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earlyretirement
Participant[quote=FlyerInHi]Talking about real estate trends is interesting.
Honolulu has plenty of buyers from the mainland looking for paradise.
Florida, and Nevada attract northern retirees and plenty of Canadians. Canadians are interesting because they blend in just like Americans, until you talk to them. Of course Miami is full of Latin Americans. NY is like the world’s melting pot.
I bought a few properties in Las Vegas. Happy about getting in at the bottom. One complex is about 50% Canadian. Lots of Californians.
In the end we are all Americans from everywhere. That’s what’s great about this country.[/quote]
Absolutely FlyerInHi. I love talking about real estate and watching the various trends around the world has been interesting.
I totally agree with you about Canadians. I have MANY MANY Canadian clients and they are investing all over the world. Especially in South America. Huge investment there by Canadians that like to have a place down there where the seasons are opposite and they go down for their winters and it’s summer down there.
I love that there are more and more Chinese investing here. Yes, as you mentioned FlyerinHi, San Diego isn’t one of the top tier cities for these “glamour” factors but it’s getting more and more exposure now which is wonderful. (Except for probably the locals that still haven’t bought real estate and need to. By becoming a “glamour city” attracting all of these foreigners will drive real estate prices up even higher at a faster pace.)
Participant[quote=CA renter]
ER,
I’ve talked to a few people who were working with Chinese investors, but this was ~2-4 years ago. They (Chinese investors) were pooling large funds (billions) to buy up bulk foreclosures directly from banks, the FDIC (supposedly), and other lending institutions. Also, they were buying foreclosures on the courthouse steps. I’ve talked to people who’ve represented them on the financial side, and also talked to some people who’ve worked in flip/repair crews for these investors. They were buying up mostly SFHs on the low to mid end, here and around the country, to either rent or flip.[/quote]
Yes, I heard that sort of thing a few years ago. Nothing too specific but the same type of thing. I wonder how many of the recent purchases would fall under that category.
[quote=blueeyedlion]He was about to start working for Qualcomm (a lot of my clients are in the tech industry since I am a former Computer Engineer) and so this particular client targeted areas centered around Qualcomm (UTC, Mira Mesa).
They bought a single SFR for him to live in, and two condos as rentals. They did use financing since he had established some credit here in the States. So it was a combination of financing on the SFR, and all cash for the condos.[/quote]
Ah ok…Mira Mesa seems to be on a tear lately. Just many places, not much inventory at all on the market. Even Mira Mesa seems to be pricing people out of the market there.
Participant[quote=bearishgurl][quote=earlyretirement]…BG, to your knowledge, has any CFD areas ever had their bonds extended past their original pay off dates?[/quote]
NO! But in 1987-1991, it was not common to use exotic vehicles and/or I/O loans to fund the MR construction bonds. In addition, the community got three fire stations and a YMCA out of the deal. All but one fire station was built in 1992 or prior. Building costs and materials have gone up exponentially since then.[/quote]
Thanks. Yep. I agree. Not only have building costs and materials gone up but probably so has the propensity for fraud and abuse! LOL.
I appreciate all of this information. I totally agree with you that it will be interesting to read more stories about this Mello-Roos issue. Most people don’t seem to care about this at all as we both noted.
Participant[quote=blueeyedlion]I’m a REALTOR and I can attest to the Chinese buying all-cash! I’ve worked with a client, fresh from getting his Master’s in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan and whose Dad bought him a home, and then a couple of other investment properties.
Also have a former colleague (I was once in Computer Engineering) who is Chinese and helped a friend from mainland China buy a million dollar home in Carlsbad sight unseen. The money is definitely flowing in from China, and is driving up prices.[/quote]
Thanks blueeyedlion. Is there any specific developments or areas you see this happening more than another?
For example, your client that bought whose dad bought him a property… what type of property was it? SFH? In which area/development? Thanks for sharing.
Participant[quote=bearishgurl]ER, I viewed three of your SantaLuz videos last night. SantaLuz cannot be compared to the Del Sur tract that the newswoman is investigating for MR overcharges as they are apples and oranges for a variety of reasons.
SantaLuz (the SFRs at least) are situated on spacious lots, thus you aren’t listening to your neighbors’ toilet flush. A (renowned?) golf course designer came into the picture early on (before housing was even in the picture) and created a world class golf course to run with the lay of the land. You have a full-service gym/spa on site as well as a restaurant which serves only the residents and their guests. I think it is interesting that young families (mostly newcomers to SD?) ultimately decided to buy into SantaLuz and the comaraderie among neighbors is very good due to all of the organized community activities. However, I personally would not like living behind a guarded gate (and we DO have a few of these type of subdivisions in South County, btw). Insomuch that your neighbors cannot store their non-running vehicles in front of their houses, for example, is a blessing, you are paying HIGH HOA dues ($440 mo for a SFR?) for enforcement of those covenants, conditions and restrictions. But you are correct in that you are getting tangible services (cable TV, broadband internet and trash P/U) for the money as well as the full service gym with classes, pool and jacuzzis (along with availability of on-site trainers, golf pros and masseuses, for example) is very nice. I don’t golf but would find the rest very convenient. And I was intrigued by the round-lot concept, capturing distant ocean and surrounding views since the development appears to sit up pretty high.
And for you (unlike the masses who purchase[d] elsewhere in 92127), I would leave the public schools issue out of the equation because you made an early payoff of your obligations to the CFDs encumbering your property and it was formally accepted as “paid in full.” Whether or not a buyer will pay you for your trouble and expense is immaterial in your case, IMO. The reason being that the PUSD is in deep sh!t and will remain so far into the future (which is not your problem anymore). You have kid(s) who are or will ostensibly attend the public schools there and so ~$60K is not that great of a cash outlay in light of the fact that you state will hold your property longer than ten years.
From your videos, it truly DOES appear that buyers in SantaLuz buy into a “convenient lifestyle” over buying just a home. However, I’ll bet if you ask your “buddy” in LG whether he would choose to buy in SantaLuz (if he could afford it) knowing it would cost him an additional ~$940 month in MR/HOA, that he would say no. I can see how younger buyers with minor children took the place of the “empty nester” buyers the development originally expected would be its target market. No matter how “well-heeled,” the mindset of many “empty nesters” who are already retired to soon to be retired is of conserving funds, not throwing ~$940 month to the wind. Especially in light of the low-interest environment we have today. You have to take into account that not only does this group not know if they will ever be able to enter the job market again (even on a part-time basis), they don’t know how long they will live and thus how long their funds need to last. For these reasons, it is folly for many in this demographic to throw ~$940 month out the window (or even $800, considering they were going to pay for cable/trash elsewhere) to live in a development where they may or may not regularly use its amenities.
I did enjoy the videos and thought your community was well-planned, ER. Many of your “brethren” in the rest of 92127 are no doubt paying just $100 to $150 less than you are every month in MR/HOA and not getting anywhere near level of amenities you are privy to OR the spacious lots. For this reason alone, I think you got a good deal for the house and lifestyle that you and your family wanted.[/quote]
Hi BG,
Thanks for the thoughts. I TOTALLY agree with you that you can NOT compare Del Sur to Santaluz. Like night and day, IMHO. Although for Mello Roos purposes, I had the CFD #4 and as I understand so do they in parts of Del Sur. Only I believe their CFD exposure is larger I believe.
You know, at first I didn’t think I would enjoy the “guard gated” portion as much as I do but I really really love it. It’s so extremely safe here. Even contractors that I put on my list can’t get in unless I put all of them on the list. (For example, I’d have several contractors with a company and unless I listed all of them specifically they would stop them at the gate and call me).
Having kids I really love how safe it is here. Even nearby Carmel Valley has had a rash of break ins lately but we don’t have that problem at all in Santaluz. It is ranked one of the safest communities in all of Southern California.
Oh, my friend in Lemon Grove LOVES Santaluz and he said he would buy here in a heartbeat. Especially if he had kids. Really, I network quite a bit and have had many many friends and colleagues out here and they have all loved it. I know that you’ve never personally been out to Santaluz but I think even you would admit that it’s pretty special (and I know you have no love of this area).
I haven’t yet met anyone that didn’t like the development. I guess it’s not for everyone but so far everyone has been impressed with how the developers designed this community. I really believe it’s a special place here in San Diego.
I totally agree with you that not everyone can afford the $900 – $1,000 a month HOA/Mello Roos payments and it’s not for everyone. But for those that can afford it, it’s really an amazing lifestyle out here.
[quote=bearishgurl][quote=earlyretirement]…You just have to remember BG that there are a lot of people that wouldn’t accept to live in certain parts of San Diego even if you gave them a free house. They would much rather live where they do paying a mortgage vs. taking a perfectly fine house in an area like Chula Vista. In fact, I’m one of those people. Even if you gave me the option of a FREE perfectly fine house in Chula Vista and promise to pay all property taxes…. I’d opt not to take it and pay a mortgage instead along with any applicable taxes. Nothing wrong with that…it’s just the way it is.[/quote]
ER, I’m not sure if you are aware of this, but about 5/8 of Chula Vista’s residential property owners pay MR. It WAS more like 2/3 of the population as recent as 2006, but since May 2007, ChulaV subdivisions have been retiring their MR bonds one by one.
FYI, developers within the City of Chula Vista (such as Lane Kuhn, Fieldstone and McMillin) DEBUTED the use of MR bonds in San Diego County. The next city to adopt them was Poway. The earlest ChulaV subdivisions built with 20 and 30 yr MR bonds with the first phases being sold in May 1987 (3 subd in Eastlake Shores) and 1991 (2 subd in Eastlake Hills) which have already paid off their MR bonds. RDR-II paid off their (20 yr) street bonds in 2012.
Having worked alongside several of these owners from the beginning, I’ve seen it all, first hand. The monthly HOA struggles, the HUGE property tax impounds, etc. A few of them hung in there and made it through to the retirement of the bonds but I’m not sure if this makes their properties more “valuable” than similarly-situated ChulaV properties which do not lie in MR areas OR if their kids got a “better” education than they would have had they attended schools in non-MR areas of the same district.
So, in a nutshell, I “get” the concept of MR but don’t know/can’t measure its true long-term fiscal value to an affected homewoner.[/quote]
Wow. I knew that Chula Vista did have Mello Roos areas but I didn’t realize it was as much as 2/3 at one time.
That is very interesting. BG, to your knowledge, have any CFD areas ever had their bonds extended past their original pay off dates? Thanks for the information.
ParticipantI tried picking up some properties in Carmel Valley last year as well as early this year before I just gave up. Fortunately we weren’t desperate to buy like some of these families now looking for houses to move in to them before the school year.
We were trying to just pick up a townhouse not a SFH but we know several friends that bought in Carmel Valley in the past 6 months or so. A few of them seemed like they weren’t totally in love with the property but just got desperate and “beaten down” looking.
I was having lunch this weekend with one of our friends that bought a SFH in Carmel Valley in December and she said she just felt beaten down and like it was a full time job looking for a house. She “gave in” and bought a house there.
I really think many people are going to have some serious buyer’s remorse here in a few years because they bought properties they weren’t in love with.
I think the numbers out there tend to show that about 30% or so of the buyers out there are cash buyers. I’m not sure if that is still the case but the last time I checked it looked to be about 3 out of 10 buying in cash here in the SD area. I’m not sure if it’s higher in Carmel Valley or not but some of the properties we lost out on were cash buyers.
I went in with 50% cash offers on a few properties and we got beat out by 100% cash offers. I don’t blame sellers for wanting cash and being able to close quickly. After all, a few years ago when we were buying…we paid cash for our house to negotiate a good deal and got a really great price that way. More deals were falling apart back in 2011 vs. today.
FlyerinHI makes a good point about legitimate business people. I agree. I’ve met a TON of families here since moving here from other countries. I can’t believe the number of Colombians I’ve met here in San Diego. As well, Russians and several Mexican families. I’m starting to meet some Argentineans and Brazilians as well. Previously I mostly saw Argentineans and Brazilians buying on the East Coast (Miami, NYC, etc) but I’m seeing some shift some of their funds to SoCal now.
It’s funny because sometimes I hear all this talk about wealthy Chinese buying here in San Diego. Just where is this happening and have you guys seem examples of this? If so, where? You realtors on the board…. are you seeing wealthy Chinese buying here with cash?
I was just curious about that. I’ve read about it on a few forums but when I press for actual developments where this is happening no one ever has anything to say. So if you guys are seeing it, please post as I like to keep up with actual trends.
You have to remember that real estate is still fairly cheap here for many foreigners. It might be expensive to Americans but real estate is very expensive in many countries. Even countries that are relatively poor or with tons of problems still or poor economies are expensive. You have properties in some of these major cities in these countries that are much more expensive than San Diego. So to them it’s cheap.
As well, traditional cities where foreigners tend to buy like NYC are VERY expensive today. By rotating out of traditional cities like NYC and getting some of those funds to SoCal properties here is really cheap for them compared to places like NYC! Especially at the sub $1.5 million dollar market. Here $1.5 million actually buys quite a bit of house! In NYC..not so much… Plus some of those HOA fees in cities like New York are absolutely crazy. Here HOA fees even in upscale communities is relatively cheap.
The dividing line of crappy tract homes in the $700s to $800’s really starts to drastically improve on the quality now once you can go over the $1.1 million or so range.
And add in Proposition 13 and buying here with 1% property taxes along with capped increases in property taxes and our property taxes are VERY cheap compared to the East Coast. Heck, even compared to crappy cities like Dallas our property taxes are CHEAP. In some of those cities they are approaching 3% a year.
You have to also remember that in many of these countries it’s totally normal for the locals to pay CASH. In fact, in some places it’s the norm, not the exception. So it’s nothing to them to pay cash for a property.
I do think that some of the cash buying is people that are cashing out of their stock market portfolios. I know tons of people that have liquidated their stock market portfolios here in the past few months and have tons of cash on the sidelines. I’ve even heard of people raiding their retirement savings or borrowing from their 401Ks to buy real estate which I think is totally foolish.
As well I’m 100% sure there are lots of people that are using credit card balance transfer offers out there. Credit card companies are starting to relax their standards again. Just like during the bubble. It’s actually surprising! I’m getting these 0% balance transfer offers with the 3% fee weekly now. From ALL of my credit card companies. So I know that most others are probably getting them as well.
Many of them say 0% until August 2014 on them. The banks are essentially getting free money and they are using higher risk gimmicks like this again. I’m really surprised at some of these things. I’m sure there are people out there leveraging and using credit cards out there as well in stock market and also real estate market.
So on one hand they are paying cash but they are taking those funds from essential sources that they definitely shouldn’t be raiding. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.
I’m also curious to see how a few properties that I’ve seen that went into Escrow within a few hours/days close at. Definitely an interesting interesting market!
Participant[quote=bearishgurl]ER, I think it is wonderful that MR is garnering this much public attention through the local media. In the past, especially during the millenium boom, which occurred during and just after the biggest building boom in SD County history, young buyers signed up for new homes in developers’ offices en masse (mostly using a 1st and 2nd TD and putting little to nothing down) and the majority had no idea how much MR was going to cost. Not only did their mortgages (predictably) reset a few years down the line, many of them were completely surprised months after move-in at the monthly outlay they found themselves having to come up with to satisfy MR twice yearly in combination with HOA dues (over and above their regular property taxes and insurance payments). In post 2000 construction, it is not at all uncommon for the combination of MR and HOA to top $700 per month, even for PUDs and condos. As these millenium-boom buyers’ loans reset, they stopped paying their mortgages but many stopped paying their taxes, MR and HOA a few months before that in attempt to satisfy their new, higher mortgage payment. Within 8 months of the reset (or often much sooner), their mortgages went into default.
As we all know, $700 can buy a few months worth of diapers and formula, pay for a couple of elementary-age kids’ afterschool care, or buy enough gas for a couple of parents in a family to commute their separate ways every weekday or plow into their retirement funds.
If just ONE thing goes wrong in Joe6p’s family (complicated pregnancy requiring unpaid maternity leave, involuntary cutback of work hours, loss of ONE of the parent’s jobs, uninsured medical expenses, for example), their property taxes (incl MR), homeowner’s insurance premiums and HOA dues are the first to go delinquent even the absence of an exploding mortgage reset. I’ve seen this phenomenon time and time again on new construction tracts purchased btween 2004 and 2006, where impounds were not common because a PM 2nd TD holder put up the 20% downpayment for the buyers.
This is Joe6P and his family we are talking about here. The “wealthy” aren’t attracted to stucco boxes situated 6-8 feet from one another out in lizardland, and, in any case, can send their kids to private schools of their choosing.
The news commentator in the link you provided has it right. The title to her investigative series is “Mello-Roos, the Tax You Choose.” I’ve been saying here all along that MR is the “tax you choose” given all other housing choices we have in this huge county. The law allows the bond repayment managers of the CFD’s to stretch out the repayment period if it is just repaying the same amount of principal but possibly initially had variable interest rates or I/O terms and they now seek to begin paying on the principal or pay more on the principal, whether or not they refied the loans or are able to refi them.
ER, the reason the bulk of the affected homeowners don’t care if the bonds will be paid off in 20, 30, 35 or 40+ years is because they have no intention of owning the property anywhere near that long, so will just pass along whatever duration of the payments left to their buyer. The buyers and new owners who have intentions of owning the longest are those who have two or more children close in age who are just starting public school or about to. If their kids are currently 0, 2, 4 and 5, then the longest they would have to stay to get all their kids through the public school system would be about 18 years. A LOT of families buy into these tracts when their kids are already enrolled in school and thus, would only need to own for 10 years or less to get their kids through school. After the kids are done with school, there is no reason whatsoever to continue to pay exorbitant MR, such as in that Del Sur tract which was the original subject of the news investigation.
The VAST majority of buyers signing up for MR, especially MR over $100 per month, are those with children who will attend the newer schools that the MR was used to build. All other subsets of buyers have no “need” to throw all that money (in MR) every month down the drain. I find it sad that so many homebuyers today feel they have to pay hundreds of dollars per month over and above their property tax bills just for the privilege of their children attending a PUBLIC school. It’s akin to extortion in my book … but then you have all these “willing participants” who “choose” to pay it in light of all the available alternatives :=0[/quote]
BG,
I totally agree that I’m happy that KPBS is covering this topic. A topic that most people in San Diego probably know NOTHING about and don’t care to know anything about.
I actually understand the need for Mello Roos taxes and actually I agree with them. HOWEVER, only if they are paid off by the original pay off dates.
People are free to choose if they want to live in a MR or not so people DO have options. I know you HATE these areas BG but I actually am one of those homeowners that is THRILLED with my decision to buy in a MR area and I find it well worth it.
The excellent schools were one factor in buying where we did but it wasn’t the only reason. We LOVE LOVE LOVE the area. I think it’s kind of funny you always call this Lizardland and always make it seem like it’s so far away and so distant. LOL.
I’m looking forward to reading more stories about Mello Roos taxes. I’m especially looking forward to hearing under which circumstances the CFD’s can be extended past their ORIGINAL pay off dates.
I do agree with you that probably many owners don’t really think past a few years or plan to sell their houses when they are empty nesters but you can’t paint everyone in that same picture because we know several people that own here in our area and they never have plans to move out of the area. Mello Roos or no Mello Roos.
You just have to remember BG that there are a lot of people that wouldn’t accept to live in certain parts of San Diego even if you gave them a free house. They would much rather live where they do paying a mortgage vs. taking a perfectly fine house in an area like Chula Vista. In fact, I’m one of those people. Even if you gave me the option of a FREE perfectly fine house in Chula Vista and promise to pay all property taxes…. I’d opt not to take it and pay a mortgage instead along with any applicable taxes. Nothing wrong with that…it’s just the way it is.
June 17, 2013 at 5:52 PM in reply to: Why it no longer makes sense for young people to pay off their mortgage early #762911Participant[quote=CA renter]Thank you very much for posting this, ER. Because of some of your posts in the past, I had created an account and started a profile on HomeExchange.com a few months ago. Unfortunately, I got cold feet because I just can’t get my head around having strangers sleeping in our bed…and even worse, our kids’ beds. It just doesn’t feel right to me. So, I’ve been thinking more (also because of information from you) about buying a condo or something small that we could use to rent out on a short-term basis or use for vacation exchanges. Of course, with the recent frenzy, we’ve had to put that on hold for a bit, but it’s definitely on our radar. Thanks for all your input, ER! :)[/quote]
You are TOTALLY welcome CAR!
That’s what these boards are for. Sharing valuable and helpful information. 🙂
I absolutely don’t blame you at all CAR for not being able to ‘pull the trigger’ on the Home Exchange thingy for your primary residence. That’s certainly understandable and my wife is the EXACT same as you.
An investment property is a GREAT idea. And keep in mind it doesn’t have to necessarily be here in San Diego. If you maybe have relatives in another desirable city where tourists might want to go yet is more affordable then that can often times work out.
Like you, I tried to buy an investment property. I made several offers last year and the beginning of this year. Smaller places in Carmel Valley but it didn’t work out and prices just went up too quickly to the point I’m not going to chase the market now.
Just keep in mind it can be a really small property. For example, MANY of the exchanges I do are for smaller 1 bedroom properties I have. Often times we’ll swap that for a large house where there is plenty of room for my family/kids. So don’t feel like it’s not a fair exchange even if it’s a smaller property.
You will find that many wealthy people own second properties or might be empty nesters that own LARGE primary properties that never sold their properties after all their kids moved out. They didn’t need to sell it so they still own it. We’ve done tons of exchanges like that. Especially when we were exchanging with properties here in the San Diego area before we moved here.
The whole beauty of Home Exchanges is that it doesn’t have to be an “even swap”. We’ve exchanged $175,000 one bedroom condos for $2-3 million houses. It’s great!
And of course, the beauty of that is you can do short-term rentals between home exchanges. That’s what we do. So there is always income coming in. As is typical with real estate it’s mostly location, location, location driven.
Feel free to email me if you need any other information on it CAR. By now I really feel like we are “Home Exchange Pros”. 😉
Participant[quote=ocrenter][quote=earlyretirement]FYI, the reporter did a follow up story on Mello-Roos here.
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2013/jun/17/mello-roos-law-allows-vote-one-decide-new-taxes/%5B/quote%5D
ER, thanks for the follow up link.
My burning question after reading that piece is this:
So the original formation of the CFD required a vote, which is fine. But what about a possible extension, that would require a vote by the CFD district, right? which would be fully populated with actual voters instead of the vote of 1 scenario the article illustrated.[/quote]
Hi OCR. Yes, I am very curious about that as well. I asked Joanne from KPBS if they could address these issues. She said that she would be doing more articles on it addressing several of my questions which is great.
Like you, I’m very curious about it. I think they keep it all fairly murky for a reason. I’m sure that most homeowners that are buying in a CFD area just bite the pill and swallow and accept they have to pay CFD taxes. So they might just accept the fact that they have to pay CFD taxes for the next XX years.
But I’m sure they WOULD care quite a bit if these things can get extended beyond when they originally were told they would be paid off! But again, the sad thing is that most homeowners have no clue about these, when they are slated to be paid off.
And at least taking from the article, at least one homeowner didn’t even know when he was being charged over 100% more on his CFD tax. I’m looking forward to reading these future articles on the issue.
ParticipantFYI, the reporter did a follow up story on Mello-Roos here.
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2013/jun/17/mello-roos-law-allows-vote-one-decide-new-taxes/
June 16, 2013 at 7:48 PM in reply to: Why it no longer makes sense for young people to pay off their mortgage early #762841Participant[quote=CA renter][quote=spdrun]No thanks to “stankations.” I usually just rent my place out one month during summer, which helps quite a bit with costs.
(And it bothers me not at all to “time share” my home with someone off of Craigslist or rec’ed by a friend, since private papers and computers go in one file cabinet that gets locked in basement storage.)[/quote]
I’d really love to rent our place out/exchange during vacations, but it’s really different when you have an established family home vs. a young person’s bachelor pad. Back in the day, I would have easily done it, too, but those days are over now (not complaining, just stating a fact).[/quote]
CAR,
Yes, it’s MUCH different when it’s your primary home that you live in. We own many rental properties that we DO use for home exchanges but my wife says we could never use our primary home for home exchanges or to rent out. (No matter how much we were offered to stay in it).
Still, we do a LOT of home exchanges in some AMAZING properties where it’s their primary residence. You’d be surprised how well it can work out. Before we moved here we did many home exchanges with primary residences in Point Loma, 3 in La Jolla, Cardiff by the Sea, and a few others that were GREAT!
I know it sounds difficult but we’ve had GREAT experiences with http://www.homeexchange.com. It makes traveling really amazing! Also, if you have a really nice place you can make some insane money. I have a friend that has a VERY nice smaller home (totally renovated with high end furniture) and he rents it during Del Mar Racetrack season for something like $15,000 or maybe $20,000 per MONTH.
It’s not his primary residence (he lives in Texas) but it is his place while he is in town and they don’t rent it besides during Del Mar Racetrack season.
You should check out HomeExchange.com We have done over 40 exchanges all around the world and never had any problems at all with the swap partners.
It’s the best way to travel!
June 16, 2013 at 10:41 AM in reply to: Which public schools are better: Carmel Valley or La Jolla #762829Participant[quote=ocrenter][quote=zk][quote=earlyretirement]
There ARE Mello Roos taxes over here but quite honestly even with them we felt it was well worth it. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions. At that $1.2 million or so range, I just feel it’s GREAT value for the money compared to many other areas.[/quote]Nazzy,
I can’t speak to much about Santa Luz besides the weather. The weather there is really hard to beat. Less marine layer than the coast and not as hot as Scripps Ranch. Although Scripps Ranch really isn’t that hot.
earlyretirement,
We looked in Santa Luz, and we liked it. But we thought that the HOA fees were out of line with what you got for them. Quite possibly we overlooked something. Can you shed some light on what that $440/mo gets you? Or where it goes? Thanks.[/quote]
what’s not to like about santaluz? except for the $1k HOA/MR monthly. but of course, that does keep the riff-raff out :).
my colleagues who have been long time residents of Scripps Ranch would never consider themselves “inland,” they actually think they are coastal. They do have a point, as most of SR is above 600 feet in elevation with the coastal breeze coming through completely unobstructed. Stonebridge is more “inland” but then it gets to 1000 feet in elevation, so the “coastal feel” continues. Don’t get fooled by the “east of I-15” location of SR/SB, the elevation makes up for it.[/quote]
Hi zk & ocrenter,
I 100% totally agree with you on the weather. It’s AMAZING!! This was one of those things that we didn’t even think about as a benefit when we bought where we did vs. La Jolla, Del Mar or some other areas like further inland in Carmel Valley.
It’s just unbeatable, IMHO. Not just in the morning/early afternoon before the marine layer burns off (if it does at all), at night as well or dusk you can also see the difference looking West towards the ocean. It’s just amazing here and doesn’t get too hot and you have constant breezes from the ocean being just 5 or 6 miles from the ocean.
zk, I actually think the HOA fees here are VERY reasonable for everything that you get. For example, I’m not sure why but most realtors don’t explain to buyers that the HOA fees include garbage pick up, high speed-Internet access (I get 30 MB download speeds all throughout my house, digital cable with one converter box. It includes the guard gated 24/7 security, the roving security patrols and of course all the maintenance and landscaping to maintain the 3,800 acres out here.
People often forget about the high speed internet and cable and garbage pick up. You can’t forget to back out these expenses. When you do, it’s quite reasonable, IMHO. I own several other properties where they don’t include these things nor have the guard gated community and it’s much more. Plus they don’t maintain the grounds anywhere near what Santaluz does. They take immaculate care of the grounds.
As to your question where the rest of this money goes, they are VERY transparent here and very well managed. Trust me. I’ve purchased literally hundreds of properties over the years. So I’ve seen how many HOA’s are run. They are extremely organized here. I’ve never lived in a community where my HOA fees went DOWN 2 years in a row. Well here in Santaluz since I’ve purchased, both of the past 2 years the HOA fees have been reduced.
They are always looking for ways to save money here. Communication is excellent with the owners and the property management team is great. Anytime I need anything I call or email and have an answer that same day typically within hours instead of days like other properties where I’ve bought or currently own.
As mentioned, they keep the entire development extremely well maintained. They spend over $1 million a year just maintaining the grounds which they do an immaculate job of. As well the security here is VERY good. I’ve done tons of renovations on my house since I bought so I had a constant stream of contractors and workers and they are very good about not letting in anyone that is NOT on the list. They have a great system where you can either call, fax or enter guests name on a website.
As well they are VERY smart about how they set up things. There is a purpose for everything. For example, the HOA fees include gate access stickers so the gate automatically opens. Well for those deadbeats that get behind on their HOA fees, they will deactivate the tickets so they have to manually go through the security guard (“drive of shame” type of thing). Plus they will turn off the Internet and Cable in your house. So delinquency rates stay VERY low. Everything is well thought out to protect the homeowners which I appreciated.
As far as the Mello Roos, sure that isn’t fun paying it but many other communities have them in the area (Del Sur, 4S Ranch, parts of Carmel Valley). I was NOT a fan of paying them but quite honestly it was well worth it for me to pay it to buy here. Plus, you can prepay off the Mello Roos here and not have to worry about it. We pre-paid ours off at around $61,000. (Even if you add on that pay off quote of CFD taxes, it still easily beats the value for the money in other areas like Carmel Valley, IMHO…. the housing stock is MUCH nicer overall and higher quality with many owners putting in six figures in upgrades in the homes).
I’ve owned properties in other upscale neighborhoods/communities/developments in several countries and NONE of them compare to where we live now. I’ve bought a lot of real estate but I consider this by far the best purchase I ever made. We absolutely LOVE our decision to buy here and raise our kids here.
As well, there is a big sense of community here that I’ve not experienced anywhere else. In a lot of affluent communities people just keep to themselves for the most part. Here our first year living here not having met any of our neighbors, they ALL bought us Christmas gifts. I was blown away! We have annual block parties and several events throughout the year.
There are young kids EVERYWHERE! They originally designed this community for empty nesters but so many families with young kids moved in. Now about 50% of the residents have kids under 14.
The developers were geniuses with how they developed and planned this community. I have NO skin in the game or care where you buy. I’m not selling my house and probably never will. I’m NOT a realtor either. I’m just mentioning this because you sound similar to us with your search and I think you should at least check out the community before you plop down over $1 million on a house somewhere else. I’m telling you the type of stuff that I’d want to hear as a homeowner that was going to sink down that kind of money on a house.
I’ve been going to La Jolla on vacations with my family since I was a kid. Many decades and I never imagined I would live in North County. But I can tell you I absolutely am thrilled with my decision to buy here.
Many people that have lived in San Diego all their lives have never been out here. That’s why I’m mentioning it as an option.
Check out these videos: http://www.santaluz.com/Video
Take the time to actually watch those 4 videos. As cheesy as some of them come off, honestly, I have the same opinion as those homeowners. I have almost the SAME feeling as what most of them say in the videos. Things like “every time I drive through those gates I’m happy to be home”…kind of thing. Really you do get that sense. This is easily the best place I’ve ever lived.
I honestly believe this is the best value for the money on house prices here at Santaluz compared to almost all the other affluent communities in the San Diego area. And a community like this will never be duplicated in Southern California again. In the next few decades I truly believe these developers that created Santaluz will be hailed as geniuses for planning the community the way they did.
Like I said, feel free to PM me if you have any questions or even if you want to have a coffee I’d be more than happy to share my experiences with you.
You will find people here EXTREMELY open and friendly. I was truly amazed by this. We have made SO MANY great friends here in our community. We have met so many families with kids our children’s ages.
For me, I knew I wouldn’t have a hard time making new friends as I’m very social and open. My wife is the opposite as she is very private and a bit shy. But I joke she has more friends living here for 2 years than she had in the last city we lived for 8 years. She made TONS of friends here. The quality of people living here in the community is truly amazing.
June 15, 2013 at 9:21 PM in reply to: Which public schools are better: Carmel Valley or La Jolla #762823Participant[quote=yamashi1]Hi Nazzy:
Not sure if you’re still checking on this blog, but I hope I can help. My family and I have just moved to La Jolla from Santa Barbara about a year ago and just recently spent a lot of research into this as our first daughter was entering Kindergarten at the time. Now after just finishing her first year (Torrey Pines Elementary), I have these insights to add.
1. Well funded = More programs- The school has a lot of fundraising events. This allowed my daughter to have a music teacher, science teacher, and computer teacher. Not sure if this is available in other San Diego Unified schools, but it was a great option.
2. Parents – The majority of the parents are well-educated and related to UCSD as reseachers/teachers/doctors. Some of the families are on visas, others are here on research grants, and others are here more permanently. At first I thought this was a negative, I was thinking it would be like Beverly Hills 90210 and the kids would be made up of the upper echelon, but I think I would rather have this now. The parents are very supportive and come in weekly to teach the kids about their profession (ie. one mathmetician parent taught the kids Fibonacci series). In addition, having a makeup of parents whose lives are devoted to science and academia doesn’t hurt.
3. Diversity – Because of the student makeup, her class had 5-8 different nationalities and languages. She was able to play with kids who spoke French, Korean, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew and Indian. Personally I enjoy this, as everyone had different backgrounds and pot luck parties were fun and interesting.
4. API Scores – I guess scores don’t hurt, I believe TPES’s was 990 which placed them somewhere in the top 20 elementary schools in California.
5. Class Size and Makeup – I thought the class size was perfect, not too big not too small (around 16 kids). In terms of demographics, I would say it was around 20% asian, 20% african american/hispanic, and 60% caucasian. Asian parents were predominately researchers from Korea/Japan and a couple local professionals (which I am), caucasian parents were mixed with local researchers/doctors and some from abroad, and the hispanics/african americans were local too (not bussed in as someone was saying). In terms of socioeconomic I think it’s varied. I would say that none of the parents were in the top 1%, but I don’t think anyone was really hurting too. I think the majority lived around the area we do (UTC/La Jolla Village area) and rent or own a condo. In terms of median household income, I would say most were > $150K/yr < $600K/yr (with the exception of the researchers from abroad, since many were single income households). 6. Nice house = Big $$ - When we moved here our idea was to rent first, figure out the area and buy later. Unfortunately, now we are currently priced out of the market based on our needs and wants. We are currently looking around the same price range as you are, and like someone else alluded to, SFR in that price range will get you a 1,200 sq ft fixer upper, or a condo. In addition, as someone else mentioned, most affluent homeowners in the area send their kids to private schools (eg. La Jolla Country Day) and your kids will probably not be playing, or going to the same schools as the kids on the block. So right now we are looking at Carmel Valley and Scripps Ranch; hoping to find the 2,500 sf+ house of our dreams with a good education system. Unfortunately it's a little farther from the coast than we would like and a little cookie cutter, but at least I don't have the 45 minute-1 hour commute from Temecula and Poway like some cooworkers. If you would like to discuss further feel free to shoot me an e-mail.[/quote] Yamashi, Thanks so much for posting about your personal experiences. I think that is the BEST and MOST informative way to keep abreast of things is current information from actual parents with kids in the school system there. I think there are some great points made. Especially about the fundraising events. I also posted about this before on this and other forums. Many of the schools in the PUSD have parents that contribute directly to the schools. Our daughter went to preschool last year at a PUSD school and we saw first hand just how much parents contributed. Often times, the school would send a list of items in the classroom they needed or were low on. By the following week, they would be fully stocked on most items they asked about. I think this is great and really goes a long way. I'm not sure how much of this is done in other school districts. Our daughter went to a PUSD school this year as well and when they needed ipads for the class, they only had money for one and the parents put money together to buy more. As well they have fundraisers throughout the year at most of these schools that seems like it raises quite a bit of money to use for aids and other employees. Parent Participation: Another good point is parent participation. I think this makes a HUGE difference in how the schools do. There were so many parents that volunteered to help out. An eye opener was going to the Tb skin testing for the PUSD. (Parents that want to volunteer have to do a Tb Skin test). Wow, they had to have tons of employees helping out with reading the tests and there were LONG lines. There were so many parents that volunteer to help and stay so very involved with the schools. It's great! Diversity: Last year at our daughter's class, white kids were the clear minority in her class. They had 2 black kids, MANY Asian or Indian or biracial kids of Asian descent. There were a few Mexican/Hispanics as well. It was GREAT for our daughter to be around so many different cultures and ethic backgrounds. This year at another PUSD school in a more affluent area the kids are mostly white kids but several Asian kids as well. I was surprised to hear the class sizes are good at your school. That's great! 16 kids per teacher is VERY GOOD. At the Kindergarten classes at her school it's more like 26 kids per teacher! Granted the classes have room moms and assistants but wow that is a big difference! Housing prices: We looked all over the place. Originally we thought we'd buy a place in La Jolla. But it was impossible to find something big enough that we liked. We could have gone up with our comfort zone to buy in La Jolla but ultimately we are VERY happy to buy where we did. In La Jolla most of the places were VERY dated and would have involved extensive renovations. We looked at many houses in Carmel Valley as well and we did see some nice places but ultimately we bought in Santaluz which we are THRILLED about. If you are looking at the Carmel Valley and Scripps Ranch you might want to also check out Santaluz. Prices are on the move up and things are going quickly but I MUCH preferred it over Carmel Valley as far as the communities, housing and just the general community. If your budget is $1.2 million you can still get a nice house here now. This just sold: http://www.redfin.com/CA/San-Diego/7575-Delfina-92127/home/6482881
You mentioned 2,500 sq. feet. This was is 2,958 sq. feet and I believe is going for around $915,000 (it's in Escrow now). It went into escrow within days of being listed.
Here is one slightly over your price range.
http://www.redfin.com/CA/San-Diego/14422-Caminito-Lazanja-92127/home/6462570
It went into escrow within 12 hours of being listed. You probably don't need anything that big but you can see it's a gorgeous house with 5 bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms. Good sized yard, nice interior courtyard and gorgeous community.
Here is one that sold a few months ago for $906,000 a few short months ago and it was over 3,500 sq. feet.
http://www.redfin.com/CA/San-Diego/14418-Caminito-Lazanja-92127/home/6462575
We looked at many homes over in Carmel Valley and all were over $1 million and many of them had like 4 or 5 houses directly looking into their backyard.
There seems to be more and more houses hitting the market now that inventory is so low and prices are on the rise.
There ARE Mello Roos taxes over here but quite honestly even with them we felt it was well worth it. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions. At that $1.2 million or so range, I just feel it's GREAT value for the money compared to many other areas.
Participant[quote=CA renter]Thanks for highlighting these bond issues, xgliu. That’s exactly why some of us would prefer to pay off the Mello-Roos ASAP. IMHO, they should never be allowed to extend or expand these bonds.[/quote]
EXACTLY. The thing that bothered me so much is it’s all very murky and hard to really understand. Even for people that have extensive experience in law or accounting or finance….. it seems like there are so many ways they can potentially screw you in the future.
On that KPBS article, I asked the reporter to address other Mello-Roos issues including in which cases the CFD’s can legally extend these bonds out past their ORIGINAL pay off dates. She said that they are working on more stories about Mello Roos.
I REALLY hope they address some specific things like:
1) When is the original expected/planned pay off date of these Mello-Roos taxes in each area?
2) In what specific circumstances can these CFD taxes be extended out from their original targeted/planned pay off dates?
3) Which CFD areas have refinanced the bonds at today’s record low interest rates? To note the CFD’s that HAVE refinanced at today’s record low interest rates? And list specifically why the ones that haven’t refinanced at today’s record low interest rates haven’t done so already? If they haven’t, is there any legal reason why they can’t refinance at today’s record low rates?
4) I’d love to see the original balance of each CFD tax along with a year by year balance of how much has been paid down each year and what the current balance is?
5) Are there any CFD areas where they can already project out that they will need to be extended past their ORIGINAL pay off dates?
There are probably other interesting things to note but I’d love to see them address these questions above in future stories.
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