Are we at the bottom yet?

[126coupe]

My 21 year old nephew just paid 127K for a 900 square foot condo in San Clemente, CA.
Needed work, but he did most everything himself. This place sold for 237K two years ago.

[2.7RACER]

Never ever explain California to outsiders.
If they really knew, they would leave the rust belt in a heart beat.
Fortunately most can't afford the move.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

I just tell 'em that they'll spend half their life sitting in traffic (a bit of an exaggeration, but partially true), they'll pay 5-10 times for housing what they're used to (also true to a point), they better learn Spanish just to function in day-to-day society (becoming more true by the day), they better like having to park 4-6 blocks from their front door in order to find a parking space and that they better like losing fully half their income to the government in the form of taxes, fees, surcharges, mandatory expenses, etc.

That keeps most of 'em out of here. But not nearly enough.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by 2.7RACER

Never ever explain California to outsiders.
If they really knew, they would leave the rust belt in a heart beat.
Fortunately most can't afford the move.

KS is by no means my favorite place in the world, but you couldn't pay me to move to CA. Sure, there's lots of stuff to do, but what if you don't have time to do it? A buddy of mine lives in Rancho Santa Margarita, that was his exact comment. Awesome weather and lots of stuff to do, but between work and hours sitting in traffic, there's just no time. Add in other variables such as a family, and I'd guess that the life of most CA residents looks largely like mine, just more expensive.

For a single person it makes more sense, because you can better take advantage of the available activities, and hot women at the beach. But I struggle to understand why anyone would want to raise their family in CA. Different priorities I suppose, to each his own.

[daepp]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

I just tell 'em that they'll spend half their life sitting in traffic (a bit of an exaggeration, but partially true), they'll pay 5-10 times for housing what they're used to (also true to a point), they better learn Spanish just to function in day-to-day society (becoming more true by the day), they better like having to park 4-6 blocks from their front door in order to find a parking space and that they better like losing fully half their income to the government in the form of taxes, fees, surcharges, mandatory expenses, etc.

That keeps most of 'em out of here. But not nearly enough.

Jeff - I mean absolutely no offense, but I read most of your posts, and most of the time I come away thinking that you need to get out of Long Beach. Don't get me wrong - I know the area well, my best friend lived there for 5 years in college, we knew all the cool places, I had clients in Belmont, I worked in OC for 20 years and would drive to LB just for Woody's BBQ - but honestly, there are a lot of other great places to live and work in So Cal.

I really don't mean to bash the place, but the parking, the traffic, the density, the harbor - get out of there.

Of course, I know nothing of your personal life an why you're there.

My $.02.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

None taken. I know I'm down on this place but as I mentioned above, I have yet to find a better alternative.

[the]

Why not just move 25 miles north or south?

[Porsche-O-Phile]

25 miles north puts you in east L.A. No thanks. No commute benefit at all (not to mention anything close to L.A. is a schithole, IMHO). Maybe if I were still working at my old office (Glendale) it would have some merit, but right now my work is here in LGB and my wife's is in Anaheim. Plus anything inland is pretty much a hole. An expensive, overcrowded hole. I like being by the water.

25 miles south is in O.C. (Huntington or Laguna Niguel area). One of about 3-4 places in the country that's more expensive than here (NYC, San Fran, Hawaii and O.C. are statistically the only ones more expensive than LA/Long Beach but that's about it). Commute would be a bit of a wash (closer for my wife, longer for me - net zero-sum game). If we had no chance of ever affording our own place here, it's a virtual guarantee we'll never afford one down there.

[the]

Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Marina Del Rey, Playa del Rey or nearby to the north.

Huntington Beach, Irvine etc. to the south.

Are all very nice areas, much better than the ghettos of LBC.

[daepp]

Maybe we should change this tread to "Find a New Community For Jeff"

Anyway, what about North OC. North Fullerton, Brea, Placentia. More affordable than OC South County, max 20 min. to the water, lots of SFR's, none of the parking and density issues plaguing LB. Close to Anaheim too!

Yorba Linda is also a beautiful residential community that retains a rural feel. IMHO of course.

I, on the other hand, am very happy in the I.E (Claremont/Upland) so you have to know where I'm coming from. Twice the house for half the price. 6 to 800 get you half an acre and a 10 y.o. house. You gotta drive a bit to get to any real nightlife, but at 44 and 3 kids, not a lot of nightlife happeneing, if you know what I mean!

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Actually the area I'm in isn't a ghetto at all. There certainly are some ghetto areas of the LBC - no doubt about that. But the swath from the beach to about 4th street is pretty nice actually. Lots of professional types, artists, normal folks. Once you start moving inland the quality drops off rather precipitously past that. So I've found a nice "niche" area that manages to stay strong against the sprawl of gangbangas and ghetto trash inland - typical of most cities (prices are higher near the waterfront, which tends to keep a lot of the riffraff out).

Anyway, Manhattan & Huntington I wouldn't consider - my wife used to work in Huntington and it's extremely overcrowded and expensive. Plus it's a noisy, chaotic party town full of spoiled young brats living large on mommy & daddy's money. No thanks. Not my scene.

Marina Del Rey might not be too bad, but it would involve commuting on the 405 for both the wife and I. F that. Plus it's not appreciably cheaper than here.

Huntington Beach is ridiculously overpriced. Great scene, fun and all, but ridiculously overpriced. Irvine is "ground zero" for the housing bubble (overpriced, but correcting). Maybe in a few years. . .

I think my best course of action is to continue looking where I've been - up in the mountains for a cabin and some land - areas that have been not nearly as affected by the bubble and run-up in prices. Actually what I'm seeing is that a ton of people bought these locations as "second homes" and now are up ***** creek on their first mortgages (ARMs and the like), so they're starting to panic and dump 'em - or try to. . .

Anyway sorry for the thread hijack. Back on topic, the "bottom" is a long way away. If you're buying to live in and hold (as in 10+ years), have a big pile of cash sitting around doing idle, an 800+ FICO score and aren't concerned about job loss or income reduction as a result of the recession, sure you could buy now. However, I personally feel the best deals are still quite a ways off and in any case, your $$$ would earn you a helluva lot more in foreign securities right now.