Following on from yesterday’s post about that island off Miami, here’s an alternative:
As a former city boy, I have to say that I wouldn’t be averse to this kind of setup — just not in NYfC. The thought of restaurants and stores being just an elevator ride away… yeah, I could do it.
And as for the inevitable “privacy” complaints: acceptance of its loss is just part of the compromise one makes when deciding to live downtown.
Okay, I could do this, following an appropriately-sized major crime lottery win:
First improvement I’d make: a clay pigeon station (on the ocean side, away from prying eyes behind binoculars). Second: hang some steel plates between the dock pilings, for some .22 plinking.
Third: some kind of seagoing vessel (screw that helicopter foolishness), for both commuting and fishing purposes:
…and lastly, a Barrett M82A1 rifle, to repel any prospective intruders from distance:
I have the shorter-range issue well covered, as you may imagine.
Feel free to add your suggestions in Comments.
Seems as though a few areas in the U.S. have seen large growth in real estate values since the Covid thing. Mostly, it should be said, this is because property in the area was relatively inexpensive — i.e. the growth is off a low base. Some of the towns, though, are inexplicable.
Top 10 cities and how much the value of their homes has increased since 2019:
See any on the list where you’d care to live? Your comments are welcome.
I had a quiet chuckle at this story:
A home that was featured in a 2010s hit TV show finally sold after a massive price cut and 12 years on the market.
The Barrington Hills home in Illinois sold for $6.5million on April 25 after spending more than a decade on the market.
But it wasn’t that the home – that was featured in all six seasons of Empire that ran from 2015 – wasn’t beautiful or wasn’t in a good, very secluded area, it was simply the price point.
The home originally tried to sell for $15.9million in 2013, before dropping to $12.5million in 2016.
‘This price point is very difficult to sell in Illinois, period,’ said agent Michael LaFido. ‘It’s not like Florida, it’s not like California where they’re having $10[million] to $20million [homes].’
LaFido said only a ‘handful’ of homes priced at $6.5million and above are sold each year.
Yeah. In Illinois, maybe that’s true. Let’s be honest: who would want to live in the People’s Soviet of Illinois, a state run by Fatboi Pritzker? Only people who’ve lived there all their lives — and I see that the house was eventually purchased by someone local. Nobody with any kind of wealth is moving to Illinois, after all — in fact, the reverse is true, and Fatboi’s mismanagement of the state, its sky-high taxes, sky-high crime rates and all the other Blue State blues are causing wealthy people to flee Illinois rather than move there.
So you have a shrinking pool of prospective buyers, the area is not close to Chicago — Barrington Hills is over 40 miles away from the Loop — and the house was overpriced for that market to start off with.
Compare and contrast that with this house here in Plano.
(more pics below the fold, if you don’t want to follow the link)
Nice, not as pretentious — none of that faux-baronial stuff — same kind of acreage as the Barrington house…
…but it sold within 11 hours of its initial listing.
I mean, if you’re going to spend that kind of money and had a choice of location, would you rather live in north Texas, or northern Illinois?
For the past week or so, this pic has been my wallpaper — and a pretty pic is is, too.
However, only a day ago my eye was drawn to this little detail in the bottom-right corner:
I mean, if you’re going to do that camping thing, there are far uglier places to do it e.g. Newark NJ or Bradford Yorks. Still, it niggles me for reasons I can’t explain.
Amid rising fears of furriners buying up Murkin land comes this little glimmer of sunshine:
Governor Greg Abbott (R-TX) vowed to back legislation prohibiting Chinese, Russian, Iranian, and North Korean citizens and entities from purchasing land in Texas.
The bill, submitted two months ago by Republican state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, states that citizens, corporations, and government agencies of the four nations “may not purchase or otherwise acquire title to real property” in the state. Abbott confirmed on Sunday that he would endorse the legislation, which has not yet been voted upon by lawmakers.
The bill should pass — and if not, I’ll be looking at the list of who voted against it.
