[quote=thejard]It is funny you mention 91910 and SFR…
I stumbled upon this site a few months back and loved the analysis. Have lately been reading the comments… so a bit of a lurker here 🙂
But, this got me to post since relevant.
We just had our first baby in Dec and we are trying to turn that tax windfall into a house in Chula Vista where my gal pal (don’t plan on marriage anytime soon) grew up. Ideally NW Chula…
3.5% FHA, maybe a small 203K, trying to be around $300K-$330K, need 3/2, already laden w/ debt
So, the realtor.com link is very familiar to me 🙂
709 4th–>went pending in 1 day; it was a relisted/back on market… I’m guessing all cash
752 2nd–>owners squatting, will not move. bank has offered ‘substantial’ $$, but they no take. Auction I think starts at $209k
164 Landis–>I’ve seen bounce from 375-350-375
The rest are contingent. I don’t feel like NW Chula is ‘cheap’
This all makes us sad and frustrated lol… She bought a house in 2007 and prices are back above that level a decent clip. At our price range we are in direct competition w/ investors with fat wallets.
We’d love to get a house… American Dream and all that, but maybe we missed the boat on this ‘time to buy’ so to speak? But how long is too long to wait… in the mean time we rent at a low cost ($1120 North Adams, 1/1+den… baby room!) and save/pay down debts… and obsess![/quote]
thejard, I didn’t mean to imply that Chula Vista was “cheap” (and it shouldn’t be). Actually its northwest corner is the most well-located and convenient part of the city, has great weather (being situated on the bay) and is very walkable and convenient to public transportation. Plus, it has almost all the city govm’t HQ there and a full range of government services, ie. library, swimming pool, rec center, courts, assessor, etc (all walkable).
My last post doesn’t sound like it but I am probably the most UNsympathetic on this forum to underwater borrowers’ plights. I feel that the vast majority of them did it to themselves by living beyond their means (often FAR BEYOND) using their principal residences as ATMs. IMO, squatting owners deserve to be booted out within days after their former property is sold to the highest bidder or reverts back to the beneficiary at a trustees sale.
I totally blame the defaulted upon LENDERS for allowing all these idiots to squat for many months to several YEARS. They ALSO made their own beds.
I have found that many of the RE agents around here will just take an underwater listing before even determining if the defaulted-upon lender(s) are even remotely interested in considering a short sale. Some of them even keep them as “pocket listings” and will not place a lockbox on these properties because THEY want to be the ONLY agent to “show” them (by appt only).
The vast majority of these SS listings are in really bad shape (even unsanitary) and usually there are too many people living there (owner-families/tenants or both), often with language barriers. These agents taking these so-called “short-sale listings” are just throwing spaghetti at the ceiling to see if any sticks (wasting everyone’s time).
The flipper teams have had a field day around here in recent years, even flippers who went into “equity-sharing” agreements with marginal homeowners who didn’t have the money to fix up their properties for sale (to recover enough to pay off their liens without affecting their credit and get out cleanly). For the most part, what the flipper-teams have done has been raising all boats …. albeit slowly, because there still seem to be quite a few underwater homeowners out there.
Your GF is typical of new parents today who start their families and then move back to Chula Vista, to be near family help for child care. Often, their local families here help them with a downpayment or even purchase a nearby house FOR them!
Owners of GOOD, LARGER homes on DECENT-SIZED lots in central/west Chula Vista are NOT bringing them to market in this mess because the recent sold-comps are too low due to recent SS closings, and, to a much lesser extent, FC sale closings. The currently “active” (mostly UNapproved) SS listings create a perception among prospective out-of-area buyers that their artificially-low asking price is actually how much a house of that size is WORTH in the immediate area. But nothing could be further from the truth. Equity owners aren’t going to sell for $100-$200K LESS in this micro-market just to sell when they don’t need to. So it’s a “push-pull” vicious cycle still prevalent in many micro-areas of SoCal and that is why you aren’t seeing much inventory.
thejard, I’ll be honest here and say you very likely will not find a SFR seller in 91910 willing to accept an FHA offer. And so many condos cannot go FHA due to their low owner-occupancy rate. In any case, 91910 has few condos.
If you are renting north of Adams (Normal Heights?) for just $1120 mo, I feel you should stay there and pay your debts down. You cannot compete as a buyer in the lower-priced areas anywhere in the county while mired in debt and submitting FHA offers. As you stated, cash buyers are the biggest impediment in your price range.
If I understood your post correctly, you stated your GF bought a house in 2007. If that house is located in SD County, why isn’t she (and you and your baby) living there? It seems to me that that would be preferable to collecting rent from it, depending on its PITI and amount of rent she is collecting. You all have to live somewhere.
If your GF is already a homeowner, will she actually be able to qualify for another mortgage with you? Does she work? Why does she/do you want to buy another house when she already owns a house and you have other debt to pay off?
