New home in Chino or small townhouse in Chino Hills (for sale, rent)

[alisotrail]

Hi Guys:

We are planning to buy a house and with our budget, we can either buy kind of new home in Chino (Preserve) or a townhome in Chino Hills. We are considering the following factors before making a final decision:

Good place to raise family
Neighborhood
Parks/things to do
Schoold district
Property appreciation (10/15 years from now)
HOA
Property Taxes

The houses are Preserve seems nicer but considering the property taxes and HOA, does it make sense to buy in Chino Hills..Also is chino safe place to raise a family...Reading other posts, I know some of you have gone through this decision process but not sure where did you end up buying...Currently I live in OC and I pay around $1900 in rent

Thanks in advance for your time and suggestion.......

[ferretkona]

My friend has a home in Chino Hills, he priced around to move and said anything close to what he has costs 3 times more.
I would avoid townhomes if you can buy a house. With additional HOA fees and your hands are tied if you try to do anything.

[Ransomed]

Stay away from the HOA's if you can. My community is having a meeting to figure out what can be done b/c they are constantly increasing their bogus fees as if people are not experiencing hard times and property values haven't fallen tremendously. They just increased to $330.00 per MONTH!!!! We started with it in the low 200's and have only been here 3 years.

[alisotrail]

Ransomed do you live in Preserve...We went to see the properties in Preserver last weekend and the houses there seems nice. They mentioned that the HOA is around 175-190...We looked at the Hidden Hollow..

[Ransomed]

Sorry I don't. But on a whole California is known for having horrible HOA organizations that are money hungry. My family that live in Georgia have fees that amount to $100.00 for the year. I don't even have a yard but a patio yet I have to pay for landscaping and other trivial things that don't amount to them getting as much money as they are considering there are hundreds of townhomes in my community. If there are 100 townhomes in my complex with each paying 330.00 that = 30,000 a month. It's highway robbery. I should mention the "landscapers" are not native English speakers and may not even be legal so I doubt they are making a decent living.

Another thing to consider is future buyers. The HOA fee will increase. We are trying to sell and when our potential buyers find out how much the HOA fees are the deal is quickly tossed to the side. I don't think we will sell this place for that reason alone.

[chuck22b]

Originally Posted by alisotrail

Ransomed do you live in Preserve...We went to see the properties in Preserver last weekend and the houses there seems nice. They mentioned that the HOA is around 175-190...We looked at the Hidden Hollow..

Hi alisotrail,
I live in the Preserve, and I'm glad to hear you liked our area....
Anyhow, yes, rates are probably increasing in HOAs everywhere. As more people default, the load on the rest of the home owners increase.

BUT, the good thing about the Preserve is that we have a strong Developer with a long term vision. In spite of delinquencies... the Developer is actually subsidizing the operations at the Preserve to keep HOAs relatively stable and to keep everything operational, clean, and maintained. The Lewis Group is a private company so they don't have to heed public shareholder scrutiny to make a profit Now.... so they can do this.

I'd check out the strength of the developer if your looking for a master planned community. SunCal, is really hurting right now, and John Lainge Homes recently declared bankruptcy.

In terms of buying new, or buying old. I think you would get more value from buying a newer place. Think of it this way... the old place has appreciated a ton in value, but the costs to build the place was way cheaper. A new place is up to code in the latest energy, efficiency, and safety codes and has a smaller delta between price and cost to build.

The old place that was built in the 80s/90s might of cost 90 something to build in the past and has appreciated to 300+. The new place built in the 2000s might of cost 200 something to build but now is priced in the 300s.

Which house would you be paying a lower delta between cost to build and price? Bang for buck.

-chuck22b

[alisotrail]

Hi Chuck22b,

I read most of your posts about the Preserve and was hoping you reply thanks for your reply...So far we have only seen the Hidden Hollow, we are planning to see couple more models/house for sale this weekend so let's see...I know it's a much bigger community but which model or part of Preserve you like most...we prefer SFR detached over the townhomes..

[chuck22b]

Originally Posted by alisotrail

Hi Chuck22b,

I read most of your posts about the Preserve and was hoping you reply thanks for your reply...So far we have only seen the Hidden Hollow, we are planning to see couple more models/house for sale this weekend so let's see...I know it's a much bigger community but which model or part of Preserve you like most...we prefer SFR detached over the townhomes..

no problem... alisotrail,
In regards to the Preserve, it really depends on what you want. The Preserve is designed to accommodate a large spectrum of household types from two bedroom condos for single people to large residences for large families or the wealthy. The general ideal is that everything extends from the core where condos/townhomes are more centralized (centralized being closer to the parkhouse, school, and community centers), and as you go further from the core, units become larger and a little more spaced out. The West side of the Preserve is a little older than the East side, as development went from west to east.

In terms of SFR homes it depends on what you like... for me I'm not a big fan of overly large houses because we're a small starting family, and that I'm an efficiency nut, and don't really like the cleaning, furnishing, additional utilities, and having empty or half used rooms. Nor do I really care for a large yard to have to maintain. We wanted to be close to the core since we would like our daughter to be able to walk with her friends to the school when she goes there in a few years but we didn't want a condo/townhome. So, a small house works out well for us.

A few things to note, about the SFRs:

1) The ones by the Nature Preserve area has had some problems with birds flocking onto the homes in the past so that's something to look out for
2) I'm not a big fan of electrical towers, so the ones far East might be a bit too close for comfort for me
3) There are two associations here, one for the community assoc, and one for the maintenance assoc. The community assoc maintains the parkhouse facilities... and the maintenance assoc maintains the grounds, lighting, some of the parks, etc.

If your looking at SFRs, you'll notice that some units have higher maintenance fees, and some have lower maintenance assoc fees. Hidden hollow has a higher maintenance fee, which means the HOA maintains the grounds around your house. Shady Lane, Enchanted Forest, and Candlewood have a lower maintenance fee because the homeowner is responsible to maintain his/her own yards.

I like the two story units at Hidden Hollow... and some of them even have driveways. I also like the Candlewood unit that has the extra detached room in the front for "guests". I'm not as sure what kind of units/models are available in the West side... but prices for a couple year old homes have dropped quite a bit.

Hope this helps,
chuck22b

[steelstress]

Originally Posted by Ransomed

Stay away from the HOA's if you can. My community is having a meeting to figure out what can be done b/c they are constantly increasing their bogus fees as if people are not experiencing hard times and property values haven't fallen tremendously. They just increased to $330.00 per MONTH!!!! We started with it in the low 200's and have only been here 3 years.

Any chance you live in Le Parc? Your HOA sounds like my sister's.

[alisotrail]

Chuck22b,

I'm trying to figure out my monthly payment if I buy a house in Preserve vs Chino Hills. In Chino Hills the property tax rate I believe is 1% and HOA is about 100.

Can you please let me know what is the proerty tax rate in that area. Also have you noticed a significant increase in the HOA's. If you don't mind sharing, can you tell me know how much you were paying when you moved in and how much do you pay now. Is there any cap on how much they can increase these fees per year..