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Sick and tired of Los Angeles housing market

oceanblue2019

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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.
Get out of California as it's too far gone to save. And be thankful you are not in SF as they are predicting a plague outbreak due to all the homeless shitting in the streets and nobody cleaning it up and rats all over. We had a conference in SF 3 months ago and I was horrified what such a beautiful city I remember 15 years ago has become.
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OceanBlues

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My wife and I are similar in age, make half your income and comfortably afforded a nice 3 bedroom house with a detached garage that has a loft above it in a desirable suburb of Charlotte, NC, 15 minutes from the city. Weather is great. We're 2 hours from the mountains and 3 hours from the ocean. We also had our first child in 2018 and are happy with how child friendly everything is here (other than daycare being pretty expensive, but it's doable).

It sounds like you and your wife deserve better than what California has to offer you. The economy isn't bad right now. The job market is booming in so many great areas of this country where the cost of living is reasonable. I'm not sure if all of your family is in California, but I can empathize with maybe not wanting to leave family while you are wanting to start a family. We don't live near family, and it makes things difficult sometimes, but we're doing what's best for our family and we make it work.

I like the areas where we have family (St. Louis and Wisconsin), but those areas don't really have anything for me career wise at the moment, and with my wife and I growing well professionally right now, I'm not eager to move.

I guess all I'm saying is that family is important, but doing what's best for you and your wife to grow as people will go a long ways in providing for your future child financially and emotionally.
 

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We lived in Redondo Beach for 10 years, loved it and made around what you're making. Not until we left the bubble did I realize how bad it had gotten in Cali. We have our main residence in N Georgia now and couldn't be happier, you couldn't pay me to move back to CA. I miss the geography, but nothing else. For a million in GA you could have 10,000sq ft on 20 acres conservatively, taxes are less, and as long as you stay away from downtown Atlanta mostly everyone is conservative/libertarian. Very gun friendly as well.
 
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entropy

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We ended up buying a house. Highly competitive, but they took our offer. It is a lot of money, the house is nice for current standards in the area. We will see how this goes. Yes we could afford something much nicer outside of LA. Atlanta is a great city, so is Chicago, Dallas, Etc... we've lived in VT and we have an idea of how the other side of the coin looks like. Real VT is very libertarian, and I loved that. With all its issues, we still like southern California a lot. LA is a very fun city, and California is a gorgeous state. We are gonna give it a try for a few years. I don't know how people with less income can live happily here, I feel like my wife and I are on the edge.

The house has a very nice size garage so I can work on my Jeep :jk:. Believe it or not, getting a garage in today LA market is not easy. It is madness, and the experience was insane.

Looking at the housing market history here, and our recent experience, this city seems to be on the same train tracks San Francisco was a few years back. We got unlucky we weren't here 3 years ago (yes 3 years ago), but we got lucky we are here now. People are fighting like rats to get anything decent that pops in the market, we had to offer around +40k of asking price to be competitive. Give it another 3 years and no decent house will be under a million.
 

laniercruzer

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Make sure you get a good inspector, and a separate termite inspection from someone you pay, and try to be at the property for the inspections. Selling agents have been known to pay off inspectors to look the other way on some of these inspections, especially termite. They are a massive problem in Cali and could end up costing a boat load to repair and treat. Ask me how I know...
 

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entropy

entropy

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And how exciting you can pay all that and live with 25% of the nations homeless all in one state.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/17/us/homelessness-california-population-states-comparison.html

"However, if you look at the rate of homelessness in the United States, taking into account the population of the state or region, Washington, D.C., ranks first, followed by New York, Hawaii and California." from the article you posted.

Honestly yes it is an issue. But it is an issue nationwide, and common in any major U.S. city. Given the huge population in L.A. + perfect weather + home crisis; it is expected. It does feel terrible to buy such an expensive home and see so many people on the street, specially with a state that's so rich and thriving. Spoiler alert, socialism doesn't work. At all.
 
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sourdough

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entropy, hang in there, you are young and have a great income. Plan ahead and remember SoCal weather only gets better as you age. If your new place is in a good location, in a few years you might be able to rent your place out equal to the mortgage payment. My wife and I did that almost 30 yrs. ago. Now both retired and back in Carpinteria,Calif. 5 blocks from the beach and debt free thanks to tenants paying it off. We would not be able to afford our location if we hadn't planned ahead. We lived in Spokane, Wa. for 25+ yrs., loved it but grew tired of the cold. SoCal is expensive for a reason and it ain't the rat race. And a lot of the rat race goes away once you retire.
 
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On the other hand, selling a house is a freaking headache too. Because even if you set the fairest price in the Universe, the people will say that the house is overpriced. Also, people don't really have the money now. Because of freaking covid. TBH, I'm desperate. Not so long ago I've found this http://www.thepropertybuyingcompany.co.uk company and I'm planning to sell the house with their help. One of my friends told me that they can sell it fast and for a good price.
 
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lightsout

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NYC, Portland and Seattle have some great priced homes right now in the city...

I do not k know id buying in California is a wise long term decision considering the mass exodus of people leaving California which may kill resale for quite some time. Once might expect if you bought now to see declining value thus a loss.
 
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entropy

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NYC, Portland and Seattle have some great priced homes right now in the city...

I do not k know id buying in California is a wise long term decision considering the mass exodus of people leaving California which may kill resale for quite some time. Once might expect if you bought now to see declining value thus a loss.
There is a mass exodus in California as well as an absurd amount of people coming in to the state... high paying tech jobs are an example of it. I don't think hosing in LA and San Francisco are are bad markets at all. A lot of people leaving the state both their homes for 200k in 2000, and are selling them for over 800k now, that's a huge reason for that exodus. Real state here continues to climb regardless of Covid. The value of my house in Pasadena increased by around 70k already, and I bought it this year in January.

If anyone is having trouble to sell their houses here they are asking too much for them. I was in the housing market for months, frustrated. I put offers over asking price on about 7 houses or so. I got outbid on all of them but 1. They all sold for at least over 50k of asking price. I saw houses that weren't selling, and they were either asking too much, or location wasn't that good, or the house needed serious upgrades. I get it houses here are extremely expensive, but nobody is going to pay over 800k for a house that has an outdated kitchen, not central AC, needs major renovations, etc... it is still about a million dollars we are talking about and people are not THAT desperate (yet). I've heard it is worst in San Francisco though.
 

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There is a mass exodus in California as well as an absurd amount of people coming in to the state... high paying tech jobs are an example of it. I don't think hosing in LA and San Francisco are are bad markets at all. A lot of people leaving the state both their homes for 200k in 2000, and are selling them for over 800k now, that's a huge reason for that exodus. Real state here continues to climb regardless of Covid. The value of my house in Pasadena increased by around 70k already, and I bought it this year in January.

If anyone is having trouble to sell their houses here they are asking too much for them. I was in the housing market for months, frustrated. I put offers over asking price on about 7 houses or so. I got outbid on all of them but 1. They all sold for at least over 50k of asking price. I saw houses that weren't selling, and they were either asking too much, or location wasn't that good, or the house needed serious upgrades. I get it houses here are extremely expensive, but nobody is going to pay over 800k for a house that has an outdated kitchen, not central AC, needs major renovations, etc... it is still about a million dollars we are talking about and people are not THAT desperate (yet). I've heard it is worst in San Francisco though.

Not getting an offer accepted in normally the responsibility of the agent as they didnt do their due diligence to get you that house.

CA historically has grown heavily and due to how many large scale businesses we have here. Dont see Southern Californias population dwindle that far as we still have a ton of people moving in these areas due to jobs forming.
 
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Not getting an offer accepted in normally the responsibility of the agent as they didnt do their due diligence to get you that house.

CA historically has grown heavily and due to how many large scale businesses we have here. Dont see Southern Californias population dwindle that far as we still have a ton of people moving in these areas due to jobs forming.
All the houses we offered were extremely popular. I am talking 10+offers for each house, and looking at 800k~1mil in Pasadena, which seems to be the most popular range around here. We went aggressive with all of our offers and got either outbid to a point we just didn't think it was worth paying more for the house, or chinese investors came in with cash offers. It was tough and we were always close. Eventually we got one, and actually it was the one we liked the most. Our agent actually did a good job with the one we got as the sellers were going to take a cash offer and she had the seller's agent convince them to take ours instead. It is pretty nuts out here, but hey we are in now!
 

lightsout

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There is a mass exodus in California as well as an absurd amount of people coming in to the state... high paying tech jobs are an example of it. I don't think hosing in LA and San Francisco are are bad markets at all. A lot of people leaving the state both their homes for 200k in 2000, and are selling them for over 800k now, that's a huge reason for that exodus. Real state here continues to climb regardless of Covid. The value of my house in Pasadena increased by around 70k already, and I bought it this year in January.

If anyone is having trouble to sell their houses here they are asking too much for them. I was in the housing market for months, frustrated. I put offers over asking price on about 7 houses or so. I got outbid on all of them but 1. They all sold for at least over 50k of asking price. I saw houses that weren't selling, and they were either asking too much, or location wasn't that good, or the house needed serious upgrades. I get it houses here are extremely expensive, but nobody is going to pay over 800k for a house that has an outdated kitchen, not central AC, needs major renovations, etc... it is still about a million dollars we are talking about and people are not THAT desperate (yet). I've heard it is worst in San Francisco though.

You should read the NEWS, More people are leaving California then coming in and now with Covid proving that work from home is effective for both employee and employer there is no reason for tech and many others to live in California. Elon Musk is even getting out of California. As work from home becomes popular there is NO reason to pay California prices for real estate. Do not think for a moment that companies will be hiring work from home out of state as that labor force will be cheaper and those in CA will be jobless or not be able to afford anything. Just ask Texas and Arizona about the California exodus. The Homeless will be in your neighborhood soon driving RE down even more.

To think this will not hurt the RE market is foolish. This is just the transitional period. Along with the exodus of people is also the reduction is tax revenue for the state and city's budget.

Just do the math it does not look good. Silicon Valley has been looking for out of state alternatives for years, Spokane WA is on that list they are realizing that quality of life is now important and lower cost of living meas lower payroll and more profits. The writing is all over this wall.

Californians are also now flocking to Boise where cost of living is less than 1/2 of California with a great quality of life, That was Seattle 15 years ago.

Ask Joe Rogan why he is leaving California for Texas

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