Bako or Bust

It’s official - Bakersfield has gone insane. According to a government report released Wednesday, housing prices rose at a higher rate here than in any other place in the nation. The average increase last year was 12.5 percent. In Bakersfield it increased 36.7 percent. Holy crap. This isn’t all good news. According to an article in the paper today, “when housing prices in Los Angeles and San Francisco increased at a rapid pace, a period of ‘serious retrenchment’ eventually followed” and that means that, “you’re stuck with a property that may not be the same value that you purchased.”

Here’s a good example: under the article there’s pictures of three houses from different areas of town. One of the houses is a 763 square foot house on Lake Street. It looks like, but it’s on Lake Street for heaven’s sake – who wants to live there? The house sold in 2002 for $50,000. This year it sold for $121,000.

Who in their right mind who pay THAT much money for house in the ghetto? That’s crazy.