Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for August 01, 2019

six-fifty grand they so don’t have

If the fire dept. allows you do double shifts…for a while…maybe?

They each can get by with just one kidney, right?

That’s a steal in my area.

Time to back out too bad firefighters aren’t payed too well

It’s funny because housing costs are rising much faster than wages, due in part to property speculators and growing income inequality! HA HA HA

I have a feeling they probably going to end up buying the house from Nancy and Frank for like 50-100k

Yep. California’s house market. I used to live in Riverside. We lived in an apartment for one year – 2 bedroom, 2 bathrooms, a deck, a fireplace, nice complex for $1,350/mo ten years ago. We started talking about buying and looked around for our type of home and preferred neighborhoods and realized we couldn’t afford it. A small starter home cost well over $400K ten years ago – yeah, just before the housing crash. The only places we might be able to buy were in remote small towns. If anyone is thinking of moving to CA, expect astronomical apartment rents and house prices.

Good for them! Realizing what’s possible with their income, and what’s not. And not diving into an incredibly risky and exploitative loan agreement to get this house, which they are not ready for yet (and they aren’t in desperate straits anyway- they are still living in the Horner house). Of course, we have a few more days this week, and the next few weeks, where Greg can create some crazy scenario where manna from heaven falls into their laps and makes it possible for them to buy! Stay tuned!

Well drawn in panel 2 showing their shock at the price.

$650,000 might buy and empty lot where I live…..

Good, common street sense…….walk around the drain, not into it.

What’s she gonna say, “You guys are too ugly for this house”?

I truly like that Brad and Toni are hand-in-hand in the last panel…a sure sigh that they will find an alternative that works for them.

If the $650k price tag is scary, they should check out the fixer up prices in San Francisco https://finance.yahoo.com/…/san-francisco-real-estate-market-crazy-163008223.html

Cheese and crackers! That’s a mansion around here.

When I used to watch those “find a home” shows on HGTV, it always amused me that young kids would say to the realtor, “Our budget is $800,000”, and of course, the most desirable places were just above that.

Good, a dose of reality.Yes, they will probably buy the parent’s house. Of course, that was part of their retirement plan, so they can’t give it away. Ask to change the rental agreement with lease and option to buy, perhaps.

Of course they fit the house. They evidently were not hanging out the sides like they were stuffed in.

$650,000 that is a lot of land and house.

Check your other pocket.

Wow in the 2nd panel you can practically see and hear Brad and Toni’s heart break. It’s such a shame, they’re brave firefighters but cannot afford a house they love and want so they can start a family.

Bought our home in San Francisco for $25,000 in ‘71. Sold it for $365,000 in ’97. Bought a house near Palm Springs that had hidden problems (roof and pool) for $176,000. Didn’t want a fixer upper. But ended up with one anyway.

I don’t like Brad & Toni buying the house with TJ. TJ would be on their living room sofa in front of the TV into perpetuity. And what if TJ got a girlfriend? The big house just became a small house.

Oh well, … c’est la vie ….

That’s cheap

10% down, $65,000. A second on the Fuze oughta just about cover it.

And, the ever unfortunate “reality check.” Sorry guys… Hopefully, this will re-direct you into the existing property. Perhaps “expand” the existing Horner house with some additions… might be cheaper. Or look at something a little less pricey. But you will figure it out. The question being, will “Smiley” come along to help finance it? Maybe you just build a separate guest house on the property he can rent. We’ll see. Courage guys! Stay focused!

Just about the price of a starter home in Toms River, NJ, and the FD is volunteer, so Brad/Toni stay where you are.

I just retired and moved from NY to Kentucky. Lil bit over half acre, 2 1/2 car garage, 3 bedroom 2 bath home, $70K. No way I could afford to stay in NY with their tax rates though home prices were more affordable then CA.

In my neighborhood, you can buy 3 for that price.

$650,000? Is that it? Pffft, sure, let me get my wallet, I’ll be right back! (•_• )

Ok to dream a little and get inspired and buy a different house at a reasonable price in a different area that still matches their level of comfort.

One principle of Real Estate Sales is to NEVER refer to the house people are looking to buy as “this house.” You call it a “home.” The one they are thinking of selling is the one you call “this house.”

650K?!!? For a house with “issues?” (Water Stain) Naaaaaah. Counter Offer. If the seller doesn’t bite, walk. You let ‘em keep that house on the market for a year or so with NO takers, they’ll soon change their minds. Besides, there are other houses for sale.

By the way. Did Irma Berger-Gray ever sell her old house?

Yet another millennial couple who spent all their money on avocado toast. [sarcasm]

Like I said before, all but a 900 SF cookie-cutter cracker box is beyond the reach of most young couples today, particularly in the larger metros.

Now, if you’ll just help us find our jaws – they dropped over here somewhere…

Easy fix if you encounter those kinds of prices: Stop clinging to the idea that the coastal states are the only place to live. Here in the heartland I got all the house I need for well under $200,000. For $650,000 you could literally get an 8,000-square-foot house with 50 acres of land around it.

Young couple, already with too much baggage, don’t dig yourselves in deeper.

California prices. That is why we have so many working homeless. I live there. California has an ocean, mountains, and your choice of weather, but I don’t recommend it unless that is where your family is. That is my only reason for staying.

And, just like that, the house felt a little too tight for them.

Good job, agent. You managed to scare them away!

Love living in California!

Fortunately, there is still time to buy a house. It may not be the one of their dreams. But it could become so after a while and some changes.

Greg has invested some time and effort in B&T remodeling their current digs. I now get the feeling that this soirée into to housing market is Greg’s way of steering them into buying their current digs from F&N. Maybe…

How many comic strip years have Brad and Toni been married? I know they spent a lot already on that room.

Most of y’all ain’t from around here are ya!?!? ;o)

Thirtysomethings always seem to have the money on the Home and Garden Channel!!

And so ‘turn around’ meant nothing more than ’let’s go have a look’, as I stated would be a good idea because without you would have NO IDEA of prices, and what you get for the $$$

I don;t this this is the end here acand tually. They do needed a larger house, without their housemate, but who knows he might have a better than 20% downpayment squirreled away. I don’t know but I still think my speculation about their family is in the mix, so we will see. One thing I liked about this set of panels is panel 2. Greg you did a nice idea of showing Toni’s surprise at the price. I think Brad’s seemingly unfazed expression was quite the opposite, he was fazed but he is the type who has that frozen expression when he gets a surprise. This could also be a bit of a social critique on how millennials are priced out of things like the housing market. One good thing though is that Brad and Toni are not saddled with college debt, and contrary to what so many are saying, firefighters don’t get paid enough (as do hardly any public servants) but they don’t make starvation wages either. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the mean average salary for firefigthers in 2018 was $53, 240. Not a lot but hardly starvation wages.

Every place has its own points and good points. My hometown (don’t live there anymore) is the sterotype busting Huntsville, AL, which has the highest per capita number of PhDs and engineers in the United States due to NASA and the three major Army commands located nearby. It is consistently rated as one of the top 10 places to live in America and in the top 5 for entrepreneurs. It is a great place to raise a family, low cost of living, decent schools and a first rate regional university with a highly rated engineering program staffed with NASA scientists, art museums, symphony, etc.

I spent two summers in California (Ocean Ave in Santa Monica near the pier 1967 and 1969) while my dad was in school for his company. 1997-1998 6 months on a work project in Torrance and lived in Playa del Rey. Two lengthy vacations in 2017 and 2019. I love California and though I don’t care for the political climate love the sunny skies and dry air. Everyplace has it’s fruitcakes (Hello Austin and Boulder, CO) but by and large people are just trying to get by and sure are much friendlier than here in the DC area where I live now.

DC sucks, high cost of living, snotty stuck-up people, antiquated roads, interminable traffic 7×24×365 and horrible weather… only about 20 days a yearwhere you can stand to be outside. It’s either so hot and humid (like Bama) or cold and the Chesapeake Bay, Tidal Potomac and Atlantic Ocean are humidity pumps.High levels of mold, mildew.

I could live in Palmdale near Edwards or Vegas or Phoenix. 45 minute plane ride great weekend gettaway to California.

Every place is what you make of it.

In Austin, Texas they would jump on that so fast your head would spin!

GEEZ! The first house we bought (4 bedroom, one bath) was $7,000. I can’t even imagine thinking $650,000 was a reasonable price.

Move to the midwest.

Well that was a quick walk through. I guess that is that! Unless they find a pot of gold while fighting fires. Fingers crossed.

I wouldn’t pay 650 grand for the White House!

Reality bites….I purchased my house, decades ago, at $65 K. Recently homes in my neighborhood (Fairly equivalent) went for over $210 k!

the biggest fear in Arizona, Californians moving here and “californianize” Arizona.

We were transferred to San Diego in 1989. We bought a 2-bedroom condo on Midway Drive for $90,500. Fast-forward to 1995, the bottom dropped out of the housing market, we couldn’t give it away. It took us 18 months to sell it, and thankfully we found a wonderful military buyer who bought it from us for $90,000. He lived there for 4 years, when he sold he got $160,000. I was happy for him. Today that SAME condo is selling for close to $399,000. Insanity.

And like that snapped right back into reality. LOL!

California jobs are also leaving CA. Here in Phoenix, we have huge data and operations campuses for Wells Fargo, Silicon Valley Bank, MUFG (Union Bank of CA), Bank of the West… Lower taxes, lower real estate prices, and an expanding economy due to CA corporations that don’t want to deal with CA regulations. Not surprising that jobs are hard to find in CA.

They’ll be back

Ack! That’s even worse than Seattle.

Remove one of the zeros and they might be able to afford it.

The problem is contractors are no longer build affordable houses. They persist on building 300-400K houses when really people can’t afford them and if they buy they can’t afford to either keep them or maintain them. Hey Builders, build a nice modest house at a decent price and they will come. And then there are the greedy house flippers. It’s a no win situation.

Just reminds me that everything comes with a cost, some higher than others

Is ANYONE going to comment about Brad and Toni walking out of their dream house? Or is everything real estate politics today?

I’m so glad they walked away. They will find something else…when the time and price are both right. Good choice!

Lakeport Ca. Still affordable Fled San Jose to come here 40 years ago. Lakeport is a mix of Mayberry RFD and Lake Woebegone. Sitting on a beautiful lake with the cleanest air in the nation 6 out of the last 10 years. Done with S Cal or the Bay??? Come by and check us out… I am retired and this place is Great

Don’t come to Eastern WA or Northern Idaho. Very high prices and lots of skin heads and every one packs iron. Bunch of Red necks for sure. CA is a good place to stay. Gun racks in every car and mean dogs in every pick up.

Guaranteed slavery to debt for the rest of one’s life. No way to live.

$650,000 might also cause them to Clinch tight onto their Checkbook.

They could have looked at the asking price before walking in.

It seems to me that they’re fine right where they are. They’ve built a nice room for Shannon, who will eventually come to live with them full-time. Now, if TJ would just find another place to live, it would be perfect. OTOH, TJ is kind of a built-in baby-sitter when both Brad and Toni are working. As for the price of the house here, around my neck of the woods, you can get a mobile home in a fairly nice park for that. You want a real house, you’re going to pay a heck of a lot more.

In 1985 I lived in Houston, working for Gulf Oil. Chevron bought Gulf and my job went to Concord, CA. They sent me to Concord for six weeks to help the transition from two methods of doing things into one. Got called to the manager’s office and offered a job. WONDERFUL! Wouldn’t have to look for a job and that part of the world is beautiful. THEN I spent some time with a realtor and decided I was better off in Houston without a job than I would be in Concord with one. A house comparable to the one I paid $50,000 for in Houston would be between one-eighty and two-forty depending on how close to the BART station it is. There were Chevron people praying for a transfer to Houston. In 1985, a hundred grand would buy a lot of house in Houston. They wanted to sell their house in the Bay area, move to Houston and pay cash for a nice house and bank a bunch of money for retirement or kid’s college fund. Lost of people have moved from California to Texas, and the problem is that they bring their liberal politics with’em.

Including the liberal politics part, you need more of that brother!! How is the market in Houston now though? I think it will overtake Chicago as the 3rd most populous city in 2020, but both metro areas are growing, and our center city area is popping.

Day 4 of a new arc, I don’t think this is over.

I may be wrong, but the way I look at it, the value of a home is mostly important when you are buying, selling, or using it as security for a loan. Since I am not doing any of the three, it is what it is.

Our neighborhood Citrus Heights older, hardwood floors, three and four bedrooms, about 1800 sg ft large lots, copper plumbing close to shopping are going for between $350K and $425K.

I hope their decision to walk away is firm and remains so! Brad and Toni have enough reality to face on firemen’s salaries without taking on a $650K house debt….

So i wonder how Brad and Toni will get the funds to get a contract started to buy their dream house.

They’ll be back. They’re “DINKs”, “Double Income No Kids”, I don’t know where others are from, but here, firefighters are far from being underpaid, and they’re locked into a civil service career path that gets more lucrative with time. They just need to examine their financial options. That house is totally doable. Next stop, the bank loan officer. Or Mom and Dad.

The strip’s transition from the structured environment of the high school days to the trials of young adulthood has not been kind to the youth of Pitts. Not long ago, the big issue was Gunther’s trouble asking Rosa to the prom, or Tiffany’s quandary trying to choose the correct shade of lipstick. Well, realty set in and there goes the neighborhood.

$650k – reality strikes “Luanniverse.”

definitely west coast or northern market – that much money in the southeast will buy you a small mansion.