Goodbye to San Diego

[scaredyclassic]

[quote=sdrealtor]Looks like they may hit 110 tomorrow in St George.[/quote]

111.

Money may be the least of our problems soon. The world has a fever.

Maybe invest in water

[gzz]

I just did invest in western us water rights. VWTR.

Very speculative small-cap co so i kept it to 300 shares.

[sdrealtor]

[quote=sdrealtor]Looks like they may hit 110 tomorrow in St George.[/quote]

Had a friend who just took the trip through St Goerge up to ski counry in Utah and it reminded me of our old pal EP. I figured id check in to see what is doing there. Todays weather is in the 30’s all day but at least he has his conservative politics away from CA liberals and his skyrocketing home val……ooops. Looks like they have hit a little speed bump. It looks like median price is down about 4% year over year. Well he’s got his family and that is why he really went after all. Hope they are all doing well.

https://www.redfin.com/city/16751/UT/St-George/housing-market

[EconProf]

Thanks sdr for keeping this old thread alive. I still like to keep up with SD RE trends on Piggington.
Re your comments, yes it can get cold here, and warm in the summers, although our elevation keeps us better off than nearby Vegas.
I looked up official average St. George temperature highs and lows and rainfall for February: average daytime high 59, nighttime low 37. Brutal! 3 days with precipitation.
For March, 68, 43, and 4 days of precipitation.
That must account for our awful utility bills on our 2550 SF house: January water + el bill: $170.24. Gas bill: 97.28.
In hot July, el + water = 213.19. (Combined because the City collects for both). sdr, care to tell us what your July numbers were?

[EconProf]

Now about our RE…hard to accept Redfin’s claim our home prices are down 3% YOY, since all other reports say 20% or so. Could be because Redfin does not hold constant the size or quality of homes sold. So more small houses or condos would yield that misleading figure.
I can only speak for my own experience of moving last April into our new house for $556,000. Am now refinancing and the appraisal came in at $730,000. The refi will enable me to add to my stock of rental condos (3 currently).
PS: our house price was set in the previous July, so appreciation was not as large as it appears.

[sdrealtor]

[quote=EconProf]Now about our RE…hard to accept Redfin’s claim our home prices are down 3% YOY, since all other reports say 20% or so. Could be because Redfin does not hold constant the size or quality of homes sold. So more small houses or condos would yield that misleading figure.
I can only speak for my own experience of moving last April into our new house for $556,000. Am now refinancing and the appraisal came in at $730,000. The refi will enable me to add to my stock of rental condos (3 currently).
PS: our house price was set in the previous July, so appreciation was not as large as it appears.[/quote]

Stats are stats. As you noted your price was set two years ago and it appears the appreciation happened the first year. Also you bought new, how much more did you spend to get it move in ready. I’d guess about $50k but may be more or less

Liquidating all your San Diego real estate 2 to 3 years ago has likely already cost you well over $1 million. But you do get the joy of living in a red state while we suffer in a prosperous blue state. My next-door neighbor made a similar choice and thought he made a killing. He left in June and his house has already gone up around 400 K. Such is life. I hope you are enjoying the time with your family. It has come at a very high price but those years are priceless and you can’t get time back

[sdrealtor]

[quote=EconProf]Thanks sdr for keeping this old thread alive. I still like to keep up with SD RE trends on Piggington.
Re your comments, yes it can get cold here, and warm in the summers, although our elevation keeps us better off than nearby Vegas.
I looked up official average St. George temperature highs and lows and rainfall for February: average daytime high 59, nighttime low 37. Brutal! 3 days with precipitation.
For March, 68, 43, and 4 days of precipitation.
That must account for our awful utility bills on our 2550 SF house: January water + el bill: $170.24. Gas bill: 97.28.
In hot July, el + water = 213.19. (Combined because the City collects for both). sdr, care to tell us what your July numbers were?[/quote]

My water bill was about $40 as I have beautiful drought tolerant landscape. People take pictures of it all the time. My gas was $35. I have no electric. My solar is long paid off. My house is bigger than yours

[EconProf]

sdr, you are usually pretty good with math, but a few corrections are in order.
July of 2020 was more like a year and a half ago, not two. So our appreciation rate was about 20% per year, in line with most all the RE reports on St. George houses.
No I did not sell my San Diego RE investments 2-3 years ago…more like twelve years ago, investing in AZ. Yep, it would have done better if left in San Diego, but not by much.
The new house we moved into last April did not require any money to be move-in ready as the developer (Brio) gave us so many choices and optional add-ons, costing about 50K but included in the $556,000 price.
Back to the bigger picture, CA has the highest unemployment rate 7.7% (BLS, December), and Utah second lowest (1.9%), with St. George the lowest in Utah. Utah has the 2d fastest population growth and CA is losing population faster than all states except NY and IL. I’m guessing the politics of each state is a major factor. Incidentally, our property taxes are about one-half of one percent, so moving to a better house with better government cut our taxes paid by about 80%. Income taxes, likewise.
Congrats on your low utility bills, but let’s not ignore the $20,000 to $40,000 you probably spent to put in solar.
As you and I have previously pointed out, SD is benefitting from people moving from the two other worse-governed coastal California metropolitan areas who still want to stay near the ocean. With employers fleeing CA to other western states, I’m not sure how long that will prop up San Diego prices.

[sdrealtor]

That’s great that the market is so strong there the builder throws in upgrades worth $50k and you didn’t have to pay to landscape your own property. Here I’m down and out California if you’re unlucky enough to be one of the few on the waiting list to get a house all they throw in is thanks for coming. And nice of you to omit the 4.2% unemployment rate here which is rapidly dropping. I did not omit the cost of my solar I said it was long since paid off which means that it has already paid for itself and is returning the equivalent of close to $4000 in savings every year.

EP your math skills are usually good also. But I’m going to have to correct something because you did not compound that return. If it was 20% over two years compounded twice it would now be worth over 800 which as you said it is not. It’s actually more like 15%.

While our markets are appreciating 30% so it’s not even close to what we are getting. If you had what we had you would be close to 950k. And our taxes are a very small price to pay for that appreciation. Over the last two years My average weekly appreciation has been more than my annual tax bill. My taxes are about 1/3rd of 1% of my current value due to prop 13.

Unlike Utah we are constantly birthing new unicorn tech companies and now even have them in small towns like Encinitas. The blue line on the trolley opened and ridership is soaring. They just opened 9 more miles of car pool lanes on the 5 freeway last week with more coming. Things are absolutely blossoming here and there looks to be no retreat in sight.

[Coronita]

[quote=sdrealtor]That’s great that the market is so strong there the builder throws in upgrades worth $50k and you didn’t have to pay to landscape your own property. Here I’m down and out California if you’re unlucky enough to be one of the few on the waiting list to get a house all they throw in is thanks for coming. And nice of you to omit the 4.2% unemployment rate here which is rapidly dropping. I did not omit the cost of my solar I said it was long since paid off which means that it has already paid for itself and is returning the equivalent of close to $4000 in savings every year.

EP your math skills are usually good also. But I’m going to have to correct something because you did not compound that return. If it was 20% over two years compounded twice it would now be worth over 800 which as you said it is not. It’s actually more like 15%.

While our markets are appreciating 30% so it’s not even close to what we are getting. If you had what we had you would be close to 950k. And our taxes are a very small price to pay for that appreciation. Over the last two years My average weekly appreciation has been more than my annual tax bill. My taxes are about 1/3rd of 1% of my current value due to prop 13.

Unlike Utah we are constantly birthing new unicorn tech companies and now even have them in small towns like Encinitas. The blue line on the trolley opened and ridership is soaring. They just opened 9 more miles of car pool lanes on the 5 freeway last week with more coming. Things are absolutely blossoming here and there looks to be no retreat in sight.[/quote]

That new I-5 northbound opening is awesome. Same with the UCSD trolley.

[an]

[quote=Coronita]
That new I-5 northbound opening is awesome. Same with the UCSD trolley.[/quote]
Now, if they can finish the North Bound through OSide and open the South bound. But it seems like they’re already 2 steps behind since there’s still a ton of traffic. Should have followed Orange County and what they did w/ the 405 in Irvine.

[sdrealtor]

Traffic seems better to me but gotta be due to COVID also. The construction is causing delays also. On a weekend it can take me 30 minutes to get from S Carlsbad to 78 due to it. Looking forward to that section getting completed. Should go much quicker as much straighter except between Cannon and Tamarack

[teaboy]

[quote=sdrealtor]My water bill was about $40 as I have beautiful drought tolerant landscape. People take pictures of it all the time. My gas was $35. I have no electric. My solar is long paid off. My house is bigger than yours[/quote]

Sdr, how TF do you get a (monthly?) water bill of $40? Who’s palm or other bodily appendage do I need to grease to get in on that?

I also do not have any irrigation, but my last SD water bill (2100sq SFH) was $173 bi-monthly. My Base fee & sewer fees alone were over $60/month, so I ask you.. WTF? do you have a mini desalination plant on your property and have net-metering setup for that, too?

tb

____________________________________
Service Period: 12/16/21 to 02/11/22
Water Services
Single Family Residential Base Fee 53.74
Water Used 9 HCF
Tier 1 8.00 HCF @ $5.3713 42.97
Tier 2 1.00 HCF @ $6.0200 6.02
Total Charge for Water Used 48.99
Sewer & Storm Drain Services
Sewer Base Fee 28.94
Sewer Service Charge 39.47
Storm Drain 1.90
Total Current Charges 173.04

[sdrealtor]

Drought tolerant landscape and two in the household. That was last July but it has increased and is now about $50 due to the higher system access charges. I’m in the Olivenhain municipal water district.

[sdrealtor]

You got me curious so I checked bill and I was off a little. I just have an auto payment of $50/month and once a year or so I reconcile what I owe them or skip payment. Its a bit higher this month as I had a bunch of company. My house is closer to 3K sf and my lot is 11,000 sf. I dont have those monthly sewer charges. I Checked and they are in my tax bill ($378 this year). All in it looks like we arent far off

System Access charge $39.44
SDCWA Infrastructure Access Charge $3.98
Usage (4 units at $3.39) $13.56

Total bill is $56.42

Most recent gas bill was $87. Its much higher than last July due to higher rates and it being winter (gas heat)

[Author]

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