SoCal House
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- dbloc
I've been looking into buying a house in Southern California. Everyone keeps telling me it's a bad time. Any experiences or information?
- ********0
its a bad time, nothing decent for under 550K
- mtgentry0
Who says its a bad time? The market is down, its a great time to buy. If you're not in a hurry you can wait to see if it bottoms out.
- lvl_130
i realize you are paying for the weather, but half a million dollars for a sub-par suburban sprawl homethat isn't even close to the beach is ridiculous.
but what do i know...
- MrD0
worst time to buy. mortgage and credit market down the tube.
- madirish0
Who says its a bad time? The market is down, its a great time to buy. If you're not in a hurry you can wait to see if it bottoms out.
mtgentry
(Aug 14 07, 22:30)unless of course you are concerned with lending, at which point cash has almost never been more expensive...
- barbtastic0
haha... it hasn't been a good time to buy a house in SoCal since the 70s
- dbloc0
I've been looking at a few short sales....They look like a good deal for around here, but who knows what the market will do.
- ********0
Rent.
- MrD0
- ********0
what's your price range? pretty tough to find anything less thank 600k, and even that gets you a small condo in a pretty shitty neighborhood.
Where are you looking? I live in Long Beach and there are some new "luxury lofts" being built downtown that start around 500K I think. They're probably about 650sqft and maybe one parking spot, but no yard or anything.
Good luck, gawd knows when I'm ready to buy I'm getting the fock outta this area.
Denver or Seattle...thats the spot!
- mtgentry0
Yes it's more expensive to get a loan than it was a year ago but historically rates are still pretty low.
- smielke0
Bad time to buy. Prices are still going to keep coming down in the SoCal area for another year or so. That means if you buy now your house will lose 25%+ of it's value in the next year. Unless you're in the area for the long term I'd hold off a while longer.
- ********0
are you married to SoCal? I'm just curious. I am a transplant to this area, lived here about 8 or so years, and I guess because I don't have any roots here (family, childhood friends etc) it makes it easy for me to want to leave.
But seriously, if I moved to Seattle, I can still make 100K+ and live for half the price, sounds like a MUCH better lifestyle to me. The huge bummer is that my motorcycle riding will be severely affected tho. Denver is also very attractive and good money to be made there.
- dbloc0
I've only lived in soCal for 7 years. I like it here, but it is damn expensive. I'm looking to buy in South County. The short sales that I was looking at are in laguna Niguel.
- ********0
oh fuck that...welcome to suburban hell. Strip malls, parking lots and millionaire republicans wheeee!
Hey for fun you can take the wife and kiddies to Applebees on friday nights! Maybe get some of them bloomin onions? Get the wife drunk on white zinfendal and try to persuade her into trying doggy style.
BOOOORING!
- ninjasavant0
The thing that makes it a bad time to buy is the fact that rates are high compared to recent history so you'll pay a lot in interest and since the sub prime market is bottoming out, unless you've got over 100k for a down payment or can handle a 2-3000/mo mortgage not to mention taxes (a friend of mine just had to take out a loan to pay his property taxes in Tracy of all places) in the area its just not a good time to buy unless you're either in the rental market or the luxury home (10 mil+) market which is actually booming.
IMO, California real estate is more a matter of pride than investment for the average consumer.
- CincodeMayo0
Buy cheap and fix it up. Otherwise you'll be paying close to a cool million for a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom house.
- mrseaves0
Hey for fun you can take the wife and kiddies to Applebees on friday nights! Maybe get some of them bloomin onions? Get the wife drunk on white zinfendal and try to persuade her into trying doggy style.
BOOOORING!
fortified
(Aug 15 07, 10:19)HAHAHAHA!
- ********0
you better buy now fort. in Seattle. That place is the next cali. as far as real estate goes.
- ********0
yup I know...but like Cali, it will peak and then recede a bit. My timeline is more like 5 years anyway. but thanks for the heads up!