buying a house

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slantscamp

slantscamp

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walnut creek, ca
so my girlfriend and i have been looking at buying a house. the only thing is everything around here is 500 thousand and up. today we found condos for 200,000. so i ended up talking to a lender and giving him all my information. turns out i qualify. so my girlfriend is going to drop off a check tomorrow to hold it. pretty scary stuff. just thought i would let you guys know. the only thing that sucks is i will not be able to do much to my scamp since most my income will be going to a house payment. oh well.

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Dude the housing market is tanking big time in California. It is going to get a lot worse. This is only the beginning.

Some people would say you're an idiot to buy a house with a girlfriend because you could seriously get burned. If you are not married why buy now with your girlfriend? What if you don't marry her? She would be entitled to half of the equity if you put her on the deed. Something to think about is just waiting another year. JMHO.
 
people are still buying. i build houses that start at 800,000 and they push us to build them faster. i understand the market isnt good. which is why i want to buy now. and as for the marriage, i dont believe people need a piece of paper to tell each other how they feel. we have a mutual agreement and i love my girlfriend. and if she leaves and tries to take half. i will kill her. 8) oh and i heard that in california if you live with someone for more than like 7 years. they consider you married anyway. so im pretty much screwed.
 
daves66valiant said:
Dude the housing market is tanking big time in California. It is going to get a lot worse. This is only the beginning.

Some people would say you're an idiot to buy a house with a girlfriend because you could seriously get burned. If you are not married why buy now with your girlfriend? What if you don't marry her? She would be entitled to half of the equity if you put her on the deed. Something to think about is just waiting another year. JMHO.
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i would agree, simply because that if either person wont make a commitment for life, then what makes them stay? people take marriage way too lightly anymore. for example, if you are divorced, credit is harder to get, simply because if you cant commit to marriage then why would you commit to paying your bills? im not judging you personally so dont take this wrong. but the facts are a little piece of paper does make alot of difference.
however i would agree that now is a good time to buy.
 
Congrats Slantscamp. Buying a house in CA is TOUGH! I'm in a position to buy my parents house in UC, the one I am currently renting. It's not an easy decision as it would seriously limit how much money I have to spend on the Mopars. I seems to be the sensible solution right now. My gal and I are also not married. It will be 5 years in September with no plans of marriage. But we will most likely buy the house together. I'm just glad she supports my Mopar hobby.
 
You are building homes in a price range where most buyer are VERY liquid. They have assets to buy and price isn't a big deal to them. Same situation here in the Palm Springs area. High end stuff is still moving relatively well. This will behind to grind to a stop as Jumbo loans have gone from 5% to 8% in the last few weeks. Now it cost roughly 40-60% more to service the same loan.

The lower end market is getting killed. Look at what it cost you to rent vs. the all in cost to own, PITI, HOA, maintanence and see if it makes sense. Don't buy because of the "nesting" instinct. Bad choice.

I live in an area that was hyper price growth. The place I live in, that I rent, would have sold at about 535-540 at the peak. Now they would be lucky to get 385-400. Price per sq ft have dropped from around 240 to a low in the complex of 130. Foreclosures are undercutting the screwed flippers now. The foreclosure freight train has just left the station in CA. It's going to get VERY ugly.

I'd bet that 200k condo will be 100K in 2-3 years. Condos get killed worse than SFR in down cycles.

Just my 2 cents being a veteran of going through 3 real estate boom/bust cycles in CA.
 
crackedback said:
You are building homes in a price range where most buyer are VERY liquid. They have assets to buy and price isn't a big deal to them. Same situation here in the Palm Springs area. High end stuff is still moving relatively well. This will behind to grind to a stop as Jumbo loans have gone from 5% to 8% in the last few weeks. Now it cost roughly 40-60% more to service the same loan.

The lower end market is getting killed. Look at what it cost you to rent vs. the all in cost to own, PITI, HOA, maintanence and see if it makes sense. Don't buy because of the "nesting" instinct. Bad choice.

I live in an area that was hyper price growth. The place I live in, that I rent, would have sold at about 535-540 at the peak. Now they would be lucky to get 385-400. Price per sq ft have dropped from around 240 to a low in the complex of 130. Foreclosures are undercutting the screwed flippers now. The foreclosure freight train has just left the station in CA. It's going to get VERY ugly.

I'd bet that 200k condo will be 100K in 2-3 years. Condos get killed worse than SFR in down cycles.

Just my 2 cents being a veteran of going through 3 real estate boom/bust cycles in CA.
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I have to agree with crackedback on this one. What will it hurt to wait a little longer.....not your pocketbook that's for sure. I don't doubt that you love your girlfriend, but women are women and they will turn on you in a heartbeat whether they support your mopar habit or not. My good friend from work got royally screwed when he broke his engagement off. He made the mistake of putting her on the deed after she said that the house would always be his. A woman scorned is a bad thing = more money down the drain and lots of lawyer fees. As long as it is you buying the house leave her off the title/deed. It may come back to haunt you unless she is putting the 1/2 the down payment down on the house and pays half the mortgage. Then I'd say she is entitled to half of the house and not to mention the other half of everything you own if common law marriage is in effect.

My situation may be different and it may be my age, but I own a home in Cali which is great. But I'll be damned if a chick tries to take half of what I have worked so hard to earn. Too many chicks these days want the gravy train by pressuring men into marriage or even buying a home. All I can say for me and would suggest it to those that have assets to lose is....PRENUMP

I hope for the very best for you guys and good luck. Please heed the advice about waiting on the volatile California market. Do some more homework. Here are a couple of websites. CREonline.com and thenorrisgroup.com very good sites that talk about the California market.
 
Slant,

Here's a great site with lots of people from all walks of life. Some from the mortgage, realty industry that post on the site. People on the site have been calling the change/bust for two years. Lots of Micro/macro economic issues get addressed. Sometime it seems to be the same thing over and over, but, there are gold nuggets in the post if you read through them.

http://thehousingbubbleblog.com/
 
If a women contributes to the mortgage then she should be entitled to half. Plus if you are married and she doesn't work she is entitled to half anyway so having the piece of paper that says you are married has no bering on ownership. Prenuptual agreements only work on assets that you owned before the partnership or marriage not after or during. Even if you had a house before you were married or partnered with someone the argument gets made that they contributed to the home while living in it so they would be entitled to partial equity. Now we all know in the long run it would cost more in attorney fees to deside what that amount would be so half is just better and easier in the long run.

Slantscamp, the best thing ever did was buy real estate so right on and I am sure it will be worth it. Real estate is one of the best investments out there.


Chuck
 
Buying a home is great! I bought my home with my girlfriend... Everything has been good so far 3 years!

Well... there was one time, and then that other too!!! Well... Lets not worry you! Do what you feel is best!
 
Whether you have a girlfriend or a wife, it doesn't come with a guarantee so I don't think that was the concern slantscamp had. In fact I don't think he had any concerns, just sharing the happy and scary new development in his life. Good luck, I hope it works out well. :-D
 
Slantscamp, Does that condo have a garage to work in? If not I would wait till you find something more suitable. Buying a house is a big step and I would not get into the the habit of settling. Wait for something you really want, If it means holding out for awhile then do it. As far as the girlfriend thing, you do what ever you like. None of us here know your situation and it's not right to pass judgement on anyone. Yeah, I know people have been burnt before but that doesn't mean it's going to happen to you. Hope you two have a great time together, If she makes you happy then what's the problem? By the way, That's a beautiful scamp you got.
 
I truly was not trying to bring anyone down or pass any judgements. I was super happy when I bought my first house. It's an awesome event. I'm sure you'll be happy with your GF and probably future wife. Was pointing out the concerns that some young couples overlook that's all. Nothing was personal. Those single family homes that are in the $500's now will soon be in the 300-400s. Once you get to less than jumbo loan rates (~8% now) you will find much better options than a condo. The big plus is that it will be a better investment. And you will have a real garage without the HOA hags telling you that you can't work on your car at the condo complex. The newspapers are full of info right now about foreclosures and values dropping like crazy. Buyers are scared to get anything right now because they may be upside down in a few months after they close on the house. Prices are likely to continue going down for the next 12-18 months. This seems to be a much crazier cycle than the ones of the past. Zero fundamentals going on right now.
 
I posted what I did to open up your mind to the fact that buying a place may not be the best decision right now.

First and foremost... NEVER expect to make money on the home you live in. Buy it for what it is, shelter. If you can buy something that makes sense for you (rent vs buy analysis) and you are willing to watch it potentially decrease in value, then buy. If you can't stomach watching the value decline without eating maloxx, rent.

To give you an example of price swings. I bought a townhouse in Signal Hill CA for 130k in 1987. Value ran up to 235K by 1992 or so, then back to 135K in 1995-96 and didn't recover to the 1992 high until 2002-2003. I had two neighbors that bought at 200-235 in the previous peak, walked away from the properties in the late 90's.

Another point... DO NOT listen to realtors and their forecast for sales and price appreciation. They are in the business of selling property at the highest possible price, commission based. The Realty associations have been DEAD WRONG on any forecast (6 month to 2 year windows) over roughly the past 3 years. It's been falling prices since 2005.

Good luck with whatever decision you make.
 
I have given up on buying a home in my area. The average Home/Condo in my area are over $350,000. and that wont buy you much. Maybe 1200sqft on .25 acre with no garage an needing repairs.

New "starter" homes and condos are in the $500,000 range.

People tell me Im crazy for renting and paying what I do because If I can afford this place I can afford a mortgage but for what Im paying here for 2000sqft and a 2 car garage on a half acre I wouldnt get much. Maybe something half the size if Im lucky in a crappy area.

Then You still need to worry about repairs, insurance and taxes. If I buy it wont be in this state.
 
Good luck on the condo/house, whateve you get. I can say, and it's just my opinion, that you would be better off getting married, or at least making sure your state has "common law" marriage laws that apply to you. I boought a house with a previous fiance and it didn't work out. I was married to another girl before I could get the old girlfriend to sign a quit claim deed on my house. This could make it impossible to re-finance if you were to break up and need to make a move or something.
 
I'll just get to the point,

CONGRADS on the house!

EEEEEEnuff said.
 
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