When to buy and how long to wait in San Diego?

[mixxalot]

I just renewed my lease for another 8 months. How long should I wait to buy a place?

[barnaby33]

At least 8 months, but thats just a guess.

Josh

[blahblahblah]

Don’t buy until it is cheaper than renting.

[Carlsbadliving]

What are you doing renewing your lease? Don’t you know this a great time to buy a house. Tons of inventory, rock bottom interest rates, falling prices. In 8 months the equity train will have taken off again and you’ll be priced out FOREVER!!!!

[gold_dredger_phd]

5 years, minimum. The peak was in ’05, so the trough should not be before 2011. I would wait until we have a major recession/depression and then buy two houses. Live in one and rent the other. That’s my plan!

[kev374]

wait until it makes sense financially. There is no point putting off buying a house just waiting for the absolute bottom, that again is speculation and is for investors. When the payments are close to rents and the PITI is under 30% of your gross then it makes sense to buy 😉

Just my opinion but I think we should see a great time to buy in about 12-18 months.

[poorgradstudent]

Wait and see.

Seriously, there’s no easy answer right now. But prices should be lower in 8 months, so re-evaluate then based on the new info.

[hipmatt]

I agree that it will be about five years. If the fed does whats right and raises interest rates to slow inflation and save our worthless dollar, it might be sooner, but don’t be surprised what the fed and gov. might do to save us from a recession. These guys have no spine and no one wants to take the blame for anything. It has been postponed so long, nothing will surprise me now.

[privatebanker]

I would say wait a while. Buy when the mortgage, taxes and insurance only take up at the most 30% – 40% of your after tax monthly income and that’s at the high end. If you can’t afford it then you can’t afford it. I don’t understand why people are willing to stretch themselves to the point of suffering just to own a home…

[mixxalot]

Thanks good advice. Right now I need to save up for the down period and then be patient. Get my credit FICO scores up and a big cash down payment. That and find a stable job which is tough these days.

[Steve Beebo]

Let’s see – Your credit score is not where you want it, you don’t have as large of a down payment as you would like, and your job situation is not where you want it. That means you should be able to get a big loan approved within about 20 minutes!!

But seriously, If I were you, I would keep a close eye on the market, and when your 8 months are up, see if it makes sense to think about buying. Nobody knows exactly what the future holds. But one thing that’s for sure is that there will be an increasing amount of bank REOs hitting the market. In 8 months it might be a pretty good time to buy, or maybe it will be obvious to you that it is not the time to buy yet.

Don’t wait until it’s cheaper to buy than to rent, or you may never buy, at least in some areas. In nicer areas, it will never be cheaper to rent. In areas with much less market appeal, it might be getting closer to the point where it’s cheaper to buy than to rent.

[mixxalot]

Good point. I will wait at least a year and try to get the job situation and credit squared away first. If I can have at least 100k in cash in the bank and a stable job situation then I will have a strategic advantage to the bozos who do the zero down mortgages. Right now the market is not that great here in San Diego for technology and I have already burned bridges at some companies with bad management. I quit those jobs because the people were jerks and its funny because some of these people were later downsized!

[(former)FormerSanDiegan]

Except for CONCHO’s suggestion that you wait until it’s cheaper to buy than rent, all the advice above looks sensible. I purchased a house in early 1996 in CLairemont. And even then, at the previous low, in a relatively blue collar neighborhood (if there is such a thing anymore) it was STILL more expensive to buy than rent. If you buy when it makes sense for YOU, both financially and personally, then it’s the right time to buy.

P.S. – When you apply for new jobs, don’t tell the prospective employer that you quit previous jobs because management were jerks.

[blahblahblah]

That’s good to know that buying is more expensive than renting, even at a low. I didn’t know that — but it shouldn’t be a great deal more expensive, right? With 20% down, fixed rate, etc… it seems like the monthly load should be very close to the market rent for the place after you figure in the tax break. Because even if the monthly cost is the same, owning will always be more expensive when you consider maintenance, etc…

[sdrealtor]

If you finance properly with a fixed mortgage over time it will get cheaper than renting.

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