Cost of housing.

[Dinner]

I am once again looking to buy a house. I've talked to my dad and he has agreed to help me buy a house so things should be good right? Wrong, the cost of housing in southern California has become absolutely unreal. I make $48,000 per year which isn't a huge amount but it is higher then the national average and I dare say I make more then most other people in their mid to late 20's yet it is seriously looking like I won't be able to afford anything in the San Diego area. I know several people are going to tell me to move but I like San Diego and my family all lives here. So how much is the current going rate for a single family detached home in San Diego? $450,000 is the county wide median home price. Just 10 years ago it was like $200,000 but now you can't even buy an apartment for $200,000.

I figure, no problem, I have a VA home loan for being a vet plus I can just rent out a room but the VA office says the home loans max out at $250,000! I can't buy anything with so little an amount! Why didn't the government make the VA loans big enough so you can actually afford to buy something?

So any way I decided to look in the ghetto and see what I could see and even in the ****tiest part of town the fixer uppers were going for $350,000. That's for the ghetto where I'll probably get mugged more often then Albert Spear. I looked at buying an apartment in East Village which used to be where all the homeless people lived on the streets but since the city started their urban renewal plan even a one bedroom apartment there costs $350,000. This is getting depressing.

[JohnT]

That's the price you pay for staying in San Diego. Laura and I bought a brand new ranch home here in Knoxville, not big at 1,500 sqft, with a 1/4 acre lot for $92,000.

[Dinner]

That's in the mid-west?

I think I will have to settle for an attached town home. Hopefully, I will be able to find something with a two car garage or failing that underground parking. I'm still finding reality to be depressing.

[JohnT]

Knoxville, TN. In the Eastern part of the country.

[Frankychan]

Be glad. On Maui the average cost of housing is $625,000. Lots of "deep-pocketed" people from the mainland are gobbling up property there like it was a field day.

[Dinner]

Yeah, out of staters fleeing from cold winters are running up our housing prices too.

[Frankychan]

I agree.

Priority should be given to people in-state before out-of-staters.

Oerdin=

[Dinner]

I don't know about priority but there should be some sort of way to subsidize housing for people who live here X number of years.

[loinburger]

My brother's 400 sq. foot apartment (shared kitchen) in San Jose ran him $1900 a month, back before he and my sister-in-law got a house. Meanwhile, the 1000 sq. ft. apartment that I just put down a deposit on is going to run me $600 a month. In other words, it's not just southern California -- all of California is FUBAR.

[DanS]

San Diego has always been pretty expensive housing-wise, hasn't it?

[Ramo]

I used to live in Santa Barbara. When we moved away about 9 years ago, the house was sold for a couple hundred thousand dollars. A couple years ago, it was sold for $ 1 million. One of my sis's friends parents bought their house in Santa Barbara in the 80's for a couple hundred thousand, and recently sold it for $10 million.

My sister just got a job in the bay area, and is looking for a house in Frisco. She was telling me that houses start at around $600 thousand.

There has to be a real estate bubble. How can real estate prices sustain such insane growth?

[Frankychan]

Originally posted by Oerdin
I don't know about priority but there should be some sort of way to subsidize housing for people who live here X number of years.

Even better idea!

A resident within the state should be subsidized to purchase a new home within the state.

[Dinner]

Yes, expensive but there before the last 10 years or so you could find places a few miles inland where normal people could still afford to buy. The multimillion dollar mansions were all clustered in the beach cities while nice, clean, affordable track homes were available 15 miles in land or so. Now, even 60 miles in land will run you $450,000. About 100 miles northeast in Riverside county you can still find houses for around $300,000 but that's rare. Most of the new ones are going for $400,000 even all the way out there in the desert.

So does anyone know where I can find a city with a good economy and nice weather with affordable housing?

[JohnT]

Knoxville, TN. Didn't you read my earlier posts?

[Dinner]

I prefer coastal cities especially west coast cities. Maybe Oregon or Washington have more reasonable home prices.

Ramo: I lived in Santa Barbara for four years between 1998 and 2002 and I know exactly what you mean. There were thirty year old track homes with four bedrooms and 1800 square feet going for $4-$5 million. I'm sure by now they are up in the $6-8 million range. I'd be surprised if there wasn't some sort of speculative bubble.

My parents were always into buying and renting out realestate but most of the people I knew growing up wouldn't ever consider doing that. Now, it seems like everyone who can possibly afford to buy a second or third home are going the buy and rent out route. Easy credit and the expectation of there always being a greater fool has lead to some huge price increases over the last 10 years.