I think its way to hard to speak about such a broad group of people. I can’t speak to SD at large, but from my personal experiences, if you are talking about young white collar professionals, who want to live in places in central SD or North County coastal, I think there are number of people who will be competing for that “deal”. Those are desirable neighborhoods where first time buyers, move up buyers (condo to a house), and investors may want to compete for that gem in Mission Hills or Encinitas. For people in their late 20s or early 30s, 7-12 years of work experience post college is not a “few” years of work experiences in fields such as tech, biotech, sales.
There are quite a few people who fit that demographic who have moved here from other locales with lower cost of living but command equal or higher salaries. They’ve been saving for 10 years. I have friends who bought and sold their first house in other cities in their 20s and have that nest egg and are just waiting for the right house to come along along with the right price.
I agree there are also plenty of 20s and 30s who spend spend spend. But there are plenty who do have the downpayment in cash. There are also many people willing to borrow against their 401k for the downpayment. I think people underestimate how many people who’s families will help them out with the downpayment.
Most of my friends who have never bought a home are no longer looking at buying condos but rather homes because homes have come down to a level where it doesn’t make sense to risk the condo glut market and deal with the possible HOA assessments or hike in fees.
