Chula Vista

[PerryChase]

This past weekend, someone talked me into going shopping at Otay Ranch Towne Center. It was my first time in Chula Vista. The shopping mall is well done and has Macy’s, Cheesecake Factory, AMC Theaters, REI, Sephora, etc… The mall looks like an Irvine Spectrum in the making.

Otay Ranch/Eastlake are HUGE developments. I looked up the houses and they are quite expensive also.

I wonder how Chula Vista did in the last downturn and how it’ll do this time around. Is the employment base in the South County strong enough to support 500k to 1.5M houses?

[CardiffBaseball]

It’s nice down there but I wouldn’t move there. Can someone verify for me if there are any large employers based in that Eastlake area, or does everyone have to commute through traffic to get to jobs? I see south 805 occassionally from UTC as I am heading north to Cardiff, and by 4:00 it’s already backed up, and probably all the way to CV. I know a guy who works at LPL across from where I work, and from Bonita he says it’s sometimes 1.5 hours each way to UTC.

[PerryChase]

A search of Chula Vista Towne Center showed this UT Article.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060205/news_lz1b5mall.html

I find it interesting that most discussions on Piggington are on North San Diego neighborhoods. We have few posts about the South County.

[SD Realtor]

Perry –

I am not sure about the job base down there but I can DEFINITELY tell you that Otay Ranch resales are getting hammered. As I posted just the other day only 3 count them 3 closed escrows since 11/1/06. Looks like we will have more though as there are several pendings.

Also doing a search on the MLS for short, bank, or foreclose and I think you will see that 91914 is amongst the leaders of hits on this type of search..

SD Realtor

[PerryChase]

Ok, so I looked up the area a little. And here’s a gem.

List Price: $1,050,000 – $1,125,000

Bedrooms: 5
Full Baths: 6
Partial Baths: 0
Square Feet: 4,536
Lot Size: N/A
Year Built: 2005
Listing Date: 09/05/06
On Market: 104 days
Type: SFR
Status: ACTIVE
MLS #: 068078675

Last Sold 04/01/2005 $1,191,722

Zip Realty Details

Previous Sale Details

Notice the beautiful swimming pool.
[img_assist|nid=2278|title=swimming pool|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=466|height=350]

If you count selling costs and the “improvements” this guy will probably be down 300k before his house sells.

[CardiffBaseball]

Wow if that is an actual current picture I can’t imagine who would buy that. The problem is besides coming up with cash for the purchase you have to come out of pocket to fix that mess. Is it possible to discount the house enough to add the cost of fixing this up into the resale?

[tugg49]

If you use traffic congestion as an indicator of where the jobs are in regards to the homes….highway 52, 125, 54 and 805, 5 to the southland are jammed pretty much every evening. As the work on 54 progresses and as soon as 125 is done to the 905 you’ll see the makings of the 15 of the southland. I’ve been watching the progression of the 54 and the jams at the 8, 94, 125 and the construction zone on the 54 have become nigthmarish.

[Anonymous]

These new Chula Vista developments are going to get HAMMERED. 3-4 years ago in the early stages of the boom they were relatively cheap for new developments, that was probably the only thing going for it. But the bottom line, there is no particular industry in the area, traffic is horrible for commuters, and let’s face it, there is a stigma that Chula Vista is Chula Juana.

Nobody in their right mind would pay a premimum price to live there. The only logical reason to live there is if you can get a good discount from San Diego prices, or, if you are Mexican and want to be near the border.

[mixxalot]

Chula Juana sucks

I met a lady this weekend at the free BBQ held at San Diego BMW dealership and she kept telling me that real estate was falling for next 10 years and to buy a home in Chula Vista. When I told her that a) all the jobs are far away and b) that Chula Vista is a ghetto full of Mexicans (nothing against latinos) next to National City she argued that Del Mar, Pacific Beach and UTC were too expensive. I told her that I would wait for the market to complete its fall and buy close to work because I hate getting stuck in traffic to and from work.

Most jobs at least for IT and biotech are in UTC, North County, Sorrento Valley and Carlsbad all areas far away from Chula Vista. I value quality of life and do not really wanna drive 2 hours each way to work. That and houses are now expensive in Chula Juana anyhow.

If I stay in San Diego longer than 2 years I would buy a 2-3 bedroom place close to my job.

[nla]

PerryChase:

We moved from North County to Eastlake and bought our first house in 1999 mainly due to family reasons. Otay Ranch Town Center is a nice mall with a lot of mid to high-end stores. Personally, I don’t care about the high-end clothing stores, I’m excited about Barnes and Noble. Before this mall, we don’t have any decent bookstore in the area.

About the high end stores, I’m not sure if the population of the sorrounding area can sustain them in the long run. Though the area has a high (at least compared to the whole county) median household income ($80,000), I think most of them are spending most of their income into the house and their cars. I’m quite amazed on how people afford a 1M house and a Range Rover and/or BMW 7 Series which is very common here. That’s just my observation.

To answer your question if there’s some employers to support these expensive houses. There is none. At least none tantamount to what we have in Sorrento Valley/Golden Triangle area. Most of the people I know that live in the area are either doctors or lawyers that works locally or in downtown and IT/Biotech professionals that works in Sorrento Valley.

I’m an IT professional myself (Oracle DBA) and my company is based in UTC. Commute has not been really a problem for me because I work from home several days a week and my time is flexible so I can avoid the rush hour. My wife is an RN and works locally.

[mixxalot]

PerryChase,

How interesting, I am also an Oracle DBA ! How weird! Yeah it baffles me how people are able to buy these homes and cars. I make almost six figures and cannot see the reason why people can pay 6k a month on a home. It must be the both hubby and wife each earn 100k otherwise how can they make a 2k car payment and a 5-7k mortgage payment?

Also employers are not wanting to pay good salaries here in San Diego compared to Los Angeles and New York given the high cost of living here.

That and 99.99% of businesses that employ professionals are located in UTC, Sorrento Valley/Golden Triangle, Poway/Rancho Bernardo and Carlsbad areas which are far north of Chula Juana.

I live in Point Loma/Ocean Beach area and waiting for prices to drop in Point Loma/OB and Pacific Beach as this area is where I want to buy a condo or small 2 bedroom home close to the beach since I’m a single guy and like the area. But prices are very high still for these crappy apartment condo conversions and if I want a real home with a real garage I have to settle for a place in Mira Mesa or Poway/Rancho Bernardo unless I wanna pay 2 million for a similar place in Point Loma.

Its funny because salaries have not increased much for IT folks in last 5 years.
Outsourcing to India and China has not helped either.

[daney143]

The one advantage Chula Vista/Eastlake/Otay Ranch has is the fact that the City of Chula Vista, MTS and SANDAG have planned for the increase of traffic congestion. Within the next 6 years, MTS, SANDAG and Caltrans will be building one of the first state of the art Bus Rapid Transit systems. This system will have its own lane down the median of E. Palomar Street, serving the Otay Ranch Town Center, the future university and will operate down the median of the I-805 fwy. It will extend into downtown and other alighnments will head to Kearny Mesa, UTC and Sorrento Mesa. The travel time on this mode will be better than driving. At each station there will be laundry, coffee and other daily needs. Enjoy it!

[NeetaT]

The Chula Juana stigma will never die.

[no_such_reality]

Within the next 6 years, MTS, SANDAG and Caltrans will be building one of the first state of the art Bus Rapid Transit systems.

So six years of road construction.

Also, the orange line in SF Valley is one of those… it was plagued with problems

[Anonymous]

[quote=NeetaT] The Chula Juana stigma will never die.[/quote]

No, but those of us who live here disregard the “stigma” assigned by those who do not know the area at all.

[Author]

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