Maybe My Dad Was Right

When I got out of college back in the stone age, my father advised me to go to law school and move to San Diego, California. He thought the practice of law was a nobel calling, and he believed that California was simply the place to be.

I didn't much care about law school, and had no great desire to move to California.

Perhaps I should have listened more closely to what pop had to say.

If I had, I might have made a fortune in real estate even without the law degree. Let's say, for the sake of argument, that I had moved to California back in the early 1970's and bought a house. I don't know what the median price for a house was in California back then; suffice it to say that it was a whole lot less than it is today. Maybe it was $50,000. Maybe $100,000. I really don't know.

Well, the median price for a home in California now stands at $477,700. That ranks California as having the highest median price for housing in the United States. Clearly, I would have enjoyed quite a tidy profit had I bought something there 35 years ago.

But California is not the only place where real estate prices have jumped. The Census Bureau is going to release information today (October 3, 2006) that shows the following ...

• New Jersey residents have the highest average housing costs per month: $1,938;
• West Virginia residents have the lowest average housing costs per month: $797;
• The most expensive state in which to rent is Hawaii with an average of $995;
• North Dakota is the least expensive state to rent with an average of $479;
• Mississippi has the least expensive median home value: $82,700;
• Among America's 15 largest cities, San Francisco has the most expensive homes with a median home value of $726,700.
• Among America's 15 largest cities, Detroit has the least expensive median home value at $88,300.
• This is the factoid my dad would have loved: from 2000 to 2005, San Diego had the biggest increase in median home value, going from $249,000 to $567,000. Yup, that would have been a good investment if you could find a buyer for it today.

Now, this is not to say that real estate prices have stood still in Florida. They haven't, as we all know. It's just that in California the gross numbers are much bigger. Sometimes I wish I had paid more attention to my dad.

If you want to stay up to date on what's happening in real estate, continue to read this blogsite and also go to my website, www.thestpeterealestatesite.com.

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