[an]

The recognition I was referring to earlier is called Magnet Recognition Program. The hospital have to be up to a certain standard to be recognized as a Magnet hospital. Here’s a list of the 238 hospital in the US and Australia that got this recognition. Scripps Memorial in La Jolla was one of them, so is John Hopkins Hospital. I’ve confirmed it with my wife, Scripps had a massive restructuring 4-5 years ago. She said it was pretty bad before the restructure and now, they’re one of the 238 hospital w/ this recognition.

Like I’ve said before, NCC has what you want so you prefer living there. SV has what I want, so I prefer living here. Both of us are right. I don’t care about the “connection” with the community. It is important to you, hence your preference in NCC. I love strip malls and being able to go to Best Buy to check out the latest tech toys. I abhor place where I having to drive 15+ minutes just to go check out the latest tech toys or have an authentic Asian meal. Why is it so hard for you to agree to the fact that NCC is not for everyone and not everyone put the same importance in community connection like you?

I highly doubt that all people who lived in the area you grew up in have the same connection with their peers like you have made with your friends. Also, I chose to not hang out w/ my HS friends and Jr. HS friends, not that the group got disbanded. They’re still there if I want to join again. I just don’t feel the same connection as before. I’ve moved on and found new friends. My brother on the other hand still hang out will his HS/Jr. HS friends as well as his college friends. So two brothers who grew up in the same “soulless” sub-burbs, one no longer is close to his HS/Jr. HS friends while the other are.

[an]

I take it that you live on the west side of the 5. I would love to buy a home on the west side of the 5 in NCC some day to retire, but it’s not in my card at the moment. Congrats on that. Torrey Pine and La Jolla Shores are both 10 minute drive for me, 15 if I hit all the lights. To me, 5 or 10 min drive doesn’t make much of a difference. The only big difference is if you can WALK to the beach, now, that’s a whole different story. Most of the things you want to do, you’ll have to drive. That’s just the fact of living in California. You just mentioned SV is not for you because you have to drive to get to anything, and then you mentioned you can drive to the beach in 5 minutes. That doesn’t make much sense to me.

Regarding Scripps, my wife works there, so that’s how I came up with that statement. According to her, Scripps was abysmal a few years back. They had major restructure since then and now, in term of nursing quality, they one of the top. So I would have to assume that your experience was before this whole change. I don’t remember the term she used, but she said that all hospital try to get this top honor spot but Scripps is one of the few that got it. Because of that, their process has been much improved and they constantly get audited to make sure they still qualify to be called with such title. The title just escapes me for the moment. My wife had many patient tell her that they’ve been to many hospitals and Scripps is the best.

If the error was done by the nursing staff, I’d assume that it’s probably better now. If the error was done by the doctor, then there’s not much you can do except find better doctor. Doctor are independent from the hospital. I had extensive experience with Sharp hospital and all of my experiences have been fantastic. I broke many bones and they patched me up perfectly. I have no complaint.

[an]

sdrealtor, that’s great that you have a career that is within that distant from the area you want to live. I love my profession, so changing profession is out of the question. You’re right that if you depend on an employer, you’ll be limited as to where you live. Don’t worry about me, I’m living my dream too. Albeit at a much earlier stage in that dream than you. Maybe when I’m in my 40-50s, I’ll be retired and be able to do some of the things that I can’t do when tied to a employer and a salary. But that’s for the future. Life is moving fast enough as is, no need to sit and dream about the future, time to live life today.

Regarding to your statement about NCC, I totally agree with those assessment. Those are some of the things that I see as positive in NCC too. Being a s/w engineer in the telecom industry, I have to be around Sorrento Valley area. I love SV because, it’s close to the beach (just as close as NCC, unless you’re talking about west of the 5 in NCC), price is much more reasonable than NCC, newer homes, close to everything (I can truly say I can get to most places I want to go in SD w/in 15-20 minutes), great canyon view, great health care (Scripps Hospital in La Jolla are one of the top in the country and my wife works there), education (well, I’m not sure which school SV belongs to, but there’s always private school), entertainment is w/in 15 minute drive for me. As you can see, SV have many quality you describe about NCC, it lack in some area, but it makes up in other areas.

Regarding your close ties to your child hood friends, that’s fabulous. I’ve lived in the same house since I was 10, but I’ve made new friends from Jr. High to HS to college. The friends I made in college are the friends I’m still talking to now. So, not everyone is as fortunate as you to find that kind of friends since you were little. I didn’t find mine till I got into college.

I think we’re basically agreeing on the principle, but the details of the two area are what made NCC right for you and SV area right for me. Since SV area is more right for me, I don’t see the need to pay a premium for NCC. That’s just my 2.5 cents.

[an]

One thing to add with Bugs comment regarding median, it doesn’t take into consideration of shift in buyers. Lets say last month median is 500k and that 2 people buy @400k, 1 person @ 500k, and 2 people @ 600k. If this month, 2 people buy at the same $500k house at $400k, one person buy the $600k house @ $500k, and 2 people buy a $700k house @ 600k. The median would stay the same, but price have dropped 100k. Also, if only 1 person buy a $500k house @ $400k, 1 person buy a $600k house @ $500k, 1 person buy a $600k house @ $550k, and 2 people buy a $700k house @ 600k, the median would be $550k. Although median will show a rise of 10%, real price dropped $100k. That’s why I don’t care much about median price anymore. They’re for the masses who don’t want to do more research. Median statistic either hide the drop in price or shift in buyers, or both. With the sub-prime fiasco and tightening lending standard for sub-prime, I’m pretty sure there’s less people buying low end house today than before this whole fiasco. That will shift the median up.

[an]

sdrealtor, I’ve only brought up food because you brought it up first as one of the reason why NCC is so special. Food is very important to me and my family. We love to try all different kind of food from all different kind of nationality. There are many type of food that you can eat that even a person from that country can’t make. One example is Vietnamese food. My family knows how to make great Vietnamese food. But we’re from north Vietnam, so we only know how to make food from that region. They’ve tried to make central and south Vietnamese food but it just doesn’t taste as good as a Vietnamese restaurant owned and cooked by the central or south Vietnamese. Same goes for all other nationality. My wife is Chinese and she makes great Chinese food, but there are things you can find at certain Chinese food from different region of China that she does not know how to make.

Living close to work is extremely important. I assume you’re older than me, so you should know how short life is and how time flies. I don’t want to waste and time on this earth being stuck on the freeway. Any minute I don’t have to be on the road, stuck in traffic, I can spend time w/ my family. That’s another extremely important thing to me. Both me and my wife came from very tight nit family. I have dinner with my parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents at least once a week. All that is so much more important than sending my kids to the top school, etc. Because I can take the money difference and send my kids to private school, which would be better than any public school.

Food and ability to go home for lunch does not define me. As I’ve stated above, it’s just some of the reason why I think NCC is not that great for someone who want those two things. It seems like those are the only thing you can come up with for NCC area as well. Well, I guess you can say the people who live there are richer as well. I would much rather have my kids be close to their aunts, uncles, grand parents, great grand parents than some friends. Friends can come and go, family are with you till you die and beyond.

[an]

This is what I’d call a dead cat bounce. Nothing go up or down in a straight line. Every down trend have mini recovery only to have the down trend continue. Same w/ every up trend, there are many profit taking a long the way. Trend don’t usually change course in a year, be it stock or real estate. Unless we all wrong and this is just some profit taking before we resume double digit appreciation. In that case, buy now and your 500k house will be a million dollar house in several years. However, all fundamentals are saying otherwise. We’ll just have to wait and see. Everybody will predict the bottom but they all are just guesses and no one will know they’re right or not until many years after the bottom and looking back. Only then will you know if it’s a true bottom or just dead cat bounce.

[an]

Sorrento Valley. Nothing beat living 5 minute from work. Once you experienced the ability to go home for lunch and relax before you have to go back to work, you’d do anything to keep that.

[an]

sdr, as you mentioned, you tend to prefer Americanized version of Asian food, so it might not mean as much to you. But personally, I like my food authentic. So when I want Korean food, I go to Kearney Mesa, when I want Indian food, I’d go to Miramar, if I want Vietnamese food, I’d go to Mira Mesa or El Cajon. If I want Chinese food, I’d go to El Cajon or Kearney Mesa. I detest Americanize Asian food, such as PF Chang. All of those authentic Asian food are all family owned. If I want family owned American food, I can go to the Butcher shop or Donevans if I want steaks. Fuddruckers makes great burger, so I don’t know what you’re complaining about. Best Buy, well, where else do you go to buy your tech toys? I’m also 10-15 min away from those NCC lil restaurants or the upscale places in Hillcrest and down town. Does NCC have places like Extraordinary dessert in Hillcrest? All best restaurants are w/in 15 min drive for me, same with any kind of supermarket from Japanese to Chinese to American. I can’t say the same for NCC.

[an]

sdrealtor, I don’t get why you think area like SV, CV, 4S, PQ, RB, MM, etc are souless. They have much more than big food chain if you expand your taste to more than American food. There are many family owned food place. Tell me, where do you go to eat Vietnamese, Chinese, Indian, Korean, Japanese food in Encinitas, Cardiff, Solana Beach, Del Mar? All the best places for those type of food are family owned and are South of the 56. Tell me where you’d go if you want to go to buy fresh veggies and ingredient to cook asian food?

[an]

DaC, I agree with you there. Of course it’ll weather the storm better than less desirable area. If you look at my comparison between the less desirable area like Mira Mesa, it boomed much bigger than desirable area. In cases like MM vs SR, MM risen about 300% in the last 10 years while SR risen about 200%. So if MM dropped 66%, it would be equivalent to SR dropping 50%. I’ve said from the beginning that I agree with Bugs’ statement. Since we both agree with them, then we’re just debating on the semantics. I only mean you’re nit-picking my word of the “same”. So, I’ll rephrase it. I think the % premium will be similar to the last bottom.

[an]

Bug never said it’s the same. He said a 30% premium won’t become a 100% premium. I agree with that statement. I was the one who said it’s the same. Let me take that back and say that I agree with Bug’s statement. You’re nit picking at the tree and fail to see the forest.

[an]

I agree median prices is a blunt tool, but I just don’t have that kind of time to go give example of a lot of houses, although DaC can always use Zillow to look at the house on the street that he likes.

[an]

I would be interested to see the historical data that supports the conclusion that “the percentage tends to stay the same”.
Here’s what I find out from Zillow and their graph per zip code. I’m using Mira Mesa and Carmel valley as an example. In 1997, the median was $144k in MM and $239k in CV. That’s a spread of 66%. in 2006, at the peak, MM was @ $537k and CV was at $906k. That’s a spread of 68%. So at least comparing to MM to CV, the percentage stays pretty constant.

Comparing between PQ and MM, the # is further apart. in 1997, the gap is 39% while now, in 2006 it’s @ 24%. Comparing 92126 vs 92128, it’s 22% in 1997 and it shrinks to 7% in 2006. 92126 vs 92122, it’s 25% in 1997 and 15% in 2006. 92126 VS 92037, it’s 115% in 1997 and 99% in 2006. 92126 vs 92127, it’s 34% in 1997 and 31% in 2006. 92126 vs 92131, it’s 50% in 1997 and 33% in 2006. So, as you can see, some area held their premium pretty constant while other lost a premium anywhere between 10-17%. The reason why I use Zillow graph is that their algorithm is the same for all area, so it removes one variable. They also uses the same data in their calculation as well. So it’s as close as you can get to these kind of info. So, yes, when we hit this bottom, area like 92131 might have their 50% premium again compare to 92126 instead of their 32% premium now. But I highly doubt they spike to 100+% because they don’t fall while other less desirable area fall more. At some point, people will ask, is it really worth paying 2X to live in Scripps Ranch compare to Mira Mesa. That’s my 2.5 cents.

[an]

I totally agree with Bugs on the fact the desire and developed area will be hit just like others. They always commend a premium compare to less desirable areas, but the percentage tend to stay the same. So you have two scenarios, 1) price drop just like other areas but still maintain a % premium. There would be less sales but the one that get sold will be priced in comparison to the rest of SD. 2) price drop on paper but everybody there are so flushed w/ equity that no one need to sell. Which mean there would be no sale in area like Old Scripps until the price is back up to today level. I think scenario 1 is more likely, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

[an]

I totally agree with a lot of the post regarding how tech is not going to save housing. To the OP who mentioned QCOM, remember that QCOM is still no where near its 52 week high. So engineers at QCOM who got options last year, their options are now still under water. I work at a large telecom company as a software engineer and I can attest to the lack of options & pay raise. You’ll be happy if you get a 3-4% pay raise. I also agree with Nor_LA-Temcu-SD-Guy that engineers are practical types. We tend to be more conservative with our money in regards to housing. Buying tech toys is a whole different issue :-).

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