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The house I was born in sold for $4000

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Re: The house I was born in sold for $4000

#71

Post by bradleyjg »

wtvanhest wrote: post #22
jluxenberg wrote: post #15

Homeowners of HN: how do you justify tying up a large percentage of your net worth in a home?

I don't own a house, but here is how I would justify it: I assume (and you are free to disagree with my assumptions): - Inflation will exist like it has over the long term - I need to save for retirement --- With these two assumptions, a home allows you to take a leverage position against the area in which you live in's rate of inflation (hedge against rent increases with 4x leverage). Additionally, if you commit to…

The 30 year fixed mortgage, with a low interest rate and high leverage, is also the product of government subsidies.

The reason it makes sense for a lot of Americans to buy a house is because the government spends an awful lot of money making sure it makes sense. Otherwise economies of scale, differential costs of capital, and risk-free returns from diversification would lead to a very different picture.

Re: The house I was born in sold for $4000

#72

Post by cmbaus »

boticus_prime wrote: post #45
cmbaus wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't think there were many other people from Chautauqua county here.

I think the only time I have met anyone from Chautauqua county out here was when I went to see a Bills games at the Northstar Cafe in SF. When I was reading your blog post, I actually jumped a bit, because I thought I recognized the house (the red-brick street combined with the Bills banner is a familiar sight).

Contact me. Let's get a beer. I went to the Bills game in SF this year. We got killed, but it was still a lot of fun.

Re: The house I was born in sold for $4000

#73

Post by fearless »

michaelochurch wrote: post #69
sliverstorm wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you proposing we endorse a shantytown? History has shown us those go downhill fast, and I don't see how temporary shelters won't turn into a shantytown (and amusingly enough become permanent, much like every piece of shanty-code I write)

Now you might think that, the way things are going, by 2025 a person born without VC connections (i.e. an EIR position earmarked for him when he's in the womb, somewhat like a trust fund) will have to live in a shantytown in order to have a shot at surviving in VC-istan. Well, I'm here to tell you that you're wrong. He won't have to inhabit a shantytown. He'll have a nice storage cell to live in.

Is there anything that is not somehow VC-istan's fault?

Re: The house I was born in sold for $4000

#74

Post by sliverstorm »

fearless wrote: post #73
michaelochurch wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now you might think that, the way things are going, by 2025 a person born without VC connections (i.e. an EIR position earmarked for him when he's in the womb, somewhat like a trust fund) will have to live in a shantytown in order to have a shot at surviving in VC-istan. Well, I'm here to tell you that you're wrong. He won't have to inhabit a shantytown. He'll have a nice storage cell to live in.

Is there anything that is not somehow VC-istan's fault?

Please let me know if you think of something, so I can be sure to figure out how it is in fact VC-istan's fault after all.

Re: The house I was born in sold for $4000

#75

Post by nutate »

My mom was mayor of Jamestown for a couple years. Most houses that were maintained have kept their value. We just have a twisted sense of how housing value should work.

Even around Chautauqua lake, where the best real estate is in that county, the max is probably around $3mil for houses that would make an $3mil house around here (DC) look like a cottage.

Location, location, location. I can drive there in under seven hours these days. Straight through central PA which makes central Jamestown look like London.

Re: The house I was born in sold for $4000

#76

Post by bdcravens »

general_failure wrote: post #48
yekko wrote: post #2

More startup needs to move to low cost areas.

It's better for well established players to move to low cost areas. Startups need to be in places where there is abundance of talent. Engineering salary are extremely high as-is, it would be nigh impossible to make them move to the middle of nowhere.

In a world of PaaS and the cloud, and amazing communication capabilities like Skype and Google Hangout, why? What about CA or NY makes them more talented? They're there because the work is there, not vice versa. Also, you don't have to be in the middle of nowhere. There's plenty of large American cities where you can buy a nice house for less than $150K. I realize that the SF reality distortion field would suggest that everywhere else is powered by oil lamps, but I figure as long as you have high speed Internet and are within an hour of an Apple store, then you are quite capable to getting the work done from your home.

Re: The house I was born in sold for $4000

#77

Post by brianobush »

rdl wrote: post #31

I'd really like to see a low-tax, low regulation part of the US (WA, NV, TX, or TN) where someone buys a few thousand acres and lets people build "temporary" structures (with power/fiber/wifi/etc.) for living and solo-working, combined with some more permanent structures for offices, meetings, socialization, etc. Essentially like a 2-5 year Burning Man encampment campus for various startup projects. If someone's "per…

put this on a boat and we could have a tax haven like Sealand!

Re: The house I was born in sold for $4000

#78

Post by ChuckMcM »

simonsarris wrote: post #37

(This is more of a response to several of the comments posted so far.) I'd like to come to the defense of low-cost living but also acknowledge that (expensive) city living has its obvious pluses that people already in SV might be taking for granted. I created a low-cost living situation while living in a big (old/pretty) house in New Hampshire by renting out all of the rooms to friends. My rent is "free" and utilitie…

What I find interesting is that communal living is not new (it has all the benefits you describe) but there hasn't been more of it recently. Historically this has been a common way for artists to get by and practice their skills. Given how much programming and design is artistic in nature I'm surprised there aren't more such communes these days.

Re: The house I was born in sold for $4000

#79

Post by nutate »

cmbaus wrote: post #32

Couple comments. I didn't research the exact numbers in the post. I heard the house was sold for $4k, and the point wasn't about the exact price, but my perception of life after growing up in an area of constant economic decline. Also one of my goals for 2013 was to hit the home page of HN. I didn't think my first attempt would do it. Thanks!

I grew up there from 79 to 97. My mom was mayor and a ton of my friends live there. I've since gone to school and lived in NYC, LA and now DC. Jamestown is still one of my favorite places on the planet. Cheap housing is just a bonus.

It's incredible how far your money will go there: http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/2055-Willar...

The question is how to get the money... :) probably contribute to your community. Err I mean contribute a new app idea to the community of angel investors. Whatever. ;)

Re: The house I was born in sold for $4000

#80

Post by erikpukinskis »

sliverstorm wrote: post #66
rdl wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A shantytown full of rich (at least, in earning potential elsewhere) startup/burningman type people which grows around convenient fiber might be different than one full of labor surrounding a mine.

I don't really buy it. The hallmark of shantytowns is everything is "half-assed". I can't see tech workers breaking out the saws and sandpaper and building quality neighborhoods in their spare time, and nobody will invest real money and labor into something you intend to bulldoze in 3-5 years. You will also get a domino effect; people with money and the desire for a nice place to live will automatically avoid your sh…

So basically you're saying "that's hard and vaguely similar things have failed before."

That's not much of a contribution to the discussion.

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