Thursday, December 11th, 2008 at 12:40 PM
South San Marcos
The 92078 zip code is south San Marcos, which is a cheaper alternative to neighboring Carlsbad. Currently there are seven 3,000sf or more SFRs listed for $550,000 or less. In this neighborhood of Old Creek Ranch there are 10 active listings starting in the low-$500,000 – four are REOs, three are short sales, and the highest three are builder inventory.
Here is what one of the pendings looks like – sold in 2005 for $695,000, now listed for $525,000 (the models sold for $800,000+). Some call this area ‘dump-adjacent’, but the old landfill is at least a mile away.
Posted on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 at 12:40 PM in Uncategorized | 23 Comments » | 
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Thanks Jim. I really missed the ice cream truck!
Downturn | December 11th, 2008 at 12:42 pmBTW, they should string up the architech who designed that atrocity.
Downturn | December 11th, 2008 at 12:45 pmthat is so hilarious. admit you paid the ice cream man to drive by.
oh brother | December 11th, 2008 at 1:33 pmSeems like a strange layout, a one-car garage in front, and a 2-car in the back? Or is that just a fence in the back that I’m mistaking for a garage door?
Ross | December 11th, 2008 at 2:04 pmJim:
How much are the MR charges on these 92078 homes?
george8 | December 11th, 2008 at 2:07 pmBuy an ice cream off that guy already, so he’ll quit following you around.
Smithers | December 11th, 2008 at 3:03 pmNew Promotion:
Buy an ice cream, get a house!
Jim the Realtor | December 11th, 2008 at 3:30 pmI was cringing waiting for the ice cream truck to crash into the “silver ghost.” I thought you drove the “Chebby” in the lesser neighborhoods.
Seriously, square footage isn’t everything. I’d gladly trade a few hundred square feet for a sized decent yard.
Rob Dawg | December 11th, 2008 at 3:47 pmI propose that the San Diego city council pass an ordinance prohibiting such ugly houses.
Oh, wait, I forgot. The councilmen are all tools that have been paid off by the developers. Never mind, then.
greenlander | December 11th, 2008 at 4:50 pmI live in 92078. There were some nice neighborhoods and houses built here prior to 1995 or so, but during our househunt we never saw much of anything built after that that we liked. Mostly too big houses, too close together, on too small lots.
GeneK | December 11th, 2008 at 5:04 pmMostly too big houses, too close together, on too small lots.
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The hallmark of the bubble, unfortunately.
CA renter | December 11th, 2008 at 5:09 pmIn response to Number 5, the MRs on Old Creek Ranch and San Elijo Hills tend to run around $300 per month, with some homes close to $500 per month. The ones with the higher MR are higher up the hill in SEH.
Hoping to Buy | December 11th, 2008 at 6:28 pmTruly ugly houses.
Tyrone | December 11th, 2008 at 6:49 pmHow about this recently closed (yesterday) Old Creek Ranch house sold by the builder:
http://www.sdlookup.com/MLS-080073642-2820_Dove_Tail_Dr_San_Marcos_Ca_92078
$700K for 3,533 sq. ft? Nearly $200/sq ft? With Mello Roos of $583 per month (is this a typo?), and HOA of $100?
Put 20% down and you’re still looking at like $4600 a month!
Is it possible the builder refunded like $100K at closing to keep the appearances up, and not screw up the comps for other unsold houses?
Anonymous | December 11th, 2008 at 7:51 pmIt really is ugly. That isn’t going to age well.
Dwip | December 11th, 2008 at 9:35 pmWow that’s an ugly home. I wouldn’t live at just about any price. Combine that with all the foreclosures in the area, and is this really a time to buy a home like that?
DKO | December 11th, 2008 at 10:55 pmWhen you have free money you get neighborhoods like this. Over-sized, over-priced homes built on miniature lots selling for prices in cities that don’t merit the price.
Suddenly money isn’t free anymore and you have to actually justify the price of the property and what a surprise, this doesn’t add up. Once all those San Diego millionaires have homes, who will buy these?
ice weasel | December 12th, 2008 at 4:07 am$199k – $225K tops
ArmChair Appraiser | December 12th, 2008 at 8:32 amWe found that practically everything built since the turn of the century looked like a sin against architecture and proper use of space. SEH, 4S, you name it they are butt ugly to us.
Most of these homes have the main garage out back with a 1 car garage plopped down in the middle of what should be the driveway. Of course, that 1 car garage becomes the storage unit so basically these homes have a storage unit plopped down in the driveway! What a riot.
We ended up by something from the 1990s and tailoring it to our needs.
The Good Life | December 12th, 2008 at 9:40 amRoss, good call on the garage. I rent in Carmel Valley and in my little neighborhood there’s tons of garages like that. You’re looking at a 2-car garage there. I don’t know how people get their Hummers into the right side of that thing.
My wife saw the beginning of the clip and asked, “Is that our neighborhood?” I won’t go as far to say CV and SM are equivalent, but there are an awful lot of ugly homes out here with no yard and neighbors looking in. The slinky will continue to fall. No way this place stands up.
Shopping for homes right now is like shopping at Saks 5th Ave. Sure, people shop there. But I can’t justify paying $550 for a button-down shirt. The salesman says, “well, you get a lot of shirt for that.” Yes, it’s nice and fashionable, but I wouldn’t pay half that amount for it. Same thing looking at homes in Carmel Valley and the rest of North County.
The Blur | December 12th, 2008 at 9:54 amYou and the ice cream trucks. Unbelievable.
If you find one for me that big in SEH or OCR under 500k, I’m in.
My company just relocated to the Carlsbad business park, so I am driving faraday to melrose to san elijo hills to get home. That neighborhood is terrific to drive thru.
Chris | December 12th, 2008 at 9:22 pmMostly too big houses, too close together, on too small lots.
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The hallmark of the bubble, unfortunately.
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Not entirely true: it’s the hallmark of extensive land use controls. It’s a complicated argument, but land use controls tend to drive development to become more esthetically uniform, and to result in developments with a higher house/lot ratio. It also puts a premium on heavily capitalized companies that must fund the long political/legal process of entitlement, which is why in part why you end up with 10 companies like Lennar that build half the new houses in the country.
The bubble generated a lot of bad things, but contrary to the common complaint, it is less responsible than zoning for the rise of the ugly houses on undersized lots.
lgs | December 12th, 2008 at 10:07 pmIMHO, overpriced land and developer/builder greed is what causes these ugly monsters; but you are also right about the land use.
What I’d really like to see for future developments is developers who prep the lots, and then sell them to the public so we can choose the size of the lots (by buying multiple lots, if desired) and build custom homes again.
These tract home developments stink!
CA renter | December 13th, 2008 at 12:11 am