Not sure if this is the proper forum.. But since I opened the door and I have been lazy, remiss, and too busy playing Halo3 to join the forum in the last few months – I have officially bought a house in Middleton (outside of Madison) WI.
I have obsessed and hated the idea of buying anything here in SD…. This is one sick, twisted, insane market! Here is my history: Bought a house in 2001 in Carmel Valley. It was in a nice neighborhood and close to Ashley Falls Elementary. 810K, but original carpet and kitchen from 1990 when it was built.
I think that the houses in Carmel valley, especially the ones built by Baldwin were built out of paper mache and spit. I was unhappy about paying 810K – but that was the market and it was on it’s way up.
We remodeled along the way and put about $250K into the house – custom kitchen, turned the 2 story bedroom/loft into another room above us and pushed the kitchen out 10 feet to the backyard.
Was pretty unhappy with Ashley Falls, it was supposed to be the best elementary school – I found it full of pretty, young teachers who were mostly just babysitters… Union babysitters. Started down the private school path – my kids went to The Rhoades School in Encinitas, which meant a commute up through Rancho Santa Fe every day.
Sold the house for 1.4M in 2004. Bought in Olivenhain for 2M. Daughter started bishops 1.5 years later (7th grade) and decided after 3 months of commuting to La Jolla that I didn’t like living out in the country and commuting. Sold the house in Olivenhain for 2,050,000 which after a good deal on Realtor fees, only put me 30K in the hole after the 2 years (.lol.)
Have been renting in La Jolla with the money in my pocket from the sale of my company to buy a house.
But we are in a market which I consider somewhat crazy to buy in right now. It’s not just the high prices, its the high prices for terrible houses and even worse lots. I couldn’t in my right mind buy in Carmel valley again. The houses are 7 feet from each other, the lots are insanely small, and it’s just too many houses all too similar for my taste. I don’t think the value is there. I am tired of people saying “you are paying for the sunshine”. While i agree that it is great weather – I think that the premium is too high and the likelihood of the values dropping a ton is still there – all while financing huge amounts of money and living in a state / county which is on the edge financially of going somewhat bankrupt.
The final straw was the education system. I am tired of paying almost 30K / year for private school because the public schools are so deficient – more importantly, my daughter isn’t thrilled with the private school experience and my son probably isn’t a great candidate for the private school – so I would have one in a school she doesn’t want, and the other in public school which would fail him.
We just bought a house in Madison (Middleton) WI. I’m not crazy about buying there either! Prices continue to go up there, but the high end of the market is very flat. Getting exactly what I wanted would mean building – and I don’t feel like building right now. We found a house which doesn’t have every feature I want, but between what it has and what I am adding to it, it will be very nice.
It’s 6,000 sq ft, with a 3 car garage and about 70 feet from one neighbor and 40 feet from the other. This is considered big houses on smallish lots (like CV), but I don’t want to take care of a big property again (like Olivenhain). The house was just finished, but we are adding on some space and some features. The price of the house was $749K and the upgrades, sun room, wiring, custom kitchen and steamroom ect will be another $105K.
This works out to about $160/sq ft, and while I didn’t want to buy – I can’t put my kids on hold anymore. My son starts Middle school in Sept and my daughter starts 9th grade (high school). It’s the perfect time to put down some roots where I have some family (my wifes brother and family lives there and we enjoy them a lot) and finish raising the kids. Medium and longer range time frame is to pick up a condo for around 1M (hopefully prices keep falling and some nice units come on the market in 1 or 2 years) so we can have 2 homes and a place to go after the kids graduate and we either sell or just keep Middleton.
The neighborhood is the nicest in Middleton (IMO) and the school is one of the 3 best in WI. We are 4 miles from the school, 7 miles from the capitol building and downtown, 1 mile from Starbucks, shopping, and the new Costco (yeah!). Money magazine just ranked Middleton as the #1 place in the US to live! That’s not why I am moving there – but it helps my mind. It was ranked #1 for the college, commute (nothing is more than a 10 min drive), education system, family parks and facilities, its the bicycle capital of the US, the food is great, it has great lakes and other nice features. It is 45 min away from Wisconsin Dells which is a resort area with giant water parks (think Rickey Bobby) and casinos!
The downside? The weather and bugs. Not happy about each, but I’m not from CA originally (NY) and am used to weather. I also don’t mind winters as if I work, it would be from home and will have heated floors! If I had to get up at 6am and drive I wouldn’t do it! By the way – the winter is harsh, but only really part of December, Jan, Feb, and part of March. The summer, spring and fall are awesome. I also like weather, rain storms, all the rest of it. I miss breezes where you actually can smell the air etc.
The final issue for us was the people. I have great friends here and find the people in San Diego to be really nice on the whole, but it’s not Madison. Madison is very, very liberal, very intellectual, and the people are way, way too nice! It’s scary how nice the people in the midwest are. I think that it’s the best thing I can do for my kids which is the only reason we are moving there for the next 8-9 years!
