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To: Rich1 who wrote (5369)	3/6/2005 10:35:35 AM
From: Kirk ©	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12411

Very nice, but with land so cheap, why build up? I know it makes the construction costs lower and profit margins higher, but you will have to deal with stairs. I was riding my bike around los altos hills yesterday ( dqnews.com ) looking at the progress on some of the mansions they are building there and many are two stories, but the first floor is built into the ground since the square footage is limited do to the land costing so much. I live in a ranch house now and would NEVER want to go back to a two story home.. except for a movie theatre underground... especially given all the sports I do and the potential to have a bad hip or knee someday if I get injured windsurfing or biking. I sure wish I had room for a 3 car + shop garage... but we've had so much appreciation here that the property taxes would KILL me if I moved... I pay over $8K a year now and I've been locked in for 10 years with 2% a year limits on how much they can go up... I'd pay double that if I sold and bought my own home back! It is sure tempting to move to Fl just to have a beautiful huge house and a ton of cash left over but then you have to live there.. sorry, but I really like California and the windsurfing in the SF Bay Area is to die for... I had so many great days windsurfing just 5 miles from my house last year that it was like taking many, many vacations but sleeping in my own bed... in the S. Bay where I live, the water is nice and warm in August too. What do you figure per sq foot? We are rebuilding a 4b/2b vacation home that burned down in one of our Calif Fires... $175 seems to be what we are getting. It is much more reasonable once you get out of the expensive places, I guess due to cheaper labor. With commodity prices so high, I wonder if new homes on cheap land are over priced since if more capacity comes on line, replacement costs will be much lower. It occured to me that much of the appreciation in homes is due to higher costs for wood and materials to build them, about double... but this can come down.