livinincali, my property is actually about a 2200 sf SFR with a larger yard. I’m not into mcmansions in lizardland and their requisite MR and HOA’s appurtenant. FWIW, it’s ~10 mi from dtn SD, one mile from the bay and I have about 50% equity. It’s no skin off my back if I rent it out for ~$2000 per month for a few years until Gen Y (the upcoming family-raising buyer-contingent) decide they don’t want to waste their valuable time and a huge chunk of their needed monthly income (needed to raise their children) to pay extra fees in lizardland anymore.
My ~65 yo hood (and its owners) are sufficiently “gentrified” that I don’t have too many of those types of “sellers” that borrowed their way into oblivion in recent years. In fact, the opposite is true. Most of them own free and clear 🙂
The problem I face is since I bought, my city (Chula Vista) has annexed two more zip codes and increased its population by about 175K people. Those two zips were entirely built between 2000 and 2006. There has been so much distressed new construction to choose from down here that the the vast majority of younger buyers in “family-raising-mode” have nearly all chosen the *newer* contruction at fire-sale prices in recent years. Never mind that they have a 3400-4400 sf lot (avg 3800 sf) and they can hear their neighbor’s toilet flush. Never mind that their MR is $4K to $5K annually. Never mind that their assn fees are $130 to $270 mo for an SFR or that their SFR is encumbered by two or more HOA’s. They want NEWER! They can’t see the value in OLDER areas with avg 7500 sf lots (many with 1/4 – 1/2 AC lots). They don’t want the 80+ yo trees to walk their dogs in … they want sticks and miniscule “community parks” for their ridiculous monthly fees. And they want to commute 8-12 miles farther from job centers on the fwys (with everyone else, lol) instead of take the surface street to dtn SD (like I can).
So there you have it. That is my “competition,” which was not known to me when I purchased the property. I can’t fix it now. It’s a “values issue.” My property will sell to a relative of a longtime neighbor. That’s the way it has always worked around here.
When it’s time, I’m going to go, regardless, and join my “brethren boomers” at a “typical boomer retirement haven” in Norcal (where I’m from), the sierras or the rockies.
There are MILLIONS of us who will NOT give away our property and all the improvements we did for NOTHING. So GET USED to the “inventory problem” and having to “pony up rent,” ostensibly to rent from a boomer who refuses to sell at “fire sale” prices.
