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$381,000?

Is that a real price of a 1950s one story house in CA?

http://www.searshomes.org/index.php/2016/01/22/flip-or-flop-flops-with-a-flippant-attitude-on-asbestos/

That boggles my mind. You could buy a small farm in Iowa for that amount of money.

Comments (45)

  • sushipup1
    8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    Yes, that's cheap. In some cities, the same house would be far more expemsive. In some cities, cheaper (but not much). Location location location.

  • juddgirl2
    8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    I live in Southern California, where you might be lucky enough to find a condo for that price! Small starter homes in my area start at 650K or so.

  • bpath
    8 years ago

    California has crazy prices. I remember in the 80s a friend bought a monopoly house on a postage-stamp lot (granted, it was in Manhattan Beach or some such place) for as much as his family's large, custom, suburban house on 5+ acres near Chicago.

    As an aside, when was that Flip or Flop reno done? Isn't Tarek recovering from thyroid cancer? Hmm.

  • Errant_gw
    8 years ago

    Yep! I live in SoCA and that's about right, depending on the area. Now you see why we are so envious of your palatial homes with massive kitchens, butler pantries, grand foyers, and spacious laundry rooms? That house had to have the laundry in the kitchen :o

    I'm glad you shared the article about asbestos. I watched that episode and was laughing at how they ignored the idea of asbestos. They were already in over their heads, and out of money, I'm sure. Buying one of these flipped houses is such risky business, I'm amazed that anyone would do it.

  • sushipup1
    8 years ago

    You can find a house like this example for $115,000 in Bakersfield of Fresno. Marginal neighborhoods, schools. In Torrance, you have much better weather, the beach, and generally better community (not to disparage folks who live in Fresno or Bakersfield.) In California, there are strong ethnic divisions as well. In San Francisco, the cheap houses are all tear-downs.

    Bakersfield




  • Errant_gw
    8 years ago

    Bakersfield and Fresno are super cheap, but I would not want to live in either area. My snotty sister has a McMansion in Bakersfield ;)

  • Nothing Left to Say
    8 years ago

    California is a big state. Housing prices vary.


    In my neighborhood, anything around 1500 square feet with three bedrooms goes for $800,000. That includes houses with kitchens and bathrooms that were last remodeled in the 1970s. If it has two baths and things have been updated or it's closer to 1800 square feet, it's at least a million.


    There is nothing you can buy for $381,000. Not a condo, not a tear down, not a lot, nothing.

  • carolb_w_fl_coastal_9b
    8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    Sis lives in Santa Monica where teensy, tiny places can go for millions.....

  • sealavender
    8 years ago

    That price in Torrance is cheap, even near the refineries or the freeway. I'd love to know exactly where it is.

  • Kippy
    8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    The neighbors have their father place on the market. It is set on the back of a lot that was split. Has a back yard view of the cemetery dirt pile the ceilings are low walls seem to be the thin drywall or cardboard like the other houses on the street. It has had kitchens and bathrooms added with cottages or converted garages as rentals. To me it is a tear down and for only $775k you can buy and tear down.

  • starnold
    8 years ago

    We moved out of CA in 1999 knowing we could probably never afford to move back; in 2012 DH transferred back to the SF east bay area, fortunately the market was at it's lowest in decades. Just four years later the same home is twice as much.

  • VedaBeeps SoCal 9b/10a
    8 years ago

    Average square foot price in my neighborhood about an hour east of LA is $296. The house next door, 1000 sq feet, sold for $305k this week.

  • Imhappy&Iknowit IOWA zone 4b
    Original Author
    8 years ago

    All these prices make me real glad I bought exactly what I wanted in Iowa! I don't have a showplace like many I see at gw but it's paid for. I have indoor plumbing (walk in tiled shower), a geo thermal furnace/ac, electricity, my own well with no fluoride added, and my mail delivered to my house. I bought this place for the barn, machine shed, 2nd barn with garage on one end, chicken house and attached to the house over sized double garage. The only thing I'm not happy about is the sump pump in the basement. I wish I could finish a room down there but I won't take the chance. I've done all the heavy remodeling I plan to do. Now I have a list of things I'd do to make it pretty/change the paint/wallpaper but nothing I can't do myself.

  • monicakm_gw
    8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    It's not the house, it's the property that makes houses SO stupid expensive in CA. During dinner on one of our cruises a few years ago, I was seated next to a real estate developer from CA. My very first question to him was, "why are dumps that you wouldn't even put your dog in so ridiculously expensive (in CA). "It's the land that is so expensive". He was probably sorry to have me as a table mate but I enjoyed hearing about the CA real-estate world that I watched so much of on tv.


    My husband was asked to do some tear out and replacement of 1960's 8 or 9" floor tiles. He installs floors for a living. He came home and told me he was certain the floor tiles were asbestos. I talked him into turning down the job. And this was one of his best builders :( I have to say, I'm disappointed that this builder asked him to tear it out. I know he knows it was asbestos. If he wanted to go to the expense of having a professional team in there to clean it up, we would have done the job but I'm guessing he doesn't since he asked David to do it.

  • Lars
    8 years ago

    Average price in my neighborhood in Los Angeles is $1.2 million - you cannot even come near to buying a vacant lot for $381,000 in this area. We bought in 2009, near the bottom of the market - otherwise we would not have been able to afford a house here. The neighborhood where we lived at the time (Venice) was twice as expensive and is just getting worse. Back in 1995, Venice was affordable, but now it is the same price per square foot at Beverly Hills. We're still within 3 miles of the beach, but we cannot walk there like we used to.

    We own farm land in Texas with a house, but there is no way I could go back there. The only good thing about Texas is that real estate pricing are going up as fast there as they are here, and sometimes faster.

    I think Tarek has fully recovered from his Thyroid cancer - that was some time ago, but you can still see the scar on his neck. He actually found out about it when a viewer wrote and told him they could see symptoms of it on his neck. I had a parathyroid tumor removed a couple of years ago (not the same thing - mine was benign), and recovery was only a matter of days, and I have no visible scar at all.

  • Imhappy&Iknowit IOWA zone 4b
    Original Author
    8 years ago

    You can buy an acre of prime farm land almost anywhere in Iowa for less than $10,000. (not a lot less, but less) And by the time you drill a well and put in a septic/leach field you've spent a lot more.

  • gsciencechick
    8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    It is very hard to relocate there when you come from an area with lower cost housing. Now, had we won that Powerball . . . .

  • PRO
    Avanti Tile & Stone / Stonetech
    8 years ago

    After seeing this, I'm GLAD I live in Texas. About 60 miles from Houston. In Beaumont, a 2000 sq. ft. home with an acre or more runs about $120,000. No State taxes and a good climate....what more do you want?

  • C Marlin
    8 years ago

    I watched this show also, I live in the South Bay close to Torrance. I think they paid $315 for the house before reno. I was surprised, I've researched that market and haven't seen any house selling for that low of a price. North Torrance is less desirable, maybe they got a steal, I looked at the current listings on redfin and solds, I didn't see anything that looked like what they bought, currently the lowest price for sale is in the county but Torrance PO for over $500k, which looks very ugly BTW..

    I do understand others don't get why people like me pay so much for a house to stay in California, but I can't imagine living any where else. The sad thing for me is seeing my adult children and their friends not being able to afford to live in the city where they grew up. As it is we are helping each of our children buy their first house after they're debt free and save money on their own.

  • Gooster
    8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    California is very diverse in geography and living locales, although certain images dominate the public consciousness. You can live in just about any mini climate zone or population density, except for tropical or tundra. One thing, though, I would disagree and say that some areas of the state do not have strong ethnic divisions. They are in the north and are more diverse to begin with.

    There are areas, in the last downturn, where houses were going for under $50K. They were bought up in vast chunks by hedge funds. Even today, you can find homes on acreage in remote areas for under $120K. On the other hand, paying over 1K per square foot is the new normal in many parts of SF.

    ETA -- note, though, the salaries do rise commensurate with the high real estate pricing, but newer and young buyers, and many people with decent jobs do find themselves priced out. Example: a firefighter in SF communtes 85 miles to do his shifts --- and lives in one of the nicest neighborhoods in a lower cost city, and his kids go to some of the highest performing schools in the state.

  • Tmnca
    8 years ago

    I wish that was "expensive" for CA - it's not. Torrence is in SoCal and not the most expensive area. You should see some of the places that sell for over $2M - there are condemned tear-downs around here selling for $2M in silicon valley. The value is in the land, and there are many uber-rich folks around.

  • Imhappy&Iknowit IOWA zone 4b
    Original Author
    8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    I hadn't perused the real estate adds for a long time so today I looked at Clear Lake, Iowa. Buddy Holly. Surf Ballroom. I couldn't afford any of these either. http://www.lakeiowarealty.com/index.cfm?fa=listings.list&PropertyTypeID=1&new=true

    This one is a lot with a double garage on it. Walk to the lake from here.

    $140,000 garage no house

    http://www.lakeiowarealty.com/index.cfm?fa=listings.view&ListingID=207033&PropertyTypeID=4

    I must be getting used to the numbers. Some of these seem quite reasonable!

    http://www.landwatch.com/Iowa_land_for_sale/Mason_City

    Here ya go. Locations all over the state. Lots of reasonable prices http://www.zillow.com/ia/


  • C Marlin
    8 years ago

    Yes, Torrance is not a anyone's desirable city. It can be affordable and in the right area has good schools. The biggest draw is the affordability for those that can't afford the beach cities. The city in CA that surprises me is San Marino, it doesn't appeal to me, but wow people are paying to live there.

  • ImWithJoe
    8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    Where I am, tear downs on 1/4 acre go for that.

  • chispa
    8 years ago

    In my LA town houses sell in the $650+ per sq.ft. range. Excellent schools and convenient commutes keep prices high. Even during the real estate bust our prices never dropped much. We used to live in the northeast in a similar type of town, and in analyzing the data, the only reason for the prices in CA to be so much higher seems to come down to the "sunshine tax". Crazy! People are willing to pay a hefty premium to live in a near perfect climate.

  • beachem
    8 years ago

    I had a client who moved 12 yrs ago from Connecticut to Pacific Palisades in So Cal. The wife wanted to live near celebrities. They sold a 6000sf mansion on 3 acres and was only able to afford a 750 sf house on a tiny lot not much larger than the house. Both costs the same.

    She complained a lot to me but loved that she would run into famous actors/actresses at the store or coffee shop.

    They were finally able to tear down and build a new house after 5 yrs but they had to go to 3 stories to squeeze into their lot. Part of the house had to be on cement stilts because the lot was slanted.

    It's all about the land and location here, not the house. Construction cost is also inflated here too for remodel and new.

    The prices you see on Flip or Flop are faked. I watched a few episodes and laughed at the prices vs my own remodel cost. For example, they floored 1500 sf with engineered wood for $1200 all in. Just the cost of a cheap one at a discounter Floor and Decor on clearance is $1.99/SF which is already $3k for the material alone then you have to add labor.

  • aptosca
    8 years ago

    As said, it's the land value, e.g., a lot in Palo Alto at 2M$. (That's a relatively large lot for the area; typical in PA is 6000 sf. But it's also a corner. Ugh.)

    Pricing is simply the result of supply and demand: there's very little for sale in Palo Alto, almost no space to create more inventory, has some of the best schools in the area, is close to Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.

    Google starting salaries for a software engineer looks to be125K$+. That doesn't buy a 2M$ lot but once you've been around for a while ...

    As mentioned, services jobs in places like this pull from people living further away.

  • Nothing Left to Say
    8 years ago

    People live in these areas for the weather, the employment, and also for the diversity and tolerance. I grew up in the Midwest and it has many wonderful qualities, but I'm confident that the lesbian couple with kids at our school feels a lot more accepted here than they would in the town I went to high school in.

  • sjhockeyfan325
    8 years ago

    Aptosca, a couple I know moved from a small mid-Peninsula to the hills south of Palo Alto a couple of years ago. They bought a move-in ready gorgeous "Facebook" home (meaning a Facebook employee who made a lot of money when Facebook went public). The house went up $800,000 in value in one year (not that they're moving, but if they were....)

  • patty_cakes42
    8 years ago

    I left San Diego 7 years ago for a move to Texas. I was living in a 1460 sq ft condo in a fairly nice neighborhood, and sold for $403k. I came to Texas and built a semi-custom 2640 sq ft home, stone and brick, good size yard, lower HOA's than most homes in CA, taxes less than homes of equal size, and only paid $284k. With prices rising in the Austin area, I could possibly sell for close to $75k(or more)than what I paid. I think the average price here is about $350k, and it's not a 'shack'.



    I coukd

  • dedtired
    8 years ago

    My friend's house in La Jolla is for sale at $2,572 per square foot. No, that is not a typo.

  • aptosca
    8 years ago

    sjhockeyfan325: Los Altos Hills? It's one of the priciest areas in a high price area. As I understand it, it's a lot like Atherton (#1 in the US), e.g., minimum lot sizes of an acre.

    Going up 800K$ isn't that much (eek) when the value of the property is > 5M$ (eek!)

    Atherton's kind of ironic: it actually has kind of crappy schools. But no one that lives there cares because their kids don't go to public schools.

    I bought one of the cheapest houses in Palo Alto shortly before the Google IPO. I'd not be able to afford it now.

  • Oaktown
    8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    We have friends who live in Atherton, send their kids to public schools and are very active with the schools. I believe there are 4 non-charter public elementary schools in Atherton: two are in the Menlo Park school district, one is in Las Lomitas school district and one is in Redwood City school district.

    [edited: no worries aptosca, our friends would love to get their Atherton neighbors more involved in the school community]

  • Lars
    8 years ago

    Here is one in La Jolla that sold at $4,000 per square foot.

  • aptosca
    8 years ago

    Sorry; I shouldn't have generalized. There are very good schools in Atherton and MP, particularly the primary schools.

  • Imhappy&Iknowit IOWA zone 4b
    Original Author
    8 years ago

    crl, not knowing your town but knowing mine, you are right.

  • auntpetunia
    8 years ago

    So how do you do it? I am not being sarcastic - I often watch HGTV and have always wondered how people in those high cost areas manage to buy at all. I know salaries are larger- but are they that much larger? Do you wait much longer? Are lenders more generous there?

  • Nothing Left to Say
    8 years ago

    aunt petunia, the answer varies. For us, the salaries are much higher here. For some occupations, not so much. Teachers and fire fighters and so on, well, it's tough. And it's a problem, IMO. A lot of people live farther out and commute father than they would in lower cost of living areas. Even with Dh's relatively well paying job, he commutes farther than we would like for a variety of reasons but housing costs are one of the main reasons. And we live in a much smaller house than we could afford elsewhere (I don't mind this much as I'd hate to use the engery to heat and cool more than we need anyway.)


    We are definitely concerned about the possibility that our children will never be able to afford to buy here.

  • aptosca
    8 years ago

    Lenders aren't more generous. Granted, you can get conforming loans up to 650K$ in this area but that still doesn't get you into the millions.

    At some point, you're going from (in this area) salary to equity/stock. All the Googlers/Facebookers/etc. don't buy high-end based on salary. They buy based on the value of the equity they've earned, which can be a lot higher than salary.

    There's a fair amount of range in prices in this area. None are cheap but they're not all completely insane. You just have to get away from the ultra-competitive areas, which generally means out of the most sought-after school districts. This house is 8M$ but this one, a half a mile away, is 800K$. There are numerous differences but the primary one is going into a different city/county/school district.

    I have friends in my neighborhood who live in the house they grew up in. Not sure if their kids will be taking over from them.

  • sushipup1
    8 years ago

    Most of the people who buy higher priced homes are not first time buyers. Property prices have risen over the years. The condo they bought for $100K in 1982 became a house for $160K in 1987, became a larger house for $300K in 1998, now is worth $650K.

  • auntpetunia
    8 years ago

    Thanks -I should have asked here a long time ago

  • sjhockeyfan325
    8 years ago

    Aptosca, when they bought the house it was less than $2.0 million - it went up 1/3 over the first year they owned it!

  • aptosca
    8 years ago

    One thing about the houses compared above is that one is in Palo Alto and the other in East Palo Alto (EPA) which is the closest town to Facebook headquarters, apart from Menlo Park, which it's in.

    The history of PA and EPA is sad: an affluent town, PA (Stanford and the "away from the city" place for SF types in the late 1800s/early 1900s), and EPA which had the highest per-capita murder rate in the country in 1992. Things are slowly changing, but It's a very sad part of PA history.

    In contrast, many in my neighborhood are trying to keep low income housing from being destroyed.

  • aptosca
    8 years ago

    sjhockeyfan325: Zillow thinks my house went up 30% in a year but it also thinks it dropped 8% over the next two months. Not that that increase was 800K$.

    But, yeah, tech is riding high right now ... or was, up until about a month ago. Lately there's been a fair amount of fear and loathing. If tech really struggles, it'll be interesting to see what it does to house prices, particularly those on the high end. In the 2007 collapse, low end (for the area) houses like mine really weren't impacted much but the mid to high end stopped moving.