I’m a price sensitive tenant. I pay $1425/mo for an old 2+1+garage apartment condo here in Eastside Costa Mesa. On Craiglist, I don’t see much for less than that in Lake Forest or Mission Viejo or Laguna Niguel. So I assume it would cost me at least $1300 for about the same old 2+1+garage in one of those areas.
If my total expenses when buying are $3K / yr for HOA and 1.5% for maintenance and 1% for taxes and 2% for occasional upgrades and miscellaneous, then I am paying about 5 – 5.5% on $300K after tax, or about $1300 / mo. So if I can get an old 2+1 with a garage for $300K, my outlay is about equal to renting.
My hope is to wait, as long as prices are decreasing, so I can get something better for $300K, but if price decreases slow and I can buy something similar to what I live in now for less than $300K, I probably will pull that trigger. I have to hold myself back from making a premature move by also requiring that I can pay for it out of money market savings, which are less than $200K now and growing slowly.
