[quote=earlyretirement]
Driving around other areas like 4S Ranch as one example…. it just looks like in 10 years many of the various developments will be really run down. And I can see they aren’t restrictive like Santaluz is.
But the real kick in the nuts on a place like 4S Ranch to me is they still charge as much Mello Roos as Santaluz…yeah you are avoiding the higher HOA fees but it doesn’t look like you get much at all for the HOA fees there and the area is not as nice. So if you’re going to pay Mello Roos anyway, I can’t think for the life of me why people would pick 4S Ranch???
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there are a lot of appeal for places like 4S. I’ll also add SEH since that is another very similar type development. both of these communities are designed as very middle class type developments. unfortunately the bubble got the best of them and the prices went to unrealistic points.
But there are definitely a lot of good with places like 4S and SEH. the schools are great and they really appeal to the middle class and upper middle class lifestyle.
What I’ve noticed is there’s a clear divide at the $700,000 price point. That line (sometimes moved up and down by $50k due to amount of down payment or interest rate), is what separate middle and upper middle income earners from the upper tier groups. And no matter how hard they try (get both parents working, doing overtime, etc etc…), it is extremely difficult for upper middle income groups to break that ceiling. the developers of 4S and SEH know this, so they priced their homes essentially at or slightly below that line of divide.
This is why even though $700k for a cookie cutter home in 4S seem overpriced, the developers end up being able to obtain their buyers. And this is also the reason why even though another community may just price their homes at $100k or $200k over that $700k line, they manage to capture an entirely different set of buyers.
