Would Love Advice - Newbie City Buyer (Hillcrest Area)

[sdurbanite]

You should look into South Mission Hills, which is the area bounded by Washington St to the North and Goldfinch/Reynard to the East. I used to live in the area and it's mostly houses, with only a handful of apartments and businesses.

[NYSD1995]

City of SD close-in to downtown is exactly what you see - a hodge-podge of upscale restored gorgeous places, newer infill, old junk houses and crapola apartments. That's just how it is. A lot of run-down property mixed in with spectactular ones. IMO townhome living is better suited in areas with new construction (i.e. downtown SD), older close-in areas are really better for single-fam homes.

[WanderHappy]

Thanks, everyone, for all of your advice! Sassberto, thanks for confirming what I was seeing -- that it's mixed and that's what you get if you want to be in the city. I liked the Mission Hills neighborhoods the best, but while beautiful, they are not walkable to a lot of restaurants, shops and things to do...and Balboa Park.

I did find a nice townhouse that is technically in Mission Hills and just borders Hillcrest, so I can walk to the area you mentioned, SDurbanite, within a few blocks and also be at the Hillcrest movie theater and restaurants in a few blocks and still get to Balboa Park fairly quickly. My offer was accepted, so if all goes well with the inspection, I'll be an official San Diego resident!

Right now, inventory is in short supply and I've been informed that it's now a seller's market. While prices are still lower, sellers have more negotiating power than before (my understanding is that typical offers would go in for about 10% off the asking price). Interestingly, I'm selling a house in New England, also in a seller's market right now (although it hasn't recovered as fast as San Diego in terms of home prices). Our New England realtor says that New Englanders won't even make crazy offers. If a house is more than 5% over their budget, they won't even bother looking at it because they don't want to insult the seller with a low offer. Very different market. Thankfully, the selling cycle is about the same as San Diego, so things go fast and there are still bidding wars there.

I think what helped us in this home purchase in Mission Hills is that we put an offer in early in the cycle -- I was told for townhomes and condos, it's about 60 days right now.

I've been looking for places for over a year now, unsure of where to live. I am truly happy to be officially moving to San Diego!

[tonyinsd]

Yes, it is a seller's market. My father and I put in an offer on a place in Mission Hills. We offered $10K more than the listing price. They took the offer, but before they sent the paperwork over, one of the people we beat sent over proof of available cash so they could close like that. We lost.

So we went to a property in the East Village. I'm happy with it, and I like it. But here is what is crazy. We had our offer accepted on January 31, and we are going to close on Monday. In that time, a property that's exactly the same has gone on the market and it's listing for $5K more than what we paid. They will get that, if not more!

[WanderHappy]

Tonyinsd, I had a situation like yours, but in New England -- it's no fun to have a house go into a bidding war or similar situation. I'm glad you found something you like -- East Village is great -- good thing you got in just in time before the inventory dried up!