Yes, I do know I can get the equivalent 1 or 2 bedroom in Mira Mesa for about 100k less, and I did look around there for a little bit, but to be honest, I don’t really want to live there. I saw some condos there, and they seemed pretty old, and I also wasn’t sure what the quality of the neighbors were.

I have lived in the UTC area for about 3 years, and have come to the conclusion that this is the type of area I’d want to live in, in terms of feel of the area, convenience, safety, etc. Also since this is a prime area (next to ucsd, qualcomm, utc mall, etc), I feel like it’d hold up its value moreso than other areas, even if they did take a dip. So in a way, I’d be buying mostly for the area. Not saying the condos themselves are good quality though, I think most (venetian, verano, lucera, vicenza) are actually apartment to condo conversions, which means they are lower quality (super thin walls, no garage, etc) and I even heard of plumbing problems in some of them.

There are some real nice townhomes in the Renaissance neighborhood, but I’d probably have to drop 300k+ for a 1 bedroom there…sigh.

In regards to rent vs own, I know that I would probably be able to pay slightly less to rent (1400 vs 1500-1600 to buy) at venetian ( I have enough for 20% down), but thats only a hundred or 2 more, and at least I’d be building equity and getting some more tax deductions right? The rent seems to be going up too.