Trip to San Diego

[germdoc]

I recently got back from a trip to sunny Southern Cal. for a couple of medical meetings. One was held at Liberty Station, former site of the Naval Training Center. (Between the beautiful locations and the really cool uniforms I knew I should have gone Navy instead of Air Force...) Really neat place. The second meeting was downtown at the Convention Center. I stayed in a REALLY COOL hotel--the Solamar--so cool they have catalogues where you can buy their furnishings. I did pay a visit to Coronado Island, with its famous hotel and beautiful beach.

The food was great, the weather was excellent, the scenery was spectacular. I heard jazz every night. I thought about moving there.

Then I read that the median housing price was $506,000. For a 2-BR fixer-upper. I could build a 4000-square foot house with a swimming pool, 5 bedrooms, a 3-car garage, on 5 acres for that price in Wisconsin--if I tried real hard and padded the building costs with curly maple cabinets, marble fixtures in the bathrooms, etc. And the typical price for a home on Coronado Island is $2-3 million. Even for a hut.

I guess I'll stay in the upper Midwest. We have snow and rain, but no fires or earthquakes. And at least I can afford to live here...

[cgallery]

I've been struck the few times I've been to San Diego that it isn't that warm. Like today, 60 to 70-degrees in the forecast.

[cabinetman]

It's that location thing Jeff. Paradise doesn't come cheap. Maybe you could just buy a lot and then have your house trucked there. My BIL bought 10 acres in North Fla and offered two to us for free. It was in the middle of nowhere. He had to bulldoze his own road to get to the property.

Even though it was cheap, He had to pay very high impact fees to have a well installed and get power and other utilities to the property. We thanked him but had to say no.

[mkel2000]

Yes, real estate prices are still high, even though San Diego is going through a downturn with all the foreclosures related to the subprime mortgage debacle. There are cheaper homes out there selling after either foreclosure or on a short sale (short sale: the bank agrees to take less than they're owed prior to foreclosure so they don't have to go through the expensive foreclosure process. There are many homes being sold this way here. A co-worker is buying one for $100k less than what is owed on it.) Here's the latest resale figures from the San Diego Housing Commission:

Overall median home price (new and resale, attached and detached) . .$472,000
Average price of a new detached home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$835,794
Single-family resale home median price . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $540,000
Resale condo median price . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $380,000
Median price for newly-built houses, condos and condo conversions . . $395,000
National median home price . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$220,000
(The San Diego Union-Tribune, 2/15/07; DataQuick Information Systems; MarketPointe Realty; National Association of Realtors)


The actual figures are somewhat less right now. We are also undergoing a water "crisis", with the regions that supply our water doing everything they can to cut back or eliminate the supply. We are in about the seventh year of drought which doesn't help the situation.




I'm glad you enjoyed your trip. It sounds like you spent some time in the Gaslamp quarter downtown, which is definitely a nice area for tourists visiting San Diego. It will still be in the low 70's each day for the rest of October. Our winter doesn't really occur until January/February.



Mark

[JR]

It will still be in the low 70's each day for the rest of October.

As it is every day, day after day. Unless it is actually raining (all of 8 days a year), in which case it drops to 65. Or if there's a heat wave, it rockets up to 75.

Oh, the humanity! Oh, I wish I lived in San Diego!

JR

Oh, BTW, San Diego's real estate prices are less than just about any other coastal region in California. It's affordable!

[Alex Franke]

Indeed. I lived there for about 10 years, and I *really, really* wish I had bought a house there the day I moved. A $200k investement would have made me a millionnaire. Alas...

One thing about living there though: You start to take it all for granted after a while. I started missing all the seasons -- even winter. Sure, you can drive an hour and get the weather, but it's just not the same.

Oh, and all those "creative" trees that Dr. Seuss used to draw? He wasn't being creatve at all... All those trees are there in San Diego.

[atgcpaul]

True story. A year and a half ago, I called my parents in PA saying I was
moving back to the East Coast from San Diego to be closer to all my family
(and because my wife was getting a new job with the Fed). Their first words
were, "Why?"

I sure didn't miss the East Coast summer humidity but I love the three other
seasons.

[germdoc]

Reminds me of Yogi Berra: "Nobody goes to that restaurant anymore. It's too crowded."