[quote=jstoesz] . . . But a rent vs buy calculation should not be so lopsided for a starter. . . [/quote]
But jstoesz, the links you have posted to properties you liked and the neighborhoods you have posted that you would purchase into (excepting “Allied Gardens,” parts of “Clairemont” and your LM home built on a rock) are NOT “starter areas or homes.”
What I am saying here is that your taste in homes that you would actually purchase here in SD Co. is indicative of a “move-up buyer’s” taste WHO ALREADY HAS $100K to $400K in cash for a down payment (all or in part) from the sale of 1-2 prior pieces of real estate they owned here.
[quote=jstoesz]No problem. How about in order from best to worst. List of places we have thought about at one time or another.
Pipe dream (nice, safe, old, walkable)
– Point Loma
– Midtown
– Mission hills
– Mt Helix (not walkable but really cool homes and neighborhood)
out of reach (safe and kind of old and mostly walkable)
– University Heights
– Normal Heights
– Clairemont
– Bay Park
Crap but in my price range.
– La Mesa
– Allied Gardens[/quote]
As a “first time buyer” in SoCal (namely, SD County), your “requirements” DO NOT jive with what a typical “starter home” here is. I’m sorry to say that there is an obvious disconnect between your “desires” and what is “available” in your price range.
As sdr stated, “It is what it is.”
Seriously, I wish you all the best in Placerville and the Sac area. I think you will be more than pleased with what you can buy there with the typical resources of a first-time buyer. It’s not a bad place to live at all!
I actually hail from Alameda County, CA. In some ways I envy you, but I have a ball and chain connected to my ankle for 3.5 more years, lol :={
