[quote=bearishgurl][quote=KristopherSD][quote=FormerSanDiegan]You are missing a key piece of information:
What are you current paying in rent.[/quote]
I currently pay less than $850 once split with my girlfriend to live in a small one bedroom cottage two blocks from the beach and restaurants in a nice area. Unfortunately we don’t have any laundry on site and no garage, but we’re making it work and can continue to do so for the next few years. Every rent vs. buy calculator tells me to keep renting forever at this rate.
I’ve also considered condos as some have mentioned, but don’t really like the reliance on others if the HOA goes to hell or issues arise. However i’ll keep an open mind as there are some nice condos for reasonable prices throughout San Diego in my price range.[/quote]
Kris, $1700? is very reasonable rent for a cottage two blocks from the beach with restaurants/retail, etc within walking distance. You likely aren’t going to get even five miles from the beach if you end up buying. If you have reliable street parking available that you don’t have to constantly fight over, I would stay put if I were you. Especially, if you like living near the beach.[/quote]
Yeah, since this is your “g/f” and not even your wife and you don’t even feel the money paid is combined, I’d probably not even bother buying much of anything. Just seems like a problem and more to think about unless you plan to put a ring on it…As others have mentioned, most wives would never want to stay in your bachelor pad or if someone else picked the place, they definitely won’t want to stay there (too many memories).
I don’t see many benefits for young, unmarried people to buy if they are renting a cheap price place.
Buying makes more sense to me to diversify (if you are wealthy with tons of other assets like stocks) and you hate renting.
As others have said, living blocks to the beach will be impossible to buy at the same price point so it’s not really a fair comparison. Of course, you have no garage or laundry which feels like living in the ghetto…Just depends where you are in your life/relationship and what you want. No way you can do a “fair” comparison I feel and I’d assume your place is pretty old, etc…
Plenty of my neighbors rent for 3800/month in an econobox with kids and wife and seem quite happy to pay that…
