Buying a house in southern Ca....HOW?

[turbo6bar]

One option is renting. In bubblicious parts of the country, you can often rent for far less than the cost to own. There will be a price correction in these areas. It is only a matter of when and how much.

These goobers focusing on 23% yearly appreciation have a poor grasp of the investment. Unfortunately, 'investment' and 'primary residence' are a poor combination. Those who risk this pairing may receive severe penalties in the coming years. I'm not sure who to blame most: the dealers (lenders and Greenspan) or their addicts (USA Joe Schmoe).

[techweenie]

Originally posted by thrown_hammer
How far away from Orange County would you have to be for a normal person to get into a 1300 SF or so home?

North.

Lancaster and Palmdale are 20 miles or so North of L.A.'s San Fernando Valley, and the home prices are about 1/2 of L.A.'s. You could presumably go East, as well, but even as far as Riverside, prices have gone insane.

[TerryBPP]

I heard this great community called Watts was really cheap. Anyone heard of it?

[turbo6bar]

Is Compton affordable?

http://www.realtor.com/Prop/1053560909?lnksrc=00045
572 SF, $315k or $550 per square foot
Lot is 2718 SF or 0.06 acres
Monthly note $1500/month if you bring a $63k down payment

http://www.realtor.com/Prop/1054160201?lnksrc=00045
796 SF living space, $425k or $533 per square foot
spacious 5150 SF lot
Monthly note is only $2000/month if you bring $85k to the closing table

[thrown_hammer]

So to some extent i was right. It is fuzzy math. So if i read this correctly the only people buying homes right now are over extending themselves and using risky borrowing practices hoping to cash in on the insane appreciation. Sweet.

[bigchillcar]

http://www.realtor.com/Prop/1055384477

damn..almost $190 per sq. ft. i paid like $60 a sq. ft for my 1300 sq ft house in little rock last year. move to arkansas..come see 'the book in the library'.. we got edumacation here..
ryan

[Hugh R]

Five years ago I sold a 900 sq. ft. 2 bedroom, 1 bath house that was 50 years old on a 25 by 50 foot lot in Ventura it was three houses of the beach for 390k, I had bought it 10 years earlier for 215K. Now its worth 980K. I knew it would go up, and probably should have kept it. It had been a rental for the entire time I owned it and I more or less broke even on it on a year-to-year basis. Oh well.

[Howard Agency]

In 65 Porsche's top of the line SC cost a little over $5k, and we bought our first house in Van Nuys, 3br 1.5ba 1300 sq ft for $27k. In order to afford the house, the only new car I could buy was a Fiat 850, $1795!!!

New Porsche is about $100k, 20 times greater. My guess that the house would now sell for a comparable $540k. So stop whining about home prices if you can afford driving Porsches

[turbo6bar]

Don't worry. Your house won't be worth $540k in a few years. In fact, it is probably depreciating at this very moment.

[jkarolyi]

29 Palms is pure hell on earth...funny joke Motion! I'll sell you my 3BR 3BA condo, 1600 sq. ft, about 30 mins from Orange county for $299,000. Bargain of the year! Time for me to move out of the granola state (full of fruits, nuts, and flakes).

[Howard Agency]

Hell, wish I still owned it. Sold about 30 years ago for $75k. Bought another for $120k, sold it for $400k, etc.

Didn't do quite as well on Porsches

[thrown_hammer]

So how is Santa Ana? I really don't know so be nice.

[nostatic]

To live in a decent neighborhood with decent schools, you need to make north of $200K. Even then it can be tough.

If you don't have/make the money, don't buy here right now. When my settlement is final I'm not buying another place...just gonna bank the money and wait for things to sort out. I don't think that the desirable areas are going to *crash* as hard as some here, but they'll likely correct, and the less desirable areas (read: Santa Ana) will really drop from the stupid-high prices being asked now.

[on-ramp]

I guess all the illegal immigrants flooding in from Mexico don't stay in S. Calif. for too long....

[ZOA NOM]

Ha! SoCal is nothing. You should try the Bay Area.

[Hugh R]

Santa Ana is little Tijuana. Where would you work if you moved, or is this just hypothetical? I live in the Santa Clarita Valley which is 20 miles north of downtown L.A. Its still a safe, white upper middle class area, but getting crowded. Average house price is probably $700 plus. Mine on paper is worth about a million. But then again I have a very unique Socal property. 18 acres in suburbia with a 500 foot driveway and several hundred oak trees at the end of a cul-de-sac (thats a fancy spanish word for a dead end street). Also about 16 of my acres are up the back end of a box canyon, so not buildable, nor subdividable. But I own the ridge lines and no one will ever look down on me from the hills above.

[jyl]

One reason why I'm moving out of CA . . .

[JavaBrewer]

Originally posted by nostatic
If you don't have/make the money, don't buy here right now. When my settlement is final I'm not buying another place...just gonna bank the money and wait for things to sort out. I don't think that the desirable areas are going to *crash* as hard as some here, but they'll likely correct, and the less desirable areas (read: Santa Ana) will really drop from the stupid-high prices being asked now.

Todd is right on here. Many area's in SoCal are overpriced and due to fall 30%, others (more desireable) are just plain expensive, and will flatten or at worst drop slightly. If you're relocating from an area that sidestepped big equity growth then you're best bet is to wait ~ 3 years.

[84porsche]

Santa Ana is undergoing some major improvements and does have some very nice areas. Worst case scenario, you can rent for awhile until you get on your feet and find something you like. A friend of mine just sold his 900 sq ft condo in Foothill Ranch in OC for $410,000 up from $185,000 when he purchased it a few years ago.
I live here in the OC and cannot afford to buy but looking for the right offer and will have to borrow from friends/family for a down payment when the time comes. In Irvine, they are still building homes like crazy adding more and more all the time and they still have plenty of land to go. I personally hope the market will stabilize in the next few years and allow the younger generation a chance to buy property here.

[84porsche]

If you can stand a mobile home, here is this in Anaheim -

http://www.realtor.com/Prop/1045083437