[photopress:180px_California_state_seal.png,thumb,alignright]I recently returned from my almost annual vacation in beautiful California to visit my family and a few famous real estate bloggers (Dustin & Andy). And it was interesting to note what I learned about real estate in the Golden State during my two weeks down there…
Non surprises
Bay Area real estate is still expensive. That wasn’t surprising at all. It’s been that way as far back I can remember. During my coffee talk w/ Andy, we discussed how the San Francisco side of bubble bay has popped, and the Oakland side is peaking.
LA traffic is still awful.
Small Surprises
Santa Barbara is even more expensive than Silicon Valley.
Camp Pendleton is the only thing separting San Diego from Los Angeles & Orange County. I hope for San Diego’s sake, the Marines stay put.
RedFin has finally invaded the Bay Area. I wonder who’s next? 😉
Bay Area traffic is catching up to LA.
Big Surprises
Home values in Southern Ventura county (home to Dustin’s new employer) are on the ridiculous side of expensive. In fact, it’s Silicon Valley expensive. I wasn’t expecting cheap prices (after all, I did grow up in California), but I wasn’t expecting this!?
I didn’t expect Santa Ynez to be as expensive as it is. Maybe Wacko Jacko’s Neverland ranch has done to Santa Ynez’s property values, what Bill Gate’s house has done to Medina’s? My parent’s home town (Santa Maria) is comparitively inexpensive, but it’s about as pricely as the Seattle Eastside is (median price ~$450K).
San Diego County is downright cheap in comparission to it’s neighbors to the north. In fact, prices there are less than 10% more expensive than Bellevue! Maybe being next to the Mexican border is keeping prices low, but I would’ve expected San Diego to be second only to Santa Barbara and the Bay Area.
So what other markets in the country (or the rest of planet earth for that matter) have surprising prices (both more expensive and less expensive than you might expect)? I’ve heard from more than one local realtor, that many out of state real estate consumers have sticker shock when they first come to King County. And I’m still surprised that Portland is so cheap compared to it’s nothern & southern big city neighbors.
This post really hits home. 🙂
It was great to have you down here for a visit!
San Diego reminds me of Vancouver up here in the PNW in that the economy is limited but people move there for the lifestyle, not for the jobs. Vancouver’s skyline is all condos and it has sprawling suburbs. I suspect downtown San Diego will end up looking similar. The lack of jobs and the new supply of condos will keep prices low.
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I’m back in Missouri visiting and noticing 4 bedroom houses on circle drives in a forested setting going for $179,000 (about a quarter acre lot). And houses are not selling quick at this price even though the area is growing. This is not in a major metro area but still- it makes me wonder what people in California are really thinking. Sooner or later people are going to get fed up with big mortgage payments for their matchbox home..
Well, I think Coastal California will always be more expensive than the rest of the country. The weather is close to perfect and aside from the occasional earthquake, mother nature is very kind to the region.
What is most surprising to me is the premium that the Bay Area, the Central Coast, and LA/Orange Co. carries versus San Diego. If you use the jobs argument, why is the Central Coast still more expensive than San Diego? There seems to be a lot more of them in San Diego, than from Santa Barbara to Monterey. I think the Central Coast is half farm workers, and half retirrees. Aside from Cal Poly & UCSB, there don’t seem to be any large empolyeers of high-skilled and high-paying jobs on the Central Coast.
With that said, California isn’t all ocean-front property. If you want to live in affordable California (instead of beautiful California), you either move to the desert or the mountains. The Central Valley, Imperial Valley, and Inland Empire are certainly more affordable (though still expensive by Missouri standards) than their ocean facing neighbors to the west.
Well, I think Coastal California will always be more expensive than the rest of the country. The weather is close to perfect and aside from the occasional earthquake, mother nature is very kind to the region.
What is most surprising to me is the premium that the Bay Area, the Central Coast, and LA/Orange Co. carries versus San Diego. If you use the jobs argument, why is the Central Coast still more expensive than San Diego? There seems to be a lot more of them in San Diego, than from Santa Barbara to Monterey. I think the Central Coast is half farm workers, and half retirrees. Aside from Cal Poly & UCSB, there don’t seem to be any large empolyeers of high-skilled and high-paying jobs on the Central Coast.
With that said, California isn’t all ocean-front property. If you want to live in affordable California (instead of beautiful California), you either move to the desert or the mountains. The Central Valley, Imperial Valley, and Inland Empire are certainly more affordable (though still expensive by Missouri standards) than their ocean facing neighbors to the west.
I think there are two distinct trends happening that are influencin the growth of areas without a strong employment base.
1. The baby boomers are having as huge an impact on housing as they have had on every other sector of the market place over the last 50 years. They’re in the process of downsizing and moving to retirement areas, not necessarily close to the grandkids because flying has become so mainstream. I think that’s one reason that cities grow with a small employment base, especially in the warm areas.
The other trend is, of course, telecommuting which is allowing a worker going in to the office 1-2 days a week to possibly live 2 hours from work. Cle Elum, about 1.5 hours from Seattle is really growing and alot of it is from telecommuters.
I think there are two distinct trends happening that are influencin the growth of areas without a strong employment base.
1. The baby boomers are having as huge an impact on housing as they have had on every other sector of the market place over the last 50 years. They’re in the process of downsizing and moving to retirement areas, not necessarily close to the grandkids because flying has become so mainstream. I think that’s one reason that cities grow with a small employment base, especially in the warm areas.
The other trend is, of course, telecommuting which is allowing a worker going in to the office 1-2 days a week to possibly live 2 hours from work. Cle Elum, about 1.5 hours from Seattle is really growing and alot of it is from telecommuters.
>Bay Area traffic is catching up to LA.
I read this today. Actually from experience I know Bay area traffic is not as bad as Seattle and Eastside traffic.
I wrote a post on this after moving here and living for an year so far.
http://blog.rajgad.com/work/2006-08/comparing-living-in-seattle-eastside-or-silicon-valley-sf-bay-area-part-3.html
Thanks
Amit