Politics

wesheltonj said:

You will have to define luxury. An architect just quoted me $200k for his services and $600 per square foot build cost. As you can guess, now I looking for cheaper build cost and a cheaper architect.

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My architect quoted me starting at $350K and $1K+/sq. ft depending on options I want in the house. It will most likely be closer to $800sq/ft if I build in TX though.

Tanks said:

My architect quoted me starting at $350K and $1K+/sq. ft depending on options I want in the house. It will most likely be closer to $800sq/ft if I build in TX though.

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Are you talking strictly design, or design and GC bundled into one?

Aaron N said:

Are you talking strictly design, or design and GC bundled into one?

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Design and GC, though for out of State they farm out the GC portion to a local architecture firm with their supervision.

Though they can save time by duplicating their previous designs with minor changes in "Serenity" or "Bundy Drive" (minus the basketball court for sure) homes for me. First choice would be Serenity. They said it would not be a problem as long as it was out of CA per their agreement with the original clients.

mdwest said:

you would have to define "societies so poor".. Im not sure what exactly you are saying there (perhaps a language barrier / translation issue?)...

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Yes, All such opinions must be expressed and viewed in context. Could be a translation issue or more basically a view through the lens of narrow cultural background and experience. I get the impression it’s the latter of narrow cultural background and experience.

Right now, in a normal neighborhood near my second home in a country in SE Asia/Western Pacific you will find this ad. Ad is painted on a flat of concrete used for a piece got of yard fence. These accommodations, obviously primitive, are near the beach. Such examples of tiny businesses for income are common everywhere in poor countries. Context is everything. The daily rate equivalent for rooms or cottages in this ad is about $2.55 USD. Also typical street view there

Tanks said:

My architect quoted me starting at $350K and $1K+/sq. ft depending on options I want in the house. It will most likely be closer to $800sq/ft if I build in TX though.

modern luxury homes by marc whipple | whipple russell architects

Looking for a modern architect in Los Angeles? Whipple Russell Architects crafts custom modern homes from Southern California's LA and Beverly Hills, to Arizona's Paradise Valley, and across the United States. Our designs embody resort-style living with seamless indoor-outdoor spaces, jetliner views

whipplerussell.com

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If you pay $800 a foot in Texas, they saw you coming.

Flipper Dude said:

If you pay $800 a foot in Texas, they saw you coming.

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Most of the materials are imported, e.g. sliding automatic glass doors are from an Italian company. Also, have you priced homes in Austin or Dallas lately? A lot of them are over $1K a sq. foot. Now, I am talking about modern designs in 7K+ sq. ft. range.

They were asking slightly over $1K for this one before they took it off the market.

I’ll admit I have not. We built our home in 2014-2015 north of Houston. Costs of construction ran about $220 a foot. Architect for an A. Hayes Town design ran about 40K.
I know things have gone up, but not 400%. At least not in north Houston. Now, if you’re talking dirt, the sky’s the limit.

Daughter and SIL have an 845 sq ft house in Santa Cruz with no AC, no heat. 100 year old POS that they gave 1.4 mil for.

Well, since you asked:

According to Statistics Norway, the median income for all households in Norway is 676,100 krone. Based on today's search on DuckDuckGo, this equates to $70,442.024. (https://www.ssb.no/en/inntekt-og-fo...ntekts-og-formuesstatistikk-for-husholdninger)

According to the Saint Louis Federal Reserve, the median income in the United States is $83,730.
(https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEHOINUSA672N/)

And Norway does VERY WELL compared to the rest of the countries in Europe, except Switzerland.

All those numbers are from 2024, so may be a little different now... but that's a start. I will let you dig into it further if you'd like to use the search engine of your choice.

Yes, I know the difference between Mean, Median and Mode... but Median are the best numbers available. That's how the statistics people look at it, and yes, the United States is a big place, and those numbers do not reflect differences between people in Los Angeles and, say, Meridian Mississippi or Sheraton Wyoming.

And I think, unless one was being purposefully disingenuous, comparing foreclosure percentages without also comparing the number/percentage of people who have mortgaged their homes, as well as the differences in mortgage requirements may just bias the results.

You know, it's a funny thing about Norway, and about US presence in Europe.

I frequently hear things about the US should leave Europe, or pull their bases and stations, etc., etc., etc. This was especially true when I was speaking with the 40 and under crowd when I was living in Germany. Apparently, the late hate of the '40s and that pesky wall thing were so long ago, presence was no longer needed or welcome.

But when forces were actually pulled, and bases closed, then the real screaming started! Think of the economic impact on the community! All those people who would lose their jobs! What about...!

Go back and look at the crying and rendering of garments when there was talk of moving US European Command to Poland.

Square that circle, and then we can chat more.

Pondoro said:

Housing is cheaper than UK many places in Scandinavia..

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fourfive8 said:

Right now, in a normal neighborhood near my second home in a country in SE Asia/Western Pacific you will find this ad. Ad is painted on a flat of concrete used for a piece got of yard fence. These accommodations, obviously primitive, are near the beach. Such examples of tiny businesses for income are common everywhere in poor countries. Context is everything. The daily rate equivalent for rooms or cottages in this ad is about $2.55 USD. Also typical street view there

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Well, everything is cheap in the Philippines. A vendor I know built a house for a family, waited until their daughter turned 18, married her and brought her here to CA. He told me he had always wanted to do that (an attractive young foreign bride) and I guess it worked out for him. 10 years later she was helping him run his business.

a lot of what drives cost is going to be location and amenities..

building a house in Wylie (Dallas suburb) is going to be substantially cheaper than building in Flower Mound (where the house in the video is located).. and building your typical 3000sq foot "middle class" house that has "home depot" quality appliances, counter tops, flooring, etc.. is going to be very different than the costs associated with putting in commercial quality appliances, imported doors and flooring, etc..

I see new builds on the north side of Dallas going up pretty regularly for $500K and up (around the $200 per sq foot mark for a 2500 sq foot house on a very small lot).. but at the same time a buddy of mine that does RE for Sotheby's sends me occasional listings that he's working on that are in the $2M+ range for 3000 sq feet in the Dallas metro area..

Just depends on where the house is located and whats going in it..

If youre building in Mark Cubans neighborhood (Preston Hollow), youre not getting into a crack house for less than 7 figures..

but.. if youre building on the far north end of the DFW metroplex (somewhere like Melissa).. its pretty easy to get into +/- 3000 sq feet for under $500K...

Tanks said:

Well, everything is cheap in the Philippines. A vendor I know built a house for a family, waited until their daughter turned 18, married her and brought her here to CA. He told me he had always wanted to do that (an attractive young foreign bride) and I guess it worked out for him. 10 years later she was helping him run his business.

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How long was the wait? This will determine where on the creepy scale this story falls

Actually..the US is investing $200 million in one of our air bases in the southern Norway as we speek..to fly sortees with fighters.. The yearly NATO exercise up north with 32.500 troops have a significant american participation.

There is little or no animosity against the US as a whole or that your troops stay here..

skydiver386 said:

Let me see if I've got this straight.

The same Islamic Regime that kills thousands of it's own people for protesting, is hell bent on acquiring atomic weapons at all cost, and shouts "Death to America" on a daily basis constitutes no imminent threat.

Perhaps lead based paint chips being eaten by infants and thus lowering I.Q. is more of a problem than we thought.

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Post of the day award

Ships piling up around Hormuz now..

Aaron N said:

How long was the wait? This will determine where on the creepy scale this story falls

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I think a couple of years, so she was 16, not quite Elvis creepiness. This was a couple of decades ago when getting young Filipino wives was the thing here in CA. The guy was a vendor, not a friend.

Tanks said:

I think a couple of years, so she was 16, not quite Elvis creepiness. This was a couple of decades ago when getting young Filipino wives was the thing here in CA. The guy was a vendor, not a friend.

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I met a 60+ instrument tech one night at work probably 12 years ago or so. One of the first things he did was pull out Polaroids of all his young Asian girlfriends.

mdwest said:

you would have to define "societies so poor".. Im not sure what exactly you are saying there (perhaps a language barrier / translation issue?)...

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Many communities around the different states are run down. Lack good city water, no trash facilities, poor roads, High Schools lacks newer updated educational books/materials etc.

When I wrote "societies" its because its difficult to describe the US as one society as the US consists of many different kinds of societies. Language barrier?

Wheels said:

Well thought out and written article regarding the geopolitics around America reopening or not reopening the Straits of Hormuz and the surrounding ramifications.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2034311772354592874

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Well, EU is one thing, but our Gulf "allies" are on the blocked side of the Straits. We owe it to them to make sure they can pass through it after all we broke it.

Tanks said:

He must really hate Israel.



His wife died to an Isis bomb in Syria don't know how that was due to Israel though.

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What ever reason he resigned, probably just what he said in his letter, I think he deserves more respect, HIS military wife was blown up in a meeting with terrorist ,one wearing a detonation vest. He served 8 combat tours as a Ranger and also served with the CIA ,anti terrorest. Boots on the ground. as A RANGER his combat tours were more than just being in country, so whatever Trump thinks of him ,he is not weak on defense, or security.
When TRump says things like that it streches my paitence with him to the breaking point.