Don't know if this adds anything to the discussion but...
7 months ago my wife came to SoCal (Calabasas) for a new job. Her boss organized an apartment (1 bed) to get her going.
Our plan was for me and the kids to finish off the school year in Hong Kong then move to SoCal and buy a home around Calabasas in June 04. We expected to be able to find a home during the six months Christine was here!
We quickly learnt the high cost of the housing market was going to prevent this from happening. (By the way, she is a scientist and I am a teacher so our wages are fixed and not high).
In that six months we learnt that we would have to redirect our focus to renting instead, hopefully a 3 bedroom 2 bath, garaged, gardened property, in the $2300/mth range. This would give us some time to 'appreciate' the market. Agents we spoke to, had almost nothing on their listings and properties were being rented within days of being listed. Chris missed out on four houses that looked ok for us because she could not get to see the houses before they were off the listings. One agent told us some amazing figure about the shortage of houses for people in the rent market.
Two months ago (approx) I posted that we were looking for such a place and asked the 'family' here that if they had any leads to let me know. It was clear from various posters there was not much around and certainly Christine's experiences searching thru agents and privately, bore this out to be true.
Basically there was nothing about. Finally, a month ago, out of desperation, we settled on renting in a new apartment complex in Agoura Hills for $2400mth. This is for a 2 bed 2 bath place with club house, pool, no garage, no storage...
In the past three weeks we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of house now up for rent, just what we had been looking for not a few months earlier! Now instead of flicking thru a few houses on offer, we are taking a few hours to look thru the alternatives.
IT REALLY HAS, IN OUR EXPERIENCE, CHANGED IN A MATTER OF WEEKS!!!
Speaking to agents, rental prices are holding firm currently, but more properties are coming on the market. I wonder who are these people putting their houses up for rental and where are they going or what are they buying/renting themselves?
It sure is a fickled market.
It sure would be nice if property values fell as much as Wayne and some others suggest. Chris and I would hope then to keep renting for a few years (albeit something larger than we have now!) then buy-in when things are more affordable.
Like Wayne says, we shall be interested to see these posts in a few years time and see what has come to fruition. I predict Nostatic and Tabs will move into Motions new residence in the high hills of Montana and set up a comedy nightclub that offers extraordinary buffets, attached to a specialist m/c dealership that offers free entry and buffet to the 'club' with each bike purchased. Wayne will expand his empire and become a distance partner in the club which will of course be called 'Pelicans'.
