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Carlsbadliving
ParticipantIt’s actually increasingly difficult to build in any areas of a canyon now. Some cities have ridgeline ordinances that protect the top of canyons and hills from being built. Canyons would typically also have way too many biological impacts and hillside ordinances, making them virtually unbuildable. Most of the remaining areas to build in a city like Carslbad are disturbed or been used for agriculture. These carry less impacts and make it more feasible to build.
We’re actually lucky (or unlucky for some people I guess) that a good portion of the County was built long before the strict land planning policies of today. Many of those beautiful canyon subdivisions and hilltop/bluff homes are no longer feasible.
ParticipantAs a land planning consultant in San Diego County, I feel compelled to chime in. Yes, it’s true we are running out of buildable land. Many cities within SD County will reach “buildout” within the next 10 to 20 years.
However, in my opinion, this is not a reason for the current run up in prices. It’s an argument made by many in the real estate profession but it’s not yet affecting prices.
There are many current reasons why it’s difficult to build in San Diego County (most of them biological) and that definitley does effect current prices. This is one of the reasons that San Diego real estate will always be more expensive than other parts of the country.
Another reason is that most people feel compelled to oppose any new development (after their house has been built of course). This just makes it harder and more costly to build.
And as PD mentioned political pressure will only increase as we approach buildout. The State is already putting pressure on individual cities to increase densities. They threaten to not approve the Housing Elements of city’s General Plans if enough isn’t done to increase the density of projects. So this may become an issue as we approach buildout but if it does, there will still have to be some sort of balance between wages and housing prices.
My own thinking is that if the cities were actually properly planning around growth, they would have allocated more business areas in North County because of the impact on traffic congestion. But, that hasn’t been the case…. Can someone enlighten me?
A couple of things here: One is that city’s grow very slowly. Many cities around a large metropolitan area like downtown San Diego start out as bedroom communities as land near the city core is developed. Then slowly, retail and all the services follow.
Many of the cities in SD County grew relatively on their own until all cities were forced to draw up a General Plan that defined all land in the City. Also, the City and/or County are not developers. There still must be some sort of demand for a use and the property owner must have the means or willingness to meet that demand. Obviously in hind sight it would have been nice to have huge employment centers in North County, but growth doesn’t always work that way.
ParticipantIn May I just took all of our money from mutual funds and put into a money market account. The tipping point for me was that I started worrying too much about the money in the mutual funds. I sleep much better at night with it in the money market. I think if you’re that worried about it, you need to move it. What’s the point of having money if it’s going to stress you out. Go with your gut.
ParticipantIn the case of Bressi Ranch, it’s a pretty quick and easy investigation. All you have to do is look at the Master Plan and you’d find out all the land uses. No secrets there. But I’m sure most of the people had no idea. They had to hurry and get into the market. No time to mess around.
ParticipantBugs,
A good chunk of the industrial development along El Camino Real actually is a different development. It’s part of the La Costa Greens project. However, you’re right it’s probably not an accident that the residential within Bressi was built first. However, you still have to put the blame on the homebuyer. If I’m about to drop $800,000 on a home next to some vacant land you’d bet I’d be finding out what was going there. It’s all public information. And actually the new La Costa Greens industrial lots will be right in front of the residential estate lots within Bressi.ParticipantIt’s opened at San Dieguito Rd but I haven’t driven down it yet to see if it goes all the way to Camino Del Norte. That connection will be nice, as will the connection of Carmel Valley Rd and Bernardo Center Drive.
ParticipantPaying it off immediately wouldn’t help your credit score. You’re better off to try to refinance to a better fixed rate. I know that typically college loans can be financed at pretty low rates. I know that my wife was able to get hers down to 3.4% or something like that. That was a few years ago so obviously it would be higher than that.
I’d also suggest you use your credit card regurarly. As long as you have self control it’s actually a good idea to use a credit card. We have no annual fees, pay it off every month, and get cash back. If our minds, we’re actually making money from the credit card company. Plus it looks good on our credit.
I agree though, the credit world is very tricky. You’ve got to have credit to get credit. I’ve always joked with my parents that they’d have trouble getting a loan.. house is paid off, pay cash for cars. It’s definetly good to have at least some debt constantly going to prove you can make payments.
ParticipantI agree completely. Some of the arguments made on this site make it out that San Diego will turn into a ghost town. If it does, wouldn’t you be able to get a house for pretty cheap? And wouldn’t an awful lot of people want to live here if the houses were cheap? And then wouldn’t the businesses come back because of the growing population.
Before it gets to that I belive we’ll hit an equlibrium which will probably be pretty much just like 1998-2002. Fairly reasonable housing prices (albeit considerably higher than national average) and a growing population. I think we’ll look back at 2002-2006 as an absolute aberration.
ParticipantOne of the freeways was proposed to start around Encinitas Blvd and head in a southeasterly direction to the 15. It would have cut right through Rancho Santa Fe. You can imagine the people of RSF didn’t like this idea. Obviously it never came to fruition.
ParticipantPowayseller,
I don’t think you can generalize that we don’t have good inspectors because a single vent was missed in your attic. As I said earlier, $8/hr will get you a laborer that can dig, cleanup, move lumber, etc. $12-14/hr will get you a production framer. I’m not talking about workers to do some work on an individual house, or guys that you might pick up on a street corner. I’m talking about large developments built by large builders. They have production framing crews that do the same work on each tract home. It’s the equivalent to the assembly line. They are trained, fast, and efficient. They are supervised by a skilled supervisor and their work is inspected by the City/County. Many of them have 10+ years of experience here and in Mexico. The majority of them know what they are doing.
As for your friend in Ramona. Obviously if you’re going to hire a crew to build your own house, you might want some recommendations or maybe check a reference or two.
As for the builders hiring their own inspectors in Florida: apparently Florida law allows that. I’m unaware of a similar law in Calif.
ParticipantI think it’s just a sign of the times. More illegals here in the country and they’ve taken many of those jobs away from the middle class kids. But how is the government going to provide incentives to hire them?
Part of the problem is the motivation factor. Put yourself in a managers shoes. Are you going to hire some 18 yr kid who needs some extra spending money and can’t wait to get off work to go party or are you going to hire the immigrant who is trying to support his family. Who do you think will show up on time everyday ready to work hard for you. I’ve been in those shoes and I’d hire that immigrant 90% of the time.
ParticipantI used to work as a recruiter for a construction staffing company. We would just need a social security card and id from anyone applying. I’m sure in most cases the ss cards were fake but there wasn’t much we were going to do. But in that case, they were illegal but were paid legally and had taxes taken out of their check. I also think that a large majority send money back to Mexico each month so it’s not like they are contributing large sums of money to our economy. With a sharp downturn in construction I think we’ll just see less illegals risking everything to get into the country. Word will spread that times aren’t as good here and many won’t make the trip. And just as many may return to Mexico.
By the way, a house can built for extremely cheap labor. $8/hr for a laborer $12-14/hr for a good framer. And i would have no worries about buying a house built by these workers. They are just as hard (if not harder) workers than most Americans and don’t want to screw things up while they’re here. I’d much rather hire an illegal who risked his life to get here than some lazy American who’s skipping out of work early to hit the bars. Besides we still have stringent building codes and inspectors. It needs to be built right to pass inspection.
And also, I’m 29, is the government guaranteeing me a ss payout at retirement? Probably not.
ParticipantI don’t think anybody is the bad guy. It’s the buyers decision to pay the market price. It’s no different than any other retail transaction. If the buyer is willing to pay for something then that’s the market rate. I don’t think you blame any one sector (lender, realtor, appraiser), you just had a large group of frenzied buyers outbidding each other.
ParticipantI would recommend taking a trip to the County Planning Dept. (5201 Ruffin Rd). Just take the APN and the counter staff will be able to tell you everything you need to know about the property. That’s the best place to start.
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