I wish I have one! But I don’t. So as of now, we are somewhat in a hold and see position. In the past month or so, Tom and I had done two more round of looking. The first one is just Tom and me, on our own to reassess the situation since December. We think the price ceiling is starting to crack for this area. We start to see more listing closer to the $1M. Before, we can’t even find anything workable under the $1.25M range.
In the second round, we picked a few homes we thought had high potential and arranged for the agent to show us. Mom and Dennis joined us for this outing, figure it doesn’t hurt to have couple sets of objective eyes.
Here are the ones we actually went inside:
Weird Garage Entrance – This one is empty now. The location is decent. It does have a good city view from the house on a clear day. The previous owner did some renovation, but it is really strange. The attached garage entrance door is through the master bedroom. The master bathroom is barely master size and the two sinks are facing each other. This means the mirrors are facing each other. So you have this interesting effect of eternal reflection of each other. It does have plenty of rooms, one single floor, still some minor touch up to do, but not significant. There is a two-way fireplace separating the living room from the kitchen. Unfortunately, it also blocked out the city view from the kitchen then. The property is quite private since there is only couple neighbors up the same drive way to the top of the hill.
The Dungeon House – This one is in a nice location. It has a good city view. Maybe you can see from the link, the house is on a slop, so your garage is higher than the entry level. Again, no direct garage access to the house. And the place has not been renovated since the 50’s when it was originally built! You walk in the front door and immediately in front of you is this narrow staircase going down the second level. So that is why I felt like I am going down to the dungeon.
The Rock House - This is probably one of the worst one we have seen. Totally outdated and small, the agent calls this an entry level home for the area. I picked it because it was actually below $1M. The outside looks decent; I like the exterior rock walls. But the interior and home extension really made me run!
The Garden Home – This is probably one of the better one. It is like a little B&B, very charming. Most of the home has been updated in the last 10 years. So it is still in our workable time line. The home owner must be a big time gardener. Now, Tom and I probably need a full time gardener to handle this place! The down side is no view of any kind. I totally don’t have a green thumb. Tom claims to have one, but I am pretty sure he prefers to play than to garden.
Nice Backyard House in Front of Elementary School – I think they are out of their mind. The so called peek-a-boo ocean view is standing between the house and the school on the street. The bedrooms are small and outdated. They spent most of the money in the backyard. What for??? Sometimes, you wonder what people really value in a home!!! The next door brand new construction is going into default. So this home owner made an offer to the next door one and wants to sell this old one. The brand new construction double size totally upgraded is probably ending up to be $1.7M, and this 1950 old one wanting $1.26M is therefore now classified as “out of their mind” in my book.
At the end of the day, we concluded that none of these would do. Yes, all four of us, not just Tom and me. Anyway, looking at all the numbers and market condition, it is worth the wait.
CA reported the Feb unemployment rate. Los Angeles County is at 10.5%, yes double digits! Inland Empire is worse at 11.1% (This is the desert area, far from the LA area). OC is a bit better at 7.3%. And the national average is 8+%.
For the last 3 months, looking at home pricing, the average drop has been 2% each month. This is faster than what we can save with Tom’s rental. Yes, a 2% drop on a $1M home is $20K. And since the job outlook isn’t too bright here, this trend is most likely to continue or to accelerate. So we plan to hold onto the sideline for now. That is, until next housing update….I think the problem is we haven’t truly seen a home we both can fall in love with, so we don’t mind the wait.
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