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The Ultra-Rich Are Flourishing and Sticking Around in California

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41–50 of 81 posts

Re: The Ultra-Rich Are Flourishing and Sticking Around in California

#41

As a resident who was born here and left and then came back, I’ve had this idea kicking around in my head of “California is a luxury product”. If you look at the entire US, and assume you have the ability to move and live in any state, there are lots of options for everyone at every income level. (Disclaimer that this doesn’t address poverty, DEI, and other limitations to a good chunk of citizens). From the Gold Rush…

It is 100% a luxury product for one reason alone: weather.

Having lived in areas with harsh winters and then moving back to CA, you’re basically paying to gain an extra 3 months of life every year.

Re: The Ultra-Rich Are Flourishing and Sticking Around in California

#42
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to put a dose of reality here, Prop 13 property taxes reset on sales (there are exceptions when selling to children of the owners but generally they reset) and property turnover rates in California are generally in excess of 10%. What that means is that pretty much all of the taxes are reset every 10 years or so. This is more true of "desirable" places to live (Bay Area, LA, San Diego) than say "less desirable".…

>> Prop 13 property taxes reset on sales ... and property turnover rates in California are generally in excess of 10%. What that means is that pretty much all of the taxes are reset every 10 years or so That would be assuming certain things, among which would be that if 10% of properties sell every year, there is a consistent 10% chance of a given property selling each year. What I can tell you from looking at the da…

In some (or all?) counties, if you move to another house in the same county you can keep your original tax base.

Transferring a Principal Residence Value within a County

“Proposition 60 (Revenue and Taxation Code 69.5)

Property owners of at least 55 years of age may transfer the base year value of their principal residence to a replacement principal residence. The replacement must be of equal or lesser current market value and located within the same county. Sacramento County does not allow base year transfers from other counties.”

https://assessor.saccounty.net/LowerMyTaxes/BaseYearValueTra...

Re: The Ultra-Rich Are Flourishing and Sticking Around in California

#43
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a terrible luxury product though because 1) Prop 13 means that people from 50 years ago are still in the luxury neighborhoods 2) Crime is not sufficiently eradicated even from expensive areas

Just to put a dose of reality here, Prop 13 property taxes reset on sales (there are exceptions when selling to children of the owners but generally they reset) and property turnover rates in California are generally in excess of 10%. What that means is that pretty much all of the taxes are reset every 10 years or so. This is more true of "desirable" places to live (Bay Area, LA, San Diego) than say "less desirable".…

My point here folks is this is a knowable number if you want to know it. Just spend some time at the County seat and look at the public records for home sales. If you know a realtor you can pull MLS data and if you do some data science on it you can draw heat maps of neighborhoods where turnover is more rapid and those where it is less. Do a bit of legwork. I'll tell you that the retiree living in a home they have had for 50 years is an outlier, but encourage folks to go to the primary sources themselves, don't take my word for it.

Re: The Ultra-Rich Are Flourishing and Sticking Around in California

#44

I have always been convinced that the general numbers on how many rich people (> 10M networth and > 50M networth) there are is a total lie. Maybe its the bubble that I live in, but there are ALOT of very wealthy people on the coasts. The government numbers dont match my anecdata, I think they are missing a ton of income/capital gains, and thus our wealth distribution charts dont match reality

The numbers can't possible capture the circumstances. People can look both privileged and destitute at the same time depending on the metrics used. This can be made even more murky with financial market swings and carried interest.

Unfortunately debt for the individual is not as fungible as wealth.

Re: The Ultra-Rich Are Flourishing and Sticking Around in California

#45

When I visited Cali, I was hoping I'd be surrounded by ambitious people who wanted to work hard and make a lot of money. I was disappointed, everyone seemed normal. Maybe a bit Epicurean hedonist. Since my local friends are this work hard and make a lot of money type, and it took a half decade to meet and cultivate those friends, I decided to stay local. Me and the wife have the resume for Cali, but we decided that p…

Can I ask where you're living?

In a corporate colony on Terra 2 from The Outer Worlds

Re: The Ultra-Rich Are Flourishing and Sticking Around in California

#46
California is a beautiful state. It has a ton of natural beauty, recreation, entertainment options, food, anything you could want. It's no wonder people want to live there. The ultra rich are able to keep housing costs high and paint false narratives about crime in the media to keep the normies away, while enjoying it themselves. It's a great con.

Re: The Ultra-Rich Are Flourishing and Sticking Around in California

#47
There are also many shades of "ultra-rich". The article claims that millionaires are ultra-rich, but there is a big lifestyle divide between 7, 8 and 9 figures and beyond. Those people aren't living similar lives, it's silly to cluster them together as one unified block.

Re: The Ultra-Rich Are Flourishing and Sticking Around in California

#48
post #8

As a resident who was born here and left and then came back, I’ve had this idea kicking around in my head of “California is a luxury product”. If you look at the entire US, and assume you have the ability to move and live in any state, there are lots of options for everyone at every income level. (Disclaimer that this doesn’t address poverty, DEI, and other limitations to a good chunk of citizens). From the Gold Rush…

It's a terrible luxury product though because 1) Prop 13 means that people from 50 years ago are still in the luxury neighborhoods 2) Crime is not sufficiently eradicated even from expensive areas

crime in Mill valley, just on the other side of the golden gate bridge, is infinitesimal

Re: The Ultra-Rich Are Flourishing and Sticking Around in California

#49

As a resident who was born here and left and then came back, I’ve had this idea kicking around in my head of “California is a luxury product”. If you look at the entire US, and assume you have the ability to move and live in any state, there are lots of options for everyone at every income level. (Disclaimer that this doesn’t address poverty, DEI, and other limitations to a good chunk of citizens). From the Gold Rush…

It is 100% a luxury product for one reason alone: weather. Having lived in areas with harsh winters and then moving back to CA, you’re basically paying to gain an extra 3 months of life every year.

> you’re basically paying to gain an extra 3 months of life every year.

Huh? How so?

Re: The Ultra-Rich Are Flourishing and Sticking Around in California

#50
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

California is in the top quartile of safest states in the US. Your complaint is that rich people wont have their property taxes jacked up and they haven't "eradicated" crime. As a response to the fact that California is as close to the French Riviera as we have in the US.

I've never seen this insanity anywhere in world except for California: https://nypost.com/2023/07/18/san-francisco-stores-lock-up-f...

This KIND of thing however is extremely common in poverty stricken areas. Poor areas are crime ridden, because most people in poverty lack other choices, and very few people will choose to just lay down and die quietly like some people seem to think they should.

Look at mcdonalds in detroit and stuff like that, they look like banks inside, with bulletproof plastic panels between customers and staff. Californian elitists just get pissy that they have to see it in their back yard, because they want the suffering required to support their profits to be out of sight and out of mind.

People bitch and moan that "california already spends a shitload on homelessness" but like, it's california, even the small office you have to have just for a social worker to have a laptop to keep things organized will cost millions a year. If you want to function somewhere that has a land cost ten times anywhere else, you are going to have to pay more. Period. The janitors need to live there too.

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