40 Years In San Diego — Changes — Lunch With Mom
Posted @ 7:13 pm - Filed under Sez Me, Weekend Thoughts, Lunch With Mom
Yesterday marked my 40th year as a San Diego resident. On June 15th, 1967 I’d just finished my last day of school. I’d decided to move from Orange County and live with Dad. There were no problems with Mom, a teenage boy just needs a dad, right? Anyway, San Diego at the time sported about a million people in the county. They now have more than that inside the city limits. There are 3 million in the county — triple, and it’s been that way for awhile.
As one looks back, the changes are mind boggling. I clearly remember taking the train from the Fullerton depot to San Diego on visits to Dad. He’d pick me up at the downtown Sante Fe Depot — which is one of the few things that haven’t changed much in 40 years. There are several finished new freeways that go to centers of population that simply didn’t exist the day I first arrived. There are also several regional malls now. Downtown was scary after dark, and no day at the park otherwise. Today? It’s the polar opposite. The Gaslamp area is now nationally known. There have been hundreds of condos built and sold, many with breathtaking views.
The Padres were a minor league team then, and played downtown at Lane Field. A caveat: I’m not at all sure when it was demolished. The aerial shot was taken long before I was born. It’s long gone, as it was near the water and not exactly the highest and best use of the location. Today, they are a major league team, have been to the World Series twice, and are on their second stadium, located — you guessed it — downtown. The wheel has gone full circle. Here’s Petco Park in all its spendor.
Less than 30 months after first arriving in San Diego, October 1969, I was driving to one of my dad’s real estate offices for my first day of work as a licensed agent. I took a listing six hours later from a FSBO — $18,100 for a 4 beddroom home. Since it was overpriced, it never sold. Go figure.
My guess is back then, the median price for a home was give or take $22,000. In fact, when someone once listed a home in a neighborhood known as Del Cerro for almost $35,000, we couldn’t wait for caravan day to see what a home that expensive looked like.
There are so many more high schools since I moved here. I can’t name many of them. There are a few new junior colleges. San Diego State soon became so overcrowed, the ‘four year degree’ became a local joke. My daughter attends SDSU — and gets there by trolley. Today, the largest traffic problems at rush hour are generated by North County residents. 40 years ago? It was unwanted vacant land, populated by folks wanting to be away from ‘the masses’. In that area of the county there are at least a half dozen new high schools. And the home? The vast majority of homes in that area are easily above the county median price.
The one thing that hasn’t changed? It’s the one bad thing about living here.
You don’t know where to go for vacation.
Lunch with Mom (Grandma)
Looking at this photo, taken at her sister’s place, it’s no wonder the BawldGuy grew up properly oriented to authority.
A while back I thought it would be cool for Josh and I to visit Mom for lunch once a week. We get to eat her home cooking, visit with her, and catch up on family goings on. Josh gets to learn about Dad sometimes, but generally hears family stories told in the first person by Grandma. It’s been a super addition to our weekly schedule. A sit down lunch with a very nice salad of some kind, and we’re often served entres made directly from her Grandma’s (her mom) old cook book. It doesn’t get much better than that.
This week we had chicken fried steak with mashed taters ‘n gravy. You could hear the arteries closing while you ate. It was so good, it was like lunch was a giant dessert. Mom’s 76 years old but still works out regularly, does a lot of my local loan doc signing, and pretty much whatever else she feels like doing. Fortunately her little sister lives here too, about 45 minutes away.
Sometimes Mom says something during lunch which inspires a blog post here. It happened this week.
She reminded me of how much I’d learned from all the previous market corrections. I’d said after each one that the next time I’d do things differently because I’d seen the movie before. She was right, as we’re going to several states and acting as if this correction won’t be different than the last half dozen. Thanks to the ‘we’re always one step from another great depression’ media, we’ve been able to stay under the radar almost everywhere we go.
My thought for this Saturday is this: Though my crystal ball is a cracked as yours, I’m beginning to believe the days of sneaking into Boise, or Kansas City, or Denver etc., under the radar, and buying great property at great prices, might be coming to an end. At least the under the radar part. I think it’s possible that by the first quarter of ‘08 only the stubborn, blood thirsty media will still be claiming the sky is falling.
Real estate investors — buying now won’t be the worst thing you’ve ever done. Just don’t do it in places like San Diego.
This entry was posted on Saturday, June 16th, 2007 at 7:13 pm and is filed under Sez Me, Weekend Thoughts, Lunch With Mom. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.