I’ve looked at some of those 1900 sf Harveston rentals as well. I really like them but, as far as buying one, the property taxes and HOA’s there are VERY high. When I do the math, I figure that it wouldn’t make sense for me to pay anything over the mid 200’s for one of those. I think they were selling for 280K when the first phase came out in 2003 so that tells you something. My gut feeling is that the market will over-correct big time and you will be able to pick one up (fully upgraded) in the low 200’s if you’re patient. If gas prices keep jumping up no one will want to buy or rent in Temecula anyway since most people would have to commute very far to work – that would support the downside over-correction even more.
There are a lot of “investors” that are renting out the houses in Harvestion and every one of them is renting at a huge loss. How long can that go on? It’s not even that easy to find a renter. My friend called about one of the rentals that was $1800/month and the lady pretty much said she’d take $1600/month two minutes into the conversation.
If it were me, I’d just keep renting and wait it out. I wouldn’t insult the owner with a low-ball (but sensible) offer just yet.
There’s another reason to wait. If the foreclosure situation gets really bad the character of the neighborhood might change and you might not want to live there anymore. The people that buy at the bottom may not be people you want to live next door to. I’m going to wait it out at least 3 more years before doing anything. I can picture the Inland Empire having a lot of Section 8 rentals once prices get low enough.
