How much money is needed to live comfortably in San Diego (apartment, HOA fees)

[sandiegoguy22]

This is a question I always wondered and wanted to ask in these boards but never got around to it. Living comfortable varies between people.

For me, if i were to stay in San Diego, i'd want a 4+bed/3+bath (minimum 3bed/2bath) house (not apartment or condo, A HOUSE) in Outter-Central San Diego (specifically Mission Valley, Clairemont, University City, and Bay Ho/Park). Good neighborhood and schools. this would be when i settle down

and i dont mind living in those areas before i settle down. i can drive around for bars, clubs, friends, events, etc.

I know im not giving that much info. Not trying to get anything concrete, just an estimate. Hopefully yall can figure out everything by yourself. So how much green paper would i need? 500k? a million? half a billion? 2 trillion? what depressing numbers yall got for me

and of corse if you need to know more than let me know

[Cardiff Kook]

are you single?

I'm not sure what you are asking. Are you asking how much cash you need to buy a house outright? Or how much to retire? Or do you want annual salary numbers?

[eastcoastbias]

The home expenses are by far the largest expense you will incur so I would base everything off of that.

Your monthly home mortage, interest, taxes, insurance and maybe HOA fees should not exceed 35% of your gross household income. Some people even say 30%. If you have debt you are paying off I would say 25%.

[earlyretirement]

The answer will hugely vary based on your personal situation and circumstances. It will really vary based on what area you decide to buy your home in and ultimately how much your mortgage is, how many kids you have, if you plan on sending those kids to public or private schools, how many extracurricular activities your kids are in (trust me they add up), if you have car payments you have to think about.

Also, something I've found is many people I've met just look at their monthly "nut" and how much they have to make to get buy each month but they aren't really saving any significant amount of money which is a huge mistake. So you have to factor that in as well.

Good houses at the 4 bedroom size in any neighborhood of SD with excellent school districts aren't going to be cheap.

But it just depends on what kind of life you are currently living or want to live. You can spend quite a bit of money here if you have kids. But in order to answer your question, more information would be needed like how many kids you have.

You ask how much "green paper" would you need. I agree with GMUAlum that it's confusing what you are asking? How much cash you'd need to outright buy your house?

[hitman619]

My questions back to you is how much money do you have?
You need to be making atlease 120k total family income to make it here!

[bouncethelight]

Originally Posted by GMUAlum08

are you single?

I'm not sure what you are asking. Are you asking how much cash you need to buy a house outright? Or how much to retire? Or do you want annual salary numbers?

I interpreted the post to mean he's 22 and is in decision making mode, and trying to decide if he even wants to stay in San Diego - because if he does stay, he wants to know that at some point he can live in one of his favorite neighborhoods.

sandiegoguy22, you say you're looking for a rough estimate, so here's one! If you're making $100,000 a year, and have no other debt, this calculator still says you can only afford a house worth $328,000. Is that enough to get you what you want? Probably not.

So then your options are to save a large down payment first, or scale back your expectations, or make more money. Or a combination of all three!

[Dr. Vox]

^ It's really only the housing costs that kill everything here. I really hate to sound morbid here, and forgive me, if this sounds insensitive, as I am not trying to be. But, do you have rich relatives? Are you expecting a large windall in the near future? I have a friend, who is a public school teacher, and could NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS afford a home in the coastal parts of San Diego. However, his parents bought a home in La Jolla a long time ago. Both died of cancer, and left him the house.Due to Prop 13 taxes in the State of California, a person is able to tranfer those prop taxes, ONLY to immediate family members. Since the house was all paid off, he only has to pay the taxes, which probably end up costing him about $3,000 a year roughly. So, no even on his public school salary he is living like someone who is a multi-millionaire, because he has no debt, and was able to get a wonderful home, and still keep it, due to the prop taxes being so low. I understand MOST people can only dream of being in such a situation, but its still can happen.

[sandiegoguy22]

i made this at night so yeah didnt think much. reading my op i saw that it's horribly worded, my bad

this is a hypothetical thread. trying to see how much money i'd need to live in san diego by my standards. i decided last year i dont wanna stay here cuz its too expensive, BUT i will consider it. im 23 years old, single, no debt

for now lets forget about my single life and focus on when i settle down. say i got two kids and live in a good neighborhood with good schools. kids go to public schools. since i like basketball, lets say my kids grow up to be 7foot 260lb nba ballers. no jk but they have some extra-curricular activities, not a lot.

we want good healthcare, good retirement plan, two good (not great) cars, go out as a fam few times a year, etc etc the works.

so how much would a married couple need to make annually?

[ontheGtrain]

I make 105k per year. No kids, a wife that cannot find a good job here, and two dogs. No credit card debt and very little reoccurring debt (135/month student loans and one car payment of 224/month) and we just get by here in SD. We are having a very difficult time finding a house that I can afford to buy that is not in a bad area or does not need a lot of money put into it the day we move in. I cannot say about you because I don't know what you consider living decent but for me in my situation, I would need around 200k per year to buy a nice small home and fully fund my retirement and live decent here in San Diego. And that is living in east county. Near the coast I would say 400k per year. And that is with no kids. For each kid I would say add another 40k/50k per year per kid.

[shmoov_groovzsd]

Yeah I completely agree with the others here. 'Comfortable' is subjective, but for all intents and purposes, I think the only way to really see if it fits you is to see what others post from their experience.

Financially speaking, if you were to take the more cut and paste traditional approach (1/3 income to monthly mortgage), bouncethelight's post is spot on. You would need to earn 100k/yr straight up with 0 debt for owning a ~325k property.

However, as I mentioned in another post, those basic principles of economics dont apply here in some instances (there are plenty of people that do earn a very good salary).
IMHO, if you dont follow those simple rules mentioned above, then you will be neglecting something in your budget over the long run, especially if you want to retire down the line in a comfrotable financial situation. The risk in SD, at least from people I know, is that they think of their home as their 'savings' because prices here ALWAYS go up. I cant argue with that considering the fact that it has and exponentially at that, but I dont agree that a house is savings, but it CAN be an asset.

Everyone sees it differently and there is no right or wrong answer. But in terms of the OP, from a financial aspect, you should be willing to accept the compromise of what you want for the dollar you are willing to spend on what you earn. Not your "projected' earnings in 10 years, but realistically what it is when you are ready to buy.
I always feel that for as much as people really love it here, some are living paycheck to paycheck 'trying' to pay for a lifestyle they can barely afford and why not, if you really love a place. But 'loving' a place doesnt necessarily equate to realistic expectations for paying bills

Based on the above, right now for a 500k home you would need to earn almost 200k to buy a house in the areas you mentioned to live comfortably and be able to save a nice chunk for retirement when you 'settle down'.