Real Estate: Supply and Demand

About 40 years ago, I used to lie in bed on Sunday mornings with a cup of coffee and the “Los Angeles Times” opened to the real estate section: “Homes in Other States.” I recall voicing some level of buyer’s remorse, having just paid more for a who-cares house in Southern California, where I could have bought half a county in Oklahoma or Mississippi.

My girlfriend at the time, now my wife, would ask me, “But do you think you’d be happy living in West Virginia, with some of the sickliest and most poorly-educated people in the country?  Do you think that would forward your career and your overall life satisfaction?”  She had a point, to be sure.

Today’s MAGA conspiracy theorists will tell you that people are leaving California in droves, because of things like environmental regulations.  Yet that doesn’t explain why the Golden State, if it were a country, would have the fourth largest economy on the planet, and a house here identical to one in Alabama whose value there may be $200K would fetch about $1.2 million here.

People don’t come here for the wide-open freeways.  We’re here for the beauty, the sophistication of so many people, highly educated people, and unparalleled business opportunities.

There’s a reason that Google, Oracle, Uber, Apple, Nvidia, Adobe, Salesforce, Facebook, Visa, Wells Fargo, Disney, etc. aren’t located in Arkansas or Louisiana.