Regular readers have probably divined that I don’t have mountainous amounts of respect for authority figures. I tend to live on the right side of the law, so civil “servants’ have never done me any good. My relationship with the government consists mainly of giving them taxes in exchange for – – ostensibly – – living in society. (more…)
I’ve lived in Palo Alto since the summer of 1984 (it only just occurred to me typing these words that this is my 30th anniversary here – maybe I should get a cake or something). Think about how much the world has changed since then; in 1984: (more…)
I live with my wife and children in a very safe neighborhood, but since we live near East Palo Alto, which is a shithole ethnically-diverse community with different socio-economic characteristics, there is some property crime on occasion.
For instance, we once have a virtually-worthless cell phone stolen from the glove compartment of our unlocked car in the driveway. After this happened, I decided to put in some home security, so after visiting Fry’s, I bought some security cameras and a DVR manufactured by Swann, which seems to be the vendor-of-choice around here. (more…)
I have personally benefited in two direct ways from the insane multi-trillion dollar credit-creation that we’ve seen happen over the past half decade: one, a private investment I made in a startup has been blossoming very nicely, and two, the house in which I live is worth nine times what I paid for it. It’s this latter phenomenon I wanted to touch on this holiday, since it’s quiet, and Slopers outside the Silicon Valley might find perverse comfort in the relative bargains of their neighborhood.
Below is a simple chart showing the median sales price of Palo Alto houses and – helpfully – the percentage of the list price received. It’s a pretty interesting litte chart. At first, it gently descends, as the Valley dipped from the Internet bubble bursting. Next, it began a steady ascent, as interest rates plunged (thanks to Greenspan) and the housing bubble went into full swing. The financial crisis took the froth out (although Palo Alto didn’t suffer the 50%+ drops of less attractive areas, like Stockton) and, most recent, we have soared into unchartered territory, both in terms of median sales price and price received (as you can see, the price being paid is actually averaging 11.6% above the already lofty asking price). (more…)
This post has gone through three lives in the past twenty-four hours.
The first life was in the swimming pool. I was taking my first swim of the year, since the water temperature was finally in the 80s. I am a “temp wimp”, so I really want the pool to be warm before I get in. Of course, once my ancient yellow lab Kobe saw me in there, he jumped right in too and swam right beside me. Although he is the human equivalent of over 100 years old, he is a far more capable swimmer. (more…)
