of macheads in pr though,only in media.
in my city Aguadilla,there is an HP Campus,which it is quite good. Im studying electrical engineering, 2nd year.
And hey, I live in the bay,in the Caribean, no drinking age,lots of parties,girls like Jlo, weed everywhere,good food, and i dont know how much my building costed,since my dad is in realstate and he owns the freakin building. Im not being an ass, this is just to KingCobra, to me is totally wrong to talk about money and property when it aint yours,is your dad's or family,like,you havent done **** to pay for that or helped. thats why i came to the us im totally idependent,i have 2 jobs and go to school. i work selling tickets at a stadium and at sam goody's. and im studying electrical engineering,and on the side i make some money by selling poems or essays to news papers(this is back home though). the whole thread was about where you lived.not in what you lived . so i guess we have to think before we type,as the way that we think before we talk.
and plus, i have to bike to class and to work since i dont have a car!but im ****in happy,i enjoy every second of it

 

[me hate windows]

Happy Valley, Utah.
(Provo)
visitors see that we are so happy, so they call this place Happy Valley.

 

[mischief]

Capitola, California.

It's in Santa Cruz county. SC is kinda like BC only it's infested with trust-fund neo-hippies. If I see one more "poor little rich boy/girl" in dredds (caucasian mind you) and sack cloth-clothing singing Krishna hymns.....I'll go on a killing spree.

 

[Taft]

Re: Re: Re: Re: We've got it easy in Chicago...

Originally posted by Gelfin

Those programs generally have income restrictions which don't account well for parts of the country with outrageous real estate prices.

Yeah, but I live in Chicago. Its bad here, but as someone else pointed out, not nearly as bad as SF. Or NY for that matter.

In Chicago I've seen 180k condos in less "hip" neighborhoods. Starting at under 100k for condos in the burbs. Like I said, its bad, but not as bad as SF or NY.

And I know about those income restrictions, but for some people right out of college, having a huge salary isn't really an issue. And there are other programs (city programs) to buy out buildings and properties whose owners have for all intensive purposes abandoned the properties. Chicago is getting pretty inventive when it comes to gentrifying the city. You know, "cleaning it up."

And why are we talking about houses? I guess we needed to take a break from Macs for a night. Blame the person who got us on the topic.

Matthew

 

[Rower_CPU]

Re: Capitola, California.

Originally posted by mischief
It's in Santa Cruz county. SC is kinda like BC only it's infested with trust-fund neo-hippies. If I see one more "poor little rich boy/girl" in dredds (caucasian mind you) and sack cloth-clothing singing Krishna hymns.....I'll go on a killing spree.

lol

My brother's going to UCSC and he's told me exactly the same thing...too funny!

 

[Gelfin]

Re: Capitola, California.

Originally posted by mischief
It's in Santa Cruz county. SC is kinda like BC only it's infested with trust-fund neo-hippies. If I see one more "poor little rich boy/girl" in dredds (caucasian mind you) and sack cloth-clothing singing Krishna hymns.....I'll go on a killing spree.

So... we'll just keep you away from the Haight, shall we? I'm totally with you on this. I swear, the Haight is just choked with teens from Marin pretending to be homeless to try to get extra cash for weed. You know, it's almost funny how the population of "homeless" hippie-wannabe kids in the Haight skyrockets on the weekends. Almost funny, but not. I swear these kids are parking their parent-purchased Beamers a couple of blocks away.

Only thing that bugs me worse are the "Mercedes Marxists" -- you know, the kids who live easy on their parents' money and at the same time go around preaching about how capitalism is evil. I figure we all meet a few of those in college.

 

[MacAztec]

The valley

Where I live (the coachella valley) we have a change of estates. In Indio, Thermal, and Mecca (AKA "the total ghetto) you cand get a house really cheap. I am not trying to be racist, but everyone that lives there is mexican, and has come directly from mexico. I bet about 8 percent of em speak engilsh.

As for the rest of the valley (Palm Springs, Palm Desert, La Quinta, Bermuda Dunes) hosues come pretty expensive. Our house is around 350k, but some houses in like RICH VILLE cost around 1.2 mil.

Just thought I would let ya know!

 

[jefhatfield]

one of the touchy but interesting subjects is how real estate agents, or the industry, view a home price based on the ethnic neighborhood

i am a minority so i kind of follow issues such as these

from what i have seen in my 4 short decades on this planet is that the ones who made the most in real estate did it by buying into these lower income neighborhoods and developing them

a nice house for 500k may double in 15 years or more (40 years in some areas), but an equally priced apartment complex in a lower income neighborhood could go up way more than that plus supply the owner with more cash thru being able to rent more units in a complex versus a single house in a better neighborhood

there is a stigma to buying apartment complexes in poor neighborhoods since one might then be called a slumlord and right now, my 20th year reunion seems to be calling one of its alumni just that and he doesn't seem too welcome to the event from what i have seen

there is nothing wrong with making money, but doing it some ways, sometimes more quickly than others, brings out the jealousy in others