Our Graybeard tree is in full bloom.

[trof]

This is the earliest it's ever bloomed.
Usually happens in late April, early May.
Global warming?

[Droopy]

1. That's a pretty garden

What does property go for down in Alabama? Here in my neck of the woods in Ohio I can get a three bedroom ranch in the suburbs for about 110k. Same house in the city goes for 90k. What would a similar house cost down that way?

[trof]

3. I copped the pic from the web.

I wish our yard did look that good.
If you saw our tree, you'd see Wolf Bay in the background, which ain't a bad view either.

I looked up median prices in Baldwin County and it's $135.000, BUT that includes all the million dollar condos on the beach and waterfront property.

We moved down in '93, when waterfront was still 'affordable'.
Our house has easily tripled in value since then. Probably closer to quadrupled.

The farther you get from beach and waterfront, the cheaper it is.
The median for the entire state is $90,000.

And small town and rural is much cheaper than tourist areas, like mine, and big cities.

Sorry you didn't get the house you wanted.
Thinking of making a move?

[Droopy]

4. I was just curious

I'm interested in real estate no matter where it is. When I was an over-the-road trucker I would pick up real estate magazines from all over the country when I had a chance. But I don't think I'll be moving out of Ohio any time soon. Maybe when I retire and my joints get arthritic and creaky. The deep south would probably be looking pretty good then.

[WindRavenX]

2. wow! What a spectacular garden!

You must be very happy--my SO and I love gardens and want to build a koi pond when we buy a house someday :)

[Maddy McCall]

5. That's really pretty.

[marzipanni]

6. A Graybeard is pretty. Do you know what this is?

[trof]

7. Nope. Interesting looking though.

[marzipanni]

13. It's a smoke tree

There are gray, pink, purple, and brown varieties.

[SPKrazy]

8. It's a pretty tree!

prolly is global climate changes

warming is the underlying dynamic, but that will cause changes of different magnitude and type in different parts of the world.

[trof]

9. DISCLAIMER: It's NOT my garden.

I wish it did look that good.
I just pulled a pic from the web that looks kinda like our tree.
I was mainly curious to see when they usually bloom, which is a month or more after now.

My back yard did used to look nicer, before Ivan 'pruned' a bunch of our oaks and other stuff down to the ground.

But it has greened over a bit and doesn't quite look like a mortar pocked battlefield any more.

On the bright side, my back yard ends at the shore of Wolf Bay.
And that always looks pretty good.

[Droopy]

10. You are so lucky, trof

I thought about buying a lake front property here in Ohio, but the prices were horrible for what you got. A lake front cabin on Grand Lake St. Mary's in west central Ohio was going for 80k. That was probably 8 years ago. The damn thing was tiny, but it almost took up the whole lot. A decent place is well over 200k in that area now. You've probably got a prime piece of land there.

[trof]

11. I don't mind telling you about it.

And you're exactly right, LUCKY.

The state of NH DOT started eminent domain proceedings on our home for a highway project in 1989. Four years, three appraisers, and two lawyers later, we finally struck a deal.

It's a long story about how we (me) decided to return to Alabama, but we happened to get here at almost the end of a long buyers' market.
Due to previous high mortgage interest rates, and a couple of local factors, prices had 'plateaued' here for 4 or 5 years.

The big developers with the multi-million dollar condo plans hadn't hit the beaches (15 miles south of us) yet.
It was a slow market.

For once in my life, I was at the right place at the right time, with some serious cash in my pocket.

We happened to drive by this place about 30 miuntes after the sign went up in the front yard. 3 br, 3 bth, etc., etc.
160' of waterfront on Wolf Bay.
7 or 8 miles down the bay to the intracoastal waterway.
From there to the Gulf of Mexico and THE 7 SEAS, BABY!

We paid around $225,000, with a mortgage for about half of that.
We're once again in a slow market, but I could probably get a pretty quick sale at around $700,000.

In my head I'm still a midle-middle class kid from the south side of Birmingham, and sitting on this much equity is just AMAZING and mind blowing to me.

As soon as we finish the 'latest' remodeling project (sweat equity, mostly) we'll probably put it on the market.
I've done the waterfront thing now, and gotten it out of my system.
I'd rather have the cash for our 'golden years'.
I can have a better house, for way less than half the price, two blocks inland.
And be as happy as a clam.
No mortgage, and enough extra that we probably won't ever have money worries again.

[trof]

12. Oh, yeah. About waterfront.

During the mid 80s we looked at this neighborhood while vacationing at the beach in Gulf Shores.

There was a dirt road coming into the (now 'our') subdivision and the lots were selling for $35,000.

"Good luck", I said.
"THIRTY FIVE GRAND? FOR A DAMNED LOT?
Hell, I paid that much for my first HOUSE!

Lesson learned: Waterfront never goes out of style. And the price always increases.