New Housing in CA

[snowman]

New Housing in CA is a joke. They are building new houses in SJC that start at 1.5 Million!! Add necessary landscaping and upgrades to actually move in and the price is 2 Million, bottom end!!!

How nice are these Mansions??? Well they all have std Melamine ( that’s press board) cupboards!! They all have a garage that will not accommodate a single Hummer or Hummer 2. Nor will they accommodate a Cadillac Escalade.

The homes are large, ie 4000 to 5500 sq feet, all on a 6000 sq foot lot!!!, That means near zero lot lines.

These houses have plastic windows, some times called vinyl. They will fail in 15 years, max.

The property taxes will be $20,000 plus, per year.

Housing bubble or not, these people will be screwed, big time in the next 15 years.

Why??? Thank a politician.

Small problem??? Well they just built a 1000 of them. And they are planning 10,000 more.

Political greed has NO limits.

Without political limits these same houses would only cost $200,000 Max. The tax would only be $2,000 per year, not $20,000 per year. Its all a crime. Politics at its finest.

[motion]

Give me a break. San Juan Capistrano is one of the nicest places in the world to live. Its going to cost you.

[snowman]

That still don't explain the pressboard cubbards.

That says to me that they expect a bunch of beverly hillbillies to live here.

And it ain't THAT nice.

Not to mention I live here, whats that say bout the neighborhood???

[Jared at Pelican Parts]

seriously dude, you made it a point on this board as to how much money you have. Boo ****ing hoo

[snowman]

There’s a difference between making a nuff money, and the ridiculous, out ragous, crap that is going on here. There’s NO way the homes here are worth the money they are asking.

I do own a house here, bought in 1988 at the height of the last "bubble", but get real, the current prices are nuts.

Want to rent, ala Waynes philosophy??? Go right ahead, at $5000 per month I will rent it for as long as you want it.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

I seriously doubt anyone is going to rent for $5k a month either. I pay around 20% of that amount and live comfortably and right on the beach. So what? I just keep tucking more and more money away every week/month as the deflation/crash continues. In 12-24 months people will be begging to sell those "$2M" homes for 25% of that, just to cut their losses.

Bide your time gentlemen, the crash is coming. A wise man will wait; a fool will buy now.

[red-beard]

A House like that in the Best Gated neighborhood in North West Houston, except landscaped, 8-10K sq ft lot, 2 car garage plus a car port (4 covered parking spaces and big enough for anything!), Custom cabinets, granite counters, Profile line appliances, 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bath, 3500 sq ft house....

$350-400K. And most have pools for that price!

[red-beard]

The "Estate" houses in the Neighborhood, which have house lots on the lakes, and run $800k-1M, are Generally 5500-7500 sq ft with 13K-20K lots and come with Home Theaters with Theater seating, seriously upgraded interiors (Marble, etc)

[JavaBrewer]

Apples and oranges. The homes may be similar but the locations are not. This is the way it's always been. NW Houston, no offense, is not SJC, San Marcos is not RSF, Carpinteria is not Santa Barbara...

[tabs]

I'd rather live in Carpinteria than SB, DUDE!

I pay 30% of that and have NO OCEAN VIEW

Its actually quiet nice sitting out in the evenings in my blue recliner, even though the flies from the dumpster can be bothersome at times.

I agree with Snowman prices have gotten out of proportion. As in all SPECULATIVE BUBBLES things will correct back to the norm. Remember there are excesses on both the upside and downside.

[jyl]

If I were (shudder) ever to move to Houston, I would rent. There is no way I would buy a house there. Why?

First, Houston real estate barely goes up. Over past 30 years, CAGR is only 4% (nominal price). I'm not sure that even beats inflation, I know it badly lags the stock market, heck it lags a zero-risk US Treasury bond.

Second, I'd want to be able to get the hell out at the drop of a hat.

[tabs]

I say move on over to LV and live in LUXURY just like I do.

[red-beard]

You don't know what you are missing. Houston is a great affordable City. Even with the influx of NOLA aliens, I bet we still have less crime than LA.

And we aren't comparing Northwest Houston to Coastal View property. We are comparing Northwest Houston to inland CA, near SJC.

#1. You cannot find comparable housing in CA.
#2. Is it worth more to live in CA very near the coast? Yes. Is it worth 50% more. Sure. Double? OK. Triple? uh, I'm not sure...6-7 Times? Not a chance!!!

When I left San Diego, if you wanted a 2200 sq ft house on 4000 sq ft lot for $500K, you were buying in El Cajon. I would far far rather live in Houston for $350K than El Cajon for $500K. That same House in El Cajon is probably $700-750K now. It makes no sense. El Cajon gets just as hot as here and it is not a nice area!

When we moved here, the Median income was $57K and 60K in San Diego. The Median House price here was $133K vs $500K. When you look at the property price distribution, to get an equivalent neighborhood, our $350K house would be the equivalent of a $1.5 Million house in San Diego. $1.5 million would get you an Ocean view, but a crappy crappy house. $1.5 Million could buy you a “nice” 2000 sq ft house in Pt. Loma, but you won’t have a view.

Oh, in the outskirts of Houston, maybe 20 minutes from here, there are new housing developments going in which are $80K for over 2200 sq ft. The commute is a bit tough (30 miles), but certainly not as bad as I-8 or I-15 or I-5 or I-805 in San Diego.

[JavaBrewer]

Originally posted by red-beard

When I left San Diego, if you wanted a 2200 sq ft house on 4000 sq ft lot for $500K, you were buying in El Cajon. I would far far rather live in Houston for $350K than El Cajon for $500K. That same House in El Cajon is probably $700-750K now. It makes no sense. El Cajon gets just as hot as here and it is not a nice area!

When did you leave the area? As early as 2.5 years ago $500K would buy a 3800 sq/ft house on a 10-14K sq/ft lot in San Marcos. Nine miles to the beach, late afternoon ocean breezes, low crime, small town feel.

That said I was reading USA Today on the plane home this week and it said the top most bubblicious area in the nation is Carlsbad/San Marcos CA. Homes are sitting on the market here as folks are still asking last years prices. I see the prices dropping very soon.

Originally posted by red-beard
...The commute is a bit tough (30 miles), but certainly not as bad as I-8 or I-15 or I-5 or I-805 in San Diego.

But can you lane split in TX? You're gas is probably $1.50/gal cheaper than ours though.

[jyl]

I'm nt disputing that Houston real estate is very affordable.

I'm saying that it always has been, and IMHO always will be . . .

Of course, I wouldn't buy a house in San Diego now either. In fact, if I were forced to buy in either location, right now, it would be Houston hands down. Not making money beats losing money.

Originally posted by red-beard
You don't know what you are missing. Houston is a great affordable City.

[snip snip]

My main issue with Houston (TX overall) is the heat. I can't take it. I lived in non-beach LA for years, drove a car w/o AC wearing a suit and tie, and I don't want to go back to that - plus humidity.

[tabs]

Hmmmm 73* at Midnight or 95* at Midnight....which one is preferable? 100* at 2 PM or 114*at 2 PM ...which one is preferable?

[gaijindabe]

I am with snow.

The housing bubble is creating a lot of crappy landscapes and burning up a lot of open space in the process.

Junk workmanship, junk components, ugly architecture. New house construction in the past 20 years has been a blight on our country.

[Dottore]

Originally posted by red-beard
You don't know what you are missing. Houston is a great affordable City. Even with the influx of NOLA aliens, I bet we still have less crime than LA.

.

Sorry Red-beard - but all the math in the world would not convince me to move to Houston. It is the armpit of the USA. No charm, ****ty climate, no culture, soul-less city, far from everywhere, crass people, absolutely nothing to recommend it.

So you can live cheaply there. So what? You should be able to live there cheaply. Just like you should be able to live cheaply in Rwanda or Kyrgystan. But who wants to? Life is short. This ain't no dress rehearsal.

No, no, no. Not Houston please. Please?

[Porsche-O-Phile]

As an architect I have to agree with what's been said. What has happened to our open spaces and urban landscapes is pretty sad. The last 20-or-so years have seen precious few good designs and more than enough junk, sprawl and poor planning.

The guilty parties (as I see it) are firstly buyers, but those of us in the design field aren't immune. Buyers create the problem by being fickle, cheap, and undervaluing the design and architectural character of the housing in which they want to live. Context becomes unimportant, function becomes unimportant, harmony to existing surroundings is overlooked or an afterthought at best and preservation of existing features or neighborhood characteristics is completely absent in the vast majority of cases. All they care about is "is it big?" or "will my wife like the colors?" or "can I get a 25%-a-year return on it?" It's ridiculous. And developers are all-too-willing to step in and "meet the demand" for such ill-concieved ideas. The designs reflect the society's values - cheap, big, bland, dumb.

I also partially blame the architectural profession for not taking a more aggressive role in providing quality design solutions for "average" housing. If more people realized that they really COULD have a custom-designed home for about the same as what they pay for some POS cookie-cutter developer garbage McMansion, they might be a little more receptive to the idea. But very little is done on the parts of individual practitioners or the AIA (American Institute of Architects) to make people aware of it. Naturally developers have no interest in making this information available to the public.

Secondly, most architects have little or no interest in doing residential work (except for high-end residential). There's very little fee in it for the amount of work required. Residential clients are typically very fickle and wishy-washy and unclear/vague on what they want. Having to re-work a design five or six times because a client "changes their mind" is not uncommon. Although contracts stipulate that this is "extra services" in most cases and subject to additional fees, a lot of times owners simply refuse to pay it, it corrodes a good working relationship existing to that point, etc. It makes the entire process ugly and uninviting and "not worth it".

One possible solution is for architects to force themselves to offer their services to less-than-"high-end" residential projects occasionally either on a pro-bono basis or low-fee basis - for the betterment of society and not necessarily maximizing firm profitability. In this way, we would end up with some built work out there that is better than the typical junk being thrown up and it would speak for itself in terms of the value of architectural services. Long-term it would undermine the developer-driven garbage supply-side of the equation and offer a meaningful alternative to buyers. Everyone would benefit.

I plan to do this down the road when I get my own practice going. I may not be able to do it all that often, but even doing one or two residences a year, offsetting costs with "bread-and-butter" commercial work to pay the bills and keep the firm financially sound certainly seems viable and in the best long term interest of the profession, and society at large.

[widebody911]

Originally posted by tabs
I pay 30% of that and have NO OCEAN VIEW

Have patience my friend - geological patience...