What's even funnier is how some people in a certain crazed, whacked-out, hippie commune, Mary Jane smoking, earthquake prone, SUV driving, tofu eating, Austrian run, bass akwards state will pay - and by pay I mean that take out loans so beyond their means all they can afford to pay on a monthly basis is the interest - ludicrous amounts for #@*&@#$ properties.

{…and I'm gonna duck into the bomb shelter right about now}

Houston may be a cruel and crazy town on a filthy river in East Texas with no zoning laws and a culture of sex, money and violence but at least $100,000 will buy you a house not a down payment. Hell, $450,000 will buy you a 3,500+ sq home in a gated community next to the lake on the 16th hold of the golf course. What does that buy you in CA? A used fridge box with a milk carton under I-5?

***

...and just for grins I thought y'all might enjoy an adaptation of this popular pol-sci joke:

Houston: You buy two cows for $1,000. The government bans you from setting up fences due to lack of zoning laws. The cows crap everywhere causing the city to smell bad and 28 lane freeways are built.

California: You buy two cows for $100,000 due to hyped up over demand in the cow market. At first the government regulates what you can feed them and when you can milk them. Then it pays you not to milk them. After that it takes both, shoots one, milks the other and pours the milk down the drain. Then it requires you to fill out forms accounting for the missing cows and requires you to take harmonica lessons. The cow market bursts and your cows, if you still had them, are now only worth $1,000.