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Viewing 9 posts - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
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  • July 11, 2012 at 12:30 PM #19953
    WaitingToExhale
    Participant

    Well, I should have waited longer to exhale. I was a regular reader of this board until I bought a few years ago. We would have been fine, but my job situation changed and we moved to the greater Boston area.

    The good news is we were aggressive in pricing and managed to close the San Diego house after a few weeks on the market earlier this year. The bad news is that we lost money on it as we had only been in the house less than two years, and we didn’t quite get what we paid for it (though it was close).

    I’m frustrated because we did everything as right as possible, waited through the biggest part of the bubble to buy, and refused to walk away from the loan and instead took the hit on selling our house.

    Now, we’re in Middlesex county in Mass., where the FHA limit is $465,000 and we don’t have the 20% downpayment for a jumbo loan. Do we have any options for a low downpayment jumbo loan? Any suggestions? (other than buying a less expensive house, which is undesirable as we like the school district very much).

    July 11, 2012 at 12:36 PM #747693
    spdrun
    Participant

    HomePath mortgage on a foreclosure? 3,5% down for owner-occupied.

    July 11, 2012 at 1:44 PM #747699
    hillsilly
    Participant

    May I make a suggestion? Rent for awhile.

    We went from SD to Boston area. 5 years of adventure– including home ownership. When we decided we wanted to come back to California, we took a huge hit selling our home.

    BTW: Russo’s in Watertown is a fabulous green grocer.

    July 11, 2012 at 3:43 PM #747714
    svelte
    Participant

    Wow, a Watertown reference!

    I’ve been tracing back various branches of my family tree this year, and almost every one of them came across from England and settled in Watertown in the early 1600s. Even branches of the family that didn’t meet & marry until the late 1800s and early 1900s – all from Watertown.

    Strange, I thought, because I’ve never heard of that town before.

    And…now right here….there is a Watertown reference. Life is truly strange.

    July 12, 2012 at 7:36 AM #747776
    WaitingToExhale
    Participant

    [quote=spdrun]HomePath mortgage on a foreclosure? 3,5% down for owner-occupied.[/quote]

    There are no hits in the town we’re in, unfortunately. I’ll keep looking, though.

    July 12, 2012 at 7:43 AM #747777
    WaitingToExhale
    Participant

    [quote=hillsilly]May I make a suggestion? Rent for awhile.

    We went from SD to Boston area. 5 years of adventure– including home ownership. When we decided we wanted to come back to California, we took a huge hit selling our home.

    BTW: Russo’s in Watertown is a fabulous green grocer.[/quote]

    We decided to rent to begin with, as we needed to sell our SD house and we wanted to get to know the town. In fact, we were so bummed about having to sell the SD house so soon after buying that we had every intention of just renting for the foreseeable future. The problem is that the Boston area seems to be divided into towns/neighborhoods where people rent, and towns where very few rentals are available (much based on quality of schools). This results in a premium to rent in a “buyer-type” town given limited inventory, and we have been surprised to find that renting looks to be much more expensive than buying for us – down payment notwithstanding!

    July 12, 2012 at 8:59 AM #747781
    sdrealtor
    Participant

    CA is unique in that regard. You can find single family rentals in just about any neighborhood here. In most parts of the country single family rentals in primo neighborhoods are rare. When people move they sell the house. In CA people hold on to prior homes as rentals for a variety of reasons – how much prices can rise here hence good investment, hopes to return someday, expensive so hold onto for kids and prop 13. These things create a unique situation for renting nice homes I havent heard of anywhere else.

    July 12, 2012 at 9:04 AM #747782
    hillsilly
    Participant

    Hi, OP.

    Understood. Our experience was that the initial elation wore off and we realized that we were Californians, not New Englanders.

    Have you gotten into the details of the costs of owning in your area? Excise tax on cars, heating oil contracts, septic pumping? Have you done winters yet? It took a few years of snow plow contracts, ice damns, de-ticking after long walks in the woods, etc. clarify that we did not want to be old in NE. You may feel differently.

    Back to your original point, have you looked into credit unions? There are some big employer-related ones in Mass.

    July 12, 2012 at 5:44 PM #747871
    WaitingToExhale
    Participant

    [quote=hillsilly]Hi, OP.
    Have you gotten into the details of the costs of owning in your area? … Have you done winters yet? …[/quote]

    We were here this past winter, and it didn’t seem too bad – but it was the mildest winter ever recorded. Literally.

    We did live in New York for 8 years, so we have some familiarity with East Coast weather. The fundemental truth is that the job market for me might limit me to this area, so we’d better adapt!

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