[quote=svelte]What you don’t mention is how long you plan on keeping the home and/or staying in San Diego[/quote]

Thank you everyone for the input so far, I appreciate it! To answer your question, I plan on being in San Diego for the rest of my life hopefully or at least until retirement 25 years from now. Ideally I would buy my “forever” home that needs alot of work, and turn it into a nice home over the course of a few years.

I guess what puts me off buying now is what I consider very high prices. I cannot believe that fixer upper homes in Clairemont Mesa are going for $500k+ or $450k+ in La Mesa, not to mention $600+ in Ocean Beach. I wonder who is buying all of these homes, there cannot possibly be THAT many tech jobs around. Maybe I am wrong. I feel that I am in a very advantageous position with decent savings, no debt, and a stable job yet I somehow feel “priced out”. This leaves me wondering if others are stretching the budget to purchase.