Sorry for late reply. I had peeps in from out of town.
jfel, if your rental home sits on a “busy corner,” it suffers from “economic obsolescence” no matter what is going on in the immediate vicinity. Therefore, it is not a good buy unless purchased solely as an investment with a very deep discount. Your owner/heirs will most certainly find this out when they try to list it but this is not your problem.
Based upon your description of your current neighborhood “problems,” I’m going to take an educated guess that if you still reside east of the 805, your “spillover riff-raff” is coming under/over the fwy from the Castle Park area. Therefore, you must live in or around the Deerpark subdivision off of E Naples or along Oleander, which is a fairly “busy” street. Hilltop Drive east to the 805 fwy from south of L St all the way to Main St has the (scattered) “problem” you described, which is most pronounced along Hilltop Drive from Naples to Orange Ave (front of CPHS).
The rest of western Chula Vista doesn’t have this particular problem.
I agree with gzz about considering buying in Lakeside, especially since your spouse will have no commute from there. You can find a larger lot size with a decent-sized family home on it in Lakeside and there is certainly more inventory out there to choose from (mainly due to heat and distance from SD). But overall, it is a good place for a SD County lower/moderate income family to raise their families in.
Before you shop for houses, however, I’m going to advise you to get legal advice from a qualified CA family law attorney as well as a probate attorney. I’m a paralegal (not a lawyer, but I’ve seen many different thorny “situations” people get themselves into) so I can’t give you any legal advice. In any case, a lawyer wouldn’t be able to advise you without knowing all the details of your situation.
[quote=jfel]Our situation: my husband makes about 50-60k (before taxes), we have a 1 1/2 year old and a baby on the way. Recently I lost my parents and have inherited a small goose-egg.[/quote]
jfel, you are very young to have lost both your parents and for that, you have my condolences. But you need to know that your “inheritance” belongs to you and only youunless you “commingle” it (i.e. deposit some or all of it in a joint account or use some or all of it as the entire downpayment on real property which is only half owned by you or owned by a marital “community”). Doing this could change the “character” of your inheritance and you may already be aware that CA is a “community-property state.”
[quote=jfel]As far as my income potential, I will remain at home and be the primary one homeschooling.[/quote]jfel, I don’t know if you have graduated from college or occupational school, but if not, you should consider using some of your inheritance (or the income from it) to get a college degree or occupational certificate while your kids are young (and FT daycare is expensive). In your late 20’s, you are essentially saying here that you plan on remaining at home for the next 18-19 years so you can homeschool, assuming your kids don’t end up deciding they want to attend public school from grades 7-12 or 9-12 (to obtain a permanent record of A-G and other requirements for entry into the UC/CSU). Since you say you’re only having two kids, by the time your youngest kid graduates from HS, you will be 45-50 years old and without any work experience in decades (or no work experience at all) you will likely not be hired anywhere. I don’t feel that it’s a good plan for a young person to put all their eggs in one basket (so to speak), because “life DOES happen” along the way … and even moreso when one has minor children to raise.
If it was your spouse posting here (employed or not), or any married male “heir,” for that matter, I would tell them the exact same thing I’m telling you … and that is to seek legal advice … and the sooner, the better.
jfel, you’ve got a l-o-o-ong road ahead of you but you are very fortunate that, in your twenties, you are financially secure enough to develop Plan A, B and C for your life … however it goes …. BEFORE you make BIG financial decisions! The vast majority of your millenial counterparts do not have these choices so I urge you not to blow the ONE chance in life you may have to get it right and get your financial house in order.
