christy and i were talking the other day about how in awe we were of people who actually end up buying houses in california. it just doesn’t make any sense to me how it’s even remotely possible unless you are pulling down some really serious bank, you’ve got a ton of cash saved up, or you buy shack that is completely trashed and you end being being the handiest person in the world. it’s just…unbelievable.

a guy/friend i work with is fro california and bought a house six for some ridiculous amount. don’t remember what it was. what i do remember is that it’s worth 640K+ at the moment.

you could spend half that here and have a massive, massive place. and the housing marketing here is still doing well.

on the other hand, we experienced sticker shock when we move from cinci to here.

we bought an older 3 bedroom house with a detached garage, fenced yard and a basement (which you don’t have here at all) in a decent neighborhood almost right next to mariemont for 111K. the house we just bought is about the same size, the yard isn’t as big, and we don’t have a basement, and it was 175K. granted, it’s far more decked out than our last place, but we could have spent about 15-20K max and worked it up to that.

I would leave, except it’s too awesome here, and we have great jobs. I’m probably going to go the middle route for buying a house, after we’re done paying for the wedding.