[quote=DWCAP]. . . San Diego is a VERY diverse city, and I would advise ANYONE moving here for the first time to rent. I dont care if you are Bill Freakin Gates, RENT YOUR FIRST HOUSE. You will not know where you want to be, and what kind of lifestyle you want/can afford until you are here. The housing, the noise, the weather, the people, the social scene, the activites, they are all so different.
Find what you want, then optimize it to what you can afford, and live the happy median. SD housing prices are stagnant or falling currently, interest rates are low, and going down. Rents are not skyrocketing. There is no possible reason you NEED to buy a house, in a city you dont currently live in, in the next 6-12 months. (unless someone else is paying the tab for you, which again is a fact needed in the OP)[/quote]
DWCAP, this was very good advice to this new Pigg who currently resides in the state of TX. Newcomers to SD from locales such as TX and any other parts of the country where the average SFR lot is 10,000+ sf are SHOCKED at the density they must acclimate themselves to here due to price constraints. In addition, there are other conditions that they must accept if they choose to live here that are MUCH LESSER or NONEXISTENT issues where they have been used to living.
As an example, I have observed many, many incoming military families who would be PROVIDED “FREE” housing in SD County or a stepped-up housing allowance to find housing here who INSTEAD opt to remain in their former locale (with a much lesser housing allowance) rather than adapt to the “lifestyle” they would be subjected to by moving here with their sponsor, ESPECIALLY if the sponsor is subject to deployment soon after settling in. So what typically happens is the sponsor comes to SD on 1-2 year unaccompanied orders and is provided a shared living unit on base or quarters on shipboard and travels to see their family whenever they can.
I’m not trying to put down SD County here but just saying it’s not for every young family who is accustomed to a different life than we have here with perhaps more discretionary income, space to park 2 or more vehicles, etc.
