Yes, I really believe that prices in that area may drop to that level. You can buy a home like that anywhere in the country except the bubble areas from $250k-$350k, depending on the area and state that you’re talking about. Do you remember when they first started heavily developing Temecula and you could buy a 3700 sq ft. house for $195k? The particular part of San Diego where this house is located is hot and the surface streets are crowded. There’s nothing special about it. I remember when that area started developing when the population broke 1 million in SD County around 1977-1978 and the growing population were looking for cheaper housing. Back then, the cheapest houses in San Diego County were in the south bay, San Marcos and this area up & down the 15 corridor because it was hotter than the coastal areas and there was plenty of empty dirt to build on. Today, there are over 3 million people in SD but that area is still hot and crowded and just because they stuck a 3700 sq. ft home in the middle of it doesn’t make it anything special. I believe (right or wrong) that the lenders who survive are going to move into a very tight policy of only loaning a maximum of “X” on specific types of properties no matter where they are in the USA and I’m not so sure that places like SD will receive any kind of bump-up from “X” because they are in CA like they have been receiving. Remember, this is why the lenders are now closing their doors. If they had enforced a policy like this that was uniform around the USA, this would have never happened. I moved out of SD in early 2005 and I have a 2600 sq. ft. property on 2/3 acre that is well developed. I’m not living in the middle of nowhere……a major city with all the services we had in SD. The price was $250k. As I said, this is common around the USA except in the bubble areas. I just can’t picture the regulators allowing this whole thing to repeat itself again and if I’m correct, median priced homes will be able to be purchased with the median income and larger luxury homes will be priced “X” above and getting a loan on one of those types of homes will require a much larger down payment. I thought all of these crazy prices were a ticking time bomb, waiting to explode and I was correct and now that I’ve been gone for a couple of years, I REALLY realize just how crazy the prices were. I have a lifelong friend in the same town where I now live who bought a $375k home last year. It’s 3700 sq. ft. brick home on a nice golf course in a gated community and it’s a heck of a lot nicer than this home.
