so kinda following up on the "what you look for in a house/location" thread...
In september we're moving up to the bay area (got a new job in san ramon). driving up this weekend to scope out some potential rentals (one in san ramon and one in castro valley). I'd love to own... but still own a house in FL (moved from FL to southern CA last sept), and while i do finally have a renter (doing a rent-to-purchase), i'm still hurt financially from that. Can't afford (nor would I qualify for) a mortgage in the bay or east bay area. So for now, we rent. OK that's all well and good... but on one income (my wife is a stay-at-home mom), i don't know if we'll ever realistically be able to afford to purchase a home in that area. Enter Patterson. Patterson, CA. It's east of the bay area. It's east of the east bay area. Hell it's west New Jersey. My commute would be roughly an hour and change. But we could get a phenomenal rental there... and purchase something much much much sooner. Example: here's a rental we're looking at in san ramon. it's very close to work... 3 bedrooms, 1700 sq feet. $2100 a month: http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/apa/379869863.html here's a rental in patterson. it's very far from work... 5 bedrooms, 3336 sq ft $1850 a month: http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/apa/381093480.html (oh, and a lake in the backyard with a boat dock). If we rented in Patterson now, and bought in Patterson, we wouldn't be pulling the kids from school to school. If we rented in the east bay area, we'd be renting forever. And if we ultimately looked east to purchase, we'd have to change the kid's schools (which I'd rather not do if I can avoid it). My thought about Patterson is also that, even though it's so far east, it'll continue to grow and home values rise (as the bay area becomes too high priced for -anybody-). Our first house was about 40 minutes outside of Phoenix (Glendale, AZ). it was literally just houses and cows. That house is now 1 mile from the new AZ Cardinals stadium. Patterson could conceivably see that same kind of growth. As far as purchasing... here's a 2700 sq foot 5 bedroom house for $350k http://homes.realtor.com/prop/1080903482 $350k doesn't get you squat in the east bay area. I'm not saying $350k gets you a shack... i'm saying shacks start at $450k. So... bigger house for the family. Nicer/newer house for the family. Big commute for Charlie. I'm kinda torn :\ -- Charlie Griefer ================================================ "...All the world shall be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, prince with a swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Download the latest ColdFusion 8 utilities including Report Builder, plug-ins for Eclipse and Dreamweaver updates. http;//www.adobe.com/cfusion/entitlement/index.cfm?e=labs%5adobecf8%5Fbeta Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:239020 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
