 | ||||||
San Diego Housing Bubble News and Analysis |
||||||
~Navigation~~User login~~RSS~ |
Gosh, is this too much for Discovery Hills?User Forum Topic
Submitted by smshorttimer on November 17, 2009 - 10:53pm
We are about to enter escrow on a property in an older portion of San Marcos' Discovery Hills neighborhood. It didn't dawn on me until tonight that the price per square foot - $238 - would be almost $25 more PSF than a couple of recent comps. Of course, there are listings out there now trying to fetch as much as $275ish, but they're just that - listings. We made our first offer, for list price, three months ago. By the time the lenders agreed on a figure - $35K above list - the two parties ahead of us had bought elsewhere. Our agent says I should save my freakouts for the appraisal. He says price per square footage generally drops as the square footage increases, and that this house's condition justifies the price. I agree that it doesn't seem to need anything. Inventory quantity and quality in our range (<370) has been so poor, especially when factoring in schools, that I'm afraid I might concede a $10,000 overpayment just to settle this. We've looked at 80-90 properties going back to 2007. I know I shouldn't just focus on monthly payment, but it looks like it will be a couple hundred less than our rent after taxes. And we'd save a few bucks on energy and elsewhere, too, as it's smaller.
|
~Finance and investing~*Investment advisory services and securities offered through Girard Securities, Inc., member SIPC/FINRA. ~Recent articles~~Active forum topics~
Sponsored Links
~San Diego median home $/sq.ft.~
|
||||
| © 2004-2008 piggington enterprises llc | terms of use | privacy policy | powered by Drupal | ||||||
 |  |  | ||||
If you're saving money by buying instead of renting, and your job is stable, it sounds like you might be getting a good enough deal.
Inventory is being so manipulated that it's just not worth it for some of us to look at houses right now. If you intend to stay for the long haul (10 years or more), go for it.
Please keep us updated and lets us know how the rest of the transaction goes. Good luck! :)
If your house is smaller than the recent comps it could very well be in line with them. Your agent is correct that $/sq ft falls as the house gets bigger. How big is your house relative to the recent comps?
The house is a little over 1500. The comps are 240 and 320 more sq feet, respectively. After my post, my wife reminded me that we looked at a newer but smaller house nearby that went for $260 per square foot. But it's also 16 years newer, so maybe that's why our agent didn't include it.
sms that happens alot. Clients will ask me to setup a search and they will be very specific on criteria in some cases. Then they see something on line or another sale that inevitably got filtered out because of thier criteria for the MLS search. It is always better to be looser then tigher on criteria for the search.
As sdr said ppsf measures are non linear and do generally go down with size of the home. Additionally to me they also do not represent condition of the home, lot size, views and or other features that should be considered.
Finally as you know right now you are buying in an overheated market that is extremely competitive AND is severely lacking for quality inventory. So given that situation, you will most likely overpay if you compare the situation to say, 9 months ago. Still though, if you are happy with what you found and it suits your needs, and all the other pieces to the puzzle fit, I would say you are okay.
Also if its 1 story and the comps are 2 story, a 1 story will sell at a higher $/sqft even if homes are same size.
Our house is one-story. One comp is two-story, while the other is single. Based on photos online, I think ours looks nicer than the other single, although that one has a wildcard in a pool.
All three are late '70s-era. Driving around Discovery Hills, it seems that most of the area is more like '90s and newer. I think it's the newer homes that are going after $250 and above PSF.
On searches, we do get automated e-mails when something comes on that meets our search criteria. So if a newer Discovery house went active on the MLS at 400 or below, we became aware of it.
It's more frustrating to shop for homes when you have kids, for sure. I am quirk-friendly and prefer older, non-tract-y single-stories — and split levels if they are suitably quirky-cool. I guess I dig vintage ranch-style homes like I dig ranch dressing from a restaurant. (Why is ranch always better when dining out?)
Escondido has these homes. Vista 92084 has these homes, but the elementary schools are usually not well-regarded in these areas, to put it kindly. The ones in suitable school areas - if one actually comes on - are too expensive for us or have some other flaw(s) that I can't get past.
TRy to comp your 1 story with other 1 stories. If you need to use a 2 story add about 15% to the sq footage of the 1 story before chosing a 2 story comp. i.e. consider a 2000 sq ft 1 story comparable to a 2300 sq ft 2 story
All three are late '70s-era. Driving around Discovery Hills, it seems that most of the area is more like '90s and newer. I think it's the newer homes that are going after $250 and above PSF.
On searches, we do get automated e-mails when something comes on that meets our search criteria. So if a newer Discovery house went active on the MLS at 400 or below, we became aware of it.
It's more frustrating to shop for homes when you have kids, for sure. I am quirk-friendly and prefer older, non-tract-y single-stories — and split levels if they are suitably quirky-cool. I guess I dig vintage ranch-style homes like I dig ranch dressing from a restaurant. (Why is ranch always better when dining out?)
Escondido has these homes. Vista 92084 has these homes, but the elementary schools are usually not well-regarded in these areas, to put it kindly. The ones in suitable school areas - if one actually comes on - are too expensive for us or have some other flaw(s) that I can't get past.
We also love the older, single-story, custom homes on larger lots in Escondido and Vista. "Quirks" in custom homes are often endearing to us -- it shows the owners/builders probably thought something through and tailored a particular room or detail to be more functional.
BTW, you are soooo right about "restaurant" Ranch dressing being much better than store-bought Ranch dressing. :) Maybe it's the buttermilk?
We are in escrow with a target closing date of before Christmas. Inspection coming up soon, papers being signed. Racking my brain about 30-year-fixed vs. a 7-year ARM, which I touched on in another thread.
At least it's fun to think about colors. It's been a while.
This is just my personal opinion, but I would not even think of getting an ARM when rates are as low as they are right now.
You might think that you're going to move in 7 years (not sure if that's why you're considering the ARM), or think that prices will be higher in 7 years so you can "refi" (into what??? -- chances are rates will be higher if prices are higher), but you cannot predict the future.
What you DO know is that rates are very low right now. IMHO, you should take advantage of that.
Good luck on your escrow/new house! :)
CAR you make to much sense. The only caviot would be if the buyer does not plan to own the home for more then a few years, which I would definitely not recommend.
ar
ar
Exactly right, SDR. If the buyer only intends to live there for a few years, all bets are off the table. There's a high probability that they will lose money (IMHO, of course).
BTW, thanks for being such a good sport on JTR's blog. I really enjoyed your interviews. If we have another Pigg get-together, your food/drinks are on me. :)
You guys make perfect sense. We bought and sold two homes from 2001 to 2006, but it's a different era now, obviously.
We plan to stay for the full seven years. We have kids and are moving to an area with two 900-API schools — Discovery Elem. and San Elijo Middle School. (Yipee!)
If we sell solely because of a nasty rate reset, the transaction costs quickly eat away at the interest savings/bit lower principal balance, which appear fairly sizable on paper. The interest difference between the fixed and the hybrid ARM is $100 a month.