Aliexpress is a Bargain

Here are my 11-11 orders check out the prices.  These are just everyday items.  The difference is waiting or anticipating instead of having to buy locally saves 80-90%.  10 inch iPhone cords for 81¢.  10 ft iPhone cord for $3.52.  Plastic micrometer less than a buck.  LED bulbs for my Maglite flashlights $2.87.  The savings in batteries alone justifies what looks like a high price.  Dremel accessories, x-acto knives, all for pennies.  Most will be stocking stuffers for the kids. 

Sign of a Market Top

Wow, it's been a while since we talked about peak pricing. Long time readers know I am slow to supper but I rarely miss the meal. Here is someone making a last call.

 

Built in 1922 the best you can say is well maintained and quaint.   I can hit this cutie with a snowball from one of my rentals. 

So.  What's the problem?  The problem is trying to squeeze the last nickel and being left holding the bag. See the price history below.  $352 per square foot and a lot of those square feet are 6 1/2 foot ceilings.  On a small lot.  On the "low side" of the street.  If $140k was a fair price in 2012 what in the world is $360k in 2018? 

Date	Event	Price		$/sqft	Source
7/26/2018	Price change	$359,900	-1.4%	$352	Country Life Realty
5/23/2018	Listed for sale	$364,900	+160.6%	$357	Country Life Realty
1/4/2012	Sold	$140,000	+15.7%	$137	Public Record
1/17/2002	Sold	$121,000	--	$119	Public Record

Fires Everywhere

This is Thursday 8:00 AM looking north from the Dawghaus.  Briggs Fire. 

This was the panorama looking south from the Camarillo airport at the Woolsey Fire as it approached Malibu.

Floral Interlude

From the NYC Botanical Gardens

Later today, election predictions that look almost like Firemane's and the CoreLogic report Sept Housing. 

Leaving Los Angeles

From the ever declining in quality MarketWatch:

A decade ago, the communities inland from Los Angeles became the poster children of the housing bubble. As real estate agents urged clients to “drive until you qualify,” the communities of Riverside County filled with eager house-buyers who weren’t afraid of 90-minute commutes – each way.
Then the economy crashed, jobs dried up, the loosey-goosey mortgages people had relied on to finance their purchases stopped cooperating, and the exurbs emptied out.
Now, that trend seems to be back. Californians are fleeing the high-cost cities and heading inland. Is it a sign of another bubble? Or a confirmation that the cutthroat housing market is turning some pricey cities into gated communities?

 It isn't "price" so much "available at any price."  Greater Los Angeles has gotten so crowded (dense) that there is no new infill that makes sense.  No new supply. 

Don't be fooled by the colors.  Anything that isn't green is throughly urbanized. 

Huck Finn Lives

Check out this Craigslist since deleted post.

 

If you put in a couple thousand dollars of labor I will let you cart away the trash so you can pay to have it dumped.   

Any resemblance to modern urban redevelopment plans is coincidental.