Looking into Encinitas real estate (San Diego, Carlsbad: rental, crime, house)

[loveautumn]

Laguna is a very unique and beautiful place, very wealthy and upscale for the most part. SD doesn't really have anything to compare, IMO, but I would say La Jolla, Del Mar, Solana Beach, Cardiff/Leucadia would be the closest. Cardiff is not as "60's/hippy" as Leucadia.

But, living on the coast, the commute to Poway would be pretty brutal.

[GreatGreenvilleGuy]

Originally Posted by Sassberto

As for people, I haven't found them to be overly snobby although that element does exist (usually angry soccer moms trying to run you over in the parking lot on Del Mar Heights). For the most part people seem to run the gamut as with everywhere.

haha indeed!

[Dr. Vox]

It sounds like Leucadia would be the best for us. I remember going to these incredible mediation gardens in Encinitas one time, that looked out onto the Pacific Ocean. It was incredible, and I absolutely LOVED that area. Is the place I'm taking about in the Leucadia area?
Could we get a nice house near the beach with what we make, assuming we can come up with the 10% down?

[NYSD1995]

Originally Posted by Dr. Vox

It sounds like Leucadia would be the best for us. I remember going to these incredible mediation gardens in Encinitas one time, that looked out onto the Pacific Ocean. It was incredible, and I absolutely LOVED that area. Is the place I'm taking about in the Leucadia area?
Could we get a nice house near the beach with what we make, assuming we can come up with the 10% down?

Could it be the Self-Realization Fellowship gardens? That would be considered Encinitas proper. Anything close to the water will probably be 700k+ for a small, potentially unrenovated cottage... if you cant afford that, look east of 5 where prices start to ease and houses get bigger.

[htnspz]

Ziprealty.com has a function that allows you to look at a map and find real estate. You might want to check that out to see what's available. I'm not affiliated with them or anything, they just have a fabulous site. I wouldn't use one of their realtor's though because I wasn't impressed with their selection and you would probably need a full service agent in your price range.

[Encinitan]

Originally Posted by Dr. Vox

OK I was told Leucadia area was the Laguna Beach of San Diego. I have been to Laguna Beach before, and I love it, but it has a bit of a snobbish feel to it. However, everything from "The Pagent of the Masters", to plethora of art galleries. We both are avid fans of Laguna Beach and were hoping to find something very similar to the culture of that in San Diego.
Ideally we would like to be in a home that is fairly new, close to a sandy swimming beach, and is also in close proximity to culture(music, art galleries), as well as being in a Very safe neighborhood, and a town with friendly non-pretentious people.
I'm still stressing about how people can have a healthy marriage, and pay those astronomical property taxes? How on God's green earth do people have familes and pay those morgages every month? I'm pretty darn lucky, because of my wife, my dad making a VERY good salary, as well not having any kids. That's the only way we could even do it. All the pieces fell ino place perfectly. I'm just curious how others are able to do it?

Leucadia and Laguna Beach are similar, but really different too. Sassberto's described it pretty well already, so I'll just piggy back on his assessment of Laguna and Leucadia. I would not say that Laguna Beach is culturally similar to Leucadia. You should visit and spend some time there to see if it suits you, because from what you're saying you like about Laguna, you may be let down. I love Leucadia, don't get me wrong, but it is not Laguna Beach in terms of the arts. But then, what is?
As for your "how do people do it?" question, I'll just say, not many people can. The property taxes are just part of it. For my family, I work, my wife works essentially part-time from home, and it's a struggle to hustle and keep up with the costs of living in Encinitas. And we don't live in Cardiff or right down by the ocean, either. We bust our butts to stay where I was raised, where my family is, where our kids can be safe, go to good schools, play on the beach, hike on nature trails, all that. But it ain't easy.

[loveautumn]

Rather than right by the beach, you might want to look into what we call "new Encinitas", east of I-5. Old Encinitas is the old town, west of I-5. The newer part is more older suburban, strip malls, towne centers for shopping, restaurants, etc. But there are more affordable (I use the term very loosely) homes for example in Village Park. And the beach is just about 1 mile down Encinitas Blvd from there.

[Ultrarunner]

Originally Posted by Dr. Vox

I wish I had Prop 13 taxes like my dad.

No need for despair... chances are good your taxes will be reasonable when you've owned your home as long as your Dad.

Prop 13 applies equally to all taxable Real Estate... many buyers today are actually seeing much lower tax bills that those that bought only a couple of years ago

Remember, the 1% is the Statewide Property Tax... local areas can have a lot of additional taxes... my tax rate is near 1.5%

At least I knew going in how much it would be and that gave me the opportunity to make an informed purchase decision.

Prop 13 strong suite is predictability in Property Taxation.

[variate]

Originally Posted by Dr. Vox

Thanks. I checked out the Composer District of Cardiff. It look amazing. So, correct me if I am wrong, but Cardiff is geared towards musicians whereas Leucadia is geared towards fine artists? Is that correct? They appear to be in close proximity to one another. They both look like very nice, clean and safe cities.
The home we want is around 1,200,000. So, if my math is correct that would mean I would need around $120,000 to $240,000. YIKES!! That's a lot of money to put down. How are the property taxes in Encinitas. I am assuming 1% of the value of the home. So again, if we take the value of the $1,200,000 home and at 1%, means that we are going to have to pay $12,000 a year in property taxes. That is simply insane. I wish I had Prop 13 taxes like my dad.

You may want to check with the bank first. Unless you have significant amount of cash for downpayment million+ dollar home is our of range. Our income is close to 200k and we have 150k cash. We're looking at 600k homes.

[Dr. Vox]

I don't mean to sound like a pretentious prick, but I haven't been impressed with anything in the 600's in that area. I did some some very nice homes in the 800's in Carlsbad, but not in Encinitas. Why is Carlsbad so much less expensive than Encinitas? I could put $120,000 down for the home if need be. That would suck my finances down pretty much though if I were to do that. I make $9,600 a month, plus my wife who brings in an other $6,000. To say that grossing over $15,000 a month with no kids is not good enough to get a million dollar home is absolutely ridiculous.If that isn't good enough....what is? My wife and I both have over 800 FICO scores. We would be first time homebuyers, so I'm sure there are some avenues for help there as well that we need to tap into. I saw a house that my wife and I both fell in love with on Neptune avenue. Too bad, the house was oceanfront and cost around $5,000,000. It does **** me off though a bit that my wife and I are the best at what we do, and oceanfront homes seem to be out of our price range in the area we want. What it must be like to have boundless amounts of money.