Hoping to move back to CA!! - La Mesa Question (San Diego: condos, house)

[UconnHusky]

Hello,

I grew up in La Mesa & El Cajon during my childhood days (15 years ago). My family however ended up moving to Connecticut, which is where I currently reside today.

At the moment, I commute to Manhattan and work as an investment banker for a prestigous investment firm. Now that I saved some money & work experience, I want to move back to the San Diego area.

I'm hoping to land a job in downtown San Diego at a financial services firm because I can't afford La Jolla at the moment, so I figured I would look at homes in La Mesa. I am shocked by the prices!!! How do people in California afford paying $500,000 for an average home? It seems to me as if these homes are over-priced by 30-40%. When should prices fall? My budget is $300,000. What can I buy with this amount?

The last place I would want to ever move to is El Cajon, I remember viewing that place as a dump when I was a kid.

Also, how long would the commute be from La Mesa to downtown San Diego?

Thanks,
Uconn

[NYSD1995]

Originally Posted by UconnHusky

It seems to me as if these homes are over-priced by 30-40%. When should prices fall? My budget is $300,000. What can I buy with this amount?

Also, how long would the commute be from La Mesa to downtown San Diego?

Prices have fallen, just not very much, especially at the entry-level. Personally I don't think median prices are going to fall much more than another 10% over the next year, and starter SFH will remain around the 4-500k mark.

You should be able to find a modest 1 or 2BR condo in La Mesa or nearby for around 300k. Commute to Downtown should be about 30 minutes max.

Personally, if I had a 300k budget I would be looking at 1 and 2BR condo conversions in either El Cajon or the City of SD itself. La Mesa has very few for-sale condos.

[BNB]

Your commute could be as short as 15 minutes on a good day, but I would allow 30 minutes, depending how far you are from the freeway of course, time of day you commute and what freeway you take.

[tygr]

yeah, i'm thinkin' w/that budget you need to go condo.

We have a very modest house in Lemon Grove-right next to La Mesa.
1500 sq ft 3/2 and it was just appraised for 500K.
If I had to buy right now, I couldn't even afford my own house!

[kettlepot]

If you're going to work downtown, seriously consider buying next to the trolley. There are several more trolley lines than there used to be so you have more choices than simply the line to the border. Spare yourself the drive. You must be doing MetroNorth right now, so this will be old hat to you.

As for housing/condo prices, they've already dropped 10% - 15%, so I agree maybe 10% more, max, over the next year.

[leighland]

The trolley (sdcommute dot com) from amaya to downtown is around 40 minutes. My DH used to take the trolley commute .. There are some condos listed at 200K next to that stop. Theyre called central park. the apts are nice and you can walk to albertsons and less than 5 min drive to grossmont center. they allow dogs (no pitbulls allowed in la mesa).also you don't have to leave your car at the stop as some regular parkers claim most stops have bad break-in problems. I've never had trouble tho.