nice apartment in cooler location or house?
 

Looking to move from my current 2br/2ba apartment. Has been ideal for the last two years of middle school, but the boy heads off to high school next year. Looking to get a bigger place and have the g/f move in. Need a garage (tough to find in Santa Monica), and if the garage is big enough the g/f can give up her studio space and use the garage.

Found a house for rent, small neighborhood tucked between the 10 fwy and light industrial area (actually mostly media companies). Has a big 2-car garage and a big (for SM) back yard. Only 1 bath but we've never used the 2nd bathroom in the existing place. Downside is that it isn't walking distance to HS (but may be tough to find that anyway) and it would be nice if it were a tad bigger.

Can more easily find 3br apartments/townhomes in "better" areas (closer to the beach or further from the fwy). But they will be more expensive than the house (the 1 bath part is a deal killer for a lot of people). Also tougher to find a proper garage. Still part of me thinks I'd like a bit nicer place. There is another house that is over $1K more a month that is bigger and a nicer interior. But when you start thinking about being able to easily save that $1K/mo...

So...go a bit downscale and get the garage/yard or have a nicer living space but shared walls?

I vote for the house. High school is only a few years. Get the garage space.

Wait.....your going to share the garage?
I thought they were called man caves.

Tell me where the house is if you pass on it. How much rent?

well...I own a home in Montana and just moved to Wyoming for work. The search in Wyoming was horrible, so I moved my search south into Colorado. In the end I selected a flat apartment in Fort Collins. The flat is only two years old, very modern and in my opinion well worth the money. Included is a garage space so that was a bonus.

$3000/mo. Another candidate that I hope to see on Wed is $4K/mo. The place I looked at today is a little small (really a 2br/1ba with a den) but the prospect of saving $1K/mo is attractive. Then again, I want to come home to a place that I like.

The g/f is currently renting her studio space (sculpture) @ $600/mo. This garage is big enough for my bikes and for her to build out into a studio, saving her that money.

While I like the idea of a completely redone/nicer place, I likely would be able to easily save $800/mo with her moving in relative to my current setup. If we find a bigger place that is more expensive and doesn't have the studio capability, the savings drops significantly. The thought of a proper back yard is attractive as well. If only the house was a bit bigger (about 1100 sq ft).

Once HS is over I can move wherever. Right now am limited by the school district. At the end of 4 years, all bets are off...

That's good but finding a place with a garage in rural Colorado or Wyoming and finding one in Santa Monica, CA. is an apples/oranges comparison, ie. not analogous. :cool:

I would go with the house. Yard, more space away from neighbors than townhouses and hopefully no association rules.

So why live in Cali? :D

I do envy your open spaces and price of garage space, that's for sure.

I have been to Fort Collins, the Springs, Boulder, and Denver. The answer is obvious...YMMV. :)

For $3-4k, you can get ocean front or private deepwater access and 3000+sq ft with a 3 car garage around here.

I'd go for the cheaper place (as long it fits your basic search criteria) and save the extra $1K per month for a down payment on a place of your own someday. Easy decision from my perspective.

If the house is in an okay area - i.e. could be prettier, but is not dangerous - and the neighbors don't seem loud/irritating/whacked, then go for the house.

Just a wild idea out of left field...

Looking at the zillow.com website, I see houses valued at $500,000 that zillow calculates would rent for about $2000 per month. And looking at the Bank of America website, I see quite a few "bank-owned" houses in the $300k - $700k price range. So... if the bank decided to rent those houses instead of letting them fall into disrepair, that would be a win-win situation for a lot of people.

Is there something preventing this from happening?

You + GF+ High School Calvin in 1 bathroom house could be chaos. High School dudes need their space. As long as he's cool with it, make the move. YOU need room to move and groove.

almost three times my mortgage payment.



a garage is a must. sounds like the kid will be sixteen soon. you don't want to be fixing his car in the street.

unless the back yard has a pool it's just a pain in the ass to mow. no use to it at all.

Is buying a house rather than leasing an option?

If it was me I would buy a house... It doesn't have to be perfect but something you can work with. How handy are you?

$3k-$4k a month for an apartment is just plain stupid (not directed at you per se, just at the notion of paying that kind of coin). I don't care if you are in the People's Republic of Santa Monica - that's just plain crazy - unless said apartment is about 3,000 sq. ft., has a view of the beach, four parking spaces and comes with complimentary escort service visits every night.

Granted SoCal is a weird enclave unto itself that somehow fancies itself immune from the laws of common sense with respect to RE pricing (and you all know how well that's worked out...) but even as a point of comparison, our place in Long Beach was literally across the street from the beach (as in, go out my front door, face left, look across the street and see sand, water, bikinis, etc.) Two garage parking spaces, 2BR. We paid about $1200/mo. Admittedly we did pretty well and our prices was "below market rate" right up to 2009 (when literally about 1/3 to 1/2 the neighborhood residents moved out due to the economic crash, unemployment and god-knows-what-else, "for rent" signs went up all over the place due to a supply glut and rental prices crashed). But for the majority of our time in that area one could pay around $1500-$1800/mo for a very nice, well-appointed, 2BR/2BA or larger apartment right on Ocean Boulevard.

$3k-$4k is a sucker price. Seriously. Especially in this market a person would have to be seriously insane to entertain that... Unless things have changed dramatically in the last couple of years, there are going to be a lot of people in big trouble on their "fixer-upper" or "quick flip" properties that are desperate to get bodies in there to cut their losses. My suspicion is if you look around you can probably find some great deals.

SoCal is tricky - definitely not "family friendly" in many respects so that will probably limit your options somewhat, but I still bet you can get a good (if not spectacular) deal. Good luck!