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Respected Contributor
Posts: 4,640
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: I googled on Zillow my childhood home

[ Edited ]

@shoekitty wrote:

@aubnwa01 wrote:

@shoekitty wrote:

@aubnwa01 wrote:

My folks purchased a brand new home in 1954 in Hermosa Beach, CA for $15K. It was a small 3 bedroom 1¾ bathroom, about 1200 sq. ft. on a  hillside view lot below PCH with a 180° view from the Palos Verdes Peninsula to Malibu.  We lived there for 9 years & they sold it in 1963 for $29K, basically doubling their money.  Looking on Zillow, it doesn't look like much has changed with our old house & still the same sq. footage, though most of the other homes built at the same time on the street have become McMansion looking huge homes & it looks like the home just below added a 2nd story, so I'm sure the view is gone, but the current Zillow estimate on our old place is $2.26M.


Shoekitty said,

wow, 29,000 in 1963 was a lot of money. A lot.  I think the up tick in california homes came in the mid 90's.  Prices are dropping a bit now, as who can afford a million dollar starter home?  I know about where your home is!  If it is on lower side of PCH...it is ocean side and most desireable. All  beach property is out of bounds.  Even beach towns like Pismo were fairly reasonable in the mid nineties.  After that, forget it.  We looked at a 1Bed 1 bath about 800 sq feet in pismo about 1994.  It was about 280,000.  Now it os a couple million.f now a 1100 sq ft mobile home in Pismo is about 480,000 plus monthly fees!!!! Most ocean view homes in Pismo today go from 3-5 million.  Who'd  a thunk it???


@shoekitty  Our old house was just up the hill from Ardmore Ave. & back then, there were frieght train tracks that ran in a strip between Ardmore & Valley & we'd go down & play along the tracks.  I don't recall ever seeing any trains on those tracks, but there were interesting things to be found that had apparently dropped off of a train along the tracks.  I guess at some point, they tore out the tracks & it's now got trees planted & looks to be a park or walking trail or some sort.


Shoekitty said

Ying about our health and moral character hanging in such places.  We loved to flatted pennys, or a good slug on tracks.  Train came throug once a da about 3 pm.

i think the tracks were diverted to the other side.  Omg, when I lived in Los altos they had the best train tracks ever!  There were a grove of old eucalyptus trees near by.  Hobos were rumored to live in there.  We used to scour the area on saturdays and summers for bottles!  Those days we could get 5 cents for a qt beer bottle.  Sometimes we could go to market and cash them in for 20 cents worth.  That was 2 candy bars and 2 popcicles. Big ones too!  I found a good bike tire, a watch, and a piece of blue glass there.  I tell you I was raking it in, until the parents started worrying about our health, and our moral been hanging around in such places best times of summer were held in those new collectors trees and dodging train tracks

ed 


@shoekitty   Funny you should mention pennies, I still have an old penny someplace that I found along those train tracks in Hermosa Beach when I was a kid that had been flattened by a train & looked like a guitar pick!

 

ETA:  There was a lot one house up the hill from ours that had some old eucalyptus trees in it that we'd go up & play in.  They smelled so nice when it was warm & we'd climb around in the lower branches.  Sometime after we moved away, there was a house built there, so the trees are long gone. I think the lot was owned by the family (I think they were Hermosa Beach pioneers or something) that our street was named after & lived in a huge old house that had been built in the 1920's & had a fish pond that we kids were always getting yelled at for going down their driveway to look at the fish in that pond!  I only knew that they were pretty elderly at that time ( when you're a kid, everyone is old!) & had a handicapped daughter, who we never saw.   The old 20's era house is still there.

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 7,759
Registered: ‎05-08-2010

Re: I googled on Zillow my childhood home


@RedTop wrote:

I am blessed to be able to walk out my front door to see my childhood home, and know my mom is still living in it.


How blessed are you!  I wish I could say the same Woman Sad.

Fear not Brothers and Sisters! I have read THE BOOK..........we win!!!
Respected Contributor
Posts: 2,224
Registered: ‎01-26-2013

Re: I googled on Zillow my childhood home

Are these houses that have appreciated so much in value located in California by any chance?  I have never seen values go up like these mentioned in the first 4 or 5 posts.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 13,401
Registered: ‎07-15-2016

Re: I googled on Zillow my childhood home

We owned two houses in CA before moving back to NYC.  Every so often I use Zillow to see what's happening in those neighborhoods.

 

My childhood home was sold and demolished along with many others when the local hospital expanded in the late 1960s.  

Honored Contributor
Posts: 15,345
Registered: ‎05-01-2010

Re: I googled on Zillow my childhood home

[ Edited ]

@Tyak wrote:

Are these houses that have appreciated so much in value located in California by any chance?  I have never seen values go up like these mentioned in the first 4 or 5 posts.


@Tyak. I didn’t post about my childhood home, but it went up considerably and it was knocked down. The reason it went up? It is on a hill on the water with fantastic views. It is in NJ, not Calif.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 30,918
Registered: ‎05-10-2010

Re: I googled on Zillow my childhood home

I did that not too long ago with our first home.  It was brand new in 1987 when we bought it.  It was in a new subdivision.  We paid $29K for it.  It was the classic starter home, we sold it and upgraded 6 years later for $40K.  At the time, we thought that was ubelievable.  It sold less than 2 years ago for  $409K.  We drove by and it was the same little cracker box house that we owned.  Different color and someone added a car port but that was it.  

Honored Contributor
Posts: 19,347
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: I googled on Zillow my childhood home

Many of you have some impressive numbers for houses that basically have not changed, yet the selling prices were extremely high. Makes me wish I had invested in real estate. A family member still lives in my childhood home - a small farmhouse.

Contributor
Posts: 74
Registered: ‎04-02-2018

Re: I googled on Zillow my childhood home

I used to live in England, so I went to visit the town I spend 8 years of my life (England school system is different, but the same as 2nd - 9th grade).  Went to see my old neighbours who I know still lived there. So I saw in person what they did to their house for upgrade and what the new people who have the house now did (found out the new family was the 3rd family to live in the house since we moved and lived there the longest). 

 

It was strange to see a garage instead of a driveway.  They added a better entry way and found out they added a 1/2 bath too. Not sure how much the house is worth now.

 

The house I lived in when I was born - 4 years old.  We went back to visit a neighbour when I was about 11.  Found out that the house had a fire.   I am sure that if the house still looks the same and being in the Los Angles area, it is worth probably alot more than what my parents paid for it. I am sure it has been updated inside.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 19,403
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: I googled on Zillow my childhood home

I had two childhood homes, the 1st one we lived in until I was 12, and my sister was 9, and then the one we moved into after that is the one my Mom still lives in. I lived in that one from 12 until I got married at 21.....The 1st home, I have driven by many times and unfortunately it looks nothing like the gorgeous home my mom and dad had. They kept it up so beautifully and now-not so much! It was your typical 1300 sq foot 3 bedroom/2bath ranch and my parents finished the basement...

 

The home my mom still lives in is in a very desirable neighborhood on a cul de sac, and is a 2400 sq foot ranch with 4 bedrooms/2 1/2 baths, finished basement with 1 acre of land. My dad passed away 7 years ago, and my sister and her husband moved in with my mom, to take care of it and her, so she wouldn't have to sell it.

 

It is a lot of house and land for her at almost 88 years old.....I loved both homes, but the 1st home had such wonderful memories of being in a neighborhood with lots of kids and being able to walk to school, and everyone knew everyone else. This was back in the 60's/70's.......

 

It is fun to go back and remember the fun times......