It totally depends on what is going on in my life. Are my kids in school, am I living alone, is there a woman in my life, if so, is she a voting member of the household, am I retired or am I working still, and where? Most importantly, what is my income, how am I getting by?
Del Mar, La Jolla if It’s just me or if it’s just me or me and wife/girlfriend. A mil isnt going to get me a big house for me and the kids and raising kids in that envoronment, I’d need a substatial income for them just to be average.
Mt. helix is good if the kids are youngish, good compromise.
Pt. Loma, if my kids were grown, to close to some places for me to raise kids there and schools can be subpar, but for me by myself, it works, can I walk to bars, thats a bonus.
Poway or San Digueto districts if I had young kids.
But if my life was what it is today (high schoolers happy with their life and friends, still another 7-10 years of work left, I’d take the mil, buy a house like scardey’s house, invest the other 4-5 hundred K in something that produces income (3-5 rentals up here, generate 4-5k net per month for travel/slush fund) and stay in hotels when I had the urge to be be around lots of people. In fact I could travel somewhere cool every other month and still have plenty of change.
Final answer, I wouldn’t spend a million dollars on a house unless it was just a small fraction of my wealth. Too many other things to do with money than putting it all into a house. It proably explains why I am who I am and why I live where I live. I’ve always admired the Buffet way of thinking. I’ve designed my portfolio to ultimately have in excess of 10k a month, inflation adjusted income, in retirement for the remainder of my stay on the planet. Yet I live in a house worth 300k, have no toys (exotic cars, motorhomes or boats) and I’ve never had to tell a cigar or bottle of wine or a restaraunt, that I can’t afford you. Enjoy the little things, ignore the big things and for god’s sake, buy a house that you can afford on less than one third of your income, it’s just a house.
