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Old 01-23-2007, 08:18 AM
 
10 posts, read 58,156 times
Reputation: 17

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I have been looking on www.realtor.com (broken link) 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
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Old 01-23-2007, 08:22 AM
 
9,527 posts, read 30,477,668 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dj71fromWI View Post
I have been looking on www.realtor.com (broken link) 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
You don't start out in a single-family home. You buy a small condo, live in it for a while, sell it, move up. Or you make a large income, or you use creative financing and take a big risk. Or you buy in a crappy area and work hard to improve the area. Or you buy a wreck in a good area and kill yourself fixing it up.

The expectation that a first-time buyer is going to live in a single-family house in a major US city is long dead in places like NYC & Boston, and now CA cities are part of that list too.

If you don't want to start small, or live in a crappy area, my advice is to move somewhere other than CA where prices are more affordable.
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Old 01-23-2007, 08:36 AM
 
Location: Tijuana Exurbs
4,539 posts, read 12,404,526 times
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To buy a decent house in San Diego for under 300k, is very simple. First you build a time machine. Then you set the time-dial for 1996, and voila! You sign a sales agreement, and you are the owner of a house for under 300k.

For those of you without time machines or a million dollars, it's done by compromising. You buy in a marginal area first and move up as time and equity permits. Or you buy a condo. Or, you have two incomes to pay the mortgage. Or you devote 50% of your income to mortgage payments and live on crackers for the next 10 years (California invented the term "house-poor"). Or you can be like my cousin, and refuse to settle for anything other than a big house in Marin County, and suddenly 25 years later, after never buying anything, you have no equity, no hope of ever owning real estate in California and wonder why life was so unfair to you.

Sorry for being so persnickity, but the answer to me is obvious. You compromise or you end up like my cousin.
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Old 01-23-2007, 09:05 AM
 
4,610 posts, read 11,102,010 times
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You do just like what these 2 posters say. You start at the bottom or what ever $$$ amount you have and work your way up.
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Old 01-23-2007, 02:25 PM
 
512 posts, read 1,755,093 times
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I'm sure if you asked the same question 30 years ago, people woulda gave the same answers. Not at 300000 but a lower price of whatever was average then.

Don't fret. Save your money, try not to go into debt, and work hard. You'll get there. I'm not there, but I'm not too worried either.

The problem with us Americans today is we have a ton of debt on top of trying to buy a house. We max cc's, have huge car payments, and go out to eat more then ever!
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Old 01-23-2007, 05:46 PM
 
852 posts, read 3,814,707 times
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And, depending on your tax bracket and other factors, it might be more economically prudent to rent rather than buy anyway.
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Old 01-24-2007, 02:56 PM
 
19 posts, read 167,640 times
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We plan on moving back to San Diego and realize that we'll have to downsize and rent an apt. or townhouse/condo. We live in a house now so it'll be a big change but worth it I'm sure.
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Old 01-24-2007, 03:03 PM
 
Location: Apple Valley, Ca
437 posts, read 2,238,992 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by StarLite View Post
We plan on moving back to San Diego and realize that we'll have to downsize and rent an apt. or townhouse/condo. We live in a house now so it'll be a big change but worth it I'm sure.
You mean, your not going to tell us where you live now and why you are leaving. Oh I am so nosy.
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Old 01-24-2007, 05:05 PM
 
Location: WPB, FL. Dreaming of Oil city, PA
2,909 posts, read 14,085,833 times
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Have you seen any cheap vacent lots? Lots of cheap land in northern CA and ive seen a few in south CA as well. Borrego Springs has plenty of cheap acreage vacent lots. Are you willing to build your own house? Big savings that way. Its only 54 miles from San Diego, big savings if you can handle the commute. Very expensive to live in SD proper. I am betting most live in suburbs and around SD for a fraction of the costs. Thats how they get a nice house for $300k, they buy the land really cheap and have a house built on the lot. Hope this helps.
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Old 01-24-2007, 05:28 PM
 
852 posts, read 3,814,707 times
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Why advocate buying land in barren place like Borrego Springs, building a big house there and then commuting to San Diego? Do we need more commuters? More sprawl? More services extended to places with few jobs?
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