John.Doe_IHB
New member
Well, I don't know if that is common in this blog, but I just wanted to introduce myself and tell about my plans 
My name is Alex and I moved from Germany to SoCal about 3 years ago and have been renting in Irvine ever since. Now as everybody in this blog seems to agree, the market seems to develop in favor of the buyer and as rents constantly go up I plan to buy some day soon. The idea is to get the foot into the housing market and to accumulate some wealth instead of just burning money by paying rent.
I crunched the numbers once already and with tax deduction, assumed HOA of $200 and so forth, a mortgage of roughly 300K would be equal to my rent. I am willing to go a little bit above that, if necessary, after all I was able to save money for a downpayment while paying rent, so I could pay a more without letting my life style suffer too much.
What I will be looking for is most likely Condo with approx. 1000sq (+/-200), it should have a den or a second bed room and a balcony or patio and it shouldn't be too old, maybe up to 10 years (the newer the better). As I am currently living in Irvine, I somehow became attached to the area between Irvine Blvd./Jeffreys/Jamboree and then the Jamboree down to the 405. A place in these areas would be nice, but I am quite flexible and something further in the north, mabye as far as Anaheim Hills, would be OK, too. I don't know if it is realistic to find something like this for up to $350K (the less the better of course), but that is one of the reasons I registered here to get some feedback. Afterall... I never owned a home so I am as unexperienced as one can be and furthermore, I am a foreigner in the country which makes things probably more difficult.
I thought, that the market will probably bottom out in about a year, but after reading some of the entries in this blog here, the opinion seems to be, that the market will decline much longer and far further than I would have guessed. Although, that the builders have frozen some projects, e.g. like Central Park, to control the inventory on the market and try to keep the prices stable, makes my think, that it might not decline that much. Nevertheless, I am not in a hurry to buy and will watch the market (and this blog) closely over the next view months and see how things develop.
Alex
My name is Alex and I moved from Germany to SoCal about 3 years ago and have been renting in Irvine ever since. Now as everybody in this blog seems to agree, the market seems to develop in favor of the buyer and as rents constantly go up I plan to buy some day soon. The idea is to get the foot into the housing market and to accumulate some wealth instead of just burning money by paying rent.
I crunched the numbers once already and with tax deduction, assumed HOA of $200 and so forth, a mortgage of roughly 300K would be equal to my rent. I am willing to go a little bit above that, if necessary, after all I was able to save money for a downpayment while paying rent, so I could pay a more without letting my life style suffer too much.
What I will be looking for is most likely Condo with approx. 1000sq (+/-200), it should have a den or a second bed room and a balcony or patio and it shouldn't be too old, maybe up to 10 years (the newer the better). As I am currently living in Irvine, I somehow became attached to the area between Irvine Blvd./Jeffreys/Jamboree and then the Jamboree down to the 405. A place in these areas would be nice, but I am quite flexible and something further in the north, mabye as far as Anaheim Hills, would be OK, too. I don't know if it is realistic to find something like this for up to $350K (the less the better of course), but that is one of the reasons I registered here to get some feedback. Afterall... I never owned a home so I am as unexperienced as one can be and furthermore, I am a foreigner in the country which makes things probably more difficult.
I thought, that the market will probably bottom out in about a year, but after reading some of the entries in this blog here, the opinion seems to be, that the market will decline much longer and far further than I would have guessed. Although, that the builders have frozen some projects, e.g. like Central Park, to control the inventory on the market and try to keep the prices stable, makes my think, that it might not decline that much. Nevertheless, I am not in a hurry to buy and will watch the market (and this blog
) closely over the next view months and see how things develop.Alex
