How much is your local "Trump at the Pump Tax?"

Sounds pretty big even now.

Issac is in Gunnison, Colorado which is the town that services Crested Butte right up the street. My brother has a place there he uses as a base to get away from Texas heat and for occasional skiing. The trick there or in any resort area is to get into the real estate market when you are young. It always seems expensive at first and rentals are almost always less initially.

What you don't want to do is rent a place for 30 years only to realize you have just paid off the owner's mortgage.

 

Filling up last night, $5.89 for midgrade at my chosen store (about a dime or two above other stations closer to the port).

 

Ah. That's a whole different kind of crazy.

In the great lakes region since the 1990s, that would be the approximate size of a lot of two storey colonials, often with only a two car garage. Lots of really stupid houses since then will be twice that.

If you go back to 19th century neighborhoods the house will have very high ceilings and a lot of ornate woodwork, but the square footage will be modest by current standards, and those people were dealing with coal for a boiler.

 

A single-story two-bedroom house from the 50's with a garage.

The ones with nice counter tops and such are in the several millions, if not tens of millions.

The cheapest I can find is a condo built in the 70's in not great condition with no yard, no storage and two car spaces for about $300,000. I've thought about it, but the payments would be considerably more than what I'm paying now in rent, and I have a yard here. Who knows, maybe for taking care of my parents I'll eventually inherit their house. Or I've thought about moving to somewhere south-of-the-boarder when I can't afford it here anymore.

Yes, you remember correctly. We are the next town down from the ski town by about 30 miles, so we have more of the 2 million and cheaper houses instead of the 5 or 10 million houses. The farther away you go the cheaper housing gets but the more you have to commute over treacherous mountain passes which can get a bit hairy in the winter. Right now I'm close enough I can bike or even walk to work, stores, schools, etc.

Also every house, condo and other that I've looked at I've also looked at the sale's history and everything is double the price it was before COVID, so remote workers and people who decided to retire and move to the mountains during the pandemic is another reason housing is so expensive.

I had the opportunity to buy homes before the pandemic and didn't jump on them. About 10 years ago you could find duplexes, modular homes and other such housing that came with the land it sat on for as little as $60,000 with many at $100,000 or under. I can think of 4 of such opportunities I didn't jump on right off the top of my head. It's amazing how much prices jumped during COVID.