I remember those days. It was 1982. I was 30. I had recently moved to San Diego. I lived with roommates. One was a real estate agent. I borrowed his MLS listing book, which was the size of a good sized phone book. There wasn't any Internet then. I browsed through the MLS book for hours and located an old neighborhood were houses were small and less costly and where younger people were moving in and fixing up. I found a house that was owned free and clear by a guy out of state who had inherited it from his aunt and wanted to sell fast. He was asking $62,000. He made a seller carry back loan for $50,000 for five years. I borrowed $15,000 from my dad to cover the down and the closing costs. The loan payment was about $450. My dad agreed to take full payment when I sold. I refinanced after the five years. I stayed there for 15 years and sold for $140,000 and moved up north. I recently looked on Zillow and saw that the place was going for over $1 million. It was built in 1922, and was only 800 sq ft. They did some remodelling, but it was still about the same. Who could afford it now at that cost? $10 an hour was good pay. You'd have to be making $200 an hour to buy it now.
