I have enjoyed your comments and congratulations on your recent purchase. I myself have been tempted to blow off the idea of buying a place with acreage and pick up a nice house in town like you did. It sounds a lot simpler than what my wife has in mind. The only problem is my wife has 18 horses and runs an upscale horse trail riding business for the tourist/wine tasting crowd out of Wilson Creek Winery. (Here is her website so I can plug her business. http://www.winecountrytrailsbyhorseback.com ) and she has been doing fairly well considering she just started in June 2008 and she is already profitable (Except for the last few weeks of rain has dampend her rides). So she wants to hold out to see if we can get a place that will house her animals and cut her 1700$ rent she pays to house her animals on the ranch where we rent a small home.
You are right about the crazy horse people, but I am married to one so I have to deal with it. She actually has a good business and if she can control the overhead I.E. bording for her horses, then she can make a decent living doing something she loves everyday. That in itslef is something I think we all would like to be able to say.
The area out there is really quite interesting and it really is hard to compare to what happend “in Town”. It seems to be laging a bit behind but I am starting to see the low end dip below 300k. I found a place behind the French Valley airport, short sale for 259k on five flat acres but a tear down house on it. My wife was not up for that much work. Every month I am seeing better and better properties popping up out there, but there is still a lot of people thinking that their “Estate” should fetch over 1 Million when they only paid 400k 4 years ago. Overall it is a nice peacefull area, but it is by no means, Rancho Santa Fe.
Thanks for your input and I will continue my search. I hope by the time all the Alt A loans start to default in mass this next year we will see these proerties taking a haircut like the rest of Temecula. I have talked to a lot of the people out there over the last few years and one comment that I keep hearing over and over that will make you laugh is they all think that the area is “Special” and won’t be impacted like town will.
I do not think anyplace is “special” any more. And I hope to be able to pick up my mini 5 acre ranch for under 300k soon. Wish me luck..
Till then, best of luck with the new home. I am envious because I am tired of waiting and watching. But patience is a virtue and it even may save me a few hundred thousand bucks…
Tlefort
