If you think you might be relocated to Camp Pendleton, I’d check out Carlsbad or Oceanside. Carlsbad has a much better reputation in terms of schools, location, education, etc. Carlsbad is also just a few freeway exits south of Camp Pendleton.
You basically have two conflicting feelings going on right now:
1. You are smart and KNOW that home prices are overly inflated.
2. You have that nesting, “I want to own my own space”- type of feeling.
The next question comes to time frame. If you know you are going to stay there long-term, the greater weight you will place on feeling #2 above.
My wife and I are in a similar position to you and your husband in many regards. We don’t make as much as you both do, however we are eager to purchase our own home and experience the American dream of home ownership. We want to re-landscape the front yard, put a new deck and patio out back, invite friends and family over, and all that other good stuff.
Enter the reality of things. A typical home that you are looking to purchase was roughly half the price it is now around 5-8 years ago. Many homes are triple the price now than they were before. You will hear from countless kibitzers out here that home prices just continue to rise. The real estate propaganda machine has succeeded in producing this level of thinking.
If you purchase a home now, there are better than reasonable chances that it will lose 10-20% of it’s purchase value. This is not a scientific figure and nobody really knows what this crazy market is going to do. However, just ask yourself if you can live with knowing you bought a $500k home now that may sell for $400k a year or two from now. I’d like to plant my own Bacopas, Alyssum, and Hibiscus as much as the next person, but not at that price.
Interest rates won’t likely have as much of an affect on your decision because you have a down payment and make good money…you can probably afford to pay the loan(s) off early if you wanted to. So waiting a bit (as interest rates rise) won’t be as much of a detractor.
My personal opinion would be to plan on renting for another 1-2 years. Find a nice home that was purchased many years ago. One that you know doesn’t require a huge monthly payment because the owners bought well before prices got out of control. You might even luck out like we did and find one that is not as well maintained but costs a lot less. We are renting a 3bd/2ba, 1700sf detached home in north Carlsbad for $1800/mo. We have no HOA or Mello Roos fees, either. I even converted the garage to an office and run my small business from it. In the meantime, open up some high-yielding, high-liquidity accounts and invest your excess savings there. It’s better to earn 5% than to lose 1%.
