buying a house in la Jolla (San Diego: bank owned, short sale, real estate)

[pinal]

We are renting right now and are looking to buy a house in the La Jolla area. There is so much information about market downfall, house prices bottoming out, that we have reached the bottom, the inventory will be gone, that I am completely confused.

Realtors try and push you into buying, but then again its their job.

With kids in school, if I donot buy now, it wouldn't be till next June.

What do the experts on the forum think. Have we bottomed out or is it going to get worse. Sassaberto, looking for your expert advice.

Thanks in advance.

[JBeaudette]

If you're asking if it's bottomed out, no one knows. No one will no for sure until prices start to rise again. It's pretty cutthroat right now, because there are a lot of good deals on foreclosures. People are starting bidding wars, paying all cash (there was a recent transaction in La Jolla where the buyer paid 700,000 IN CASH), it's tough.

Most San Diego experts say prices are going to continue dropping through 2009 and rise in 2010. You should probably be looking at places at the very least right now, buying a foreclosure/short sale/bank owned property can take multiple months to close.

[NYSD1995]

I have really no idea if we're at bottom or not. I do know that transactions are booming because prices have fallen, especially on the low end. 2 houses in my 'hood have recently sold for all-cash deals in the ~275k range after being on the market for 2 years. One has a cracked slab and the other looked like a bomb hit it. The latter was bought by a flipper who gutted it and will probably make some serious money on it if it sells. So it does appear that at least in my low-end hood, things are moving again.

Buying a house in La Jolla, that's out of my league. I would say if you can afford it, buy it.

[esmith143]

I do not believe that La Jolla has bottomed. There have been relatively few foreclosures in that area, and prices have been sticky. If you were looking at the condo, than maybe ... Houses have further to go.

One other thing about La Jolla is that the mortgage situation is rather difficult. I do not know your financial situation, maybe you have a million dollars in cash sitting in your bank account ... However, if you don't, you'll need a jumbo mortgage, it's harder to qualify for one, rates are higher, and you need 20-25% down.

[cobmw]

Rates on jumbo mortgages start at 7% and go up from there.

[cobmw]

That's for a fixed rate loan. ARM's are going lower, but a lot of people are just now feeling the pain from their ARM's.

[shingo333]

I don't feel we've bottomed out in CA. La Jolla is a great place to live, work, and study. My brother attended UCSD and lived their for 8 years. I visited him from LA bi-monthly at least just to get out of the LA smog and traffic. You'll love it.

The news is not always a good place to find out local news. Real estate is the same thing. I remember 1.5 - 2 years ago when CNN Money came out with a report that Real Estate Sales plummetted by double digits. People thought they were talking about the value of properties but in actuality, they were talking about transactions taken place.

I think La Jolla's overall value will be stronger than surrounding areas due to the location and amenities that it offers. Location. Location. Location. Which means in this down market, it will decrease less than other cities that don't have the good schools or amenities etc...

You can check out homes on realtordotcom and search the zip code 92122 which I'm sure you've done already.

Good luck!

[cobmw]

Here's an article in the North County Times about high end house prices. It doesn't say much, but you might like to read it.

HOUSING: Price weakness roars into high-end sector : North County Times - Californian 01-27-2009 (http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2009/01/27/business/z89562a29e31807fc8825754b005f2c38.txt - broken link)

[sav858]

There's also a good article today in the U-T talking about how the higher end market is worsening while the lower end may have reached bottom or be close to it. So I might wait if you're looking to buy a house over $450K

S.D. is 6th weakest housing market