The PUSD Transportation Dept employee told me that he has lots of 4S Ranch students on payment plans. The parents are telling him they are stretching to make their payments, and have ARMs. They’ve got 400 kids on payment plans, up from 100 just a few years ago. I think 4S Ranch was one of the few subdivisions in the PUSD. We didn’t get any subdivisions in Poway, due to their open land policies and their low growth plan, so 4S Ranch was the only area here that people stretched into.
I was inside a few homes when I looked at rentals, and the lots are very close together. In one home, I felt like in a fishbowl in the backyard, because there is 0 privacy. The 2-story homes back to each other and look down on each other, so your neighbor can see you from his bedroom window, just a couple feet away. One 2300 sq ft home had so many small rooms, it felt like one of those kids’ playhouses. I kept shaking my head and wondering who would spend so much money on a house on a tiny lot.
Those tiny lots are disgusting. I like high density living in condos or townhomes, but a SFH deserves to have some decent space around it. I have more privacy in my townhome backyard, which is a row of attache homes adjacent to each other and with open space behind, than I would have had in any of the three 4S Ranch rentals.
I just don’t understand why people buy those big houses on those tiny lots. Do they just settle for it, or do they like not having the yard work? It boggles the mind…
