San Diego Housing Market News and Analysis

Chula Vista!

Also, everything that were built before 1960 and is not a tract home.

...Definitely do not look in mira mesa and carmel valley. Just check the public records for widespread construction defects....

(There AN, one less potential MM and CV buyer we need worry about in a bidding war).,..

Totally agree. Stay away from these two far flung areas. They're nothing but trouble and are full of nothing but TRACT homes.

is it true that homes in MM have no walls? I heard the kitchen, bathrooms, bedrooms, living and dining rooms are all completely open to each other.

what about the beachside community of Santee. would it be an attractive place to purchase a rental given its close proximity to LJ?

Walls are overrated. Who needs them.

delete

The walls are there, you just can't see them. They are virtual walls...

But the good news is if you don't have walls, you have less plumbing issues....Because you know, PVC pipes are bad and can leak. And since most MM builders run pvc pipes instead of copper, and since PVC is pronged to leaking more than copper, obviously, the more walls you have, the more pvc pipes are inside the walls that can leak.

So, if you have fewer walls, you'll have fewer pvc piping that is inside the walls, and hence few pipes can leak, and hence fewer plumbing problems. I would recommend a good house has as few walls as possible. Because imagne if a house has the bare minimum number of walls, there is absolutely no way a plumber can hide the pipes inside the walls. And hence the pipes would have to be just laid out in the open...And then when things leak, you can see it right way, and it can be repaired very easily. You don't need to hire anyone to fix a drywall or repaint a cutup wall after a leak is repaired. And in this case, with PVC pipes, you can repair the leak yourself, because it's easy to cut a pvc pipe and glue it back together. The materials are pretty cheap. PVC glue costs about two dollars and fifty five cents at home depot, and the current san diego sales tax rate is only seven point seven five percent. So it's not going to be that much more...

So having fewer walls actually makes your plumbing more reliable.

WAIT WAIT WAIT!!!!

Now I'm thoroughly confused!

I thought I was suppose to AVOID THE FAR FLUNG AREA OF MM.

Now you are telling me the lack of walls actually make these homes DESIRABLE.

I think me and my capital investor will have to simply go door to door, especially to homes not for sale, to see for ourselves. maybe the microfilms in the basement of the county assessor's office will provide the clues I need.

Did you know in exchange for the access to the microfilms all I need to do is help remove the county assessor's acoustic ceilings?

Uhhh, flu, I think you may have the wrong address. Besides taking your "bulk-order" of plat maps, the "assessor's office" cannot help you and your "investor friend" with determining value or construction quality of properties or tracts.

Because of "Prop 13," CA county assessors are not set up that way. In addition, their "basement" (with its stored bankers boxes and microfiche was built in 1937 (before the advent of "accoustical ceiling"). Instead, from its "basement" you will see (and hear) (color-coordinated) hot water pipes from above :=]

http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/cob/cacs/inde...

Why don't you take your own "self-guided" tour? Informational kiosks are set up in the middle of the first floor next to and across from the brass elevators and staffed by volunteer "retired" humans who KNOW the ropes :)

I didn't write that you know :)

You all look the same.

So is svtechie an alter-ego of one of the regular posters?

Usually piggs are nicer...

I've been laughing at a lot of this thread... but if svtechie is a real person... perhaps we should be nicer.

ROTFLMAO You guys have me in stitches. Make that one thousand, two hundred and seventy nine stitches

What is there to be confused of? Why do you continue to make this so difficult for everyone else? There is nothing contradictory to what I said.

Fewer walls = homes with more reliable plumbing.
Homes with more reliable plumbing = more desirable home.

Mira mesa have homes with few walls, and hence reliable plumbing, and hence are desirable. But it's relative...

See, while MM homes have fewER walls, it clearly is not the "fewer walls" home leader... Arguably, the real reason why carmel valley homes are sought more so than Mira Mesa, is not about the schools. It's because the homes have fewer walls than homes in mira mesa. CV has newer homes, and builders optimized for this very issue. And on top of that, the few walls that are in Carmel Valley have been built with more recyclable material so they almost dissolve immediately on contact with water. So if there happens to be a pipe running in these modern walls, and it leaks, the wall self dissolves and destructs, exposing the bare pipe and frame...You don't need to hire an expensive handyman to detect the leak and teardown the wall just to get to the pipe...Because builders know that if you have the NINE TWO ONE THREE ZERO zip code, and have to call a handyman, they will charge you at least thirty five percent more....just because you live in carmel valley...So the builders in carmel valley helped out the homeowners with this cost saving engineering design.... by trying to reduce the amount of labor required for repairs.

And clearly, there are even more desirable homes than carmel valley. If you go way east into remote locations in san diego, you can find large homes with no walls, and for that matter no plumbing to deal with.. Water is obtained by the good old fashion water well... That way, you don't need to ever worry about PVC or copper piping bursting one hundred percent....This is why Santee is the next La Jolla...It's not just 10 minutes to the beach, it has the more homes with fewer walls...

I don't think so.

thank you for the detailed explanation, that does help. So the key is really to have NO plumbing, then we would have ZERO PVC or COPPER pipe bursting.

but hold on there!!!!

if there's ZERO plumbing, then walls would not be so bad after all?!!!

so did the same Einstein that invented the ACOUSTIC CEILING also have a hand in this INDOOR PLUMBING business???

you mentioned EAST, did you mean El Cajon? I heard there's a lot of great ASIAN SUPERMARKETS there. And since it is adjacent to Santee, that means it is probably just 10 minutes away from LJ too???

I can't speak for other people but I don't think svtechie is an alter-ego of a regular poster here. However, the question, IMHO is pointless, because I assume everyone will say the area they bought in, the construction quality is good. Why else would they buy it? No one would intentionally buy a house that have crappy construction quality. So, everyone would say, my area have good construction. Then you have some people who will pipe up and say, no, your area is crappy. Then you know where the thread will go to at that point...

I'm a real person, nobody's alter ego. My question was in earnest. I'm not getting a lot of on-point responses here but the banter is amusing. :-) Oh well. You get what you pay for.

In that case, then all the area you mentioned are fine. Besides plumbing, what other short cuts are you thinking about? Repiping your house is probably cheaper than reflooring your house. So, I'm not sure why you'd be worrying about that. Old houses have old electrical system and new appliances have higher demand and some older electrical system might not be able to handle the new load. In term of structure, they're all wood, so, unless you're talking about high end custom homes in RSF where they're showcasing the wood species with the exposed beams, I don't see how it matter. They're all being hidden by the drywalls anyways.

My construction quality sucks. I bought because of the location and community. If my house wasnt where it was I would never have bought it.

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. I didn't really have specifics in mind when I asked this, I was really just wanting to pursue the comments in the recent thread about Clairemont. People seemed to have some strong opinions about build quality of places in different areas and I wanted to find out more.

So what don't you like about your place? Plumbing? Electric? Structure? Finish? Something else?

South Carlsbad tract house built in late 90's. Walls arent straight, HVAC is poorly designed, several neighbors have had plumbing issues, fixtures are below Home Depot "good" (as in they sell good, better and best) quality.

I do still love my house and my neighborhood even more.

Hey svtechie...

We had a discussion about Mira Mesa in the following threads (to be serious)..

http://piggington.com/mira_mesa_on_firep...

http://piggington.com/mira_mesa_7510_ban...

http://piggington.com/new_tract_in_mira_...

http://piggington.com/mira_mesa_house_we...

Perhaps the original poster should not house-hunt based on a favorable or unfavorable reputation for construction.
After all, it is probably only one of perhaps a dozen categories to be weighed in settling on a house to buy. After all, there is neighborhood, transportation, architecture,viewshed, house size, lot characteristics, etc., etc. Frankly, I'd rather meet and quietly evaluate the immediate neighbors. Check out their dogs, kids, vehicles, opinions of the neighborhood, etc. They will be a bigger determinant of your happiness than construction quality.
Besides, below or above-average construction should be factored into the price already by the marketplace. A house with crappy construction should be priced accordingly. An inspection should reveal them and become a bargaining chip. Maybe the buyer should be willing to live with possible future plumbing problems if the price is knocked down by $10 or so. Everything is a trade-off.

I would drive around the areas you are interested in and get a feel for the neighborhoods. When you find the area that best suits you, based upon your own criteria--close to work, within budget, etc.--check out the zip codes at sdlookup.com, and see what's available.

As many have mentioned, the construction issues in San Diego vary widely, and if you find something that fits your other criteria, and you get to the point of wanting to make an offer, a good inspection should reveal anything you need to know.

For many of us, it's all about location, so I definitely would not minimize that element. I know I wouldn't want to live any place other than where I do, and I think most people on this board feel the same about their respective locations.

The most perfectly constructed home in a location you can't stand won't bring much joy to your life, so that's an important consideration. At least it was for us.

You could also work with one of the excellent realtors who post on this board, if you feel you could use some additional assistance.

Good Luck!

Only certain people have really strong opinions about "perceived" build qualities. I would say a majority of the people don't really care *that* much as long as the house is built up to code (at some point) and in the a desirable location, wish is subjective too. Please excuse larry, moe, curly episode here. We have our moments.

The areas mentioned are mostly older homes.

In these cases, what ever construction defect from the builder that existed is probably less important than the maintenance and upgrades done by the homeowner.

As for newer homes outside of the areas mentioned, just stay away from Cornerstone, they are infamous for cutting corners.

I agree with this.
I live in UC in a 1963 house. Until very recently it had the original 1963 kitchen. (((shudder))). Most of the neighbors updated decades ago - and are now looking to update again.

The codes in the 60's were different than now. My husband (a non-California-native and architect) was concerned about sheer wall strength, diagonal bracing, insulation, how it was strapped/bolted to the foundation. He retrofitted all of that over time. After the cedar fires he became more concerned about fire hardness... So we've also changed out the screens in the soffets, etc.

We had copper and cast iron waste pipes - the copper pipe failed (corrosion). So any material can fail. That's part of home ownership.

I'm mentioning all this not to suggest the houses are crappy (or great) in UC... or Clairemont... or < insert neighbhood here >... I'm mentioning it to suggest it's not the only issue. We've been happy with our house.

As sdr said - neighborhood/location etc is probably a bigger concern than construction.