Thinking of moving to Temecula/Murrieta - need some feedback please (San Diego: for sale, sublet)

[Arinze75]

Hi All


Please pardon the long entry. Its just to give background.

My family (myself, wife and two kids) moved to San Diego from AZ (a year ago). We are currently renting a condo that cost more than our mortgage in AZ. We've prefer to buy than rent. The areas of Temecula/Murrieta are our best bets for affordable housing we've be told. After some research, visits to the both places, and perusing through city-data forums it seems those our only options for a balance of commute time/ good schools (one of my kids is about to start KG)/ home price (300000-330000, new or resale). I work in Sorrento Valley so I realize it would be a tough commute everyday for several years - till they build the bullet train that is . Anyway i have a relatively flexible work schedule and can do a lot from home so not too worried about the commute.

My dilemma is this:
Our current lease expires in Sept 2013 and notice is required in August. If we begin an earnest home search now, we probably will find one in a short amount of time (the inventory is pretty low apparently). But we wont be ready to close on any house seeing we still have our lease. Is it possible to get out of a lease because you've bought a house? I doubt it. In any case unless we have other folks to take over our rent we will still be responsible for it.

If we wait till closer to August, my concerns are the following
a) School starts in August so it would be nice to have settled on where we were moving to for enrollment purposes. Ideally moving in July would be great so our kids have about a month to adjust.

b) From what ive been reading/hearing it appears home prices are set to increase by that time (both resale/new). As I understand it, summer is always a realestate frenzy as folks relocate to be close to certain schools. Even now we are not seeing a lot within our price range. We dont want short sales.

c) If we chose to buy new, we'd have to do so early to factor in time to build (3-4mths is what I understand to be the case)

d) Coupled with all this we are in the process of renting our old home in AZ.

I would appreciate some advice or thoughts about whether to go for new home now or wait until around june/july to search for resales.

Appreciate the feedback.

[Sdsuchelle]

My husband and I moved to Temecula from San Diego in October. He commutes daily to Carmel Valley and it takes him about an hour. However, we used to live in La jolla and the commute took him 30 minutes to go less than 8 miles. All of the homes in our price range (same as yours) were in areas like Chula Vista or El Cajon, and the commute time was the same as it is to Temecula. He said that even though the commute to Temecula is longer, it's worth it and it's less frustrating because traffic usually moves pretty well. You can also get a FastTrak pass so you can use the express lanes if you're running late or traffic is backed up.

As for your lease I don't think you can get out of it for buying a home, unless your landlord is willing to work with you. Our lease was up last May and our landlord was really nice and let us go month-to-month while we looked for a house. We ended up buying a new construction home in July and it was finished in mid-October. If you think you want a new home before school begins, I would start seriously looking now.

Unless the market changes, if you're looking for a "used" (pre-owned? Lol) home, I've heard the inventory is very low and homes are getting multiple offers. You may want to factor that into your search and start looking sooner rather than later. I loved buying a new home just because we didn't have to deal with that.

[Count David]

Have you considered Mira Mesa or Poway?

[JohnSoCal]

Originally Posted by David Aguilar

Have you considered Mira Mesa or Poway?

Are you joking. The median price of a home in Poway is approximately $450,000 vs $243,000 in Murrieta. The price per sq. ft. is even higher. Mira Mesa isn't much different. You can buy a nice newer 2500 sq. ft. house in Murrieta for less than $300,000. An equivalent home in Poway will cost $650-700,000. We lived in Poway for several years before retiring and moving to Murrieta in 2002. We liked Poway but far prefer living in Murrieta/Temecula.

[Count David]

Originally Posted by JohnSoCal

Are you joking. The median price of a home in Poway is approximately $450,000 vs $243,000 in Murrieta. The price per sq. ft. is even higher. Mira Mesa isn't much different. You can buy a nice newer 2500 sq. ft. house in Murrieta for less than $300,000. An equivalent home in Poway will cost $650-700,000. We lived in Poway for several years before retiring and moving to Murrieta in 2002. We liked Poway but far prefer living in Murrieta/Temecula.

Not joking, but surely there is something not almost 60 miles away?

However, OP says he's not too concerned about the commute......

[Arinze75]

Hi SdSuchelle

Thanks for the feedback. Contacted some new home builders yesterday - some places have sold out. Anyway my head tells me that buying new and building now is probably the better way to go given our circumstance.

[Arinze75]

Originally Posted by David Aguilar

Have you considered Mira Mesa or Poway?

Hi David
Thanks for your response. No I didn't consider Mira Mesa or Poway for the reasons JohnSoCal mentioned. The only houses in our price range in these areas are condos - really small ones at that.

[Sdsuchelle]

Originally Posted by Arinze75

Hi SdSuchelle

Thanks for the feedback. Contacted some new home builders yesterday - some places have sold out. Anyway my head tells me that buying new and building now is probably the better way to go given our circumstance.

Yeah, I think a lot of the developments that we looked at are finishing up or sold out already. We bought a KB Home in Paseo Del Sol towards the end of development and they're finished building them. I highly recommend KB if you find a development from them, though. I was worried about them because I've heard horror stories online, but the experience was actually really easy and everyone was great.

Good luck with your search! I love it up here, I think you will too

[JohnSoCal]

Standard Pacific has some developments in the area. We have bought new homes 3 times from Standard Pacific. They are a good company that builds very good homes.

Inland Empire New Homes | Inland Empire Homes for Sale

[DCmum]

You can sublet your current rental when you close on your house with your landlord's approval and transfer the lease