[quote=ocrenter]ER, plus you can just pay off the MR. After that, you figure $100 for cable is already counted. So $300 plus HOA for guard gated community. I don’t think I’ve seen any gated communities with HOA less than $250 around here.
Did you ever find out what the pay off is for the MR in santaluz?[/quote]
Exactly Ocrenter! We do plan to pay off our MR this year. I’ve been so busy traveling around that I didn’t have time to check this yet. We’re gearing up to travel to Europe for the summer (3 months) but I plan to do it when I get back.
We plan to be in the house for the long haul until the kids are out of high school so it definitely makes sense to pay off the Mello Roos for us.
You are so right about the cable/internet/garbage pick up. By my calculations it’s really only around $270 a month when you back out all the other things that are included. An added bonus is the internet is supposed to only be 10 MB service but I get 20+ MB download speed throughout the house (I’m not sure if this is like this with all the houses but in my house it’s always super fast). I have the entire house wired and we have Netflix in almost every room and never any problems. We also use our Ipads quite a bit all throughout the house.
Yes, most of the places we looked the HOA in nice areas was at least $250 and they provided almost nothing. At least here we have long walking trails, I go biking around the development, everything is so immaculate, there is an 11 acre park where our kids play quite a bit. The security is amazing and they even have roving security patrols that are always driving by. So it’s not just guard gated but they actually have people constantly driving around all the neighborhoods patrolling.
Plus everyone here is so friendly and I actually like the strict HOA rules because we are always assured of peaceful living, no noise, everyone taking great care of their lots,no one painting their house an offensive color, etc.
The quality of life out here is truly amazing. I mentioned it before in another post but I will here as well. At Christmas, all our immediate neighbors all brought Christmas gifts for one another. I’ve not experienced something like that in communities that I’ve lived before.
They also have a block party every year as well and they have several events as I mentioned throughout the year.
Easter party, July 4th celebration including fireworks, Movies on the green where they play a movie on a big screen in the park, Fall Festival (they brought some Clydesdale horses last year and gave kids hay rides) and at Christmas they hire a Santa Clause for all the kids to give wish lists to. (Of course you aren’t going to buy a house just for these types of extras but they certainly are something great if you have kids).
Like I said..there is a real sense of community here. I can’t imagine a better lifestyle community in San Diego.
