Sick and tired of Los Angeles housing market

[entropy]

My wife and I live in the greater LA area, she is in her late 20s and I am 30. We want to have our first kid soon but we are choosing not to until we own a house. We currently live in a house (rent) and the landlord is not going to renew our lease because he wants to sell the house.

Long story short we have offered on 5 homes and looked at 52. They are all absurdly overpriced, but we always offer over asking price and over comps estimates. We can't seem to snatch a house, the probabilities seem so low it is ridiculous. The worst part is that we are taking an aggressive approach and looking at houses way below or budget and offering aggressive amounts for them.

We both work super hard and have a combined income of almost $300,000 a year. I am sick and tired of this fuck!ng state taxing the hell out of us, and with our income which is considered way above the median here we can't even buy a damn residence. Leasing wasn't easy either, at all. I am so sick of this place, maybe it used to be a little more livable before but this place is falling apart. If you are not a hollywood star or some millionaire don't come here.

Sorry, I had to vent somewhere after I learned today we missed another house that according to our agent we had a chance of getting. The house needed 100k of work and sold for over a million dollars...... Oh, and whoever bought it paid cash. It was some shitty 2 bedroom, 1 bath. 1,300 sqft bungalow on a 6500 sqft lot.

Owning a home in this socialist state is becoming only possible for the highest elites and privileged. And it keeps getting worst every month. Unless you want to live in a place that burns every year and have over an hr commute to work in traffic.

Sponsored

 

[Goin2drt]

Yep and that right there is why we left. You are way younger than us before we learned our lesson. Better off renting and figuring out how to get jobs out of the state. It just isn't worth the weather. They say pay is more but that just isn't true. You can make almost comp pay for 2/3 less the cost of living. You will become married to your mortgage and it is an awful way to live and raise a family always having that chain around your ankle.

I wish you the best.

 

[rkj__]

Buying real-estate can be very frustrating. It's not like haggling over a Jeep. You make an offer, and you lose, but you often don't even know by how much.

Perhaps try offering on houses with a slightly higher asking price, and offering closer to asking. There are a ton of people at the lower end of the housing market, trying to get their hands on something. Low list prices attract a lot of competition.

 

[entropy]

Buying real-estate can be very frustrating. It's not like haggling over a Jeep. You make an offer, and you lose, but you often don't even know by how much.

Perhaps try offering on houses with a slightly higher asking price, and offering closer to asking. There are a ton of people at the lower end of the housing market, trying to get their hands on something. Low list prices attract a lot of competition.

We did this in one house that was right up in our budget, didn't get it. But I hear you, only 3 people offered on that one. While the other (more competitive ones) had around 10 or more offers.

That's a good point! thanks.

 

[Jennalee]

I hate LA! So much! I really want to leave California but find it hard to leave the people who need me here. I moved to Tustin for a few years and I liked it much better it’s a slower pace of living. I just hate the vibe in LA it gets on my nerves. Everyone is an actor or wanna be musician or whatever they can do to be famous. I don’t like fake people and there is a large percentage of them out there. I was largely around people who just cared about who you know. I stay out of those areas now. Just felt like venting with you for a bit

 

[Arterius2]

My wife and I live in the greater LA area, she is in her late 20s and I am 30. We want to have our first kid soon but we are choosing not to until we own a house. We currently live in a house (rent) and the landlord is not going to renew our lease because he wants to sell the house.

Long story short we have offered on 5 homes and looked at 52. They are all absurdly overpriced, but we always offer over asking price and over comps estimates. We can't seem to snatch a house, the probabilities seem so low it is ridiculous. The worst part is that we are taking an aggressive approach and looking at houses way below or budget and offering aggressive amounts for them.

We both work super hard and have a combined income of almost $300,000 a year. I am sick and tired of this fuck!ng state taxing the hell out of us, and with our income which is considered way above the median here we can't even buy a damn residence. Leasing wasn't easy either, at all. I am so sick of this place, maybe it used to be a little more livable before but this place is falling apart. If you are not a hollywood star or some millionaire don't come here.

Sorry, I had to vent somewhere after I learned today we missed another house that according to our agent we had a chance of getting. The house needed 100k of work and sold for over a million dollars...... Oh, and whoever bought it paid cash. It was some shitty 2 bedroom, 1 bath. 1,300 sqft bungalow on a 6500 sqft lot.

Owning a home in this socialist state is becoming only possible for the highest elites and privileged. And it keeps getting worst every month. Unless you want to live in a place that burns every year and have over an hr commute to work in traffic.

Sounds just like Vancouver here.

 

[SoCalWrangler]

My wife and I live in the greater LA area, she is in her late 20s and I am 30. We want to have our first kid soon but we are choosing not to until we own a house. We currently live in a house (rent) and the landlord is not going to renew our lease because he wants to sell the house.

Long story short we have offered on 5 homes and looked at 52. They are all absurdly overpriced, but we always offer over asking price and over comps estimates. We can't seem to snatch a house, the probabilities seem so low it is ridiculous. The worst part is that we are taking an aggressive approach and looking at houses way below or budget and offering aggressive amounts for them.

We both work super hard and have a combined income of almost $300,000 a year. I am sick and tired of this fuck!ng state taxing the hell out of us, and with our income which is considered way above the median here we can't even buy a damn residence. Leasing wasn't easy either, at all. I am so sick of this place, maybe it used to be a little more livable before but this place is falling apart. If you are not a hollywood star or some millionaire don't come here.

Sorry, I had to vent somewhere after I learned today we missed another house that according to our agent we had a chance of getting. The house needed 100k of work and sold for over a million dollars...... Oh, and whoever bought it paid cash. It was some shitty 2 bedroom, 1 bath. 1,300 sqft bungalow on a 6500 sqft lot.

Owning a home in this socialist state is becoming only possible for the highest elites and privileged. And it keeps getting worst every month. Unless you want to live in a place that burns every year and have over an hr commute to work in traffic.

Hey Enrique,

This sounds like your realtor may not be doing their due diligence when helping you search for houses. You sound like an incredibly qualified buyer. If i was focused in your area, Id definitely do what i could to help. Feel free to message me and I can forward you to an agent that will ease the process of home buying for ya.

If you're in Orange County, Ill give you a Forum member discount towards your closing if youd like to work with me!

 

[UKCATS]

I am sorry for your troubles. We have a large influx of folks from California moving here to Texas, and they are driving up our prices as well. My house is now worth twice what I paid for it. Good if selling, not good if buying.

 

[entropy]

Hey Enrique,

This sounds like your realtor may not be doing their due diligence when helping you search for houses. You sound like an incredibly qualified buyer. If i was focused in your area, Id definitely do what i could to help. Feel free to message me and I can forward you to an agent that will ease the process of home buying for ya.

If you're in Orange County, Ill give you a Forum member discount towards your closing if youd like to work with me!

I might follow up with you after thanksgiving. My wife and I are going camping to big sur with the jeep for next week, and we are gonna put a stop to our search to relax a bit.

 

[DanFelix]

entropy,

I live in the Riverside area. Prices are high but not nearly as high as LA. The state is rapidly changing for a variety of reasons. Hardest lesson I ever learned was that even if I have enough money to buy something I want, I might not have enough money to enjoy it. Pick a house and place that you can not only own, but enjoy now and in the future. Good luck.

 

[Maverick909]

i feel you on this. took my girl and i almost a full year of looking around and placing bids and going high and still being over looked. its frustrating to say the least. We where about to give up when one of the houses we where out bid on the buyer backed out due to a supposed roof leak... I took another look and found where an old leak from the roof mounted a/c froze over then melted and came through and stained the area. glad they jumped ship cause it never leaked through the rain season. woo hoo. anyways stick with it! you'll be alright!. Tons a good housing out in upland right now going for good prices. another question have you talked to the home owner of the house you're currently leasing? thought about buy him out? might be worth a shot?

 

[Bikemobile]

We moved to Colorado from California 10 years ago. Best thing we ever did. 300k is an astounding income and if you could make 2/3 of that you could do very well almost anywhere around here.

(we moved to the central mountains from Denver after awhile and life is good out here.)

 

[GreyFox]

Holy shit man. That sucks you can't get a house. You could move out by me. Of course you won't be making 300K out here in rural Ohio. But, we have houses for sale and small schools. When my daughter graduated last year, there were 58 in her class! Good luck in your search

 

[crazychile]

You sound like you may lean politically conservative. If that's the case, you'll never be happy in CA. I left CA 15 years ago before my oldest started Kindergarten. I saw how bad the schools were and along with the cost of living being unrealistically expensive, we decided to move to Iowa.

We have low unemployment, lots of tech jobs (not everyone is a farmer) and you can buy a home that's probably better than what you've been looking at in the low $100k range. $200k buys a very nice house and $300k buys a mini palace in most of the larger cities. And rush hour traffic is a 20 minute drive across town. If you're making 300k now, you could probably make at least $150k here and live extremely well.
And since you own a Jeep, you're all set for Winter!

 

[MKC JL]

I'm a Native Californian & left for good in 85 and haven't been back. No weather is nice enough to put up with the crap you have to deal with!! Good luck with your search for a house!

Sponsored