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Cost of living and the cost of durable goods

WB9YZU

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Madison, WI
I guess what started off this thought was the idea of replacing my XJ. However, a quick reality check of New and Used car prices set me straight.
It is more cost effective to continue to fix the poor bastage, even with major repairs figured in, than it is to replace it.

The cheapest thing you can get in a Jeep lineup is a Patriot. At $16K starter price, I think it's a bit pricey for the little milage king. It goes up from there of course.
You almost need to take out a mortage on cars to afford them. Gee, I wonder why the big 3 are in trouble? You can't sell New if the old stuff doesn't die, and the replacement is too expensive. Boneyards must be making a mint !

Housing is the same way. I can't believe people manage to pay for $250K houses !
Considering that the average household income is $50K, the idea of owning a house or even renting an apartment in some places, is becoming obsene.

Is it just me, or is the cost of durable goods going out of sight, while the cost of passive goods, (phones, TV sets, Game consoles, computers and the like) are going into the drink.

...Ron
 
$250k for a house will buy you a shack next to the bus station in much of California.


The cost of living is going up. I havent been around long enough to know what that truly means. But even my young little self remembers a time when one didnt have to pay $3 for a gallon of gas.
 
Starboard M said:
$250k for a house will buy you a shack next to the bus station in much of California.


The cost of living is going up. I havent been around long enough to know what that truly means. But even my young little self remembers a time when one didnt have to pay $3 for a gallon of gas.
sadly I'm not old enough to remember it below a buck with the exception of a few very rare times.
food costs are what really blow me away these days. on sale a ribeye steak is 7 bucks a pound, a quality one will run 16+! yikes.
 
Starboard M said:
$250k for a house will buy you a shack next to the bus station in much of California.


The cost of living is going up. I havent been around long enough to know what that truly means. But even my young little self remembers a time when one didnt have to pay $3 for a gallon of gas.

I remember me and dad gettin gas for 79 cents a gallon....
 
I just paid 690K for a 3/1 1050sq ft. home in the San Francisco Bay Area (with the market in the crapper). It is crazy but last year this same house would have cost me 750K-775K. I hate CA sometimes.
 
Last edited:
kdailey4315 said:
I just paid 690K for a 3/1 1050sq ft. home in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is crazy. I hate CA sometimes.

We sold our 5400 sq. ft. house on the country club for $960,000 on .8 acres last spring


bought a 3k sq. ft. ranch on 1 acre, less than 500 yards up the road for $250,000
 
I too have had the passing thought of the XJ being replaced as a main mode of transportation. I would never rid myself of the XJ for a gas miser- even though I commute 70 miles a day for work, most times 6 days a week. I am just not comfortable or satisfied in a lunchbox on wheels.
I moved from CA in Dec. 06 and we sold our duplex with a total of 2200 SF for 730K. Granted there was a 740SF addition with Jacuzzi, porcelain tile, custom cabinetry, skylight, central HVAC, etc, but damn, the market went to the dumper after we sold.
Auto makers have yet to catch onto the fact that $30k for a good midsize car or SUV after factoring annual taxes and insurance premiums is NOT a good deal unless you are leasing and claim it on your taxes as a business writeoff- which has it's limitations on the percent you can claim.
Geez, it seems if you want anything with air conditioning and a stereo with more than three speakers and 3 watts peak power you need to spend a minimum of $15k. Yes, there are Hyundai and Kia, but again, how many people want a lunchbox with wheels...
 
O NO.................I remember the gas wars and ..................................25 cent gasoline. YES I said .25 not 2.50 .25
 
needsrepair said:
O NO.................I remember the gas wars and ..................................25 cent gasoline. YES I said .25 not 2.50 .25

heh, when I started driving it wasn't too terribly long after the 1st gulf war and gas was *GASP* 1.30 a gallon, guess it hovered around there for a good decade.
I remember seeing guys going around to the pumps trying to get the last drops of gas stuck in the hose lol
 
philip_g said:
heh, when I started driving it wasn't too terribly long after the 1st gulf war and gas was *GASP* 1.30 a gallon, guess it hovered around there for a good decade.
I remember seeing guys going around to the pumps trying to get the last drops of gas stuck in the hose lol


COLORADO What a state. We did Ouray, Almont, Taylor Park, Tin Cup, etc in August. I love Co.
 
Starboard M said:
$250k for a house will buy you a shack next to the bus station in much of California.


The cost of living is going up. I havent been around long enough to know what that truly means. But even my young little self remembers a time when one didnt have to pay $3 for a gallon of gas.

No kidding about the CA prices. I checked it out a year or two ago. Pretty wild for my tastes. The thing which drove the houses up was folks coming here from CA and other places, selling for whatever they got, then coming here and not even bothering to research the local market, simply plunked down what the price on the sign said. Pretyy soon the realestate folks figured out that these folks were indeed ignorant and boosted the prices. The same thing has happened with farm land because of the Amish from PA. They move here and think nothing of buying land for 2X what it was worth 3 years ago - Cash.

I remember $10/Gallon gas. I remember my Dad telling me that if gas reached a $1/Gal he would stop driving - Sure, that happened ;)

I used to own quite a few "lunchbox on wheels", or as we used to call them, "Pregnant Rollerskates". Awesome gas milage 32-40mpg depending on your foot. Light cars, #2K at most and a sub 2.0L engine. With todays gov standards, and what folks want in performance and features, you couldn't make a car like that now, but they are what we need.

Cost of living should be what it costs you to have decent Food, Shelter, Medical care, and to get to/from your job. Unfortunately, for most folks, the cost of housing is more than 40% of their take home. Then you subtract food, and if they are lucky, they have health insurance. Then add the cost for most folks, the convenience of having an automobile. Unfortunately, it costs way more than .45cents per mile if the thing is used and "affordable". I think the stat that I saw was $2,500 a year under 3K miles/year.
Anyway, by the time you get done working for your car, your house, your food, and medical, you don't have too much left.

Ron
 
philip_g said:
Too many people here...
It has always astounded me that so many people live in the Front range.
Make no mistake, I think the area is beautiful. But it seems to me that the environmental load per capita is rather high.

Ron
 
Zuki-Ron said:
. Unfortunately, for most folks, the cost of housing is more than 40% of their take home. Then you subtract food, and if they are lucky, they have health insurance. Then add the cost for most folks, the convenience of having an automobile. Unfortunately, it costs way more than .45cents per mile if the thing is used and "affordable". I think the stat that I saw was $2,500 a year under 3K miles/year.
Anyway, by the time you get done working for your car, your house, your food, and medical, you don't have too much left.

Ron

Try 60-70% for a lot of Californians.
 
What keeps going up and up is daycare costs and insurance, both health and vehicle. We bought our 875 sq. ft house for 85k last March (fully remodeled, new appliances, etc) because it was cheaper to buy a house here than to rent. Go figure. Daycare costs us $178 a WEEK for both kids, and my wife's work changed their insurance plans from no copay to a $20 copay with no reduction in regular pay deductions.

Between paying daycare every week, utilities, mortgage and buying groceries, there is usually a little month left at the end of the money. Milk at $3.99 a gallon doesn't help either with 2 small kids in the house. Shoot, it almost seems worth it to stay home with the kids than to work! 100% of my paycheck goes to daycare.

We both took a decent pay cut to move down here so I could go back to school, hoping the cost of living would be less since Vincennes is a smaller town. It is less, but not by a whole lot. Oh well, only a year and a half of school left and then hopefully the state will be paying my salary/benefits and it will get better.
 
IllianaXJ said:
Between paying daycare every week, utilities, mortgage and buying groceries, there is usually a little month left at the end of the money. Milk at $3.99 a gallon doesn't help either with 2 small kids in the house. Shoot, it almost seems worth it to stay home with the kids than to work! 100% of my paycheck goes to daycare.

Lots of folks make the decission to stay at home based on income and the cost of child care. Some folks I've known say that their job just wasn't making enough to cover the gas to/from the day care and the cost of it.

I grew up on powdered milk. I know, it tastes like ... But we got a methode going, and if we let it get real cold, we hardly noticed it.
It takes finess and a consistant methode. You may want to try it.

Ron
 
Zuki-Ron said:
It has always astounded me that so many people live in the Front range.
Make no mistake, I think the area is beautiful. But it seems to me that the environmental load per capita is rather high.

Ron
You can't get away!
all the national and state parks seem overrun with people, if they're not from the front range they're from cali or tx.

there's a nice, HUGE national park not just 15 minutes from my house, completely overrun with dirt bikes, it's maddening, really.

But I'm a transplant, I'm a montana kid and I'm used to a bit more solitude. It's probably fucked there too, the mountain lakes we had to jeep into probably have two lane highways leading right to them now. Sad really. Go up in the mountains here close to denver and look at the hill side, looks like someone dropped confetti all over with the density of houses.
 
ZacSquatch said:
We sold our 5400 sq. ft. house on the country club for $960,000 on .8 acres last spring


bought a 3k sq. ft. ranch on 1 acre, less than 500 yards up the road for $250,000

We?

You mean mommy and daddy?

;)
 
Thats why Im leaving Hawaii!!
When I was working on the movie sets and making 14-16K a month it was no problem, housing market dropped real low and I bought my house cash! housing market went up, movies dwindled down and all of a sudden the $3.75 a gallon for deisel was way to high, let alone the $4-500 a moth for food and I even quit smoking for a while because I couldnt afford the $5.75 a pack for the cheap stuff!!
Sold my home and bought 2 in Oregon and still have some left over to start my business.

Now I could almost have bought a new KIA for what I have in the Jeep, My only saving grace is the Porsche gets 25-30 MPG depending on how heavy my foot is that day.

Jeremy
 
IllianaXJ said:
What keeps going up and up is daycare costs and insurance, both health and vehicle. We bought our 875 sq. ft house for 85k last March (fully remodeled, new appliances, etc) because it was cheaper to buy a house here than to rent. Go figure. Daycare costs us $178 a WEEK for both kids, and my wife's work changed their insurance plans from no copay to a $20 copay with no reduction in regular pay deductions.

Between paying daycare every week, utilities, mortgage and buying groceries, there is usually a little month left at the end of the money. Milk at $3.99 a gallon doesn't help either with 2 small kids in the house. Shoot, it almost seems worth it to stay home with the kids than to work! 100% of my paycheck goes to daycare.

We both took a decent pay cut to move down here so I could go back to school, hoping the cost of living would be less since Vincennes is a smaller town. It is less, but not by a whole lot. Oh well, only a year and a half of school left and then hopefully the state will be paying my salary/benefits and it will get better.
Your daycare story sounds like my friends situation. His wife was working to pay for daycare, and not much more.
She ended up quiting her job, cutting back some of there expenses, and sitting some other kids.
They were much happier, and money ahead.
 
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