D&D and the rising pandemic

[Cadence]

Yeah I've looked at the Carolinas pre Covid. What people tend to forget though is you have to work in local conditions to buy said house so comparing prices directly is difficult unless you own freehold I suppose.

St Petersburg Russia is cheap I'ma off. Average Russian wage a fraction of our minimum wage.

Grass is always greener right?

The sending kids off to college in a cheaper city (just buy them a house instead of paying for a dorm), retiring in a cheaper city (use that money that would let you retire in an expensive city to buy a house just as big and have multiples of that money to party), or work remotely (and live a few levels above where similar jobs in that city would be) seem the ways to game it.

 

[Umbran]

I don't really regard Boston as a large city. It's smaller than Auckland but I know it's pricey because it's in New England or close enough.

I mean, yes, it is in New England. No, that's not why the real estate is pricey. There's lots of New England that isn't pricey.

 

[Zardnaar]

I mean, yes, it is in New England. No, that's not why the real estate is pricey. There's lots of New England that isn't pricey.

Well you've got MIT, Harvard etc.

That area of the states is pricey in general. Gilmore Girls.

@Cadence

Just did a quick price check on 3 rural towns 13k-30k populations from here to Christchurch. This is the cheap part of the country. Median price is $280k USD.

Those are basically farming hub towns.

Cheapest city only went up 20% last year.

House price pressure in NZ’s cheapest city for real estate - Christchurch

Affordable Christchurch is seeing more million-dollar-plus residential sales but agents say you can still buy a good house for around half that...

www.odt.co.nz

Cheap only 380k USD.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

So the boxoffice for Suicide Squad was terribly disappointing.

And I can't help but think- who is going to see it in theaters? I watched in on HBOMax, but I feel like (where I am right now) things are burning.

And it's so weird, because it seemed like just yesterday (actually, it was the middle of June) when things were so good- vaccinations, openings, etc., that I was able to travel. And now? Hunkering down again. All because we have a ton of vaccines here that people can't be bothered to take. Which is beyond frustrating.

It's the rake scene in the Simpsons, except we know the rakes are there, and we keep stepping on them on purpose, over and over again.

(As for the housing situation- I saw that firsthand at the end of last year; people were buying houses unseen, and companies were snapping up houses as investment properties. In my area, a lot of families that have lived here for generations have left because they were offered insane amounts of money; properties that cratered in 2007-2011 are selling for much more than the prior height, and a friend of mine that had been looking for a house has been unable to purchase a property.)

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Update: after being moved from the ER to the hospital chapel, our friend’s daughter was finally given a room.

…her husband’s room, at HIS request, after they discharged him with an O2 supply.

She hadn’t been fed in @24 hours.

Related report: all the hospital beds between where we are in TX and where THEY are in OK (3+hrs away) are full.

 

[Ryujin]

So the boxoffice for Suicide Squad was terribly disappointing.

And I can't help but think- who is going to see it in theaters? I watched in on HBOMax, but I feel like (where I am right now) things are burning.

And it's so weird, because it seemed like just yesterday (actually, it was the middle of June) when things were so good- vaccinations, openings, etc., that I was able to travel. And now? Hunkering down again. All because we have a ton of vaccines here that people can't be bothered to take. Which is beyond frustrating.

It's the rake scene in the Simpsons, except we know the rakes are there, and we keep stepping on them on purpose, over and over again.

(As for the housing situation- I saw that firsthand at the end of last year; people were buying houses unseen, and companies were snapping up houses as investment properties. In my area, a lot of families that have lived here for generations have left because they were offered insane amounts of money; properties that cratered in 2007-2011 are selling for much more than the prior height, and a friend of mine that had been looking for a house has been unable to purchase a property.)

That's kind of the point. It was apparently supposed to be a theatre only release and the simultaneous online release has cannibalized box office receipts. For more info check out the "Black Widow" thread.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

That's kind of the point. It was apparently supposed to be a theatre only release and the simultaneous online release has cannibalized box office receipts. For more info check out the "Black Widow" thread.

I am quite aware of the cannibalization debate (and subsequent lawsuit*). This isn't just about cannibalization.

The box offices have dropped precipitously since Black Widow (July 9-11) for weekends. From $120 million box office to this weekend's $64 million.

Based upon that, and my anecdotal observations, I would assume that there is a sizeable percentage of people that might have been willing to go in early July, that isn't currently. I know that my opinion has shifted dramatically in the last month.


*TimeWarner apparently reached agreements with the main principals regarding "simultaneous release" and guarantees that Disney choose not to do w/r/t Scarlet Johannsen- hence the difference in approach and response.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Vancouver seems worse.

My parents live right in the heart of Vancouver. In 1980, they paid $67 thousand for their three bedroom, one bathroom house on a big corner lot (they have a huge vegetable garden). My dad currently pays more in property taxes than he used to in mortgage payments. Their house is valued at 3.8 million! Which might be great if they wanted to move, but they don't. (If they sold it, it would be torn down and a very large house with a coach house would be built in its place.) My dad used to joke that he was a millionaire (in assets), but he couldn't afford to retire. (He worked it out and he's retired now).

 

[Umbran]

Update: after being moved from the ER to the hospital chapel, our friend’s daughter was finally given a room.

…her husband’s room, at HIS request, after they discharged him with an O2 supply.

She hadn’t been fed in @24 hours.

Related report: all the hospital beds between where we are in TX and where THEY are in OK (3+hrs away) are full.

Yeah. The people of several states have been... poorly served by their state governments.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Based upon that, and my anecdotal observations, I would assume that there is a sizeable percentage of people that might have been willing to go in early July, that isn't currently. I know that my opinion has shifted dramatically in the last month.

I think you're right. I went to see Black Widow in the theatre, but I watched Suicide Squad on HBOMax. Both because I'm more willing to go out for Marvel (they usually do a better job) and because the Delta variant became a bigger concern during those few weeks. I think we were down to only a few hundred cases when I went to see BW. Now we're back to something like 400 per day again. And that's with close to 80% of the adult population vaccinated. (My figures might be off, I haven't looked at them lately).

Still, enough to make a reasonable person a little more concerned.