[raptorduck]

Rustico. I will just cut and paste my response to a similar question on the first thread I put in about my move down there:

“Lets see, my wife and I have 3 kids, then we want 3 more, my dad will be living with us, and possibly my wife’s grandmother, my wife’s family lives within an hour and will be over A LOT, that is parents and 8 brothers and sisters, dozens of cousins, and 9 uncles/aunts. Put it this way, our leading candidates so far have guest houses, and one of them has 2 guest houses!”

My agent is less experienced than probably one typically uses for homes in the $3-$4.5 million range, but that is why I picked her. She is hungry and has not become a snob yet. Unlike the selling agents in some homes we have seen, she is actually very nice and friendly and does not treat us like she is doing us a favor showing a house we want to buy from which she stands to make a six figure commission.

[raptorduck]

Too far south and we are less familar with those areas and their schools. We pretty much like North County.

I don’t think we could find 1-3 acres and 6,000sf or larger homes for our price range in those areas anyway.

[raptorduck]

NewRenter. Lets see, my wife and I have 3 kids, then we want 3 more, my dad will be living with us, and possibly my wife’s grandmother, my wife’s family lives within an hour and will be over A LOT, that is parents and 8 brothers and sisters, dozens of cousins, and 9 uncles/aunts. Put it this way, our leading candidates so far have guest houses, and one of them has 2 guest houses!

[raptorduck]

We looked at a few houses in Fairbanks Highlands the first time we went. The neighborhood was very nice, as were the homes, and I agree, the lots were very usable and large. Believe it or not, the homes were not quite large enough however. We need at least 6,000 sf, and preferably more. 6 BR or more is also a preference and no less than 5 plus a bonus room.

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No she does not. I think her focus has always been Del Mar and Carmel Valley. She is learning along with me.

We did look at some homes along the golf course. I did not like them as much as the two we saw on Montien road in Northern Lights. I don’t golf, but the club is something we would be interested in.

We will keep looking down there. What I like about the area is that the architectual style of homes is very much what we prefer, down to the interior finishes. The whole dessert look will take some getting used to, but it was not so bad and will save me on watering costs. Of course the Mello Roos will make up for that.

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NewRenter. Thank you. Yes, two of the houses we saw were not too far from those power lines. I actually thought that was the highest part of Santaluz. I don’t think we went near the area you mentioned, Villas etc. I never did see where the clubhouse was. Nor did I see this “green” that I always hear about.

I will ask my agent about the streets you mentioned. What did your wife dislike about Santaluz? My wife liked it. At least I think she did.

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I forgot to ask about Del Mar Meadows. We looked at it this past weekend. We saw a very nice house, but it was a clone of its neighbor, which was a clone of its neighbor. In fact, all the houses looked identical. Does any one know how many builders put up homes in Del Mar Meadows? From what I can tell, not more than two or so and the model we looked at is very common. It came accross as a pure McMansion. It was nice and all, and decent size, but kind of like our current house in that it is identical to every other house in the neighborhood. For $3.5 million, that is not so good.

[raptorduck]

Raybyrnes. Coronado is too far. I will be working in Carmel Valley. Plus, I need lots of land and a large home for my budget.

[raptorduck]

Covenant is the original Rancho Santa Fe. The area is covered by some document called “The Protective Covenant” which dictates lot and home and common area characteristics like homeowner associations CC&R’s do. Pursists cosider the covenant the original and “only true” Rancho Santa Fe.

Me, I am with the current trend setters that say 92067 (and Crosby/Bridges) is RSF.

[raptorduck]

Back from our San Diego Trip. Ok, we toured 17 houses in Fairbanks Ranch, Rancho Valencia, Santaluz, and Cielo. After 45 houses we have looked at (including other RSF and Del Mar areas) here is my take:

Cielo

-Cielo is indeed the most isolated. But, I did the commute in the middle of rush hour on Friday from my job to the Cielo gate. Total time: 15 minutes (my current commute is 1-1.5 hrs in rush hour!!)! That said, relative to all others, it is very isolated, particularly the homes on top of the hill.

– I actually prefer the homes with views near the club-house to those up higher.

– Regardless of the knocks on Cielo I have read on this board, the homes themselves are very well made, very plush, and better than what I can find up here for under $5 million. McMansions perhaps, but really well made essentially custom McMansions. I would have no problem owning one. The knock on Cielo is locaiton and relative remoteness, not anything else.

– Part of Cielo may end up as part of Escondido, that is the mystery.

Fairbanks Ranch

– Still my favorite. Great community, great homes, great location (8 min commute in traffic).

Santaluz

– Wow, I must say, I am impressed. After reading some harsh words on this web site about Santaluz I was not expecting much, and then boom, I was very impressed.

– The dessert landscape grew on me.

– The rumors I read about poorly maintained grounds, garbage everywhere, no more guards and patrols, etc were all false.

– The custom homes in my price range were of outstanding quality and styles and finishes.

– House pads on the small size (ie. small back yards), despite the lots being large. Pools are downsized.

– Very convenient commute wise.

Rancho Valencia

– Very nice.

[raptorduck]

No she is not, and I don’t want to out her. 😉

Thanks for the comment. So is Camino de Arriba the highest part of Cielo? We are looking at 2 houses on that road I think this weekend. The first time we went, we looked at houses much lower, near the club house. Their views were magnificant and they were easier to get to from the gate on Del Dios. The second time we saw a house higher up, I forget the street that was considerably more effort to get to. I think Amanacer or something. It belonged to a San Diego Charger. Not so much nicer from the earlier houses there to justify the extra hill climb and the view was more expansive I grant you, but again, it was quite a hike to get there from the gate. If I have to climb more, I want a much nicer house to merit the extra effort.

Interestingly, up here, the higher you go up into the mountains, the lower the home values, view or not (generally). We had looked in a town called Woodside up here (very expensive and high end up here like RSF is down there). We found a gated community in the mountains and found a great 4,300sf home on 5 acres for a mere $2.3 million AND with a great bay view!

Turns out the house was not so custom as there was an almost identical one (same exact model really down the sf) in LAH for twice the price and only on 1 acre and Woodside is not a lower price area from LAH. The difference? 10 min of tight windy road from the gate! When it rains up here in the mountains it RAINS. I could not imagine doing that climb in the rain, in the dark of winter. Definately not for me. It sold right quick though at that price, climb or no climb.

[raptorduck]

That is a whole other ball game. I don’t want to go into detail but we considered that up here, enough to make 2 offers on raw land/tear downs. Here $2 million per acre will get you raw land. But after hiring contractors and architects we decided against it.

Too many reasons to list but, costs to build here are $450-$600/sf, permits in LAH make the Covenant restrictions look easy as pie, you always go over budget, and the market does not support building 6,000+ sf homes from scratch right now because neighboring finished home values won’t justify the construction loan valuation needed.

I could go on, but I have said to much off track in this thread, which was intended to solicit advice about the areas I am looking in. I realize costs to build in SD are lower, as is the land, but there are other reasons we decided against building ourselves. It is not for the faint at heart or the very busy.

I get your point about wanting a house just right for that price. Hence why we will take our time until we find “just” the right house.

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Hey, I resemble that remark. Well except that I am not rich at all since I have to go to work to support myself and family. I know some rich people. I am not “barely” one of them either. Heck, I can’t even pretend to “barely” be one of them. They don’t have to work. They can live off the interest of their riches richer than I do off the income from my own sweat.

But I have more than I ever hoped or dreamed I could have so don’t feel pressured at all. Any pressure is my own. You see, if I tell myself that enough times, I start to actually believe it. 😉

I don’t see people leaving the Bay Area in droves. I am because I can. I am lucky. Salaries are, and the job market is, really strong here. Real estate is holding its own and not dropping as much as other areas. I just like SD more is all. Many people here do not care for SoCal so much and think NorCal is heaven on Earth. I completely agree with them . . . if I exclude LA and SD. IMHO, compared to the rest of the country NorCal is heaven on Earth. That would make LA, the nicer part of Heaven and SD the gated community part of Heaven.

Interesting. It was our search for a vacation/second home in SD (a small one mind you) that got us looking at the area again. Reverse sticker shock had us saying “hell with a vacation house, lets move there.” Panama or Spain will be the vacation home goal now (a small house mind you.)

[raptorduck]

To get back on topic, any further feedback on my Cielo and Santaluz questions? I did find out that Santaluz does not permit more than 25% of the “interior pad” to contain grass? They also only accept 3 kinds of Palm trees, none of which are the kind I like (Phoenix Date Palms anyone?).

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Not quite 1997. $4,500 was our rent when we moved out in 1999, it went up once from I don’t recall what #. I picked 10 as a round number, but it is actually 7 years ago since I left SD (seems like 20). I did not live in SD yet in 1997.

The owners of that house lived in RSF and I recall thinking “why would they not live in this awesome place/location?” Emm, because 1,800 sf was too small for their family. Single guy brain just did not comprehend stuff like that. They were British and I think the last of their kids was out of the house so they were going to downsize and move into it, so we got booted out.

My next rental was $1,900/month in Carmel Valley with my future wife. That was a duplex near Carmel Country Road/Carmel Creek Road. On Corte de la Siena to be exact. It went on the market in 2000 for $325-$375k if I recall corectly once I decided to relocate back to the bay area. Don’t know what it is worth in this market, but I would be surprised if it were that low, very surprised, shocked even.

I have no ideas what those places would rent for today. It seems they would for about the same rent as back then. The Del Mar house was a corporate rental. I.e. The company my roomate and I worked for paid the rent for us. Yea, we did not leave that place willingly. They did not pay for the rent in my next place.

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