Category: Real Estate

The Twitter IPO: Are We Partying Like It’s 1999?

Today, at roughly 9:45 a.m., I’m walking in Ess Eff Sea Eh on 2nd Street at Mission, heading towards Market, and my cool-car detector fires off, as I see a red Ferrari convertible going through the intersection, headed towards 1st Street. This is the car:   That’s it, right down […]

San Francisco Realty Realities Bite or Nourish, Depending on Which Side You’re On

I am fortunate to live in Noe Valley, San Francisco, California, USA, North America, Earth. I am doubly fortunate to have bought a house in En-Vee Ess-Eff See-Eh in 1996 (though admittedly the downside of this time scaling is that it puts me well into the second half — final […]

15-Year vs. 30-Year Mortgages (Part 1): Fun with Pix and Historic Data

A few days ago I wrote about the difference between tax-deferred retirement accounts and tax-paid retirement accounts, and commented about how the difference between the two is akin to a choice between instant gratification (for TDAs) and delayed gratification (for TPAs). So how about taking that same framework to mortgages? […]

The Wholly-Terrifying Risk of Non-Diversifiable Assets

Most of the ways in which we store money are diversifiable. For example, if you store some money in the stock market, you can own a bunch of different stocks. And these days you can even own a single investment which represents, to a very close level of approximation, proportionate […]

Of Hockey Players and Home Buyers: The Luck of the (Birth) Draw

Not long ago (15 years, say) you could buy a decent house in San Francisco for $40k down and $2.5k a month. For many, that was doable, especially since it cost $2.5k to rent that same house. And, as icing on the cake, you got the appreciation ride — an […]