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Essbee
ParticipantI know about mid-century architecture; that is why I called Clairemont “mid-century blah”.
In other words, the homes were built in that 1950s/60s era, but they do NOT have the architectural features that would qualify them for the title “mid-century modern” and a frenzy of gentrification. Hence my own term, “mid-century blah.”
Essbee
ParticipantSorry for replying to my own thread.
Tear-down type “remodeling” on a lot is also very expensive, and the people who can afford it are going to choose La Jolla (Mitt Romney!), Bird Rock, etc. and other coastal locations.
I guess my conclusion is that areas like Clairemont, Linda Vista, Allied Gardens, San Carlos, etc will slowly deteriorate with time. The next wave would be 70s/80s constructions like Tierrasanta, Mira Mesa, RPQ, etc.
New owners may do some remodeling (likely aesthetically unpleasing additions) and the adult children who inherit such properties from their parents will likely just keep letting their properties deteriorate. (There are houses in my old ‘hood which are 50-60 yrs old and are just crying for new roofs or paint, but it doesn’t look like there is any will or money to ever do it).
I guess the answer will come depending on whether potential new owners with a bit of money to remodel will be willing to move into such neighborhoods with these types of eyesores in their midst (not to mention the marginal schools). I imagine there is some sort of tipping point. Really interesting to think about it all.
Essbee
ParticipantOK, interesting information.
So what WILL happen to Clairemont and similar “mid-century blah” neighborhoods? Will the homes really last 100+ years? Will they continue to deteriorate and become slums, or will people eventually buy the homes and “remodel” in the manner you suggest (ie saving one wall?
(We know a couple who did just that in Bird Rock.)
I’m trying to imagine this town in 2050 and beyond.
Essbee
Participant[quote=bearishgurl]
Thanks, Essbee. Congratulations on your new purchase!Often, buyers “state” they want to “move up” but in reality they instead end up paying a LOT more $$ for about the same size house & MUCH less lot in an inferior location to the old one, just to get newer construction. It seems here that you really did “move up” size-wise. That’s a HUGE house that should last you a VERY long time (no matter how big your family or extended family becomes)!
Due to the fact that 3800 sf homes are VERY hard to find at ANY price range in 30+ yo (or even 20+ yo) neighborhoods in SD Co (ESP under $1M), you likely would not have been able to find that type of home in more convenient older areas in your price range.
And because of the big price difference between your old and new home, we can now see why you wanted to get in ASAP at the very lowest possible interest rate.
You didn’t do too bad commute-wise for the size tradeoff, either. Would you say it’s an additional 15-20 mins each way?[/quote]
SDRealtor and Bearishgurl,
I’m know I’m about to give out so much info that someone COULD identify me (or at least one of the relevant transactions) if they feel so inclined, but I guess don’t really see the harm.
YES, we bought in 4S Ranch. I’ve read this blog long enough to get some of the inside jokes, too. 🙂 We bought in the older side, south of Camino del Norte.
[Incidentally, I think this blog opened my eyes to the fact that new construction (Del Sur) would require a large cash outlay for landscaping. Also made me rethink the much higher Mello Roos over there.]
RE: the price difference, we ended up putting down a 25% down payment (long story… stupid appraisers/ lenders!), so there was a huge cash outlay for house #2. However, despite a larger mortgage, the monthly mortgage payment itself is now actually LESS than the mortgage payment for house #1. (Huge difference between a 4.125% and a 6% interest rate).
Of course, property tax, HOA, and Mello Roos are all more for house #2, so the overall monthly costs will be more, but like you said, it’s a LOT more house. Incidentally, even house #1 (30 yrs old) had an HOA fee. And our Mello Roos are not bad because we are in the South side of 4S.
As for the commute, not sure yet. We’re in a rentback phase and actually move in a few days.
Essbee
Participant[quote=bearishgurl/] I have a couple more questions, Essbee. I’m not the least bit interested in WHERE you sold and bought but more interested in WHAT you sold and WHAT you bought to replace it.
Here is an example:
Please feel free to use round numbers for house sf and price sold or bought (for privacy purposes). Truly, I’m not interested in locating your transactions nor do I have the time.I understand the reasons you put forth above (sort of) but am wondering what would compel someone to leave $75K? on the table when, from your posts on this thread and the “man-cave” thread, it appears you went to great lengths to remodel/improve your last property to your liking and then later decided to let it go and (literally) give away your hard-earned improvements to the buyer (along with most of the value of your downpayment).
I understand from your post that you had two additions to your family while living in your last house. I personally don’t see SFR’s in SD County going up appreciably (if at all) in the next two years. I also don’t see a big mtg interest-rate spike in the next two years but I could be wrong on this :={
Thanks for any insight you can shed here![/quote]
OK, why not?
Recently sold for $560K
SFR, 3 bdrm/2.5 bath, 2 car gar, 2 story
1800 sf
10000 sf lot
30 years old
7 miles from workRecently bought for $800K
SFR, 6 bdrm/4.5 bath, 3 car gar, 2 story
3800 sf
7000? sf lot (can’t remember exactly)
9 years old
16 miles from workI will miss the 10000 sf lot on the first house, which is quite lovely and certainly helped it maintain its value, but the overall feel of the neighborhood, etc, is much better for house #2.
(P.S. The “man/woman cave” (exercise room) is going to be in house #2.)
Essbee
Participant[quote=briansd1]Seems to me like losing $75k on a 2006 purchase, and being able to move up and take advantage of low interest rates now, is not bad at all.
I know people who’ve lost at lot more.
*
She said that $30k was 5%, so 2006 purchase price was $600,000.
15% total downpayment was $90,000 which was her own money. And she walked away with $60,000. That’s only a $30,000, or 5% loss on the purchase price. (the other $45,000 are other things that she’s counting).
That’s pretty damn good. I’d take that deal if I had bought a house in 2006.[/quote]
your math is about correct. About 90K down, and about 30K more eventually paid out to pay off that second mortgage. And then the money we put into improvements. Then again, we got to enjoy those improvements for at least several years, so it’s not like you should really get to completely count them as a loss.
Of course I wish we wouldn’t have lost anything, but then I tell myself that if we had just rented from 2006-present, we would have had that $90 or $120K sitting in other investments and we would have been really stressed out back in 2008-2009 or so to watch it tank. Plus, we did get to enjoy our house for the past 5+ years, so that is worth quite a bit, too. Maybe not quite work $75K plus all of our monthly payments, but still a good experience as a first time homeowner.
Essbee
ParticipantEdited to add: I was trying to quote bearishgurl but failed miserably…. reminder to self: it’s “quote” not “reply”.
It’s a fair question. I do think that it was worth it for the following reasons:
1) if we had waited for the price of house #1 to go up (to get our equity out), house #2 would have likely gone up, too.
2) more importantly, we were worried about the interest rates going up in the next few years. that alone could have priced us out of house #2.
3) we want our kids to start school in the new neighborhood. They are 3 and 1, so school is still 2 years away.
and of course the irrational…
4) we were simply excited about the new house/neighborhood and didn’t feel like waiting several more years to move in.Essbee
Participantsorry for duplicate post
Essbee
ParticipantBut shouldn’t the fact that the loan/lien is paid off be noted in public records as well?
If not, it seems like this method would WAY overestimate the number of people who are “underwater”.
Essbee
ParticipantJust curious about how accurate the estimates of shadow inventory really are, and where the info comes from…
When my husband and I recently interviewed realtors for the sale of our house, both came to the appointment assuming that we were underwater. They looked at our buying price in late 2006 and they seemed to have information either about our downpayment or our initial loans. We had bought with 15% down, and had taken a second mortgage for roughly $30K, which was the other 5% of a downpayment. In this way, we avoided PMI. We’re not sure where/how they got the info.
Anyway, neither agent seemed to know that we had paid off that 5% second mortgage about 2 years into our ownership. So, someone looking at us might have thought that we were “underwater” but in reality we weren’t. I wonder how many people like us are out there…
And yes, we sold a few weeks ago and we took a loss overall, losing some of our original downpayment, the second, and any of the money we had put into some improvements. Boo! However, after all was said and done, we still walked away with about $60K. [even if I consider our monthly payments as just “rent”, I think we probably lost about $70-75K overall… Sad, but we wanted to get out and move up before prices and interest rates start to rise.]
Essbee
ParticipantI probably shouldn’t post on this thread since I’m a woman, but someone recently said, “Oh, a mancave,” when I described this room. (To which I think I probably glared and replied, “No, this room will be used by both of us.”)
I am really excited about this aspect of our new house. We just closed last week, get keys today, and we are moving in next week!
Anyway, our new house has one of those garages with 2 bays, and then a separate garage with 1 bay only. The 1 bay garage is going to be our workout area. It will house an elliptical, weights, and an exercise mat/ball. And of course a flat screen on the wall. i hope the heating/cooling issues aren’t too severe, but we have had a similar setup (in a 2 bay garage, displacing the cars) for over a year and so far it hasn’t been TOO bad.
March 7, 2012 at 7:09 PM in reply to: Serenity Stonebridge Estate Scripps Ranch Home Pricing #739510Essbee
ParticipantIs that one of the Chargers’ house? or a true blue super-fan’s house?
The jerseys I can see are Shawn Merriman (#56) and Antonio Gates (#85). (yes, I had to use google to figure that out). Honestly, I wouldn’t expect a pro football player to put anyone’s jersey except his own on the wall.
Essbee
ParticipantThere was an article in the NY Times a few years back about people who use Manhattan storage lockers as small apartments, office space, a place to practice music or a hobby, etc. Enough room for a mattress and a few other items, I suppose…
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/02/26/garden/in-mini-storage-all-the-comforts-of-home.html
Essbee
Participant10 years ago, I was living in West Los Angeles in a poorly maintained apartment. The management company was PBM, and every month I wrote rent checks to “Frederick Pardee.” I’ve always assumed that the same guy is behind Pardee homes. Does anyone know?
PBM owns multiple (maybe 30+) apartment buildings in West LA, just west of the 405 and south of Brentwood. I would guess that most of the buildings have 8-12 apartments and were probably built in the 1960s era. By “poorly maintained” I mean that when I asked for something to be fixed, the maintenance guy (1 guy for several hundred units) just went to his beat-up appearing blue van (which looked like it belonged to a hoarder), got a used-appearing part, and half-heartedly glued whatever it was back in place. And one day, the the ceiling in the common laundry room just collapsed. They kinda swept up the plaster, etc, but it never looked like it got properly fixed.
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