expensive La Jolla townhomes – how low will they go?

[Eugene]

Property taxes are included in PITI, and they are substantially smaller than tax deduction.

If you contribute maximum to both of your 401k’s, your housing payment would be around 40% of your net income. Two kids … 2500/month for full-time care, 5 days a week, in the child care place in UTC mall, till they are old enough to go to school, much less after that. And why do you have car loans if you make that kind of money?

Pay off your car loans first, save up for the down payment if you don’t have 150-200k in the bank already … those places may not go below 600’s, but they probably won’t shoot right up, either.

I like those townhomes, and I like the area (I lived across the freeway from them for 5 years). If I could be comfortable with only 3 bedrooms and 2000 sf, I’d probably buy one of those myself. Sadly, I need a lot more room to keep my family happy, and I don’t expect to make enough money to afford a 3000 sf home in La Jolla without a major career change… For now, I’ll live in the boonies and focus on trying to score 175 on LSAT.

[waterboy]

Some good points Eugene…

El Dorado actually had a 2 story 4br/3ba 2,679 sf close for $590,098 on 3/16/09.

Less demand for the 2 story in that development as the HOA for the 2 story homes is in low $600s and demographic is mainly retired wanting 1 story.

[waterboy]

Some good points Eugene…

El Dorado actually had a 2 story 4br/3ba 2,679 sf close for $590,098 on 3/16/09.

Less demand for the 2 story in that development as the HOA for the 2 story homes is in low $600s and demographic is mainly retired wanting 1 story.

[waterboy]

Some good points Eugene…

El Dorado actually had a 2 story 4br/3ba 2,679 sf close for $590,098 on 3/16/09.

Less demand for the 2 story in that development as the HOA for the 2 story homes is in low $600s and demographic is mainly retired wanting 1 story.

[waterboy]

Some good points Eugene…

El Dorado actually had a 2 story 4br/3ba 2,679 sf close for $590,098 on 3/16/09.

Less demand for the 2 story in that development as the HOA for the 2 story homes is in low $600s and demographic is mainly retired wanting 1 story.

[waterboy]

Some good points Eugene…

El Dorado actually had a 2 story 4br/3ba 2,679 sf close for $590,098 on 3/16/09.

Less demand for the 2 story in that development as the HOA for the 2 story homes is in low $600s and demographic is mainly retired wanting 1 story.

[Scarlett]

[quote=Eugene]
If you contribute maximum to both of your 401k’s, your housing payment would be around 40% of your net income. Two kids … 2500/month for full-time care (…) And why do you have car loans if you make that kind of money?

Pay off your car loans first, save up for the down payment if you don’t have 150-200k in the bank already … those places may not go below 600’s, but they probably won’t shoot right up, either. [/quote]

Umm…hijack… I don’t think your numbers add up…But even if they did, housing being 40% of the income is WAY too risky/tight IMHO. For me, the housing shouldn’t be more that 28% of the gross income.

The take home salary is 11K. Maximizing 401K means 2000/mo. 2500/mo daycare, 1000/mo college funds, 1000/mo life insurances for everybody -that’s more than half the income. gas and car insurance $500 for 2 cars, car payments 500/mo – so another 1000 here. I am undersestimating a bit here. So here are 7000$ already accounted for. $500 utilities. In this case, we’d have left $5000 at MOST. $3500 for the PITI and then what? Food expenses alone (including eat-out) are more than $1500. One needs to buy clothes and other household items, plus maintenance of the place. Did you include the $400-700 HOA fee too? And one needs to put some money away for vacations and other big ticket items or emergencies…Even if we don’t maximize the 401K is still very tight for our comfort.

Regarding savings, we are far from $150K. We’ve been in grad programs and postdocs, then employed in academia, so only for very few years we had real income and we are about 40yrs old. By the time we save another 100K the kids will be in high school and we’d be looking at a house to retire in, not to have kids grow up in…

But I digress…

[Scarlett]

[quote=Eugene]
If you contribute maximum to both of your 401k’s, your housing payment would be around 40% of your net income. Two kids … 2500/month for full-time care (…) And why do you have car loans if you make that kind of money?

Pay off your car loans first, save up for the down payment if you don’t have 150-200k in the bank already … those places may not go below 600’s, but they probably won’t shoot right up, either. [/quote]

Umm…hijack… I don’t think your numbers add up…But even if they did, housing being 40% of the income is WAY too risky/tight IMHO. For me, the housing shouldn’t be more that 28% of the gross income.

The take home salary is 11K. Maximizing 401K means 2000/mo. 2500/mo daycare, 1000/mo college funds, 1000/mo life insurances for everybody -that’s more than half the income. gas and car insurance $500 for 2 cars, car payments 500/mo – so another 1000 here. I am undersestimating a bit here. So here are 7000$ already accounted for. $500 utilities. In this case, we’d have left $5000 at MOST. $3500 for the PITI and then what? Food expenses alone (including eat-out) are more than $1500. One needs to buy clothes and other household items, plus maintenance of the place. Did you include the $400-700 HOA fee too? And one needs to put some money away for vacations and other big ticket items or emergencies…Even if we don’t maximize the 401K is still very tight for our comfort.

Regarding savings, we are far from $150K. We’ve been in grad programs and postdocs, then employed in academia, so only for very few years we had real income and we are about 40yrs old. By the time we save another 100K the kids will be in high school and we’d be looking at a house to retire in, not to have kids grow up in…

But I digress…

[Scarlett]

[quote=Eugene]
If you contribute maximum to both of your 401k’s, your housing payment would be around 40% of your net income. Two kids … 2500/month for full-time care (…) And why do you have car loans if you make that kind of money?

Pay off your car loans first, save up for the down payment if you don’t have 150-200k in the bank already … those places may not go below 600’s, but they probably won’t shoot right up, either. [/quote]

Umm…hijack… I don’t think your numbers add up…But even if they did, housing being 40% of the income is WAY too risky/tight IMHO. For me, the housing shouldn’t be more that 28% of the gross income.

The take home salary is 11K. Maximizing 401K means 2000/mo. 2500/mo daycare, 1000/mo college funds, 1000/mo life insurances for everybody -that’s more than half the income. gas and car insurance $500 for 2 cars, car payments 500/mo – so another 1000 here. I am undersestimating a bit here. So here are 7000$ already accounted for. $500 utilities. In this case, we’d have left $5000 at MOST. $3500 for the PITI and then what? Food expenses alone (including eat-out) are more than $1500. One needs to buy clothes and other household items, plus maintenance of the place. Did you include the $400-700 HOA fee too? And one needs to put some money away for vacations and other big ticket items or emergencies…Even if we don’t maximize the 401K is still very tight for our comfort.

Regarding savings, we are far from $150K. We’ve been in grad programs and postdocs, then employed in academia, so only for very few years we had real income and we are about 40yrs old. By the time we save another 100K the kids will be in high school and we’d be looking at a house to retire in, not to have kids grow up in…

But I digress…

[Scarlett]

[quote=Eugene]
If you contribute maximum to both of your 401k’s, your housing payment would be around 40% of your net income. Two kids … 2500/month for full-time care (…) And why do you have car loans if you make that kind of money?

Pay off your car loans first, save up for the down payment if you don’t have 150-200k in the bank already … those places may not go below 600’s, but they probably won’t shoot right up, either. [/quote]

Umm…hijack… I don’t think your numbers add up…But even if they did, housing being 40% of the income is WAY too risky/tight IMHO. For me, the housing shouldn’t be more that 28% of the gross income.

The take home salary is 11K. Maximizing 401K means 2000/mo. 2500/mo daycare, 1000/mo college funds, 1000/mo life insurances for everybody -that’s more than half the income. gas and car insurance $500 for 2 cars, car payments 500/mo – so another 1000 here. I am undersestimating a bit here. So here are 7000$ already accounted for. $500 utilities. In this case, we’d have left $5000 at MOST. $3500 for the PITI and then what? Food expenses alone (including eat-out) are more than $1500. One needs to buy clothes and other household items, plus maintenance of the place. Did you include the $400-700 HOA fee too? And one needs to put some money away for vacations and other big ticket items or emergencies…Even if we don’t maximize the 401K is still very tight for our comfort.

Regarding savings, we are far from $150K. We’ve been in grad programs and postdocs, then employed in academia, so only for very few years we had real income and we are about 40yrs old. By the time we save another 100K the kids will be in high school and we’d be looking at a house to retire in, not to have kids grow up in…

But I digress…

[Scarlett]

[quote=Eugene]
If you contribute maximum to both of your 401k’s, your housing payment would be around 40% of your net income. Two kids … 2500/month for full-time care (…) And why do you have car loans if you make that kind of money?

Pay off your car loans first, save up for the down payment if you don’t have 150-200k in the bank already … those places may not go below 600’s, but they probably won’t shoot right up, either. [/quote]

Umm…hijack… I don’t think your numbers add up…But even if they did, housing being 40% of the income is WAY too risky/tight IMHO. For me, the housing shouldn’t be more that 28% of the gross income.

The take home salary is 11K. Maximizing 401K means 2000/mo. 2500/mo daycare, 1000/mo college funds, 1000/mo life insurances for everybody -that’s more than half the income. gas and car insurance $500 for 2 cars, car payments 500/mo – so another 1000 here. I am undersestimating a bit here. So here are 7000$ already accounted for. $500 utilities. In this case, we’d have left $5000 at MOST. $3500 for the PITI and then what? Food expenses alone (including eat-out) are more than $1500. One needs to buy clothes and other household items, plus maintenance of the place. Did you include the $400-700 HOA fee too? And one needs to put some money away for vacations and other big ticket items or emergencies…Even if we don’t maximize the 401K is still very tight for our comfort.

Regarding savings, we are far from $150K. We’ve been in grad programs and postdocs, then employed in academia, so only for very few years we had real income and we are about 40yrs old. By the time we save another 100K the kids will be in high school and we’d be looking at a house to retire in, not to have kids grow up in…

But I digress…

[Scarlett]

Has the higher-end housing bottomed out yet then?

I thought that the higher-end housing still has a way to go down – in any case, to bottom out later than the cheaper houses. No?

[Scarlett]

Has the higher-end housing bottomed out yet then?

I thought that the higher-end housing still has a way to go down – in any case, to bottom out later than the cheaper houses. No?

[Scarlett]

Has the higher-end housing bottomed out yet then?

I thought that the higher-end housing still has a way to go down – in any case, to bottom out later than the cheaper houses. No?

[Scarlett]

Has the higher-end housing bottomed out yet then?

I thought that the higher-end housing still has a way to go down – in any case, to bottom out later than the cheaper houses. No?

[Author]

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