Another Unit Gone

I'm convinced my next-door neighbor abandoned his house in late October.

Here was a guy who moved from the Bay Area sometime in 2004-5, just like fifty thousand other Bay Areans since the dot.com bust. For 3+ years, he and his wife would climb into a vehicle at 4:30AM, drive to I-80 then to the I-680 to drop off his wife in Dublin, then he'd drive back up I-680 to his job in Concord. Then at the end of the day he'd drive from Concord to Dublin, pick up his wife, then drive back home to Elk Grove. I guess around 170 miles a day.

Total insanity if you ask me. But Bay Area homes were expensive, gas was cheap, and Elk Grovian homes even cheaper yet. Eleven hours a week in a car was something you just did for the sake of progress, for the sake of home ownership, for the sake of a Bay Area wage premium. Ain't that right? Wouldn't you spend 550 hours a year driving to get that $30k or $35k premium that a Bay Area wage brings? And tens of thousands of Elk Grovians and Stocktonians did just that, and are still doing just that.

Well, truth be told, my neighbor didn't actually own his home. The bank owned most of it, because he admitted earlier this year how he couldn't afford 20% down for a Bay Area home, otherwise he would have already left this [shithole]. And I think that as home values in Elk Grove are now down to levels not seen since 1999-2000, he was underwater. Underwater, driving 170 miles a day, I think he said screw it, packed up, and in less than an afternoon, having not said anything to anyone, they quietly moved to Vacaville.

No one's been living there since. No for sale signs. Lawn unmowed. Leaves piling up. Chalk up one more Elk Grovian "unit" to the economy. Pile it on to the thousands of other abandoned units here in my fair burg.

This guy was a real prick, too, so losing him as a neighbor was no loss. Losing his two German Shepards and their constant barking while locked in a cage in his backyard all day was a real blessing. But I digress...