[quote=unnamed0404]Yes, I do know I can get the equivalent 1 or 2 bedroom in Mira Mesa for about 100k less, and I did look around there for a little bit, but to be honest, I don’t really want to live there. I saw some condos there, and they seemed pretty old, and I also wasn’t sure what the quality of the neighbors were.
I have lived in the UTC area for about 3 years, and have come to the conclusion that this is the type of area I’d want to live in, in terms of feel of the area, convenience, safety, etc. Also since this is a prime area (next to ucsd, qualcomm, utc mall, etc), I feel like it’d hold up its value moreso than other areas, even if they did take a dip. So in a way, I’d be buying mostly for the area. Not saying the condos themselves are good quality though, I think most (venetian, verano, lucera, vicenza) are actually apartment to condo conversions, which means they are lower quality (super thin walls, no garage, etc) and I even heard of plumbing problems in some of them.
There are some real nice townhomes in the Renaissance neighborhood, but I’d probably have to drop 300k+ for a 1 bedroom there…sigh.
In regards to rent vs own, I know that I would probably be able to pay slightly less to rent (1400 vs 1500-1600 to buy) at venetian ( I have enough for 20% down), but thats only a hundred or 2 more, and at least I’d be building equity and getting some more tax deductions right? The rent seems to be going up too.[/quote]
I think it’s really hard to put a price on living in a place you own vs. rent…Everyone would say to buy a single family home vs. a condo/townhome though since as mentioned, you can’t begin to guess who the other tenants are and condo’s / townhomes are just harder to sell, not to mention the HOA funding issues and it maybe harder to get a loan too if a large number there are renters.
I personally think the UTC area is tons better than Mira Mesa as well. Other than areas near Sorrento Valley which we shopped for as well, Mira Mesa overall just does look ghetto to me too…Too many large strip malls with high traffic, massive parking lots, etc…
I still get tons of grief from my wife for living in a crappy rental place before buying. To me, it was all about the numbers since I felt rent was throwing money away, but oh well…I could almost live anywhere.
At the end, I think the forums aren’t really a good place to figure out what to do since everyone else has a different situation. If you work in UTC and have already lived there for 3 years, you probably should know generally what the nice places are. Too expensive to buy a SFH, but with an almost equal rent/buy calc, it’s hard to say numbers wise, renting really makes sense. Of course, you have to factor in other job opportunities, the major you studied and would you move for more lucrative job offers (say silicon valley), etc…or if you will be married, etc…
Just make sure you plan to live there for at least 5+ years if you don’t want to lose money…You can rent it out, but since you may want to upgrade to a home later, you may need your down payment back so you’d have to sell.
