Belleza at the Lakes

[kcal09]

This new neighborhood by Lennar has some lower priced homes in a nice area. Can anybody give me some feedback? Any disadvantages to buy there besides the high Mello Roos?

http://www.lennar.com/New-Homes/California/San-Diego/San-Diego/The-Lakes-above-Rancho-Santa-Fe/Belleza

[henrysd]

Actually the Mello Roos is much lower than the new homes in Del Sur and 4S ranch. The sales office lists as 1.9% in combined property tax and mello roos, but that is the worst case situation which more applies to those million dollar estate homes with large lot Lennar built earlier. For Belleza home it is more likely 1.7%. In the Lakes community mello roos consists mainly of 2 parts: One is Poway USD CDF and the tax is based on home square footage. Any home with less than 4000 sq ft pays the minimum amount. The other is Rancho Santa Fe CDF which is based on lot size regardless of home size and 15000 sq ft is the cutoff size for least tax. For a typical Belleza home, the combined mello roos is about $4755 for 2011-2012 tax year.

4S rancho new homes have true 1.9% tax with the same price range. Del Sur new homes have tax of 1.9 – 2.05% with $176 monthly HOA and the homes have small lot and very close to each other. A $500K new home in Del Sur has $11K annual tax bill with mello roos counted in.

I attended Lennar grand opening of home release of Lakes in summer 2008. The plan that time was for homes in $900K – 1m. Lennar changed plan after they realized it was difficult to sell at that price range in 2009. They mostly stopped building homes of old style and started new Belleza model in 2011.

Lennar CEO already declared house bottom in the recent earning report conference call. He cited strong increase of demand and orders in west coast region.

Each home in Lakes will have 2 addresses: one is the physical address and another is the mailing address which is a P.O. Box with a Rancho Santa Fe zip code. The mail box is actually inside the community and you no longer have the need of going to post office to get P.O. Box mails. Some people like it: a way to mark up your true location and a prestigious Rancho Santa Fe 92067 zip code. Some people may not like it with 2 addresses.
The parking seems to be an issue as most streets don’t allow parking, so it make hard for friends to come over for large party. There are certain street and areas to allow parking inside the community. The streets are private roads, so some people can accept the no parking rule.

[Essbee]

We toured these a few weeks ago. We actually only looked at Plan 1 and Plan 2, as Plan 3 was out of our price range, and we were short on time.

Plan 1 was a one story model. The master was quite separated from the other bedrooms. Not great for a family with young kids, but perhaps an advantage to other types of families.

We liked Plan 2 a great deal.

Agree that the Mello Roos are not that bad. But.. the HOA was something like $300+ per month(!), if I recall correctly. I guess someone has to pain for the salary of the guard at the gate, right?

The views of the nearby mountains were quite beautiful and the lots were large. However, I was cocerned that there was a kind of loneliness to the nearby subdivisions. I wasn’t sure what it would be like to be a little child growing up there. I would hope this would change as more of the lots get built.

[ocrenter]

The new homes in 4S are definitely looking at property tax + MR of 1.9%. Translating to essentially $7000 per year in MR. HOA around $90/month. So monthly extras of $670/month.

The average MR for the smaller homes in the Lakes are $5600 per year. When the homes were going for $900k, the MR rate was 1.6%. Now that the homes are more like $800k, the MR rate is now more like 1.7%. At $360 per month HOA, the monthly extras work out to be $830/month.

4S homes are bigger in sqft, but on smaller lots, translating into a “reach out and touch your neighbor” experience. The Lakes homes are smaller but the lots are bigger.

My personal favorite remains the Santa Fe Valley gated homes in between 4S and the Lakes. not a lot of resales. but if you can get one for close to $1-1.1 million, that would be a great deal. Monthly extras (MR + HOA) work out to $514. If you add in the cost of landscape and interior upgrades of a new home in the Lakes, it pretty much work out to be the same cost.

[sdduuuude]

A great place if you telecommute. Looks like it will take you a week just to get to a freeway.

[ocrenter]

[quote=sdduuuude]A great place if you telecommute. Looks like it will take you a week just to get to a freeway.[/quote]

what kind of a car are you driving to take a week to travel 3 miles?

[UCGal]

[quote=ocrenter][quote=sdduuuude]A great place if you telecommute. Looks like it will take you a week just to get to a freeway.[/quote]

what kind of a car are you driving to take a week to travel 3 miles?[/quote]

Yeah and it’s 10 minutes to La Jolla Shores. LOL.

almost 6 miles to 15, 6+ miles to 56, and 9 miles to I5. That’s using roads. Crows may have different mileage.

[bearishgurl]

Sounds like the homeowners in that area are being fee’d to death for living in the stix on a “lunar landscape.”

How tall are the trees around there??

With all the choices a buyer has in SD County in that price range, it seems self-defeating to me to be “fixated” on one micro area simply because it has “new” construction.

[ocrenter]

[quote=UCGal][quote=ocrenter][quote=sdduuuude]A great place if you telecommute. Looks like it will take you a week just to get to a freeway.[/quote]

what kind of a car are you driving to take a week to travel 3 miles?[/quote]

Yeah and it’s 10 minutes to La Jolla Shores. LOL.

almost 6 miles to 15, 6+ miles to 56, and 9 miles to I5. That’s using roads. Crows may have different mileage.[/quote]

uh, 3.6 miles to RB Rd exit on the I15, 3.7 miles to Camino Del Norte exit on the I15. 6.1 miles to the Camino Del Sur exit on the 56. 10.5 miles to Via De La Valle exit on I5.

And no, this is not Santee, therefore it is not 10 minutes to La Jolla.

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