I'm in Santa Barbara, CA. Good friend of mine just bought a shithole 3-2 1300sqft for $2.2m. $3M doesn't go very far considering 30 years ago it was retirement status almost anywhere.
I don’t get it, at this point you move to Baja or Portugal (for similar climate) and live like a king without ever having to work again (unless you want to). Or a cheaper east coast state if you wanna stay in the US on the coast and have access to to all the same fast food and Walmarts.
How does medical care factor in to your plans? Do those places have equivalent access to care if you stay in or around the main cities?
Even something like living in the countryside domestically would worry me (that is, longer times between calling for help and it arriving, then time to be transported to a medical centre or hospital, and then probably getting transported to the city anyway for access to advanced medical care).
I'm one of those people who took "the money and [ran]"
I'm a digital nomad and have been traveling full time for 7 years now. It's great, it's a good balance of work/life balance but one thing you slowly start to notice is when you leave your country, no matter if you learn the language or how much integrate yourself into that country, you will always be an outsider to the majority in that country.
As an american you will always be a Yankee, Farang or Gringo and will carry the weight of the US collective.
As a neurodiverse offspring of a biracial marriage, I’m starting to feel more and more like an outsider in my home state. Though I’d likely feel it much more if I left now, to your point.
I meant and left out a key word; "most recent". Whoops!
I'm used to seeing yearly or every-other-year streetview updates for locations I look at regularly.
That said, might be mixing up my broader impression with the interval of satellite photo updates in the google earth history.
(but my bay area neighborhood does indeed have streetview history updating every year or so; obviously this is probably on the high end given proximity to tech companies...)
that's not a glamour shot, that's just a sunny day. the dirty little secret of the southern california coast is it is cloudy more than half the time. west la, downright depressing. they call it "the marine layer", i call it cloudy as fuck.
My first sentence is saying "I'm not saying the prices are reasonable."
How does my second sentence say the prices are reasonable? My second sentence is saying chasebank's friend did something that doesn't make sense. It's not saying the housing market in Santa Barbara is reasonable.
Are you intentionally ignoring you said "nice" for what most would consider to be a source of ridicule (4BR SFH in 2k sqft). BTW, you haven't made an argument about real estate differences. The smaller home might be a better deal.
And you're using a turn of phrase that is the opposite of your apparent intent.
I have to ask, if they have access to get a loan of $2.2m then the friend could likely save for 5-7 years and just retire someplace cheap. Like, spending that much seems wild given the implied access to straight cash.