[quote=KrisopherD]This is just mind-blowing to me that with $450k for a home and an additional $70k for remodel, with a overall total of $520k+ I’m still not guaranteed a decent place. $520k won’t even get me into the city by your account, and will land me a smaller home in outlying areas. How can this unreality possibly continue? With my income I am supposedly in the top 15% of income earners in the US, yet somehow I feel poor when it comes to purchasing a home anywhere near San Diego. Unbelievable.[/quote]
Kris, Allied Gardens IS in the city! The houses there ARE “decent.” Most of the tracts there are just on the plain side but that’s okay (and that just my opinion, fwiw). It’s the same with some of the tracts in Clairemont (92111). Both are “decent” close-in locations in the city.
LM is “decent” also. It’s just that 91941 is so old. Most of the homes there are framed in cedar or redwood and have plaster walls so they are very strong but they undoubtedly have termite damage if they are still original. You won’t really know until you replace a shower or a window. Then one thing will invariably lead to another. It could take a long time to properly remodel a house that age while working FT. In addition, there are springs running underground on some streets there so you will need a sump pump in the crawlspace (which tends to be pretty tall) to use after rainstorms. There are many interesting old homes in LM but I think they would end up costing much more than $70K to rehab properly. If you were to get lucky and obtain a gem on one of the “prime” streets near the village, I don’t think you should ever sell it.
There are other neighborhoods there at the foot of Mt Helix (off Lemon Ave comes to mind) which may have an occasional fixer-listing with good bones but I just don’t see you getting an offer accepted for $450K in that area, mainly due to the large and irregular lot sizes.
As I said, 91942 has mostly 30-50 yo larger two story homes. I don’t see any of them selling for =<$450K unless they can't be financed for some reason (structural damage?). Maybe I'm wrong and there is something there for you to consider. I haven't "shopped" online over there lately.
Kris, the SF bay area is much, much worse. It is EXTREMELY expensive ($750K and up) to buy a 1000 sf (or less) home which is 55-85 years old situated on the peninsula in San Mateo County, for example. Said home may or may not be partially or fully remodeled. These homes aren't even situated in what we in SD County would consider to be an "upscale" city. Consider the likes of San Bruno, a small aging city just a few miles north of SFO, which had a massive gas pipeline burst a few years back ... due to faulty maintenance and calibration by PG&E. The explosions leveled 38 houses, damaged many more and killed 8 people:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_San_Bruno_pipeline_explosion
Consider yourself lucky that you live in a more reasonably-priced coastal Cali market.
