Today’s New York Times carries a couple of stories about housing, illustrating the contrast between the Coasts.
Story 1: a four-bedroom apartment in Manhattan now averages $5.7 million
Story 2: for a paltry $3 million you can build an all-steel germ-free 11,000 square foot mansion in Simi Valley, California, right next to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
Should you need to travel back and forth between these residences, another story on the booming luxury goods market talks about the private jets for sale in this year’s Neiman Marcus Christmas catalog.
[Apparently none of these home buyers read the August 11 blog entry here on Chinese-built prefab houses, to be sold at Walmart.]
Psychologists have shown conclusively that increased income doesn’t lead to increased happiness (at least, not beyond a minimal, base-level of income needed to lift you up from poverty). In general, people are very bad at predicting which things will make them happy or unhappy.
See, for example, this excellent, recent article from the New York Times Magazine:
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The Futile Pursuit of Happiness
If Daniel Gilbert is right, then you are wrong. That is to say, if Daniel Gilbert is right, then you are wrong to believe that a new car will make you as happy as you imagine. You are wrong to believe that a new kitchen will make you happy for as long as you imagine. […]
The problem, as Gilbert and company have come to discover, is that we falter when it comes to imagining how we will feel about something in the future. It isn’t that we get the big things wrong. We know we will experience visits to Le Cirque and to the periodontist differently; we can accurately predict that we’d rather be stuck in Montauk than in a Midtown elevator. What Gilbert has found, however, is that we overestimate the intensity and the duration of our emotional reactions — our "affect" — to future events. In other words, we might believe that a new BMW will make life perfect. But it will almost certainly be less exciting than we anticipated; nor will it excite us for as long as predicted.
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The full article is reprinted here:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/crasch/162742.html
All true, Alex, but imagine the lasting happiness from never catching a cold when one is living in a germ-free house of steel in the California desert 🙂
Interesting… Just want to point out comparing Manhattan to Simi Valley isn’t apple-to-apple. More like comparing Long Island to Manhattan. For an in-city comparison you’d have to look at Beverly Hills or Hollywood vs. Manhattan.
Ole
In comparing coast to coast housing prices, better apple to apple comparisons would be an apartment in Manhattan compared to an apartment in downtown San Francisco; and a home in Simi Valley, CA compared to a home in Peekskill, NY.
unless it was solid conctrete I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near RR library tonight!
And that germ-free steel structure in Simi Valley is now molten steel — does Manhattan have to deal with “fire season?”
Robert, I’m not sure where you get your info., but that germ-free home in Simi Valley, Ca. is still standing strong. It has survived two fires and is still as beautiful as it was when first built, if not more beautiful. I have had the luxury of being on the property and it is indescribable. A true dream house!