How do people get a nice house for under 300K? (San Diego: condos, crime)

[wall st kid]

Originally Posted by dj71fromWI

I have been looking on www.realtor.com and everything is over 300K for a single family home, what are some other options to get into a place if you dont have a million dollars? I dont want to live in a condo or a crappy area either. Advice please? How do other people afford it? Is there some type of magical financing in CA? ha ha

Cali is SO overpriced. You want a cardboard box for 500k, come to Cali. I'm sure someone can take 5 large piece of cardboard, get a 600 sq ft lot, lean the 4 cardboard boxes against each other. Place the 5th piece as the roof and wallah, list price 569,000. And, get this, MOTIVED SELLER, RECENTLY APPRAISED FOR 589,000, HAVE TO MOVE, MAKE AN OFFER!

[Need_affordable_home]

Like ive said many times, this is a bit of a generalization. Not all of CA is overpriced! Yuba city is somewhat reasonable. I have a friend whos parents cashed out in Silicon valley and bought a house thrice as big for half of what they got for their old, tiny house! Theres even cheaper areas, look around please before bashing CA as an overpriced resort. Thanks.

[bmurphy]

Originally Posted by Need_affordable_home

Like ive said many times, this is a bit of a generalization. Not all of CA is overpriced! Yuba city is somewhat reasonable. I have a friend whos parents cashed out in Silicon valley and bought a house thrice as big for half of what they got for their old, tiny house! Theres even cheaper areas, look around please before bashing CA as an overpriced resort. Thanks.

Well, the nice areas ARE overpriced, and as far as I can tell, there really are no exceptions, besides the desert. Yuba City must have issues. Not trying to be mean, but California definetly does not have some nirvana cheap city that's not a desert. Or at least not that I can tell. Sorry?

[socketz]

Need_affordable_home,

Yuba City ? Where are you finding out about these places ?

Yuba city is above Folson (prison?) correct ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuba_City,_California

[Sassberto]

Originally Posted by socketz

Need_affordable_home,

Yuba City ? Where are you finding out about these places ?

Yuba city is above Folson (prison?) correct ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuba_City,_California

Yuba City is north of Sacramento, it's been known as a dump for a long, long time...

"Yuba City battled a negative image for over two decades, because of local media publicized the area's high crime, poverty rates, youth gangs, and illegal drug trade. Its designation as the "worst city to live in America" by Forbes Magazine and Fortune Magazine in the late 1980s and 1990s."

Think Fresno or Bakersfield.

they have a cool skatepark though... first park in CA with the 'taco' obstacle :-)

[socketz]

How did it get so bad there....seems that there is nothing out that way and that it would be rural and little backward if anything.

"worst city to live in America" moniker is bad....I like Bakersfield and Fresno. What's that area right outside Bakersfield....Picatcho ? That area is nice.

[Sassberto]

Originally Posted by socketz

How did it get so bad there....seems that there is nothing out that way and that it would be rural and little backward if anything.

"worst city to live in America" moniker is bad....I like Bakersfield and Fresno. What's that area right outside Bakersfield....Picatcho ? That area is nice.

Those cities had their boomtimes and went bust long ago. It's a big cycle of boom/bust.. when prices spike in the cities they build tracts out in the valleys, and then when the market softens, those tracts tank and become ghetto.

Also anywhere you have a large ag population and prisons you have entrenched multi-generational gang membership.

It's not even that cheap, and pretty much you either work in a warehouse or for the prison... Corcoran, Folsom, big employers up there.

Personally I like Lemon Cove near Visalia but you should see ghetto it is up there.. gang tags everywhere, it looks like a rural logan heights.

[socketz]

Places like Hemet did the boom/bust cycle once and it never really turned ghetto. I wonder why some places do and others don't. I think one spot that will suffer during this downturn is Temecula/Murietta. The prices went up in that area a little too much during the upswing.

[Sassberto]

Originally Posted by socketz

Places like Hemet did the boom/bust cycle once and it never really turned ghetto. I wonder why some places do and others don't. I think one spot that will suffer during this downturn is Temecula/Murietta. The prices went up in that area a little too much during the upswing.

There's some pretty rough areas in Hemet too... let's just say I personally know at least one ex-gangbanger living up there who brought a whole bunch of his homies with him.

If you look at the former middle-class boomtowns of San Bernardino, Colton, Rialto, Fontana - oil dried up and the towns went section 8 - that's what seems to be happening in these Central Valley cities. They just don't have the local economies to support 350k tract homes.

I agree with you about Temecula / Murietta - it's just too far from jobs.

[Need_affordable_home]

I found out about Yuba city, my friend's parents relocated there and love it. The crime index for Yuba city is 400, for Sacramento its 600, for San Bernardino(75 miles east of LA) its 700, for Riverside(68 miles from LA) has only 450 crime. LA itself has 500 crime but its undereported, probably actually like 1000. Lancaster has 450 crime, still safer than LA im sure and of course several times cheaper!

Originally Posted by bmurphy

Well, the nice areas ARE overpriced, and as far as I can tell, there really are no exceptions, besides the desert. Yuba City must have issues. Not trying to be mean, but California definetly does not have some nirvana cheap city that's not a desert. Or at least not that I can tell. Sorry?

Its an opinion. I have friends living in CA and some say they consider their city nice, yet affordable. Some of the nice areas may be desert, but so is Arizona and New Mexico. Theres lots of affordable living in far north CA with beautiful mountain views. There may not be as many jobs, consider a business or self employed. If you avoid the major California cities, its less expensive.