SD prices post fires

[bsrsharma]

Now I am sensitive to the tragedy, but as a buyer, if I am looking at a home that now has a black back yard and is in an area full of black common areas, its value has just gone down

Hmm, If I were the potential buyer, I will run away from that house! What guarantee that a fire next time will not take a direct hit? It is like saying my house in Baghdad or Beirut is safe because, oh, the IED or Rocket landed more than 50 feet from my bedroom!

[bsrsharma]

Now I am sensitive to the tragedy, but as a buyer, if I am looking at a home that now has a black back yard and is in an area full of black common areas, its value has just gone down

Hmm, If I were the potential buyer, I will run away from that house! What guarantee that a fire next time will not take a direct hit? It is like saying my house in Baghdad or Beirut is safe because, oh, the IED or Rocket landed more than 50 feet from my bedroom!

[djrobsd]

Landscaping is expensive!!! Our condo complex has a small courtyard in the center, and a patch of grass in the front, and it cost us $12,000 to re-landscape for automatic sprinklers, the palm trees and plants, and the night time plant lights. We got about 14 trees, agepanthas, lillys, and a bunch of those pittosporum(sp?) bushes you see everywhere in CA… That and some of that really cool myoporum ground cover. Landscaping is over-priced… And landscapers rip people off, charging you $400 for a tree you can buy at Home Depot for $100. Oh wait, you’re paying them $300 to plant the tree and make sure it doesn’t die! WTFE.

[djrobsd]

Landscaping is expensive!!! Our condo complex has a small courtyard in the center, and a patch of grass in the front, and it cost us $12,000 to re-landscape for automatic sprinklers, the palm trees and plants, and the night time plant lights. We got about 14 trees, agepanthas, lillys, and a bunch of those pittosporum(sp?) bushes you see everywhere in CA… That and some of that really cool myoporum ground cover. Landscaping is over-priced… And landscapers rip people off, charging you $400 for a tree you can buy at Home Depot for $100. Oh wait, you’re paying them $300 to plant the tree and make sure it doesn’t die! WTFE.

[djrobsd]

Landscaping is expensive!!! Our condo complex has a small courtyard in the center, and a patch of grass in the front, and it cost us $12,000 to re-landscape for automatic sprinklers, the palm trees and plants, and the night time plant lights. We got about 14 trees, agepanthas, lillys, and a bunch of those pittosporum(sp?) bushes you see everywhere in CA… That and some of that really cool myoporum ground cover. Landscaping is over-priced… And landscapers rip people off, charging you $400 for a tree you can buy at Home Depot for $100. Oh wait, you’re paying them $300 to plant the tree and make sure it doesn’t die! WTFE.

[djrobsd]

Landscaping is expensive!!! Our condo complex has a small courtyard in the center, and a patch of grass in the front, and it cost us $12,000 to re-landscape for automatic sprinklers, the palm trees and plants, and the night time plant lights. We got about 14 trees, agepanthas, lillys, and a bunch of those pittosporum(sp?) bushes you see everywhere in CA… That and some of that really cool myoporum ground cover. Landscaping is over-priced… And landscapers rip people off, charging you $400 for a tree you can buy at Home Depot for $100. Oh wait, you’re paying them $300 to plant the tree and make sure it doesn’t die! WTFE.

[NotCranky]

The moral dilema for me would be holding on to the concept of buying a 3.5M house and working for a living simultaneously, in any market, let alone a precarious one.
That is Just me.

It is never too late to challange your wife’s values either. Buy what you can afford to pay cash for and tell her you will move up as you can afford to, then tell her that will most likely come quicker if she shops less.

bsrsharma, Don’t you agree that a 3.5M house is a luxury Item and people should pay cash for that? I mean if it is true about a Jacuzzi why not a house that exceeds average needs?

[NotCranky]

The moral dilema for me would be holding on to the concept of buying a 3.5M house and working for a living simultaneously, in any market, let alone a precarious one.
That is Just me.

It is never too late to challange your wife’s values either. Buy what you can afford to pay cash for and tell her you will move up as you can afford to, then tell her that will most likely come quicker if she shops less.

bsrsharma, Don’t you agree that a 3.5M house is a luxury Item and people should pay cash for that? I mean if it is true about a Jacuzzi why not a house that exceeds average needs?

[NotCranky]

The moral dilema for me would be holding on to the concept of buying a 3.5M house and working for a living simultaneously, in any market, let alone a precarious one.
That is Just me.

It is never too late to challange your wife’s values either. Buy what you can afford to pay cash for and tell her you will move up as you can afford to, then tell her that will most likely come quicker if she shops less.

bsrsharma, Don’t you agree that a 3.5M house is a luxury Item and people should pay cash for that? I mean if it is true about a Jacuzzi why not a house that exceeds average needs?

[NotCranky]

The moral dilema for me would be holding on to the concept of buying a 3.5M house and working for a living simultaneously, in any market, let alone a precarious one.
That is Just me.

It is never too late to challange your wife’s values either. Buy what you can afford to pay cash for and tell her you will move up as you can afford to, then tell her that will most likely come quicker if she shops less.

bsrsharma, Don’t you agree that a 3.5M house is a luxury Item and people should pay cash for that? I mean if it is true about a Jacuzzi why not a house that exceeds average needs?

[raptorduck]

Rustico. Well, I paid cash for my first house and then decided to take money out of it and financed half of it a few years later, then a little more after that. Not a smart move I realize. This time I plan to pay things down so that 2/3 of the value is equity. But yea, at first I can pay just over 20% down at the top of my range and 50% down on the low end. Indeed, there are a couple of houses we like on the low end.

I don’t want to buy and then “trade up” to what I really want. I want to get what I really want in my range and stay in it 20 yrs. If I can find that at the low end of my range, that would be ideal.

In terms of paying cash or financing. As long as you don’t go over 28% of income for home expenses like banks want you to, you can finance IMHO. My own preferance is to be below 10%-15% so I would pay down the mortgage to get me to that level. Even if you pay all cash, you still have property taxes and insurance to pay, HOA fees, and perhaps Mello Roos, and that is included in those percentages.

Many financial planners will tell you to never pay cash for anything and leverage your cash with debt. Well, we all march to the beat of our own drummers.

[raptorduck]

Rustico. Well, I paid cash for my first house and then decided to take money out of it and financed half of it a few years later, then a little more after that. Not a smart move I realize. This time I plan to pay things down so that 2/3 of the value is equity. But yea, at first I can pay just over 20% down at the top of my range and 50% down on the low end. Indeed, there are a couple of houses we like on the low end.

I don’t want to buy and then “trade up” to what I really want. I want to get what I really want in my range and stay in it 20 yrs. If I can find that at the low end of my range, that would be ideal.

In terms of paying cash or financing. As long as you don’t go over 28% of income for home expenses like banks want you to, you can finance IMHO. My own preferance is to be below 10%-15% so I would pay down the mortgage to get me to that level. Even if you pay all cash, you still have property taxes and insurance to pay, HOA fees, and perhaps Mello Roos, and that is included in those percentages.

Many financial planners will tell you to never pay cash for anything and leverage your cash with debt. Well, we all march to the beat of our own drummers.

[raptorduck]

Rustico. Well, I paid cash for my first house and then decided to take money out of it and financed half of it a few years later, then a little more after that. Not a smart move I realize. This time I plan to pay things down so that 2/3 of the value is equity. But yea, at first I can pay just over 20% down at the top of my range and 50% down on the low end. Indeed, there are a couple of houses we like on the low end.

I don’t want to buy and then “trade up” to what I really want. I want to get what I really want in my range and stay in it 20 yrs. If I can find that at the low end of my range, that would be ideal.

In terms of paying cash or financing. As long as you don’t go over 28% of income for home expenses like banks want you to, you can finance IMHO. My own preferance is to be below 10%-15% so I would pay down the mortgage to get me to that level. Even if you pay all cash, you still have property taxes and insurance to pay, HOA fees, and perhaps Mello Roos, and that is included in those percentages.

Many financial planners will tell you to never pay cash for anything and leverage your cash with debt. Well, we all march to the beat of our own drummers.

[raptorduck]

Rustico. Well, I paid cash for my first house and then decided to take money out of it and financed half of it a few years later, then a little more after that. Not a smart move I realize. This time I plan to pay things down so that 2/3 of the value is equity. But yea, at first I can pay just over 20% down at the top of my range and 50% down on the low end. Indeed, there are a couple of houses we like on the low end.

I don’t want to buy and then “trade up” to what I really want. I want to get what I really want in my range and stay in it 20 yrs. If I can find that at the low end of my range, that would be ideal.

In terms of paying cash or financing. As long as you don’t go over 28% of income for home expenses like banks want you to, you can finance IMHO. My own preferance is to be below 10%-15% so I would pay down the mortgage to get me to that level. Even if you pay all cash, you still have property taxes and insurance to pay, HOA fees, and perhaps Mello Roos, and that is included in those percentages.

Many financial planners will tell you to never pay cash for anything and leverage your cash with debt. Well, we all march to the beat of our own drummers.

[Bugs]

The ratio of available inventory to sales in the 92067 zip areas prior to the fires was way excessive, like 14 months worth of inventory. Now it’s just excessive. Assuming that none of the 66 homes were to be rebuilt and all of those owners just went out and bought new homes the inventory would drop by 50% but you’d still have 7+ months of inventory sitting there, as well as a huge jump in readily buildable lots.

In the long run the prices in those areas are relational to the lesser areas throughout the county. The $3million home in RSF is judged by the market to be 600% better than the $500k home in Mira Mesa. If the MM home ends up dropping to $400k the RSF home isn’t going to somehow magically become 750% better just because it’s RSF. In fact, based on what I saw during the last bust, the spread on the RSF homes is more likely to compress to 500% x MM than stay at 600%.

About the only way I could see it would make sense (strictly from an economic standpoint) to buy now would be if you thought the market would bottom out in the next 2 years and the overall price declines in that area didn’t exceed 10% or even 15%. The idea of walking away from your entire downpayment – at least for awhile – is worthy of some consideration.

FWIW, I applaud the fact that you spent some time considering the ethical ramifications. There are lots of people in this world who would view this strictly in terms of the opportunities involved. And in my view our society is the worse for that.

[Author]

Posts