Hi Piggs, saw my name here and finally had a chance to respond. I’ve checked in recently but have been on the road for awhile … all over the great State of Colorado. It was breathtakingly beautiful and I had the time of my life. desmond, you would have been thrilled to tour the several (rocky mtn high) 13K peaks that I did … yes, up close and personal, replete with old mines to explore, hidden turquoise lakes and brushes with bighorn, deer, marmot, chipmunks and tons of colorful wildflowers!
OH, and BTW, folks, my tankish geezer of a vehicle got 29.5 mpg on the road with just two pints of STP added to the tank for the whole trip! It (I? :=0) even got a speeding ticket (98 in an 80 mph zone) in a lovely desolate straightaway on the way home. After demonstrating equipment failure (odometer needle light out so is black on black in the bright sun) to the state trooper, I got my ticket reduced from $247 to $90. But not before a (deserved) lecture, “Lady, it took me three miles to catch up with you. If you’re passing everything in sight like its standing still, you’re going too fast. It’s 102 degrees right now. We have a lot of blowouts around here and your tires aren’t rated for speed. I don’t want to have to scrape you and your overturned vehicle off the median.”
Well folks, I guess I’ll be getting these needle lights fixed because I’m planning on hitting the road again in a few weeks :=0
***
Jazzman, I saw your photos in your OP and am happy for you on your purchase of a country home in France. Your pictures are very pretty but I noticed that your (stone?) house looks as if (behind trees) its garage is only big enough to hold a motorcycle. Although probably a very old property, I was wondering, is there another garage on the premises?
Jazzman, I never tried to “pillory” you for buying a retirement place in HI versus coastal CA. And having never been to Europe myself, I’m not in a position to determine whether what you are purchasing is a “good deal” (or not) since your lack being able to find what you believe to be a “good deal” in CA is why you decided to shop elsewhere. However, I don’t feel you can compare your purchase to a (comparable $488,110 US dollars) property purchase in CA coastal counties which have street lights and sidewalks (in municipalities); a 911 emergency system in place; trash pickup; high-speed internet avail; built-in cabinets; closets and fixtures; storm drains; zoning laws; emissions laws; guardrails on elevated roads; renowned beaches and a proliferation of other public services which may not be available in rural European locales or, if available, may not be to the (generally high) standards of CA cities. And it certainly cannot be compared to the properties’ locations which you toured in your more coveted coastal CA locales (detailed below).
As CAR has previously stated here a few times, a CA urban or suburban homebuyer will pay for a multitude of available high-quality (public and private) SERVICES when they purchase residential RE. You don’t have to leave the country to prove this point. All you have to do is visit states which don’t have these public services or level of services available (but often charge higher property taxes) and ask yourself why residential RE is cheaper there. It’s cheaper because you pay for exactly what you get in this life.
Just to keep this thread apples to apples, $488,110 is NOT an “entry-level” home in most cities of coastal CA counties. It is a “move-up” home or at the very least, a recently heavily-remodeled “entry-level” home. One can certainly purchase a 4 bd/2-3 ba/2-3 gar SFR of 2000+ sf sitting on .5 to 1.5 AC today in most coastal CA counties for +/- $488,110 … and likely closer to the coast than your country home in France is.
Nevertheless, your pics of the surrounding area are beautiful and I’m happy for your purchase if you’re happy with it 🙂
[quote=Jazzman][quote=bearishgurl]I have a question for you Jazzman … Was LJ proper where you were looking for a SFR to buy before you got frustrated with the local market there and left SD? And if so, and you had been successful making an acceptable deal there, would it have been the first property you owned in a CA coastal county?[/quote]. . . To your question, we looked at La Jolla, Del Sur, Encinitas, Laguna Beach, Pasadena, Marin County, but decided the best of all places was Santa Barbara. We could afford a home in most of these places, but that wasn’t the issue here. . .[/quote]
[quote=Jazzman]I really did my homework, and therein probably lies the problem. The more I became aware of the issues, the more skeptical I became.[/quote]
[quote=bearishgurl][quote=Jazzman]We looked, and looked in Santa Barbara for two years. The situation actually got worse. In 2010, there may have been one or two opportunities, since local housing was depressed, but there were very visible efforts to stop price declines at all costs. It was a sacrosanct, protected haven. Ojai was an option and we saw many homes there, but it was ludicrous what sellers wanted in such a remote little place.
We did want to live in CA, but the poor choice of homes and asking prices was such a deterrent. If you are a cash buyer, it’s your money and you are much more reluctant to part with it than when using someone else’s. I once said to a broker who scorned us for our tactics; “Have to ever paid $x cash for anything?” You could see the penny drop…[/quote]
Jazzman, from your post above, it almost sounds as if you may have “overthought” several purchases and thus talked yourself out of competing for them. And most of the areas you were shopping in no doubt had a preponderance of all-cash buyers like yourself…[/quote]
[quote=Jazzman]First, apologies to OP for the hijack, and just to reiterate your instincts are right on target.
BG, please don’t take it personally, I do like CA and love the people. I just think homes are over-priced, as do many who live there. My home town London is a LOT worse.
Yes, you are right. We talked ourselves out of it, because we knew it was a losing battle some time ago. And you are right in that it is horses for courses. Maui is small, remote, and island fever sets in, which is why we will buy our main home near Paris. We’re in Honolulu (30 mins away) at the moment celebrating my birthday.[/quote]
We’ve been through all of this before, Jazzman. In a nutshell, your previous posts indicate that you were only willing to shop in largely premium coastal enclaves of CA, but not in France. It appears that in all the months you spent trying to find a suitable retirement home for yourselves, what you really wanted was not a CA coastal home at all, but a beach condo in HI and a secluded European country home. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, but as you are aware, the three locales are all completely different animals.
I stand by my previous assertion that the CA coastal enclaves which you were shopping in are not overvalued. Not even now. The vast majority of currently listed properties situated in them are listed under build-cost for their current size when taking into account the prior purchase of the lot they sit on and the fact that those lots can’t be recreated today. That’s the main point I was trying to covey in our previous discussions. It wasn’t to “pillory” you.
