Oh, California real estate prices... you make me laugh/cry

Once in awhile I’ll see an IG post from a realtor up in the Bay Area. She’ll show a $2 million dollar house and it is a small fixer upper. So $850,000 is not bad. 🤣 It is so crazy how we used to think $850,000 was outrageous.

I sold my home about a year an and a half ago. The current estimated value is over $300,000 MORE than I sold it for! That big of a gain in about 18 months! That is crazy. And I will be honest, it was not all that amazing of a home. Oh, the vaulted ceilings in both the living room and master bedroom looked great, but there is zero insulation in the ceiling of those two rooms. When I had it reroofed, they had to switch to shorter nails because they were coming through and visible in the living room. And in a California summer, it was horrible to try to cool it down. I frequently fell asleep in the family room, which was on the back of the house and cooler. Then I would move upstairs around 2 am when the temp had lowered enough to be habitable. My electric bill, with the pool and air conditioning, was edging up toward $600 per month! And here in Oregon, my electric bill hasn’t even hit $100, even in the summer. So yeah, there are many things about owning a home in California that I do not miss. I think the only thing I miss is living in the same state as my son and our regular lunches together.

Desirable (general) areas in a desirable state have extreme prices no doubt. FWIW not all homes are this extreme in CA. But they may still seem extreme to people out of state. And yes prices are still very high. But not every house in the entire state is a million dollars for a tear down tiny home.
Unfortunately for semi reasonable prices you won't be near the coast or big cities.

www.zillow.com/homedetails/43406-Tylman-St-Temecula-CA-92592/18192800_zpid/

Seaside? Hell no would I buy there and that house is very overpriced.

Yes it’s cute. It has charm. It’s perfect for a single person. BUT no view, just off a busy road, and SEASIDE. 😂

I went to CSUMB and avoided that area of town as much as possible.

Look at Salinas and Watsonville. I’d actually consider Watsonville.

I really love the wood floors, but I don't love them that much! Sorry about you continuing to have to live out of hotels, though!

Have you considered renting a place instead of buying.

I get a fair amount of rental applicants in your situation - work in the area often but don’t live here permanently and tired of hotels.

I’m in SoCal - high prices with high interest rates often make it less expensive to rent. The missed opportunity of the money that is tied up in the home could be invested elsewhere at a better return - add in expenses/taxes/insurance/repairs etc plus the interest you are paying on any potential borrowed money buying may not make financial sense.

As a landlord - I love tenants who only live in the house part time. As an investor - I’m choosing to not buy more real estate as an investment right now.

I had to laugh at "Ocean view from roof".

Tell me about it. I am born and raised San Diego and I never would have thought my childhood home would be worth a million dollars, but here we are. It has been very interesting to see the demographics of my parents neighborhood change as previous owners move out or pass away. It was very much a working class neighborhood when I was growing up and it is changing a lot!

on a selfish note, as a So Cal homeowner who lives 4 miles from the beach, i hope home prices skyrocket to obnoxious levels.  when we put the house for sale in a few years to retire out of state, i want to realize a massive profit even after paying off the current mortgage. i want those proceeds to pay off the new house and still leave us with plenty left over.  we have no plans of returning to CA so i want to leave with as much as possible. 
  

Same as a CA homeowner.  I live in Calaveras county which is pretty much the LAST affordable area of the state. In 10-12 years we are outta here.  Not sure where to but my CA retirement will help us live comfortably in a cheaper state.