Bidness Trip

I'm sitting in my 3 star room at the Red Lion Hotel in downtown Salt Lake City. I've heard not so nice things about Red Lions but this one looks like it was recently remodeled (to 3 star standards at least) so it's bad at all. It's springtime and yet it's still cold here. Of the several cities that I travel to for work including Phoenix, San Diego, Albuquerque, Santa Fe and SLC, I have to admit that SLC is my least favorite (Albuquerque is a close second). However, SLC does have by far the most convenient car rentals because you just walk across the street to pick up your car. Why can't other airports follow this model??

Phoenix is amazing for its sheer size. How did the 5th largest city in the U.S. pop up in the middle of the desert? Many people from California are buying properties in Phoenix to cash out their equity from homes in CA. A new detached home in a Phoenix suburb runs about $160k. That same home, if it were in central Orange County, would cost approximately $600k. Of course you'd have to put up with 110 degree summers but really, it's not so bad (it's dry heat not humid heat).

There is a glaring peculiarity that I've noticed in the two markets however. In Orange County, an average, entry level house costs about $525k. That would get you a 30 year old home with 1400 sq feet that needs extensive updating. Even the ghettoist (is that a word) house in central Orange County (the type that Boo Radley would call home) would be $400k. A higher end home (but probably a tract home still although larger and newer) would run double the average so about $1 million. And of course true custom, luxury homes can be upwards of $5 million. In Phoenix, there are truly dumpy houses in awful neighborhoods that cost less than $75k. But the higher end luxury homes are just as extravagant and expensive as in Orange County. So the spread is much more pronounced. Now why is that??

Every homeowner in southern California is feeling rich. Some are spending their equity almost as quickly as it's growing which will get them in trouble. It's disturbing when people driving Toyota Corollas are using valet parking. They're either very foolish and/or very lazy. It never ceases to amaze me how people spend money out of proportion to how much they earn and have saved. Part of it is just me too. I realize that I need to be less of a miser. I've gotten better over the years but have a ways to go. More on how I inherited the miser gene some other time.

Total spent today:
Brought lunch
$1.50 Hot fudge sundae from McDonald's at John Wayne Airport (this must be the only item on the menu that doesn't cost more than at a regular store location)
$15 dinner but expensed it (mediocre dinner at The Spaghetti Factory in SLC)