When I was in San Francisco, it seemed as if everyone I knew who owned housing lived in the East Bay and commuted to the city, and most people who rented lived in the city itself. Plus the temps I knew all rented in the city and the permanents all were East Bay folk.

The commute isn't bad at all if you take BART and live near a station.

But on the cross side, the telephone company and the United States postal system won't come out here, and my dirt road is nearly impassible every time we get a shower.

But you can still get telegraphs, right?

No, that would involve wires. Semaphore, sure.

(eta: And of course some one quoted me before I edited my thinko.)

I pay $650 for a centrally located 2-bedroom apartment in Carrboro (next to Chapel Hill). It's about $100-200 below market for the area, but it's a small complex, and the owners would rather have people they like for a long time, for less money. I can walk to everything but work and my hairdresser (who moved into the next county, darn it).

I haven't really followed purchase prices in my area, other than establishing it was no way, no how on my current salary, a couple of years ago. I guess that could change. However, some building projects that might have pushed the cost of condos down seem to be on hold right now, due to the economy. Meh. I'm not in a rush to buy into home repairs any time soon.

But it is somewhat offset by other things, like not owning a car.

I do think that's the kind of thing that people don't take into account -- insurance and gas, even if the car is paid for. (Of course, my NYC brain almost said something about the cost of a parking space, but I bet that doesn't come into play much in other places....)

Oh my. This is a harsh headline: Sprint to give 8,000 employees unlimited free roaming time

wimper

I am, thankfully, under rent control (I've been in the same apartment for a looong time) so my rent is well under market rate, though still not exactly cheap. The building's old and maintenance is so-so. It's a convenient location, so I stay. And, considering the way things have gone, I'm just as happy I don't own ... and really, really happy that I didn't take the mortgage broker's advice and take on an ARM with no downpayment.

Our local macro economy is down, and there are some big development projects on hold, but they were overly optimistic anyway, I felt. And our very local micro economy (our three streets) is doing quite well with two sales in the past six months, one of which for full asking price, $250,000. And the builder is doing one more spec house due to his success. There are only the four of our houses here now, maybe a half dozen a couple of streets away.

But those include crazy huge hangar houses. Literally, with a hangar instead of a garage (okay, probably in addition to) that leads out onto a runway of our little local airstrip. It's bizarre.

Sprint to give 8,000 employees unlimited free roaming time

Ouch! But pretty funny.

crazy huge hangar houses. Literally, with a hangar instead of a garage

As we all know, everyone will have flying cars in the future, so they're probably just a little ahead of the curve.