Starter home or condo in Encinitas

[sdrealtor]

FYI, that 450K figue will hopefully get you a nice starter SFR. Up to 500K is probably doable but not optimal as once you get in you want to start making it nice. The Home Depot trips add up quickly. The truth is w/o an accurate picture of your situation these are very rough guidelines. Hopefully, it will get much more affordable that that for you. I beleive 2 more rounds of Fall/Winter slow sales will open up some much better opportunities and the earliest I would think about buying if I were you would be November 2008 when sellers are seasonally at the bottom of their optimism.

If you end up in a townhome, try to get at least 1500 sq ft. I say this not just for the space but because it will keep you out of communities that you might not be happy in beyond 2 years.

One last thing, if you dont have family support in the area dont forget to account for help with your kids. Even if you are not working, you will need help around the house not to mention some time out with your hubby as a break from the kids.

[hawk]

sdr: thanks for the advice. My brother is a plumber which can help on the repairs a bit. Our income is about 130k right now, next year my husband will have his masters so we will see an increase by I think around 7k. I have only been in the job market 1.5 years so hopefully my income will increase as well.

[hawk]

sdr: thanks for the advice. My brother is a plumber which can help on the repairs a bit. Our income is about 130k right now, next year my husband will have his masters so we will see an increase by I think around 7k. I have only been in the job market 1.5 years so hopefully my income will increase as well.

[Raybyrnes]

I am sort of in the same boat. Very frugal keep my expenses low and tons of cash at the monent because we don’t have a mortgage. Additionally I have fixed Student loan rate in the 2% range. I personally feel that I am better off building up my cash reserve for a future puchase than paying off muy student loan. Additionally I am earning better than 5% in money market account so to me every dollar I pay on the student loan is costing me 2.5% compared to what I could have earned risk free. With a family I also like the Loan Forgiveness option in the event of my death or permanent disability. Had I payed back my loan and croaked they would spit on my grave. Before using a deferment or forbearance you want to see if you would fofit any rate reduction for on time payments. I contacted my lender and I do not. Again, it’s good to know you ahve options.

[Raybyrnes]

I am sort of in the same boat. Very frugal keep my expenses low and tons of cash at the monent because we don’t have a mortgage. Additionally I have fixed Student loan rate in the 2% range. I personally feel that I am better off building up my cash reserve for a future puchase than paying off muy student loan. Additionally I am earning better than 5% in money market account so to me every dollar I pay on the student loan is costing me 2.5% compared to what I could have earned risk free. With a family I also like the Loan Forgiveness option in the event of my death or permanent disability. Had I payed back my loan and croaked they would spit on my grave. Before using a deferment or forbearance you want to see if you would fofit any rate reduction for on time payments. I contacted my lender and I do not. Again, it’s good to know you ahve options.

[SD Realtor]

hawk my family is in the same boat. I am in strong agreement with sdr that if you can wait for another 2 years you will find better pricing then you will currently get. We are in a cash accumulation mode as well and this month we will make the last payment on my wifes student loan. Personally we will not be able to hold out for 2 years before we buy for a variety of reasons but I would advise anyone who can wait to do so if the argument is one simply about pricing.

SD Realtor

[SD Realtor]

hawk my family is in the same boat. I am in strong agreement with sdr that if you can wait for another 2 years you will find better pricing then you will currently get. We are in a cash accumulation mode as well and this month we will make the last payment on my wifes student loan. Personally we will not be able to hold out for 2 years before we buy for a variety of reasons but I would advise anyone who can wait to do so if the argument is one simply about pricing.

SD Realtor

[Rockemsock]

My wife and I just sold our VP condo (thanks SDR) a few weeks ago. We really wanted to rent for a while, and we knew that our 1450sf condo was not going to be a place to plant our roots…but our experience in VP was very enjoyable. Aside from college, it was the first condo we’d ever lived in, and i have to say that my reservations about condos (noisy neighbors, poor construction, HOA issues, etc.) were never realized. The VP condo we owned had extremely thick walls or very good insulation (or both), because we almost never heard ANYTHING from our neighbors (we shared two walls). And because of our location within the community, we had excellent parking and felt like we had a ton of privacy. We’ve since moved into a SFR on a cul-de-sac w/o any neigbors behind us and yet we feel much less private because the homes are rather close to one another. In fact, we are constantly telling our 3 year old daughter to keep her voice down when we get home after 9 at night…because our driveway is about 12′ from the neighbors windows.

Regarding the HOA in VP: while we were there (5 years), the HOA re-roofed, recovered the driveways (streets are being done this summer), put in new vinyl fences, re-painted, and are supposedly planning on getting new garage doors (roll-up) next year. So an HOA may be a headache to somebody wanting to swap out their existing ’72 Porsche engine for a ’88 Jaguar Diesel using the driveway as a parts warehouse. But for us, they did an exceptional job of keeping our home looking nice and maintaining the structures and ammenities.

We probably would have stayed, but we didn’t want to own in this market…and as long as we had decided to rent, we wanted something that had a yard. I jogged around the greenbelt all the time, and we enjoyed the playground and pool as well. HOA wasn’t cheap, but I’m sure there is some trade-off with regard to utilities and things of that sort.

Encinitas is a wonderful city, we love it. But i’m sure you already know that. When we bought we didn’t seem to have much of a choice at the time (buyers were submitting cover letters and interview tapes along with offers) because things were selling soooo fast. But we had looked in Saxony, and almost made an offer, but ultimately we liked the neighborhood of VP a little better. We were very happy with our decision.

Good luck with the saving/search.

~Todd

[Rockemsock]

My wife and I just sold our VP condo (thanks SDR) a few weeks ago. We really wanted to rent for a while, and we knew that our 1450sf condo was not going to be a place to plant our roots…but our experience in VP was very enjoyable. Aside from college, it was the first condo we’d ever lived in, and i have to say that my reservations about condos (noisy neighbors, poor construction, HOA issues, etc.) were never realized. The VP condo we owned had extremely thick walls or very good insulation (or both), because we almost never heard ANYTHING from our neighbors (we shared two walls). And because of our location within the community, we had excellent parking and felt like we had a ton of privacy. We’ve since moved into a SFR on a cul-de-sac w/o any neigbors behind us and yet we feel much less private because the homes are rather close to one another. In fact, we are constantly telling our 3 year old daughter to keep her voice down when we get home after 9 at night…because our driveway is about 12′ from the neighbors windows.

Regarding the HOA in VP: while we were there (5 years), the HOA re-roofed, recovered the driveways (streets are being done this summer), put in new vinyl fences, re-painted, and are supposedly planning on getting new garage doors (roll-up) next year. So an HOA may be a headache to somebody wanting to swap out their existing ’72 Porsche engine for a ’88 Jaguar Diesel using the driveway as a parts warehouse. But for us, they did an exceptional job of keeping our home looking nice and maintaining the structures and ammenities.

We probably would have stayed, but we didn’t want to own in this market…and as long as we had decided to rent, we wanted something that had a yard. I jogged around the greenbelt all the time, and we enjoyed the playground and pool as well. HOA wasn’t cheap, but I’m sure there is some trade-off with regard to utilities and things of that sort.

Encinitas is a wonderful city, we love it. But i’m sure you already know that. When we bought we didn’t seem to have much of a choice at the time (buyers were submitting cover letters and interview tapes along with offers) because things were selling soooo fast. But we had looked in Saxony, and almost made an offer, but ultimately we liked the neighborhood of VP a little better. We were very happy with our decision.

Good luck with the saving/search.

~Todd

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