Hi SDrealtor,
Thanks for your advice. We actually looked at a home in Sausalito this past weekend. It’s about 1700+sqft with a tiny yard (the owner put all concret so it didn’t feel like a yard) and it’s asking for ~$650K. I wonder who’s gonna pay that price for it.
I think Sausalito does have a better location than Highlands Village (being close to the elementary school). However, we didn’t like the floorplan cuz the masterbedroom was super small and guest parking is pretty hard (there’s firelane everywhere in the community). The HOA is about $120 and so is the mello-loos. For highland village I won’t get any yard but I’m getting the indoor space of 2000+sqft, and with HOA of $290+$85-mello-loos, I have a common kid play area and amenities, etc.

I guess one of my question is that:
once you have kids, is it really that important to have a yard and be in walking-distance to schools? 🙁 I do prefer a SFH but just cannot afford one. (I don’t think any of them is getting close to $600K).

But again I think my best bet now is just to keep on looking and see what’s available.

One thing though, there doesn’t seem to be too many distressed properties or short-sale in CV (for SFHs). Do you find that true?