Are prices like this everywhere?

[ponytug]

Tribute, still has to get paid though......

(I glommed through a fairly large document a while ago from the Cato institute, concerning the economics and tax policies of Ancient Rome. Calling the parallels to today eerie is an understatement - meaning in general, not just Cali specific.....).

Cali is not a small economy (haven't looked at #'s lately, but probably not dissimilar to Canada's), but still, the exodus of notable companies generates a hit on multiple levels. Corporate taxes tend to be low, but the lion's share of the tax revenue attaches to the jobs in-State, and the subsequent spending (buying $7/gal gas....) of those same employees, some/many of whom would be highly-paid.

Speaking from a Canadian perspective, those shortfalls will be compensated for..... as the only thing a gubmint has to be slightly competent at is generating tax revenue.....

Hidden or multi-tiered taxes (whether you deal with them directly as a consumer, or have them passed through (another deliberate layer of obfuscation) by the business you deal with) all feed into price increases, along with direct material and labour-cost inputs.

TCO is an old Intel acronym.... Total Cost of Ownership, but it does apply to Residency...... when an individual or corporation repeatedly runs the #'s, and always comes up with Not Worth It, then change usually follows....

The labour-cost and Availability component is a good example..... unless you like living outdoors/in a cardboard box, who wants to live in a high-cost environment while making low wages.......

Rgds, D.

Um, actually California is much bigger, about twice the size of Canada.

California is a $3.4B economy, making it by itself the fifth largest in the world.

Economy of California - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

All the best,

Peter

 

[jyoutz]

The worst thing you can do is pay off a mortgage (at least here) because here, we use the interest on them to offset our personal income tax liability. Now the farm is on a different income tax schedule and we write off everything on the farm tax return, from diesel fuel to equipment payments and interest paid. plus we depreciate the equipment. All 3 of my rentals are on a fixed 5.5% rate and it's all good with me. The farm has been paid off for years so the only liability is the RE taxes, some with our up north property.

In essence, you never own your property outright because if you don't pay your RE taxes. the taxing entity forecloses on your property (paid off or not) and sells it to satisfy the tax liability.

You are pretty much correct, but the mortgage interest deductions really don’t help us much anymore under the new tax changes. I’d just as soon pay it off and have a lot more monthly cash flow and that’s why I went with an adjustable mortgage because it would be paid off before the loan adjusts. The property taxes are extremely reasonable in my area so someone would be a fool not to pay them.

 

[jyoutz]

One of my renter couples have been looking to buy a new home for themselves, I have no issue with it, they both are upstanding individuals, hold good jobs and go to work every every day but are finding out that they have to have 20% down to buy a new dwelling and they don't have 20% up front. On a 100K loan (which buys you a whipped out shack today), that is $20,000.00 down. Around here, homes are selling for around 250K average for a descent place, which in my view is inflated but it is what it is and sellers are getting it too. Been hinting around they want to buy the home they live in currently. Problem is, it's not for sale, it's rental income for me, just like my other 2. I'll sell them eventually, but not presently.

$250k where I live will only buy a dumpy fixer upper.

 

[5030]

$250k where I live will only buy a dumpy fixer upper.

That's the issue. The housing (inflated) market has pushed new home buyers out. Same with vehicles. Why I never buy new, but the used, off lease market is getting tough too.

 

[jyoutz]

That's the issue. The housing (inflated) market has pushed new home buyers out. Same with vehicles. Why I never buy new, but the used, off lease market is getting tough too.

Leases are rare where I live because people get hit with excess mileage charges, making leasing more expensive than buying.

 

[5030]

I believe people lease a new vehicle because they know they cannot hack the payments. Interest on a new car loan will eat you alive plus the inflated cost of them puts them out of reach for many.

Leasing is a good alternative in those cases.

 

[3930dave]

Leases are rare where I live because people get hit with excess mileage charges, making leasing more expensive than buying.

Back when I got out of college, I went to work at the company I'd worked at the summer before. There was a guy working there, who was a year ahead of me in my (tech) program. He'd decided that he wanted to go straight into a Sales job there, so he leased himself a brand new Pontiac sedan - a fairly typical choice for sales fleets back when.....

That city has now grown out around where that building was/is, but at the time, if you wanted to pick up lunch you had to drive somewhere else to get it. Always cracked me up, as the leased-Pontiac guy was always trying to mooch a ride off somebody at lunch time, because he didn't want the miles on his car........ and he didn't really drive to customers much, mostly that was remote flying, so that probably was a really low mileage allowance that he'd signed up for....

Rgds, D.

 

[ultrarunner]

Mostly I see Doctors and company owners with leased vehicles…

Primary reason is they expense and don’t want to own anything out of warranty…

 

[3930dave]

Um, actually California is much bigger, about twice the size of Canada.

California is a $3.4B economy, making it by itself the fifth largest in the world.

Economy of California - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

All the best,

Peter

Hadn't looked @ real #'s in a while..... but I'm not surprised, given Canada's dismal OECD #'s, and more disturbingly, the OECD forecasts for here, going out decades....... but, that wasn't the main point of my post (not suggesting that you missed it, either Peter ).

Where an exodus gets painfully obvious is in a one-factory town, or even a small nation-state with only one industry, as it's pretty hard to miss or ignore....

What tends to get lost, glossed over, or dismissed in large economies as these deaths-by-hundreds-of-departures is happening is that the structural overhead of that economy is not shrinking.

What often follows are gubmint decisions that typically accelerate that ^ process. Let's call that 'nuff said .

Rgds, D.

 

[Engineer42]

You aren't paying for stuff like healthcare and workers comp either so do it yourself and be happy. I use Rotella 5-40 T6 on my wife's Suburban and always an OEM filter.

Always use an AC Delco filter. The $25 for the tech includes health and welfare costs. I only use the Dexos oil because that's what GM uses and recommends. I use Rotella 15-40 in my truck and everything else diesel.

My comment omitted the fact that three years ago they were charging $52 for the same service on the same vehicle, picked up and dropped off.