Goodbye to San Diego

[EconProf]

Phaster and sdr:
Water is indeed a big issue here, and the drought throughout the western states, hopefully temporary, needs to be addressed. Fortunately, solutions exist, especially using different pricing mechanisms.
My water & sewer bill is about a quarter of what I paid in San Diego (for two people, no lawn in either place). So raise the price per gallon.
This will also discourage the hay and alfalfa growing in the area wherein massive sprinkler systems on big wheels throw out water at 4:00 in the heat of the afternoon to acres of farmland growing hay and alfalfa. Get the feed for our horses and cattle from the Midwest where rainfall is more abundant. BTW, the growing of those crops may explain the rediculous claim by the Washington Post and Guardian that our per capita water consumption is twice that of other areas.
Take agriculture watering out of the calculation and our water consumption per capita would collapse. I believe new housing already cannot have lawns, so artificial turf or desert landscaping is the norm. Lots of people have replaced grass with artificial turf, and more may do so with proper pricing.

[sdrealtor]

So there is no farming other places to explain per capita usage. Sorry but your explanation doesn’t hold……gulp……water

[The-Shoveler]

How much is Gas in SG?

[sdrealtor]

Just checked and lowest price there is Costco at $4.39 vs lowest price here of $4.99. Its lower but not by much and very high compared to incomes there. And I’ll add that SD has some of the highest prices in CA

My water bill is about $50/month. My sewer bill is $415.84/year and is on my tax bill. How does that compare to St Jorge EP?

[The-Shoveler]

Wow did not expect SG Gas to be that high,

A buddy of mine who moved to TX several months ago was saying it was $2.79 and dropping in TX.

[scaredyclassic]

https://www.fox13now.com/news/local-news/trial-begins-for-animal-activists-accused-of-stealing-2-piglets-from-utah-factory-farm

St George in the news. Big trial. Wish I could check it out.

Fuck factory farming.

Today is the first day of the trial against Wayne Hsiung and Paul Picklesimer for rescuing two dying piglets from a Smithfield facility. Everyone on this sub should be following the trial. More details in comments. from vegan

I’m thinking about joining some extreme activist group. I bet it’s exciting. One of them ran on a football field to raise awareness

Animal activist group Direct Action Everywhere disrupt Rams Bills Thursday Night Football with pink smoke flares & to draw attention to upcoming Smithfield Trial for the Right to Rescue from vegan

[sdrealtor]

Interesting tidbit is they have since closed up shop leaving that county in a state of emergency as it was the largest and basically only non-governmental employer

https://www.fox13now.com/news/local-news/beaver-county-declares-state-of-economic-emergency-due-to-smithfield-foods-downsizing

[barnaby33]

Having just driven back through SG last Sunday I’m a bit perplexed. Leaving aside the water issues, why the growth there? Between it and Bryce are some really lovely areas that are much greener and then there is the whole area around Escalante which is stunning. If moving to Southern Utah for beauty I’d think that’d be the place to go.
Josh

[sdrealtor]

Its been 6 months since we revisited this. How is our old friend and his new home doing these days?

[EconProf]

Thank you sdr for the request.

We are still glad we moved to St. George, UT from San Diego for all the reasons I have cited.  But as you have pointed out, its not for everyone.  I miss the weather, the big city cultural attractions, the ocean, etc.  But the growth in population here vs. California’s decline has made our RE market more profitable, and our house and three condos have appreciated accordingly.  Admittedly, part of the reason for our move was the small city friendliness, our son and his family, and the culture that is Utah.  The latter results in a clean and efficient government, low taxes and remarkably low utility rates, proximity to everything, and scenery–we can see snow-capped mountains from our back yard.  Last Saturday we had our Ironman competition with participants from all over the world–2.4 mile swim, 112 bike distance, 26 mi. run.

Admittedly, much of our reason for moving was our age–we’re old!  But I remember fondly our time in San Diego, and appreciate our gain in net worth as we invested in houses, apts, and commercial properties in the 80’s 90’s and up to 2015.  Best wishes to all my Pigg colleagues.

 

[sdrealtor]

I’m sensing a more introspective EP here. Nice to see and hope all is going well.

FWIW, last month I had a negative electric bill with solar, my gas bill was $35 and my water bill was $60 for a 5BR house on an 11,000 sq ft lot. I can go for nice hike 5 minutes away and see snow capped mountains AND the ocean from the same spot. With the return of Sunny weather Downtown all over SD including Carlsbad, Encinitas, Solana Beach and Del Mar have been buzzing with activities, street fairs and cultural events everywhere. Jimmy Buffet played the new Snapdragon Stadium. All the things people were complaining about in January political, SDGE, the drought and otherwise have gone by the wayside as San Diegans are back to doing what they do best. Living life to its fullest and enjoying our World Class City.

[EconProf]

OK, so why are people leaving CA in droves?  And increasingly in San Diego?  And what does that portend for your RE values?

[sdrealtor]

lets limit this to SD as talking about CA is like talking about 10 states not one with its massive size and population. SD is doing great. I drive around and all I see are massive cranes and construction projects going on in key places. Our economy is thriving and growing in leaps and bounds in the industries of today and tomorrow. Unlike Saint George our job growth is not simply building homes. Most of the good spots here are near or completely built out.

When they build something like this ( https://www.sheahomes.com/new-homes/california/san-diego-area/encinitas/fox-point-farms/ ) around here they have several thousand people on a list hoping to buy one of 250 homes. My neighborhood of roughly 1000 homes should have had 15 to 20 closed sales the first 4 months of this year and we’ve had 4. People are staying put and countywide new listings are running around 50% of last year which was already a very low number.

Its expensive here and affordability is an issue as it is everywhere in the country including SG. There are a lot less buyers here and everywhere. But here there are even less sellers. Hopefully values will stagnate for several years . I expect most of any correction ahead to be the erosion of real values over time with little nominal downside in sight. Places like Saint George wont fare so well

The people moving out are like a loudmouth neighbor of mine. He has been telling me how much money he has for the last two decades. He complains about CA the same ways as you. He just sold the house he paid $500K for about $2.5M. He’ll be passing your direction on his way to the northwest. I saw him last week packing for his move. I laughed in his face because he was packing everything himself and loading up a U-Haul. I said arent you a little old for that? Suddenly his tune changed and he said Im not rich like you. I said where did all the money go bigshot? Of course Ive known for years he’s been raiding the equity on his house to finance the lifestyle he never really could afford. I checked and he owed about $2M on it. I sure hope he has several hundred thousand to pay the taxable capital gains tax on that puppy. I expect he’ll inflate his tax basis with improvements he never made on the house to avoid paying what he owes

The people coming in are like my other neighbors that replaced another guy like him 2 years ago. Nice well educated, down to earth humble couple with great jobs from an even higher cost area. Poor pretenders out. Real deal quality people in. Lather rinse repeat

[sdrealtor]

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

https://www.redfin.com/city/16904/CA/San-Diego/housing-market

Our market seems to be holding up much better

The best part is at the bottom where you can click on “Where people are moving from” and “Where people are moving to”. People are moving here from the other top tier cities in America. The folks that couldn’t cut it here are moving to second, third and fourth tier cities in the South and Northwest.

Sadly this data isnt available for Saint George. But if you check Salt Lake, Ogden and Vegas one of the top destinations is SG. Your population growth is really coming from those places not here

[sdrealtor]

By way of comparision

Carlsbad

115,000 residents

91 houses for sale (minimum 3/2)

 

Saint George

100, 000 residents

437 houses for sale (minimum 3/2)

Which do you think looks stronger?

 

 

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