Where I live, the San Fernando Valley, the median home price for a house is $1.1m and for a townhouse, $850k.

But you're okay staying put, no?

For Sonoma, what would you get for $850k? Probably not near what my same priced house gets me here.

Plan?



No, the current plan, such as it is, is to stay here another year or so, and visit our two top spots, and see if we could stand living there. Meanwhile, we'll do a few updates/upgrades to make the house more saleable.

But if we had another half million we'd stay here.

Tell me about it. We had high heat and humidity nearly every day from south of the Twin Cities all the way through IN. The high in Huntington, IN was 106. I got a room. The city asked businesses to close early to take the strain off the power grid. That was the one day I seriously considered quitting.

Yes, we like it here. But at some point in the future, as age does its thing, we'll want to move.

The guvmint used to allow you to transfer your equity to another home without a tax hit, which was great. As it stands now for us, moving anywhere means a 7-figure tax bill.

Sadly, in my township, the prices are not much better. We bought our house 25 years ago. There is NFW we could afford to buy it now.

This is why so many Olds get sucked in by Reverse Mortgages. After all, Tom Selleck wouldn't mislead you, would he?

I was looking at the state of the housing market in San Mateo on Redfin, and this caught my eye:



Apparently not everyone in Knoxville thinks our weather is "gross".

Maybe not, but you don't have to run the AC 24/7/365. So, there's that.

As an outdoors enthusiast, good weather is worth its weight in gold, maybe x10.

Dern tootin'! I won't have to worry about rain till November, though I guess I will have to worry about smoke. After 44 years here, I'm so used to never having to think about rain that moving to where it might rain any day will be jarring.

Don't know about Sonoma. It's moot, as far as I'm concerned.

NSD! Got a 6-pack of team Mexico soccer fan socks, now I can be properly outfitted for riding the Schwinn!

presumably not that much, but whatever it is, it’s what lots of people live in. I’ve always wondered about this - what is the true quality of life benefit of a larger home, once you get past a certain point? a bedroom for every child, one for guests, maybe a home office or hobby room, how much space do two people really need? ans does it actually make people happier to have more space? my observation of family members as they got wealthy, aged, retired, moved, moved again, was that a lot of stressors and frustrations came along with big homes (single family or otherwise) and that past around 500 sf/person for a family with children and 750 sf/person for an adult couple, there is really zero benefit.

outdoor space is probably a different equation, but oddly people are going the other way, putting bigger houses on smaller or same size lots, leaving yards which are barely useful.

I’m certainly biased because we like spending a lot of time in the public realm - parks, libraries, shops, restaurants, streets, etc but the three of us lived so happily in 1,000sf for so long that when we moved (a bit after there became four of us) that it was strange and almost pointless to have more space to fill. my choice would be a relatively small place, but carefully designed, everything custom, real stone and wood everywhere, tons of windows and light and views in an amazing walkable neighborhood or a pristine beach, forest, etc. so, certainly not cheap and not “median” but those kinds of places are expensive everywhere. what people get when they downgrade to a cheaper metro is often just more space.

I just need about 300sf of house space and about 1000sf garage would probably do it.

They cracked.

My vivid memories are of being freezing cold.
You'd have to ask them, but I'd wager only a small percentage of people would make that move (in either direction) primarily due to climate. The economic/political/cultural differences are much greater.

Median home price where I live is $143,000 and comes with all of the corn, beans, wheat and pumpkins that you want to stare at.

I’ve told my wife that, heaven forbid, my goal for living would be similar. Room for a twin bed, recliner, tv, microwave, etc. and a garage to do whatever the Hell I wanted.

Outside of the city, you live in a beautiful area, IMHO. Humidity aside, and I’ve got that here, it’s gorgeous.

I've told mine i could go for a 2k' house if it had a 6-car garage.

For me the benefit is having room for friends and family. We've had as many as 60 people in our house for parties and celebrations. Holiday dinners are usually ten to twenty people.

Our house has lots of windows, a decent size lot, some privacy, quiet streets, and our main living area extends to our back patio and pool, and the house is a custom build with lots of design features for its price. Believe it or not, we use the space regularly.

We could go down in size, but don't want to. It doesn't present any stressor to us. It doesn't bother us that we don't live with open windows.

We had low-50s in the city this morning. A location in the Pine Barrens in NJ got down to 38. It's often shown on the news because it often is the coolest place around.

I could live here, at least in the spring-fall.

https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...?from=srp_next

Looks like Bio-pace sticker on the big ring.