Recent content by FairEconomist_IHB

El Mo is rated 86 among California schoolson a scale of 0 to 100. That's pretty good. We're in the Orange High district and my neighbor made a special effort to get her kid into El Mo because it's considered a considerably better school than Orange High.

I have a different suggestion - Once you are committed to a course of action, it's detrimental to look at alternatives (which you can no longer take). It uses time and thought, which none of us have enough of. Further, because people value losses much more than gains, it's almost certain to...

It's currency overvaluation (which we've had for at least 25 years) which kills jobs. Currency devaluation is a great way to pump up your manufacturing economy and enthusiastically participated in by the Asian exporters.

What has happened to Detroit is what makes me extremely negative about the prospects of the exurban house farms. Detroit has been/is being killed by a combination of no jobs and low population density (Detroit is now less dense than your typical suburb). No jobs means lots of idle young men who...

Here's a thread on Bangkok talking about highrises that have been vacant for a decade after the Asian financial crisis of 1998. This is after a recovery from the crisis, and in a dense city. Unlike the uncompleted buildings in the article, Skyline is pretty much done and would return *some*...

My neighbor's daughter is friends with a girl from Hillcrest. When my neighbor first met the girl's mother, the mother proudly announced to her that she "lives in Hillcrest". My neighbor - who's pretty status-conscious, likes nice houses, etc. still didn't know where or what it was and blandly...

But is the *building* high maintenance? They didn't even build the pool. Ditch the fripperies like the concierge and I'd think the maintenance would be pretty ordinary. The place should be functional as an upper-end rental, albeit not at anything like what it was supposed to sell for.

Maybe they're trying to sell the driveway? Relitter description: FSBO: Btfl ROSEDUST driveway! Longest driveway IN THE NIEGHBORHOOD! Just IMAGINE driving back and forth ALL DAY in yr Mercedes!!! Admire manicrd LWN, shaped HEDGES, btfl FLWRS! Updated with NW CONCRETE PAVERS! Don't miss the...

A premium, sure. But right now Riverside has more than a 50% premium over Moreno Valley (including the Canyon Crest/UCR area which is literally over the hill) and is at the same price as Corona. That's not sustainable. Corona-MoVal-Hemet make a reasonable sequence at current prices but Riverside...

Not if it leaves them with empty commercial space. Better would have been a sinking fund which the tenants could only use for improvements. If the tenant left, TIC could use that sinking fund to attract a replacement tenant. Having a huge cost drop on a *tenant* at a specified time is just bad...

Riverside county has areas that are probably at or near bottom, but Riverside proper has an unsustainable premium compared to those areas. See this Housing Kaboom thread on Riverside vs. Moreno Valley.

12 month leases are the norm near UCR. I know a number of professors who make very good money by renting places to students; but they mostly rent to graduate students of professors they know which gives them a huge advantage in tenant selection.

A single guy buying a 3 bedroom house to live in alone? That's insane. It would be insane even if it wasn't a major hardship by being far from family, friends, and work.

Spontaneous fraternal twins are more common in Caucasians that Asians. It varies a lot between different Caucasian ethnic groups and I expect between Asian ethnic groups too. It's an adaptive trait, and the frequency of twinning varies with historical chances of having more surviving offspring...

Not in the long-term but markets can be heavily manipulated and profoundly irrational for years (housing, iron, many stock markets) - and the Fed has the institutional, reputational and financial wherewithal to manipulate on a massive scale. Plus, it has cozy relationships with JPM and GS.