the ability to come to terms with the high MR/HOA is what ultimately separates who end up in Santaluz.
Within the upper income group, there’s another divide between upper income professionals with essentially fixed income vs the business class/independently wealthy. Santaluz/Crosby/Cielo/Lakes via the high HOA/MR essentially rid themselves of the upper income professionals as buyers. So yes, by virtue of the high HOA/MR, they do ensure the residents will be more of the truly wealthy.
I know a few upper income professionals that bought in there and ended up regretting it. ultimately, they simply don’t belong there and they will gradually exit the area.
I say for the next decade this type of cleansing of upper income professional types will continue within Santaluz. hopefully gradually replaced by the business class and business class retirees the development was truly for.[/quote]
OCRenter,
Exactly! That’s the conclusion I came to as well. And I haven’t even physically been to Santaluz yet but doing a lot of due diligence on the area.
From my due diligence, it looks like a proportionally high number of speculators bought in some parts of the development. Especially some realtors that got burned not flipping fast enough. So I imagine that inventory will get cleared out eventually at lower prices with this group of people.
But it looks like many others can just afford to hold on for long periods of time. It seems like the median age there is older. We will be the exception for the most part as I’m still in my mid 30’s and my wife mid 20’s.
It does look like much of the area is wealthier as you described. I’m not really interested in the area for that reason. I’ve just found that nicer areas like that are more prone to do well over the long haul and the area is much better cared for and the development doesn’t really go downhill like a lot of lower end or more affordable areas or developments. Of course there are exceptions to the rule but I’ve seen that over and over in other developments around the world.
For me, it just comes down to personal taste in architecture, the high end area and the look of the development and homes in the area. Also, the safety aspect doesn’t hurt and the school district in the area is top notch and a big factor in our consideration where we live since we have 2 young children.
I toy with the idea of “early retirement” but I’m still fairly young and I enjoy working so not sure that is in the cards for me. But we do make enough with cash flow from other investments and rental properties so that we could theoretically “retire” if we wanted. Most likely I’ll go back to work or work out of the house in a home office. I do consulting and can work anywhere there is internet and phone.
I’m curious to know now what % is retirees there?
I’ve seen on various forums of people kind of badmouthing Santaluz. Yeah, the high MR and HOA fees leave a bad taste in my mouth as well…but much of the bad talk seems almost to be from people that couldn’t afford to live in Santaluz in the first place which isn’t a really good reason to badmouth an area.
Yeah, the lots are smaller in some of these developments and high fees but besides that seems like if you’re not buying for “investment” reasons and buying purely to live it would be a high quality of life.
I’d still love to hear the other side of that from people that actually live within Santaluz. I read some old posts from people that live there but nothing recent.
A poster was kind enough to email me some options in 92128 which also is on the Poway School District. There are a few nice homes in that area but they tend to be older for the most part. It’s great with lower HOA and many have low/no HOA but still not so much to choose from in that area and I still much prefer the look of the more modern homes/area in the Santaluz area.
