00:00 if you work for a living why do you kill yourself working [Music] from the Willamette Valley in America's Great Pacific Northwest you are listening to the earnest man show I'm your host Ernest Mann coming to you no matter where what time or what place you may be listening in this great big beautiful but sometimes incredibly crazy world we all live in [Music] thank you [Music] hello everybody how's it going

01:04 yes and uh wow I got quite a bit of to talk and laugh about this is episode 255. are you [ __ ] kidding me the Helsing Market in Salem Oregon I'm still laughing this is so hilarious and maybe not for the reasons you might think but I'm not just putting this out here for you my uh dear local listeners I want everyone in the U.

01:46 S and the world to hear this because um well amongst other things it's it's actually quite funny believe it or not it just so happens it actually did happen today I had a phone call from an old friend out east on the East Coast and one thing led to another and it was he was actually uh kicking around the idea of um moving here and I'm like really and he's um he's at an age and stage in his life where he can he can do this he's not rich by any means but you know he can do it and he's just kicking around the idea

02:40 and I said he said well you know what do you think and I said um well you know what is it you want and and you know you're just now um basically um unfortunately his um his wife passed away so it's just him and uh no kids and all that and I said well uh yeah it could this area could maybe possibly work for you maybe um but what matters is um for most folks when they're talking about these things is the bigger demographic and that is you know families people starting out and uh that's what most people are

03:30 concerned with so I came across this article and um it's actually a well done well written well you know decently researched article in the Albany Democrat Herald and it's uh dated August 27th so let's you know pretty damn um recent and the title is a look at the housing market in Oregon and when you read the information it's you know I have no complaints there it's good and they have lots of charts lots of charts and graphs and I was like Wow and um you know they did a good job on this and they're talking about the

04:23 fluctuations in the market and it's what if and for this immediate area part of these graphs are between let's say Albany Corvallis and Eugene and we're talking of course how prices have you ever noticed they uh they don't remain stable for very long anymore as they once were because well that's what happens when every Market has become volatile now look I'm not a uh I'm not a real estate expert but what I what I do enjoy doing is getting at the overall bigger picture of things and when I scroll through all this

05:14 information and then they have another chart that's uh you know shaded in various colors talking about the Oregon median home sale price by by a County and that's good um you know new home listings by County I mean it's it's it's really decent and balancing that supposedly of a median home sale price uh by U.

05:48 S state um all of this is all well and good but in my humble opinion folks this is not addressing the meat and potatoes of the issue really so all these charts and graphs in other words it's something which you know is almost theoretical in nature and I know it is supposed to be representative of the facts in the market but then again that's why I believe so much for the market because the market is narrowed and forced into this pigeonhole of these things which don't really actually connect with quality of life

06:46 now I'm I'm going to say something that I know you're not going to like I especially know I'm sorry I especially know I'm not gonna get any fans here in the real estate market but there are some other facts that I don't have charts and graphs just my voice to tell you this so this is not official in that capacity however it doesn't take away from the fact that what I say is the truth okay here's what it is first of all it's like as far as the Salem Market their whole real estate debacle is what I call it

07:45 this is completely artificial it's artificially contrived well let me just touch on that just for a moment I don't know um how many of you folks know this or not but the price of diamonds is completely artificially obnoxiously expensive and it has been that way for at least 60 70 years at least probably longer and that is because all of the big names in so-called diamonds whether they be you know the beers or what have you it's actually only three or four uh producers which forms a cartel so the the end result is the price of

08:48 diamonds is actually artificially extremely overpriced and it's been that way for years because it was designed to be so now what I'm trying to say here is a direct comparison in the fact that Salem um needs to get over itself quite a bit absolutely quite a bit because I say bye comparison now please bear in mind this is my town this is where I live and you know your first reaction is going to be okay so why in the hell are you uh you know dissing your own town because first of all I'm not disrespecting it

09:54 what is important to me and apparently is certainly not important to marketers is truth and to be perfectly honest I know just just I know I'm going to get the eggs thrown at me for this I'm going to get the the emails and what are you [ __ ] great you you know you you traitor oh forget about Salem um um it's not that exciting um is not really much going on here it isn't sorry but it ain't and anyone that would even you know again like my old man used to say it's why are they paying you know this much money for

10:48 you know I said because there's always people with more money than brains because you know it isn't all that it's not it's not exciting this is not you know this is not a town you go to if you're a young couple you don't come here to have a you know an incredible time and they got a few Poe dump places you can go to and kind of sort of dance maybe but nothing exotic no so there's a whole bunch here in other words it's like this there's a whole lot less here than there are in comfortably priced or even far

11:38 better priced cities I would argue now you may take it up with me but I would argue for example and I've been there many times now this is not a town itself that's known for a whole lot of great you know nightlife or what have you but I would argue with you and I think fairly successfully that Wichita Kansas has a lot more going on for it at that price point far beating that price point then Salem Oregon does anyone in my opinion here who's even beginning when these prices went up and just they completely you

12:33 know lost their mind and I know that they're in the business to um grift I mean uh is to sell property is as much profit as they possibly can I get that but um what the people the potential buyers need to know is that they're by comparison there isn't much going on here I mean please you know if you don't believe take a drive tell you what you want to here's what you want to do you want to see the real reality of this okay you got some cool spots don't get me wrong you know you got Bush Park and you

13:19 you've got some little enclaves at a really nice and they're nice to see and all but once you hop on for instance Lancaster and you get on say for instance say you're at Kubler and you hop on Lancaster to go down the down the main drag as someone visiting thinking about buying a home oh did I mention for [ __ ] half a million dollars go down your main strip there down Lancaster all the way out and take a good look around you and this is your main strips so certainly one of them and it is a main strip you take a good look out there

14:14 so like I said um on conversely if you go down commercial um yep until you get in the downtown ish area um yeah it's really ugly and again you got a million Taco stands uh thank you Kate Brown and you know that you know if I'm if I'm going to pay that kind of money I'm expecting a little bit more than that oh and did I mention in addition to that folks are you listening Kansas City okay good um when you're out Lancaster when you're going out that area or say you know Market Street they come by occasionally and they you

15:16 know hose them all out occasionally and then a few weeks passes and all the you know the tents and all that that builds up again um because we don't have still don't have the um any kind of real solution and the city council won't really budge on this and this shit's been going on for umpteen years so yeah um if you're gonna go out say you know all the way down like Market Street uh off of Lancaster anything like that and you're going to see by you know the overpass and and that whole area you're

15:58 going to see it's Tent City all these tents and it never ends uh yeah um yeah I'm paying half million dollars for a home that's not what I'm expecting so I don't understand how other people from they believe I guess they believe the hype or whatnot just because It's the Great Pacific Northwest and I admit it is the Great Pacific Northwest and we have a lot of natural beauty here that is that's I'm beyond a doubt but I'm saying as far as there's a difference between just checking out all

16:45 the natural beauty and buying a home they're not obviously they're not the same thing and for what you get at the price point for you know pushing a half million dollars um is is it's just it's beyond ridiculous it's it's okay um I I couldn't in um my wildest dreams 10 15 20 years ago have imagined this but um I I don't know I just don't know what to say and as far as the nice homes bat you see around um mint like Mento Brown um all these areas they're nice homes these are the homes

17:38 that were purchased uh they were either purchased like 30 years ago when it was still cheap I say relative you know cheap reasonable really reasonable and they got in they grandfathered in and they were smart enough to do that or these are actually have been owned in families literally for Generations so that represents old money so the appreciation of all these years I mean it just goes it just sits there and it just goes up and up and up with no end in sight but um I don't know uh unless you're like Elon Musk or something then you can come

18:23 into the city oh yes I would like that and it's right near these areas that are you know great for walking and then there's Scenic things too and and there are these little but I mean I mean little but there are these little enclaves that that works out for and again that's great but the whole point of what I'm talking about is an affordable home for a family and that is the principal issue here and that's what is being actually completely ignored with all of this you know all this information and think they're

19:07 talking they're talking about this as though they would be just talking to a room full of multi-millionaires and saying well yes yes the market and blah blah blah and such and such and you know and uh this isn't the reality of what is or as it was say 20 30 years ago but they're approaching it as though it is and it's not so two things um if you're going to you know you're going to come here and you want to live here and you want anything you know halfway decent um in an area that is halfway decent

19:56 and you're looking at around four somewhere between depending four to five hundred k anyone in my opinion who's going to plunk down that kind of money to be here this got more money than brains There Are Places held in different different states entirely and you would you would get a far bigger bang for your buck um as a matter of fact I had another friend of mine and he um because apparently that area certain areas um around Kansas are good and you know picked up this um it was not you know fantastic by any

e home I think it was like uh: 1200

21:41 because it is what it is um so you got your you know your targets and all your usual big box stores and a lot of the smaller corporate stores but all that's pretty ubiquitous so that's there and then they have their their own stuff and frankly a lot of that um other stuff as far as you know individual businesses um is a lot more interesting particularly the restaurants and I was there oh that was like eight months ago I think it was about eight months ago and they got this thing for you know uh without paying an arm and a leg because

22:30 it's here we go again oh this is an artisan breakfast no it was just slightly higher than a Denny's slightly higher I mean and I mean reasonably you know two three bucks I was there I ate I went and I actually went to several of those places so again what I'm trying to say is that a lot of this stuff is based on how you can be conditioned and what you are being conditioned to believe and you know I I don't want to be I'm not being anti-salem Salem it is what it is you know I live here I mean I like the

23:20 place but at least I fess up and I say okay it it's really great at this and it really sucks at that tell the [ __ ] truth don't sugarcoat it but especially when you know when we're talking people's money and a lot of money and you keep hyping it up just to make you know all this extra profit and in addition to that you you ruin the market for the locals because they they they're priced out they can't buy [ __ ] because of what you've done and if you're a and I and by the way and just a

24:04 quick aside aren't you sick of that [ __ ] term realator I am a realtor I don't know about you but when I was growing up you used to call it a realtor that's what you were called a realtor or a real estate agent not a real tour I am a realtor yeah [ __ ] you so um yeah this is the deleterious effect that it has on the locals and the local economy so uh anybody out there consider this have a sit back have a laugh with me about this because I think it's funny as hell and you poor folks locally um maybe you got a family maybe you need

24:57 to start her home there is another way around this and I'm sure you can drop me a line if you are interested to know but um yeah hold on hold on to your money and they're not really they're not going anywhere as a matter of fact some some other changes are going to take place fairly soon which I'll talk about at another time but anyway other than that um great talking with you here on a Wednesday Oregon matters and um hope you have a good one and I will catch you again on Friday other than that take care

25:52 I'm going to tell you three good reasons why you should listen to the earnest man show when you're constantly being told and sold by the six o'clock corporate news squirrels urgent breaking news but you don't know it's really a [ __ ] biscuit when you begin to suspect that those well-paid corporate talking head news actors speaking to you simply read the script they're given are trying to give you a [ __ ] biscuit and when you realize that the stories of these so-called news anchors regardless if they're acting the

26:33 role of being on the left or the right have absolutely no real concerns for your life are definitely for speeding you a [ __ ] biscuit now admit I may not speak as eloquently or professionally as those folks but at least I try to tell you the truth as I see it not reading a damn script handed to me like a trained monkey that's why you should listen to the earnest Man Show and that's no [ __ ] biscuit