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Is now a good time to buy a house?! (err... Condo)

P

Pho King

Member
A little background information:

I've been looking to buy a place for a while now. I was looking as far back as 2 years ago (during the housing frenzy) but never found anything in my price range or to my liking. Now that the pace has slowed down a little I started looking again.

I've really taken a liking to the loft style homes. I know it isn't practical in the long run but I'm still single and relatively young.

So I?m looking at a loft near downtown:
1. two story ? one bedroom
2. three story two bedroom (I?ll need to have a roommate)

I just wanted to find out everyone?s thoughts on purchasing at this time? Will new home prices go down in the Bay Area? I?ve always heard people say that the bay area is ?different? and that?s why it won?t get hit as hard.

Also ? does anyone have any opinions on Centex homes?
 
I would wait another 6 months at least. Everything I am reading is saying CA homeowners are resisting the price pressures, but will have to give in sooner or later once they realize they can't sell their house.

Of course I know jack about real estate. 😛

 
now isn't a bad time. the idiots who bought a home hoping to flip already received their property tax bill and some I bet are not that happy with it.

You won't be getting a steal of below purchase price but you will be able to get it a decent price. though nothing like what it used to be before the tech boom.

Anyhow your looking at downtown. the city is trying to spruce up the place and prices are not that cheap. Plus there are several condos that have popped up as of late and some in the near future.

What range are you looking at?
 
Herkulease, are you familiar with the area? It's right next to the San Jose Arena and right next to the caltrain. The two level loft is 495,000 and the 3 level loft is 690,000.
 
good time to negotiate hard for a lower price

there's a huge & growing inventory of unsold houses, with big (30%+ range) price cuts happening on current listings, prices still plummeting.

if you need it to live in, yeah, but not if you'd buy on hope of long term capital gain

as our economy tanks into recession soon when dems increase taxes, collapsed prices may not recover for a l o n g time.

then again there's the counterbalancing consideration of that location probably somewhat insulated from much of the price fall due to likely continued strong demand for that location, as same where I live

real estate has a P/E just like a stock, analyze the place you might buy in light of P/E
 
Terrible time now. "It's different this time" is the most dangerous phrase when it comes to investing.
These bubbles take many years to burst, not months. Japan is a good example. Did you know that at the peak of their bubble, the Japanese imperial palace land was worth more than all of the real estate in CA? And that their bubble is just now finished bursting after 15 years.
http://transparentre.com/images/33632-31387/JapanLandPrices.jpg
 
Originally posted by: Pho King
Herkulease, are you familiar with the area? It's right next to the San Jose Arena and right next to the caltrain. The two level loft is 495,000 and the 3 level loft is 690,000.
Click to expand...

last time I was near the arena was several years ago. so I'm having a hard time picturing where it is.

but if you're willing to spend up to 690K for a loft. you might as well by an actual home. Granted it won't be new, but you'll get a yard and own drive way and garage.
 
Originally posted by: herkulease
Originally posted by: Pho King
Herkulease, are you familiar with the area? It's right next to the San Jose Arena and right next to the caltrain. The two level loft is 495,000 and the 3 level loft is 690,000.
Click to expand...

last time I was near the arena was several years ago. so I'm having a hard time picturing where it is.

but if you're willing to spend up to 690K for a loft. you might as well by an actual home. Granted it won't be new, but you'll get a yard and own drive way and garage.
Click to expand...

best of luck to you trying to find a house in downtown san jose at $690k. That's a little on the low side for that location. That's more of a Fremont or south of Tamien price point.
 
if I was going back into that area again I'd try for Morgan Hill instead of San Jose

before I had a place right at the border between Mt. View & Sunnyvale
 
I haven't tried negotiating, but it's worth a shot in light of all the extra inventories. I don't even know how to approach it....

I keep on thinking it's the wrong time to buy - but people have been saying that for the last two years. Is that Japan Land Prices chart real?!!

I do think 690k is very expensive for a place, but it's more about the "urban lifestyle". Other developments I've seen are the same old three level townhouse style condo, and it's roughly the same price.

Here's the website, case anyone is interested: http://www.centexhomes.com/San-Francisco/N45886.asp
 
So I did some checking. Those prices seem a little high in San Jose. I'm sitting here in SF and in SOMA and Potrero (north slope) there are properties - new construction - that are advertised at those price points although with pictures it's tough to compare directly. My assumption was that SF and San Mateo counties were generally at the same price point while santa clara was about 20% less, falling off gradually as you go into east bay and towards morgan hill/gilroy. So it looks like they might be taking you for a ride for a bit. I'm sure you've investigated but why bother living in san jose, and that part IS near what could be considered a ghetto (santa clara st. isn't exactly where I'd let a gf walk alone at night) when you can live elsewhere in san jose that is probably a little cheaper?
 
Originally posted by: KillerCharlie
For $700k in the midwest, you could buy a mansion on 100 acres of wooded land. Do you REALLY want to live in California?
Click to expand...

Great, next time Cisco/nvidia/apple/intel/adobe/amd decide to headquarters in the midwest, come back.

kthxbye.
 
Originally posted by: senseamp
Terrible time now. "It's different this time" is the most dangerous phrase when it comes to investing.
These bubbles take many years to burst, not months. Japan is a good example. Did you know that at the peak of their bubble, the Japanese imperial palace land was worth more than all of the real estate in CA? And that their bubble is just now finished bursting after 15 years.
http://transparentre.com/images/33632-31387/JapanLandPrices.jpg
Click to expand...

lol are you seriously comparing US housing to Japan?...

US stock market vs Japan stock market

US =/= Japan
 
Beer, I also was looking in SF, I was looking at Altura; that's near the ball park. The only problem I had with the places up there was the premium on a parking spot and that it was built on a landfill!

I was initially looking up on the peninsula, but the prices up there were a lot more expensive and I wanted the loft design - that means SF and San Jose. I'm trying to get as much information as I can about this place, and I appreciate all the replies. I'm having a friend of mine who's a cop check out the area as well.
 
Originally posted by: JS80
Originally posted by: senseamp
Terrible time now. "It's different this time" is the most dangerous phrase when it comes to investing.
These bubbles take many years to burst, not months. Japan is a good example. Did you know that at the peak of their bubble, the Japanese imperial palace land was worth more than all of the real estate in CA? And that their bubble is just now finished bursting after 15 years.
http://transparentre.com/images/33632-31387/JapanLandPrices.jpg
Click to expand...

lol are you seriously comparing US housing to Japan?...

US stock market vs Japan stock market

US =/= Japan
Click to expand...

What exactly do you see in that chart that makes you believe we don't have years to go before the housing bubble is done bursting?

 
Just curious, Pho King. How much are you making in income? I'm a techie in Silicon Valley and am in the same house-buying position as you.
 
Originally posted by: KillerCharlie
For $700k in the midwest, you could buy a mansion on 100 acres of wooded land. Do you REALLY want to live in California?
Click to expand...

1) No Chinatowns in the midwest. 😉

2) Its insulting to pay less than five million dollars for a home and get paid less than $250,000 /yr. :roll:

Overpriced real estate is for the birds. Let them burn their money, its keeps inflation down for the rest of us.
 
Originally posted by: shuttleboi
Just curious, Pho King. How much are you making in income? I'm a techie in Silicon Valley and am in the same house-buying position as you.
Click to expand...

I'm making around the 100k mark, but I don't have a big league PH.D .... yet 😉
 
How much money are you prepared to put down?
I live in Sunnyvale but I work in SF. I think its high time, I started looking into purchasing my own place.
 
Originally posted by: zoiks
How much money are you prepared to put down?
I live in Sunnyvale but I work in SF. I think its high time, I started looking into purchasing my own place.
Click to expand...

I can probably stretch 20%, but I don't want to cut into my reserves - so I'm looking at 10% I'm still crunching the numbers....
 
Originally posted by: Pho King
Originally posted by: shuttleboi
Just curious, Pho King. How much are you making in income? I'm a techie in Silicon Valley and am in the same house-buying position as you.
Click to expand...

I'm making around the 100k mark, but I don't have a big league PH.D .... yet 😉
Click to expand...

Stanford guy, eh? 😎

If you're looking to buy a $690K house while making around $100K, it's going to be a tight squeeze on the monthly budget. You definitely should start checking out loan rates and such right now.
 
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