The long goodbye

That’s awesome Robert, congratulations! Looks like a nice area if Google Earth is to be believed. Good luck with your move.

It’s an awesome area! A block from a golf course. Three from the beach. Stunning scenery. And we get to use the Ritz’ Olympic pool.

Good luck Scoble. The SO and I went to the beach at half moon bay in March. It was beautiful though a bit on the colder side even in March.

Congrats Robert! Both to the new job, but even more so to the house. Half Moon Bay huh, well you better take up surfing and do Mavericks!!!!

Niels

Niels: I don’t think I’ll be doing Mavericks anytime soon (for those who don’t know they get some of the biggest waves in the world there and at least one professional surfer has died there).

Congrats on getting the house! That’s such a beautiful area.

Best of luck to your in new life and new work. I know that first few days are very tough and naturally you will not get any time to blog here. However, please do not take too much time. Almost everyday, we come to your blog to read your writing and there are many of us who even put comments and take part in the discussion. So, for our sake, please keep blogging and write wonderful and magical entries always.
Good wishes and best luck for you.

Robert, I hope you get to work from home, otherwise you need a helicopter

Zoli: we’ve already been stuck in the traffic. It is bad, yeah, but not THAT bad. Even with it going stop and go it took only 30 minutes to go from our new house to Fwy 280. Plus Maryam and I will travel together and she’ll drive me in the BMW. Whheeee.

But a helicopter? Now THAT would be cool!

razib: I’ll definitely keep blogging. In fact blogging is in both Maryam and my job descriptions.

Robert – get an ultralight for your commute ;^)

Seriously – congrats! HMB is a beautiful spot. I used to spend a good amount of time there and always found it wonderfully refreshing. And you’re close (traffic permitting) to some great places.

Good luck with the closing, selling, moving, and getting settled. I’m dealing with a lot of the same changes (as you know) but blessedly do not have a physical move in the mix.

I love half moon bay – it’s a beautiful location. I’m sure you’ll it there. Good luck at the new endeavors – I’ll keep reading!

Karma?

Congrats again, neighbor!

I’d check your assumptions. I’ve known several people who worked in Silicon Valley and tried living at Half Moon Bay, but never anyone who liked it. The commute is worse than long–in winter storms it is often nearly impossible. There is nothing of the complex texture of San Francisco or Palo Alto out on the beach. You leave the glorious weather, the restaurants, the cultural diversity of the populated areas, and drive into perpetual fog for a long time. Virtually no one will ever make the drive out to visit you. There is a good reason why the peninsula south of San Francisco developed inside the range of protecting coastal hills. (From Menlo Park, you could drive to San Francisco directly up highway 280 in about the same time, and live in a truly wonderful environment. There’s a reason why the Google buses with WiFi come down from San Francisco every day, rather than from Half Moon Bay.)

Robert,

I live in Bellevue, and grew up in Burlingame, just over the hill from where you will be living.

One of my favorite memories of Half Moon Bay is going on Sundays to listen to Jazz at at a place called the Bach Dynamite and Dancing Society.

http://www.bachddsoc.org/

I miss it terribly and tho’ I don’t know what type of music you like, I guarantee you there is nothing like hanging our with freinds on the patio of this house while the waves come in and the music is playing.

If you ever go, think of this reader that gave you grief once in a while, and has stuck around since you had “like 17 readers” and told you the true story of the Medina house built by the “guy who invented the contact lens” after you first moved up here and went on a boat tour.

Best of luck to you, Maryam and Patrick.

I am happy good things are happening to you and look forward to hearing more of your thoughts at podtech.net. Best wishes to a safe move and change of scenery. Many people blog, few do so with as much class as you have. Thanks for teaching, Peace.

California’s real estate market is showing signs of slowing down.

Well, in Bay Areaisms yeah, but look up North to like Elk Grove, growing like gangbusters. The craziness of the Valley and San Fran, is bubbleish, and some of the steam is outletting in Sacramento. I know this as you brought all your freaking traffic up here.

But the smart money is moving out of California, look around, happening all over. Valley will always be techy, and LA will always be moviey, Napaisms will always be Winey, and California plains will always be Aggy, but still lots (tons) heading for greener pastures. Ahnuld needs to firehose up things more.

$35K under asking price? Maybe the asking price was so outta wack, that 35K under is barely acceptable. But I dunno, heard that line from so many Real Estate agents (heck was a Marketing Director for them), it’s a feel good lie to ease your mortgage hits. When you are dealing with Appraisers, Mortagage guys and Real Estate agents, nothing is EVER what it seems, fraud as policy. My advice? Rent.

Robert,

If your house sells in a day or two, you lost money and your real estate agent is ripping you off.

Read Freakonomics about how when RE agents sell their own house, they take on average 10 days longer to sell and get ~4% more.

Is your agent really going to get 6% for 1-2 days of work?

@19 I agree wiht MC. Push your RE to get the maximum price possible. Your RE likely has a number of houses he/she is selling, so the faster she sells yours the faster she can move on to the next deal. The difference to her is minimal, the difference to you is considerable. Don’t let her rush you.

Avoid the road in and out of Half Moon Bay on the weekends leading up to Halloween. Over on a visit from the UK, after a few days in SF we picked up a car at the airport and headed out to Big Sur. not long after hitting the cross country road to Half Moon Bay, we crawled to walking pace.

Expecting to see an accident, after half an hour or so we discovered that the cause of the delay was the traffic at the pumpkin farms a few miles out of Half Moon Bay.

Nice country, though. But the commute look horrible to me.

What you’re experiencing isn’t true of California real estate in general (which is basically holding steady) — I suspect it’s particular to Half Moon Bay. That area is somewhat economically depressed at the moment because of the Devil’s Slide closure (the road from HMB to San Francisco is going to be closed for like the next six months which I’m sure you knew). So it’s bad for the people who live there, but good for people like you who are moving in there, if that makes any sense.

Would love to have you guys up at our place for brunch or whatever the next time you’re in the city!

Speaking of Devil’s Slide, Barry Parr has been doing an *incredible* job reporting on what’s going on with his Coastsider project. The key link:

Devil’s Slide reporting:
http://coastsider.com/comments/1283_0_1_0_C/

Travel times and maps are linked from the right side of that page as well.

If travel times are > 30min from Hwy280 and you’re coming from Woodside or points south, bail out at Woodside Road (Hwy 84) and come over the top. It’ll drop you onto Hwy 1 at San Gregorio, and is a great drive in a sports car. It’s 45min (consistent) from Buck’s. And you can stop off at the San Gregorio Store ( http://www.sangregoriostore.com/ ) for a cool refreshing beverage on the way as you hit the coast.

You saved $35K, yeah yeah, just like you earned $2,800 when you traded-in that car. Overnight the price of that used car went up by $2,800 (they don’t do trade-ins for new cars usually).

Car Dealerships, Real Estate Agents, Mortgagers, Appraisers, not an honest atom in the lot. And even if, if you find one by some random Act of God, you are still getting killed on the mortgage itself. Real Estate is only a good investment when you purchase outright (or own before a bubbleish boom).

I am gonna turn you into a cynical skeptic yet. Still hope.

Real estate prices here in Los Angeles are slipping a bit. A house two doors away has been on the market for three months+, and they’ve dropped the price, something that’s not unusual of late.

Three months used to be an eternity for a house to sell. 18 months ago my condo sold in 6 weeks and my real estate agent (and friend) thought that was a long time.

He also thinks real estate is slowing down here.

Good luck on the move and in getting re-established.

Hey, via the blog, you already have a zillion friends and contacts where you’re moving to!