Featured Despite price cuts, Tesla is making more cars than it can sell

I may be white on the outside, but maybe I'm actually African American. Anywho, I'm definitely one of the 34.2% that doesn't own a home.

How much are those homes in South Orange County may I ask?

 

Here you go, they're also in the building and around the corner, in a field. I took this photo this morning, on the way to work. When I drove by on the way home, gone.

 

But then he would have to move to orange county ;-) My brother got quoted $3K in suburban Atlanta, in his older house. not sure how a contractor can do an install for $500 if the panel isn't ready for it. Maybe the government is proviging some cash, georgia does not, austin pays 1/3.

There likely was not much profit margin in the 2022 prius and prime, and with toyota's chip shortage I'm sure they prioritized more profitable vehicles for production. with the redesign maybe they will make more and have bigger profit margins. There aren't really that many batteries for Toyota's rav4 prime and Prius prime for a couple of years

Looking it up its around $1.005 M for average home in the OC. With interest rates up that means you need a big income to buy, or a lot of cash.

 

I don't think that can be true as the average selling price needs to be reported and its $1M. I don't really want to debate.

 

Well I can get a loan for about $150,000. If it's more than that I don't care how much the house costs, it's not happening.

 

Here are some Orange County real estate indicators, March 2023:





Attached vs Detached dwellings:

 

Oops, I spoke too soon. Strike those Netflix DVDs soon. They just announced today that this service is ending, the last batch will be mailed September 29.

But Blockbuster video still remains open. Well, just for people in or near Bend, Oregon. Down about 99.989% from its worldwide peak.

 

My larger area isn't really all that much cheaper than OC.

Though it is crystal clear that we chose a wrong neighborhood when we bought in the late '80s. While appreciation has been very good, anything closer to Microsoft's primary campus would have produced far greater appreciation. Those make overall OC look like a bargain. MS was very small then, compared to now, and a lot of closer neighborhoods were equally affordable then as where we landed.

 

I wish I had bought a house years ago when they were a third the price they are now. The problem is I didn't make as much money back then and am unsure if I would have qualified for a mortgage. But at any rate, if something were to happen to the sweet deal on rent I have now, I'd be paying the same or more on the cheapest rent I can find as I would on the cheapest mortgage in my area: that is, about 1/2 my income or more. And although I could pay 1/2 my income on rent or a mortgage, I was looking at a rental application tha said I had to make at least 3 times the amount of the rental.

 

Income of 3X the mortgage payment was also a common coarse guideline back when we bought our house, decades ago. We needed both incomes to qualify at that time.

We ended up buying significantly less than the maximum we could afford, and in the long run, that was been a good choice. Within a few years, we could carry it on my income alone. The first round of mass layoffs was nerve wracking, but we survived. Later rounds were much less uncomfortable, and we had paid off the mortgage and greatly boosted both retirement and non-retirement savings well before the eventual two-pink-slip Christmas.

If you pick just the right neighborhood, the largest house you can afford just might pay off. But for average neighborhoods, the carrying cost of not just the mortgage, but also the maintenance, utilities, repairs, and property taxes, makes a home 'investment' less attractive than long term stock market gains. In my region, property taxes also effectively consume the entire property value over a human lifetime. So when thinking of long term investment potential, buy only as much house as you need, not a lot of extra, and put the difference into better investments. The primary value of buying a house is to avoid paying rent.

 

if i could unstick mrs b, i'd be interested in this:

bradley-cooper-lists-the-first-home-he-ever-bought-for-2-4m

 

Ya, that makes sense. In my case I am the only source of income in our family. If something happens to me then we'd be at zero income. I'm not complaining, but that's our reality.

I was tempted to get a home in up state New York in an area where homes are around $150,000 until I realized property taxes in that area were thousands per year ($5,000 or so on that particular old house IIRC). I've seen similar situations in Texas.

But if housing gets too expensive then I guess that means it's time to move somewhere regardless if it's ideal or not. There are cheap houses around Detroit, although I don't have any reason or desire to move there other than maybe we could afford it and we'd have a place we could install an EVSE for an EV.

 

Back on topic, despite the price cuts Tesla reported good profitability (19% margin on vehicles) and falling costs. The stock went down because instead of keeping production here, they are ramping up and Tesla says it will keep cutting prices for the heavier volume. That is good news for the BEV market but a little bad news for tesla's current stock holders. It is now getting close to the point where I may buy back in.