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July 11, 2015 at 5:35 PM in reply to: Elderly Parents Having Contractor Problem – NEED ADVICE #787896
bearishgurl
Participantgzz, I think a Sentri Pass is in order. I don’t know anyone who has the kind of trouble you’re experiencing.
Hope you are now back in the US and headed home or are home.
ParticipantActually, when push comes to shove, I really don’t care either, flyer. If the time comes where I wish to sell my residence, it will be worth what its worth at the time of listing it. The same applies when I turn around and purchase a (hopefully forever) home in another county.
I just feel that ALL first time and second time buyers with halfway decent credit and even a moderate income CAN buy a home in SD County. Many who can don’t because they don’t like what’s on offer that they can actually afford to buy. Or they don’t want to alter their lifestyles in any way, shape or form to own (i.e. buy 7+ year old vehicles and used household items and appliances, etc in order to be able to afford a home here). Yes, even “professionals,” lol ….
It’s been that way as long as I can remember …. and I have a l-o-o-ong memory :=0 … but the phenomenon is far more pronounced today in that, in general, Gen Y is way too picky for what their budget will allow, they will not do any rehab or remodel work (unless they can afford to have it professionally done while they live elsewhere) and/or don’t want to downgrade their lifestyle to afford a home that they would be happy with for years to come.
My own kids are this way. They all live in high-cost areas in CA and the one(s) working FT have been making GREAT money for years. I don’t think they are shunning homes which need work but they certainly don’t want to downgrade their lifestyles (traveling internationally, owning authentic designer stuff, etc) to do what it takes to get a downpayment saved up.
I don’t know if rockingtime is a homeowner, but I’ve heard his/her argument before many times here … that something’s got to give … home prices are unsustainable in SD County, blah, blah. SD is a coastal county and thus will always command high prices, especially, as flyer stated, within 15 miles of the coast. Areas in SD County west of I-5 demand extraordinarily high prices in relation to their direct counterparts east of I-5 (ex: Imperial Beach vs Otay Mesa). This will never change. If you don’t like what’s on offer in SD, there’s always TX … as another poster mentioned.
btw, last fall when I was in that area, I went to a Walmart to get something for my bug bites, which were itching and driving me crazy. Upon recommendation of a cousin, I bought this stuff called “Chiggerex” which is a fantastic smelling (menthol, sweet pepper, not sure) white cream of 10% benzocaine. It comes in a small plastic jar and works great! (I doubt Walmart sells it around here.) In recent months, I’ve been using it on my dog on her hot spots and it cleared them all up! TX has got it all going on, folks. BIG purple sunsets as far as the eye can see and lots of room to build, build, build (worker commutes increasing to 90-120 minutes one way in recent years). Break out that sticky spray repellant and go hiking at midnight wearing almost nothing! The lure of fancy speedboats beckon! You can go waterskiing 8-9 months a year there in water that feels like bathwater, but alas, is highly polluted, mostly from nearby fracking operations leaching pollutants into the tributaries of lakes. You won’t find this out until a couple of days later, however when you are in great pain with a double ear infection and have to go to urgent care to be treated (a lengthy experience which was NOT a good one)! Of course, the voters don’t believe in big gubment in them thar parts. So be my guest! Go get yourself one of those half-block long solid brick ranches with a 3-car garage on one end, a 2400 sf metal storage outbuilding and large barn and corral on five acres for $275K to $500K, depending on location. It’s there for the pickings … all over the place. As you load your u-haul in your tiny SD driveway to head east, feel free to pm me for some good motor lodge recommendations to stay in on the way there. I’ve stayed in just about every one of them a time or 3 on Route 66 as well as on I-10.
However, if you decide to later sell your home in TX with with goal of coming back to a coastal CA county to buy a residence … any residence, uhhh, just an FYI, that’s probably not going to happen.
Participant[quote=rockingtime]Yeah, my realtor and acquaintances are telling me “this time is truly different” and CA is entering its golden period now and house prices would keep going up.
Minimum pay is also raised in LA now people can afford half a million dollar crap shack easily..
Minimum pay rise coming to SD as wellWe’d see :-)[/quote]
OK, well my generation seemed to have no problem buying up 3-4 bdrm “crap shacks” for $40K to $95K in ‘hoods you probably wouldn’t even drive though while the minimum wage in SD was $2.40 to $3.35 hr. And that was during the era of fixed rate mortgage interest rates hovering between 9% and 14%!
We had very little “new construction” to choose from and what was built new was outlying and therefore undesirable to dtn workers due to long commute times (the fwys were narrower and there were fewer of them than there are today … ex: EC, Santee, PQ, Scripps, Poway, Esco, etc). Much of the original *newer* RB at the time was situated in HOAs which were convenanted specifically for residents over the age of 55.
In about 1979-80, Sorrento Valley began getting off the ground with just 3-4 companies (mostly biotech) startups situated on ONE dead end street. Scripps Ranch had TWO dead end streets at that time with maybe 6-8 companies (mostly finance and insurance companies). In SD, most of the FT work (which paid enough to support a household) was in factories, offices and financial and government institutions in and around dtn SD and Kearny Mesa.
Quit whining, rockingtime. It IS “different” this time …. MUCH different. Adding to that BIG DIFFERENCE is that today’s family-forming homebuyers in SD have considerably higher expectations for a home than same of yesteryear. I wonder what would happen to this group’s “expectations” if fixed mortgage interest rates were to rise even to a modest 8%. My opinion is that this group is so incredibly spoiled that I predict they would just leave the county in search of homes that meet their lofty expectations and also which they can afford. That’s always been a tall order in SD but the very low prevailing mortgage interest rates of the last 10+ years have “masked” the situation, allowing first and second time buyers to slide into homes and areas which were unheard of for a FTB or STB to be able to buy into before about 2004.
Even those who lost their home to SS and FC in the past decade and have rebuilt their credit or are in the process of doing so ARE NOT and WILL NOT, for the most part, “settle” for any home that is lesser (in house or location) than the home they lost (the one they could never afford in the first place).
If this group is still unable to buy back a similar home/location to the one they lost, they continue to rent until they can. It’s hard to downgrade one’s lifestyle when one has been living beyond their means for several years.
This is why flippers are still doing well in SD. They are buying and flipping homes successfully for a profit which today’s end users are unwilling to buy (or the home won’t qualify to be mortgaged). Today, 1st and 2nd time homebuyers are willing to pay $100K to $200K more for the same house which an enterprising flipper team recently bought low and spent 2-4 months flipping. Unlike their parent’s generation, those same buyers would not even consider viewing the inside of the same house in the condition the flippers bought it in.
Up until about the late nineties, 1st and 2nd time buyers of a primary residence in SD were willing to purchase a cosmetic or even heavy fixer and about half did so. Most moved in at COE and remodeled the residence room by room as time and money permitted. Yes, “professionals” routinely did this! Doctors, dentists and lawyers found time for DIY, even if it took 1-3 years!
In sum, five reasons why it IS DIFFERENT THIS TIME are (1) chronically low MIR’s for 10+ years and ongoing; (2) likely 8 to 10 times the available foreign cash sloshing around at the ready to buy CA coastal residential RE than there was 15+ years ago; (3) major SD job centers moved northward in the county and greatly expanded; (4) an unbelievable amount of newer construction to choose from in all four corners of the county, (leaving SD County essentially built out), and; (5) Gen Y’s pronounced sense of entitlement as to the type and location of a home they will actually make an offer on.
ParticipantI should add that even though the conventional interest rate plummeted 4%+ from 1984 to 1989, it has now plummeted 6-7% BELOW the fixed rate of 1988-89 for the most “prime” borrowers.
I KNOW because I WAS ONE at that time who took out 11 7/8%, 10 1/8% and 9 3/4% fixed conventional mortgages from the late 70’s thru 1990 (all in SD, CA). At all times, I/we never had ANY MONTHLY DEBT on my/our “TRWs” but the mortgage on the family home. FICO scores did not exist back then, but I/we were considered “prime” borrowers.
ParticipantUhhh, rockingtime, I WAS THERE. Yes, it’s truly different this time.
Although I don’t automatically think that newbie Pigg phaster has “pegged” the current market, (he’s actually one of a few Piggs who quote incessantly from the MSM), his historical interest rates speak for themselves. Uh, hello out there??
And you are forgetting that the recent crazy seller-fueled US coastal residential RE market (meaning ~50 miles from the coast but more pronounced the closer the property is to the coast) is now being invaded by foreigners at a MUCH HIGHER CLIP than anyone could have possibly imagined in 1984!
Nice try, rockingtime, but your link (circa 1984) is what it is. A moment in time where buyers thought it was obscene to pay 2-3x the 1971 value for a CA coastal property.
In fact, residential properties along the CA coast to about 50 miles inland (referring to SFRs, NOT condos here) were grossly UNDERVALUED until about late 1988 thru very late 1990. I believe that values which sped off northward at that point forward in this region became wholly dependent upon mortgage interest rates (except in the very high value areas, where interest rates didn’t really matter to this cohort of buyers).
The reason being is because while the 1989-90 values were 2 times+ the 1984 values in many SD areas, during that time, the prime conventional mortgage interest rate plummeted by over 4%!
Participant[quote=FlyerInHi]BG, not a bad area. But I like condo living on the strip. The suburbs is not my style. I did the suburbs before.
In Vegas it’s nicer to have underground parking and cool hallways to isolate yourself from the heat.
By the way, a lot of “fake” listings in Vegas. Good deals go very quick, within days.[/quote]
Whatever you say, brian. I don’t think of this “Enterprise” area as a “suburb,” at least not 4-5 blocks from I-15, as is the subject. It’s just north of the big rock marking the Henderson cutoff at Sloan. There ARE now large casino complexes that far south and the listing is probably closer to the airport (and easier to get to it) than from where you live!
If it were me and I had to live in the hot pesthole that is LV, I would say the PUD I linked is too cozy with the neighbors for my taste, I detest stairs and it doesn’t have a “real” driveway but it has a fairly large private patio for entertaining, a 2-car private garage (a biggie) and a LOT of interior space, compared to the type of unit you are in. If I had to pick one of the two to reside in, I’d pick the PUD (with no shared walls, ceilings or floors) and low HOA dues. But that’s just me. I wouldn’t like walking out of my building onto the strip to immediately be bombarded with cigarette and cigar smoke.
Bearing in mind that I haven’t been off the freeway too much in LV in recent years, to me, LV “suburbs” would be Henderson, North LV, Boulder City, “Summerlin” and possibly Nellis AFB and surrounds.
The other named areas (and even the more distant “Summerlin”) seem as if they are just neighborhoods within the city (as Hillcrest and North Park are to SD).
I am surprised at how cheap it still is there for what you get and the sheer amount of newer construction available in LV. I don’t ever look at online RE listings in NV or AZ (too hot for me).
Thanks for sharing your dilemma, brian!
Participantbrian, whoever purchased that PUD in 2008 for $125K did NOTHING with it and made little to no payments after the first couple of years of ownership. It needs minor cosmetic work which you can do yourself! Without examining the public record, it appears to me to be some sort of a pending foreclosure (subprime, 2nd TD holder or HELOC holder).
If you could scare up $150K – $200K in cash, this might be a little project where you could make $100K or more by selling after a 2-3 yr period of ownership.
And it’s four blocks off the freeway and just a hop and a skip (5 mins?) from the airport! Just sayin …
I see the listing is 397 days old, which smacks of a property which was an “attempted SS,” but likely did not show well with all the deadbeat “owner’s” stuff in it. Why don’t you try to find out what the situation is?
Good L@rd, LV has grown a LOT since my relatives moved out of there in ’94. Shocking …..
Participantbrian, here’s a large newer-construction PUD or zero-lot-line home (with no shared walls), asking $229K and with only $60 per month HOA dues!
I haven’t studied the location or vetted the HOA, but I think this listing is likely to your taste.
As long as the (crowded) sidewalk wasn’t full of chalk, tricycles and broken wagons and there weren’t non-running vehicles sitting in driveways, I would give something like this some thought, brian. You can still live relatively cheaply in LV and also have much more privacy than a “pure” condo (until such time as you will move back to CA).
ParticipantWell, I’ve posted it here many times before … and also to brian directly … having neighbors who adhere to the doctrine of “quiet enjoyment” for all is very important to me. Hence, I would NEVER live in an apt or condo unless it was just a short-term (day/week/month) rental while I was in the process of moving long distance. I HATED living in an apt when I was 17-22 years old and back then, I/we always rented a very spacious 2/1 or 2/2 apt or condo! Even back then, I COULDN’T STAND sharing walls (or floors/ceilings) and noises from neighboring units completely stressed me out! I can’t even stand SFRs built too close together with little/no land buffer between them (built on zero-lot lines).
Any block which had a home I was considering purchasing for a residence was personally vetted by me several days PRIOR to making an offer … at all hours of the day and night and doing staged rush-hour runs to work. I absolutely could not and would not be able to tolerate a block full of teenagers with boom boxes in their trunks, a block full of toys, wagons, tricycles, water cups, trash, etc (and chalk) left on sidewalks for days at a time. And I spent many, many years raising kids myself and I still wouldn’t choose a block full of kids/teens … even back then! Nor would I choose to purchase a home on a block on a busy street, under a flight path or next to a freeway (a block suffering from “economic obsolescence). I won’t even live on a block where I can hear constant elementary school bells or daily noises from recess, etc. I enjoy living amongst mature landscaping and get to hear birds from sunup to sundown.
I need a dog door installed on the back door and a big backyard for my dog to run in and my next home will be a minimum of 35 feet from any adjoining neighbor’s homes (would prefer 50-100 feet). I’d take a block full of “geriatrics” any day over living amongst the multiple-stroller messy, over-flowing garage, noisy family blocks because it offers me the continual “quiet enjoyment” of my home that I require. And never, ever would I live in a condo (buy or rent). I HATE the condo lifestyle and the fact that an “owner” owns a “fractional interest” and not any real land they can call their own (except PUDs).
brian, I concur with flu, here. However, I feel you should just cut your losses and move as the “fight” you are describing would be more aggravation than it’s worth in my book. Life is short! You stated you fully remodeled your place so I feel you can just rent it out or better yet, sell it and buy a SFR in LV. As you know, SFRs really don’t cost that much more than condos in LV …. and most of them have rocks or desert landscaping so your water bill isn’t going to go through the roof (like it would in SD). Give this some thought. In LV, condos are so cheap that they’re always going to attract the low-income “lowlife” families, etc as tenants or buyers. There’s isn’t anything you can do to change this phenomenon.
[quote=spdrun]FlyerInHI – disagree that living in an apartment is pathetic. It makes things easier, especially if you’re a single parent. Taking care of a house takes time, and we only have a certain number of hours in a day.[/quote]
spd, a condo (esp one which has another unit above or below it) is vastly inferior to a SFR for raising children. If the childrens’ single parents are BOTH raising them (as is usually the case in CA), then each parent has a percentage of time where the children live with the other parent (usually 50%). Single parents actually have more time than a married parent to mow, trim, paint, and otherwise maintain their homes than does a married parent as their responsibility is only to themselves when the children are living with their other parent.
I realize that households with children don’t really have a choice in the matter in Manhattan, NYC, where you reside.
Participant[quote=Blogstar]Just looked your original post again, scaredy, You miss the gay life of the 70’s and the 80’s, but I remember it also as a very painful extremely dysfunctional time for gay people too.[/quote]
So do I. I remember when gay men were getting sick and dying en masse in the late ’70’s thru about ’80 and doctors did not yet know at the time what was causing their infections nor why “mainstream” antibiotics did little for these patients. Many, many people died before life-prolonging drugs were developed, turning AIDS into a chronic illness instead of a death sentence.
Participant[quote=SK in CV][quote=bearishgurl] You are referring to one husband living with two adult “spouses,” perhaps one legal spouse and one whom he’s not legally married to, correct?…
I personally don’t see what these “cults” practice (or even what “mainstream” LDS members practice) as a religion or a “church.”
[/quote]
Yes, kind of what I’m referring to. But I’m getting that you think I’m still talking about people that are somehow connected to a cult or a religion. I’m not. The one family I’ve known since the mid-90’s, are 3 atheists that live in Torrance and have been together since at least that time. Not a traditional home, but not any cult either.[/quote]
Yes, SK, I did realize that your friends didn’t use “religion” as the reason they were polygamists.
Participant[quote=SK in CV]BG, you are aware that there are a lot of poly families that aren’t religious at all, no? Those that I’ve known were all 1 man, two women. No exploitation. All by choice. I know at least 1 that has been going strong for at least 15 years. I’m sure that those that have problems with same sex marriage would have similar problems with any poly relationship. But it’s unclear to me why they shouldn’t be able to get married just like anyone else.[/quote]
Yes, I am aware of that and I posted earlier here that if these “wives” who are participating in these “arrangements” are happy in their lives, then it is not mine (or anyone else’s) place to judge them. You are referring to one husband living with two adult “spouses,” perhaps one legal spouse and one whom he’s not legally married to, correct?
I have no problem with the recent Supreme Court ruling re: legalization of gay marriage. I believe the gay population in the US isn’t 5%, as previously posted, but actually between 7-15% and much, much higher in some cities. I’m not seeing the LGBT population out there overpopulating the planet with dozen(s) of children each and exploiting women and girls, as are the “ousted” polygamist sects who purport to adhere to the original LDS teachings. I personally don’t see what these “cults” practice (or even what “mainstream” LDS members practice) as a religion or a “church.”
That’s my own opinion based upon my lengthy personal experiences with LDS members, both in the workplace and with neighbors. No offense to any Piggs here.
Participant[quote=FlyerInHi]Yesterday, I had to visit people in culver city near Sony pictures. Beautiful tree lined street in the middle of it all.
Then I had to go to Anaheim hills. It was a world apart and so far away. The guy commutes to LAX and complains about traffic. The uniformity of the suburbs was such a turnoff. It rather live in a condo in playa/marina del Rey.
Didn’t get back to San Diego until late. Driving sucks![/quote]
Same here, FIH. I got back at midnight. I was back in the lower SGV, this time, Diamond Bar, Walnut and Brea (OC border). All very, very attractive (outer?) suburbs with several very modern 4-corner strip malls rivaling the Contra Costa and Alameda County (NorCal) shopping experience. I haven’t seen anything of this magnitude in SD County … not even in Mission Valley! The best, most diversified commercial area is within the City of Industry (Walnut) which has a HUGE Chinese population. Many signs there (both private and public) are written in both English and Chinese. I noticed these cities have a LOT of dedicated open space (with permanent drains installed in its grassy/bare hills to prevent erosion) as well as a nearly new Metro and bus transfer station. It also has nice clean wide streets free of potholes, nice public landscaping and NO MELLO ROOS … anywhere (haven’t completely checked on this for Brea but would surmise that it had approved very little, if any, CFD’s). Fabulous! The excellent planning in this area rivals that of (the more expensive) Contra Costa County, IMO.
The only drawback I see to living there is heat in the summer but that is nothing that AC can’t fix. It is more humid there than AZ, of course, and not anywhere near as hot but nonetheless, I could feel the difference in temperature (from my home near SD bayfront) in first stepping out of my car. It did cool down with a very slight breeze in the evening but was still a bit humid.
My next trip will be on the 12th, where I will likely visit Rowland Heights, Hacienda Heights and surrounds and have dinner with friends at one of my favorite dog-friendly restaurants! I may very well put certain cities in this area on my “retirement short list.” Unlike the other cities and towns I was considering for “retirement,” the SGV is an excellent area from which to obtain well-paying gainful PT or FT work in my field with a very reasonable commute time. It is full of retirees and families, also, due to having excellent local public schools.
FIH, I’m not familiar with Anaheim Hills but did not find the above areas in lower SGV particularly “uniform,” devoid of character or too “cookie cutter.” Most of it was built before subdivision builders used tile roofs en masse. The avg SFR lot size there is over 7K sf and a good portion of them have a 9K+ sf lot! The tree-lined streets you speak of (shaded tree median) are also present in Lakewood, Pasadena and Claremont (and probably more cities that I haven’t seen). Yes, they do lend an “ambiance” to a street (or an entire neighborhood) that only large shade trees can do. And they are an anomaly in SD (present only in small, scattered pockets of 92110, 92106, 92037, 92115 and a couple more).
LA County has a LOT going for it and most cities in its eastern portion are reasonably-priced to buy into (in comparison with SD County cities). In addition, the housing selection at any given time is much, much better than that of SD but most of the listings there do move pretty fast.
Participant[quote=Hobie] . . . So why haven’t the feminists weighed in the polygamist lifestyle?[/quote]
This “feminist” has already “weighed in” here :=0
Polygamy is a blatant exploitation of women and minor girls. I realize it takes two to tango but the polygamist lifestyle ends up trapping women and girls for life before they have had a chance to grow up and decide what they actually want to do, IMO. Practically speaking, the only way females can “escape” from this lifestyle after bearing children is to leave them behind as their “patriarchs” are politically powerful in their region. The under-the-table “gifts” they bestow upon their elected officials at all levels sustains their lifestyle without governmental interference.
That is, if these patriarchs’ local city councilperson or county supervisor just happens to see a female “clan” member obviously in the third trimester of pregnancy and dressed in their “clan’s” typical dress exiting from their compound or doing errands in public and are not quite certain she is 18 years old (or was at the time of becoming pregnant), they will simply look the other way.
It’s been going on like this for decades.
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