Should I stay or should i go?

[SurfFuerteventura]

My mother won one of those ages ago.
Granted she's no surfer, and this was in Maryland, but her experience may benefit you. She bought and occupied for the 1st 5 years. Then had my brother move in with his new wife and kid. They stayed 15 years and left with 2 more kids when the placegot too small for their family. My mom occupied it another 10 years, then sold at a huge profit, because after 30 years everything goes up a bunch, and used said profit to buy her retirement home.

Maybe get it, stay there for a bit, then have your kid use it as her starter home, in 30 years you can will it to her or sell it and buy her a home for her future family mortgage free.

 

[GromsDad]

Around 2005 I came real close to moving 4 miles inland. Sat in front of the new house and drove to my usual surf spot. Even in the offseason it was 15 minutes. Couldn't do it. Pulled the plug on the whole deal.

 

[picklestein]

$485k doesn’t get you much anymore anywhere.

I think you should buy it asap. You can always sell it down the road and go back to renting. You won’t make money off selling it, but at least you’re locked in now and can decide later if it’s not working out. Maybe in a few years the rental market won’t be so cutthroat. Plus it really is incredible for the mind to know your rent won’t rise and you won’t get kicked out. Get a storage unit for any crap that won’t fit. Loan out the grand with the option to get it back down the road. Maybe Westmont or one of the High Schools could use it.

If you look around the US, rental housing is fooked everywhere. Even the crappy states aren’t cheap anymore. The grass isn’t greener. Even though SB is ridiculous right now, it’s still a special place.

 

[r32]

$485k doesn’t get you much anymore anywhere.

So true.

Stopped Fresno on my way back from Yosemite last trip. The north side of Fresno and edge of neighboring city Madera is exploding. Over 5000 new homes being built in about 8-10 different communities, all way up the hills to Millerton Lake which is in foothills just above Fresno to Northeast. All used to be farm land. Now, all new homes.

I looked up prices and it's more expensive than I thought. And the homes kind of look garbage design.

High $300's for 1200 sqft and $700k+ for nicer models. For Fresno.

New Homes for sale in Madera, CA | Tesoro Viejo

Tesoro Viejo is a new master planned community in Madera CA. Open space layout and outdoor amenities with 1,600 acres in the San Joaquin Valley offering...

tesoroviejo.com

Highway 41 left side



and on other side of 41 in same area

Riverstone

www.riverstoneca.com

and Copper River, on formerly north edge of Fresno

Starting in low $700s

Home - Copper River Country Club

copperrivercountryclub.com

Copper River Ranch – Granville Homes

gvhomes.com

$1.4m to live in Fresno. Holy hell.





and just north of Copper River

Canyon Ridge at The Preserve in Friant, CA by Woodside Homes

Canyon Ridge at The Preserve is a community of new homes in Friant, CA. Build your dream house with Woodside Homes flexible floorplans and upgradeable options.

www.woodsidehomes.com

 

[ElOgro]

So true.

Stopped Fresno on my way back from Yosemite last trip. The north side of Fresno and edge of neighboring city Madera is exploding. Over 5000 new homes being built in about 8-10 different communities, all way up the hills to Millerton Lake which is in foothills just above Fresno to Northeast. All used to be farm land. Now, all new homes.

I looked up prices and it's more expensive than I thought. And the homes kind of look garbage design.

High $300's for 1200 sqft and $700k+ for nicer models. For Fresno.

New Homes for sale in Madera, CA | Tesoro Viejo

Tesoro Viejo is a new master planned community in Madera CA. Open space layout and outdoor amenities with 1,600 acres in the San Joaquin Valley offering...

tesoroviejo.com

Highway 41 left side

View attachment 159831

and on other side of 41 in same area

Riverstone

www.riverstoneca.com

View attachment 159832


and Copper River, on formerly north edge of Fresno

Starting in low $700s

Home - Copper River Country Club

copperrivercountryclub.com

Copper River Ranch – Granville Homes

gvhomes.com

$1.4m to live in Fresno. Holy hell.

View attachment 159833



and just north of Copper River

Canyon Ridge at The Preserve in Friant, CA by Woodside Homes

Canyon Ridge at The Preserve is a community of new homes in Friant, CA. Build your dream house with Woodside Homes flexible floorplans and upgradeable options.

www.woodsidehomes.com

Fresno? GTFO. Seriously.

 

[r32]

Fresno? GTFO. Seriously.

That's California now. Everything expensive.

Fresno about to go from 544k population to 600k+. And Clovis next to Fresno also expanding and homes as expensive. Soon that area will be over 1m population.


Clovis which is connected to Fresno.

 

[silentbutdeadly]

My In-laws live in Fresno. Crazy how much that part of it has changed in the 25 years I’ve been visiting.

 

[r32]

My In-laws live in Fresno. Crazy how much that part of it has changed in the 25 years I’ve been visiting.

Yah, Fresno has blown up, especially on the north and west sides. So many new homes in last 25 years, so many new businesses, shopping/retail areas, and office complexes.

 

[Havoc]

marlin crawler is in fresno

 

[grapedrink]

That's California now. Everything expensive.

Fresno about to go from 544k population to 600k+. And Clovis next to Fresno also expanding and homes as expensive. Soon that area will be over 1m population.


Clovis which is connected to Fresno.

View attachment 159839



View attachment 159838

Clovis has always the "safe space" for wealthy people in the area where you don't have to worry about your kids going to school with gangbangers. Those with well paying jobs in the Ag sector live there and in a few other enclaves.

I've heard of houses in Hanford going for over a half mil recently

 

[ringer]

If you love living in SB, and can afford the monthly mortgage + HOA fee, snap that up. I know that you won't be able to resell it at market value, but you are purchasing it at below market value. Most affordable housing programs have a formula for how much the owner can sell it for later. It will be more than what you bought it for, just not market value. I say it beats renting, especially in Santa Barbara if you want to stay there.

 

[mundus]

Stay at the beach!

 

[sdsrfr]

What Is It About Montecito?

Trying to understand the allure of a place that’s home to Oprah, the self-exiled royals, a celebrity juicer, Katy Perry’s dad — and the New American dream.

www.nytimes.com

 

[Boneroni]

Well fvck.

We went and saw the place yesterday. It's really small and super junky. Badly taken care of interior and a few bad home improvement jobs. All that being said, we could make it work space wise if we made some substantial changes.

But

then we did the numbers, and even if we put %20 down (which we would have to borrow some of) our monthly housing expense would be over $1,000 more than what we are paying right now. (before storage and practice space costs)
And, any improvements we make to the place would NOT increase the sale price at all.

And, I kinda don't want to stay here. Growing up, I was always very good at mixing with the rich people, but as an adult it's different. And, with the warming climate, I think it's gonna get much much worse. I see quite a lot of normal looking people who live in their cars, and I can imagine that the service class (teachers, nurses, retail, etc.) will be completely priced out of the whole region in 10 years, and that there will be a very unpleasant dichotomous life style here (I guess trichotomous, if you count the ever increasing homeless population)

I'm over it. i want to live in a place with more regular people. I'm done struggling with this sh!t.

So, we are going to say no.

Thanks all for your good (and bad, lol) advice. It was truly helpful in the pondering of this situation.

 

[silentbutdeadly]

I may have missed it but what areas are you considering? Ultimately it comes down to what makes you and your family happy. I know it's obvious but it still should be said. A lot of people take too much influence from others.

 

[gbg]

There is a surfing life outside of socal and probably a better quality of life. If I was fully remote I would be in Maryland/Delaware May-Oct and PR the rest of the year. After my mom passes, I would be near the OBX May-Oct. Warm, clean water as compared to most of socal. If I had to buy or rent in socal at the top of the market, I would be gone in a flash.

 

[grapedrink]

Well fvck.

We went and saw the place yesterday. It's really small and super junky. Badly taken care of interior and a few bad home improvement jobs. All that being said, we could make it work space wise if we made some substantial changes.

But

then we did the numbers, and even if we put %20 down (which we would have to borrow some of) our monthly housing expense would be over $1,000 more than what we are paying right now. (before storage and practice space costs)
And, any improvements we make to the place would NOT increase the sale price at all.

And, I kinda don't want to stay here. Growing up, I was always very good at mixing with the rich people, but as an adult it's different. And, with the warming climate, I think it's gonna get much much worse. I see quite a lot of normal looking people who live in their cars, and I can imagine that the service class (teachers, nurses, retail, etc.) will be completely priced out of the whole region in 10 years, and that there will be a very unpleasant dichotomous life style here (I guess trichotomous, if you count the ever increasing homeless population)

I'm over it. i want to live in a place with more regular people. I'm done struggling with this sh!t.

So, we are going to say no.

Thanks all for your good (and bad, lol) advice. It was truly helpful in the pondering of this situation.

Are you sure you need 20% down? FHA loans can be had for 3.5-5% if owner occupied, which you clearly are.

Also- there may be specific loan programs for you or your wife based on what you do for a living. There are special loan programs for teachers, nurses, government workers etc

Agreed with your notion that in 10 years the service workers will be priced out . . . . This is well under way unfortunately and will happen sooner than you think

 

[Boneroni]

Are you sure you need 20% down? FHA loans can be had for 3.5-5% if owner occupied, which you clearly are.

The minimum is 3% down, but that just increases our monthly to more like $1,800 per month more than what we pay now.

 

[sdsrfr]

If you can’t make the numbers work you can’t make the numbers work. Sometimes it’s nice when you get a hard no on something you’re emotionally tire kicking.

Curious where you have your sights set on next.

 

[gbg]

I am curious what your rent is now? $1800 more than you are paying?