Curious economics

So, that big exodus from California?

I just called my friend and occasional colleague, Boris, back in Silicon Valley... but it turns out he's actually in Idaho, and working remotely nowadays.  Seems in Idaho his grandson can have a decent kid's life and get an education.  And, he just bought his first-ever set of snow tires (those not having been a thing in Russia back in the day).

Anyway.  Boris says that (as one might expect) the real-estate situation in places like San Francisco is dire.  And, the rental market is way down.

But...

In the suburbs, it seems that the high-paid megacorp employees are trading in their condos for houses.  So the condo market is in the dumps, but suburban house prices are actually up.

I check Zillow.  Sure enough: both the Sunnyvale house and the Palo Alto house show guesstimated values significantly higher than what we got for them a year or two back.

Still, I'm glad we sold them when we did, if not a few months earlier each (peak prices, up to that point, in the respective neighborhoods having been attained somewhat before we managed to get them on the market).  Holding onto them would have been a considerable gamble, even not considering the risks of renting them out while living far away.

Comments

[Rob]

Did you ever read "The last days of the late, great state of California"? From back in the late 60s, a good story and a reasonable assumption on California (IMO).

[Eric Wilner]

Yup; I read that book in the 70s, if memory serves. I remember basically nothing, though; just enough to conjure the author's name on seeing the title.