Oh don’t worry, I have factored in the landscaping costs and the maintainance on a large lot. I’m not new to San Diego, I lived there for 4 years during residency, then again in LA during fellowship. I remember being quite shocked at my first water bill as an intern. Every area has costs. I’ll wager my electricity and heating bills are double what they would be on a similar sized property in San Diego. Last year I spent $1300 to remove 4 dead trees on my property, one of which was at least 100 feet tall and I was afraid it was going to fall on the house.

We have strongly considered Poway, and those homes can be on very nice sized lots, but anything we really like on the market right now would need some fairly extensive renovation, and I think I dealt with that adequately in my last post. Also, the commute would be a bit longer. Don’t get me wrong, we havn’t totally ruled out the possibilty of purchasing an existing property, but I’m currently finding the idea of new construction quite attractive.