newnative

Hopefully, a happy ending for Hopewell. What a travesty.

We're already well into March; no way will 10 million tourists visit this year. Nobody is coming so just drop all the requirements except for vaccination--don't wait until July, for heaven's sake. Right now it's all just way too complicated and the requirements have changed so often that it's just a big, confusing muddle. Ditch it all and start your marketing with a fresh slate with just the vaccination requirement. Numbers will still be low but at least it gets you on the way to an easier process for everyone to use.

A rather misleading Trulia article to quote as it is only looking at home values, not whether McMansions are still being built. Trulia also says that 43% of American adults would like to live in a larger home than their current home. The article also says this: Is this proof that McMansions are dying out? Not so much. While some homebuyers may certainly view them as an ugly, outdated relic of the housing bubble, there’s likely more fundamental factors at play. First, prices of the smaller and cheaper non-McMansion homes dropped more during the housing bust, but have made a stronger recovery than McMansions since market bottom. Second, homebuyers are willing to pay about 20% more for a new home compared to a used one, so at least some of the drop in these markets may due to the fact that these McMansions have lost their new newness. The average size of American homes continued to get bigger until it peaked in 2015 at around 2400 sq.ft., then declining slightly to around 2200 sq.ft. in 2020. According to an executive with home builder Toll Brothers, there is still a market for McMansion-size homes in the 3000 to 5000 sq.ft. range. Their most popular model is 4,771 sq.ft. I suspect with covid and more people working from home and spending more time at home there will remain a market for larger homes.

I disagree with your comment that the 'McMansion trend tanked a long time ago'. I just googled new house projects in Loudoun County, Virginia, the county where I used to work. McMansions were being built there in the '80s through 2010 when I left and it looks like McMansions are still being built there. Both Loudoun, and Fairfax county next door, are very wealthy counties filled with high-paid DC government workers and all the many related private industries serving the bloated federal government. At least in that area of the country people still want their McMansion. Fun fact: Just checked and Loudoun County is now ranked as the richest county in the US, and Fairfax is #4.

The Waterfront project is in Pattaya, not Jomtien and construction was not stopped because it was too close to the water.

Nearly 40 million tourists in 2019, pre-covid. 'As mentioned before', of the countries tracked, only Singapore and Australia had slightly fewer tourist numbers, pre-covid. All the other countries were up--some slightly and some, such as China and India, up a lot. The only down year for tourist numbers, tracking since 2010, was 2014, the year of the coup.

I stopped reading when the article's writer claimed that if you moved to Cambodia you would be paying $20,000 a month for a mortgage vs. $50,000 a month in California. Huh? Not sure to whom the article is geared to but certainly not to little 'ol me--or anyone I know. No $20,000 a month mortgages for me--in Cambodia or anywhere else. I suppose we are to apply the $30,000 in monthly Cambodia mortgage savings towards health care. Okey dokey. I'm thinking if you can afford to spend $240,000 a year on a mortgage in Cambodia you likely don't give a rat's ass about replacing Medicare.

What a totally ridiculous lawsuit in the first place. Rightly acquitted.

Thai baht to US dollar when I arrived June 25, 2010 from America? 32.42. Today? 32.56. Vive la difference. Meanwhile, my regular COLAs are keeping pace with any price increases here. Gasoline is definitely higher--same story in the US--but my partner and I haven't found food prices to have increased all that much. It helps to shop the specials at the big supermarkets and also shop at the cheaper local markets when you can. It also helps to know which stores usually have good deals on certain items and which stores usually don't. We like apples and find one chain store to be expensive. But, we know another chain usually has packs of 4 Fuji apples for around 35 baht. This chain only carries expensive maple syrup while the chain with the pricey apples has a much cheaper brand that tastes fine--we stock up when we are there. Inexpensive compared to America is eating out and ordering food by Grab. It can be hit or miss but we have found some good Grab food. Our favorite might be a shop that specializes in chicken pad thai. Good quality chicken, generous portion, delicious, delivered to our door for 90 baht a serving. We can walk down the street to a nice, air-conditioned restaurant that has some entrees under 100 baht; many are under 200 baht. Sometimes it can almost be as cheap to eat out or order Grab as it is to cook--nice. As I've said before, if one is struggling here, likely it would also be a struggle back in the home country.

Don't laugh but today members of our housing project on the Darkside met with local government officials to discuss various road issues. One of the questions was why the street lights have not been working of late on the highway outside our project. The answer? According to the officials, thieves stole some of the electric wires.

No different than America, except cheaper. Before her death, my Mom was paying $70,000 a year for a room in a retirement project in Pennsylvania. That included meals and a nursing staff on-site but, still, very expensive. Compassion at a higher price.

No they didn't.

Drop your very high prices and run a strong sale with real savings. You'll move some of the unsold units and still make money.

Crossroads? Just cross the road already and open up. Very few tourists are arriving so the infections are mostly domestic--and mostly mild. Now that the country is vaccinated it's time to open up with nothing but vaccination being required.

And Indonesians, Koreans, Japanese, Vietnamese, Singaporeans, Malaysians . . .

Pitiful.

Pattaya checks a lot of boxes. Good climate year-round. Low crime. Excellent shopping and health care facilities. Wide variety of restaurants. Large, diverse expat community. Recreation with golf courses, biking trails by Lake Mabprachan, scuba, etc. Huge selection of housing for rent at very good prices--everything from large pool villas to oceanfront highrise condos. Two airports less than 2 hours away--as is Bangkok. Still some street flooding with heavy rains--being worked on--but I've been here 11 years and so far no earthquakes or typhoons

I could see a big improvement in 2017 when I visited Siam Reap with my sisters. My partner and I had visited a number of years earlier. We were very impressed in 2017 with the progress that had been made--especially with the roads. And, I think there was a new government center with a lot of the government agencies in one location--something Pattaya should consider. I imagine it has improved even more since 2017.

Well, kiss goodbye any thought of meaningful tourist numbers until it's cancelled. On the plus side, he can use it as an excellent excuse for why the tourist numbers are so low.

A barrier not just for Saudi.

I didn't see any improvements--just more rearranging of the deck chairs.

No, they won't.

I liked all three but especially #1. Definitely buy something spectacular, or buy something and make it spectacular, and you'll do fine.

In other news, Coca Cola announced today that it is changing its name to Brown Carbonated Drink That Refreshes. Catchy, n'est pas? Seriously, the absolute dumbest idea to come down the pike. I thought my Thai partner was joking when he told me.

We hope and pray. that occasionally your posts will actually contain some concrete data that is relevant to something you are claiming. But, it's always, a friend of a friend said... Or, I know a friend and he told me... Or, I talked to so and so and he claims... And, plenty from you, too. Still waiting for you to back up your claim that '...likely less than 50 wealthy Chinese came to Thailand in 2019'. Really? With nearly 11 million Chinese visitors that year?