is it possible 2 afford a 3br/2ba house in cal?

maleRN2b_one · Mar 16, 2007

calling all cali RNs:
i am an rn in the beautiful gulf coast of florida. is it possible 2 b a home owner (atleast 3br/2bath/2car garage) in california w/ RN wages. i have been a nurse since 1998. i have been doing research on realtor.com and the houses r RIDICULOUSLY OVERPRICED. i actually saw a trailer priced @ 200K (talk about sticker shock). how do u actually become a home owner w/o having several rommates 2 pay the bills? researching southern cali (LA/SD) areas. well.... looking 4ward 2 your input, advice, and how can one live in cali w/ those HIGH MORTGAGES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! oh.... and how much do they pay an RN w/ 8-9 yrs of experience in m/s, ltc, hopice, and home health. thank u in advance.
WARHAWK320

It depends on the county you're looking in. In Orange County, if you are only a wage earner (meaning not a buisness owner or self-employed), I think you'd have to be a dual-income wage earner household, and both you and your spouse are at decent professional wages. But if you are single and making only $60-70K a year, it's probably not enough in Orange County. That's how ridiculous prices are here. Three-bedroom condos/townhouses here sell for $580K - 640K, two-bedrooms condo/townhouses sell for $510K - $550K. You're best bet maybe is in far San Bernardino county or farther towards the deserts going to Las Vegas, like Victorville, Hemet, etc.

Hope that helps!

LilSassyRN · Mar 16, 2007

calling all cali RNs:
i am an rn in the beautiful gulf coast of florida. is it possible 2 b a home owner (atleast 3br/2bath/2car garage) in california w/ RN wages. i have been a nurse since 1998. i have been doing research on realtor.com and the houses r RIDICULOUSLY OVERPRICED. i actually saw a trailer priced @ 200K (talk about sticker shock). how do u actually become a home owner w/o having several rommates 2 pay the bills? researching southern cali (LA/SD) areas. well.... looking 4ward 2 your input, advice, and how can one live in cali w/ those HIGH MORTGAGES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! oh.... and how much do they pay an RN w/ 8-9 yrs of experience in m/s, ltc, hopice, and home health. thank u in advance.
WARHAWK320

I'm not sure what you are wanting to spend for a home.... but try checking the Fresno / Clovis, CA area. The median price for a home as you describe is in the 270's. Best areas to live is in Clovis.

For jobs, google fresno, clovis and madera hospitals. The childrens hospital is awesome in madera. The best Hospitals (in terms of area) are Saint agnes, Kaiser, Clovis Community and Childrens.

Since I'm still a student, grad in Dec, I can't tell you a lot about the pay... just that it's decent. I believe starting wages in and 55K area... check out payscales via websearch.

The area is nice to live in , hot in the summer (relatively no humidity), but mostly nice year round. Also should say that you are about an hour away from Yosemite National Park, ca coast is 3 hrs away, SF is about 3 hours away too.... nice central location.

Best wishes in your search!

ben123 · Mar 16, 2007

calling all cali RNs:
i am an rn in the beautiful gulf coast of florida. is it possible 2 b a home owner (atleast 3br/2bath/2car garage) in california w/ RN wages. i have been a nurse since 1998. i have been doing research on realtor.com and the houses r RIDICULOUSLY OVERPRICED. i actually saw a trailer priced @ 200K (talk about sticker shock). how do u actually become a home owner w/o having several rommates 2 pay the bills? researching southern cali (LA/SD) areas. well.... looking 4ward 2 your input, advice, and how can one live in cali w/ those HIGH MORTGAGES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! oh.... and how much do they pay an RN w/ 8-9 yrs of experience in m/s, ltc, hopice, and home health. thank u in advance.
WARHAWK320

Houses around LA in a decent SAFE neighborhood are 600,000-700,000. You can find something maybe half a mil in gardena, carson, long beach

If you want something cheaper you can go to a bad neighborhood or what alot of people are doing is living in the desert like palmdale and lancaster ( which I believe are unsafe but very affordable I think like 250k or so ) If it is only u, u can get a nice townhome and a half way decent neighborhood for like 350k for 2bed 2bath. If u are marriend i hope your other half makes the same or more.

Pay in la would probably be around 35 an hour w/o differential.

Good luck.

Ben

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Mar 16, 2007

Here are some affordable cities in Southern California and South Central California. They are not the most glamorous, cosmopolitan, or connected cities; however, homeownership is a reality for under $300,000. In addition, you will definitely need to commute to another city for gainful employment. I lived in Bakersfield for 2 years and loved that city, but had to commute to work and school.

1. Lancaster

2. Palmdale

3. Barstow

4. Victorville

5. Mojave

6. Rosamond

7. Bakersfield

8. Boron

9. Hesperia

10. Blythe

11. Needles

12. Baker

13. Ludlow

14. Tehachapi

ben123 · Mar 16, 2007

Here are some affordable cities in Southern California and South Central California. They are not the most glamorous, cosmopolitan, or connected cities; however, homeownership is a reality for under $300,000. In addition, you will definitely need to commute to another city for gainful employment. I lived in Bakersfield for 2 years and loved that city, but had to commute to work and school.
1. Lancaster
2. Palmdale
3. Barstow
4. Victorville
5. Mojave
6. Rosamond
7. Bakersfield
8. Boron
9. Hesperia
10. Blythe
11. Needles
12. Baker
13. Ludlow
14. Tehachapi

Just for the record you named every DUMP considerable in California. These city's are in the desert and are notorious for crystal meth and gangs. I would not recodmmend any of these city's. If you don't believe me, see for your self. You might as well move to compoton or watts.

Sheri257 · Mar 16, 2007

Every desert town in California is like Compton or Watts? :chuckle

Every town does have their bad areas but, I can assure you that not all of the neighborhoods are like Compton or Watts. There are, actually, some very nice luxury developments in many of those desert towns. But, of course, they do cost more.

Crystal meth is a problem in the desert but, it's also a problem in big cities like San Diego which, if I recall correctly, was once named the crystal meth capital of the world ... probably because it's so close to the Mexican border.

I don't know why some people seem to think that California's crime problems are limited to the desert. Has LA, San Diego etc. suddenly become gang free? No.

It is true that the drug dealers do set up meth labs out in the desert but, they typically don't do it in the middle of town. Afterall ... the point of going out to the desert is to avoid police. And, usually, the best way to avoid police is to set up a meth lab out in the isolated, unpopulated areas ... not in the middle of town.

:typing

Sheri257 · Mar 16, 2007

calling all cali RNs:
i am an rn in the beautiful gulf coast of florida. is it possible 2 b a home owner (atleast 3br/2bath/2car garage) in california w/ RN wages. i have been a nurse since 1998. i have been doing research on realtor.com and the houses r RIDICULOUSLY OVERPRICED. i actually saw a trailer priced @ 200K (talk about sticker shock). how do u actually become a home owner w/o having several rommates 2 pay the bills? researching southern cali (LA/SD) areas. well.... looking 4ward 2 your input, advice, and how can one live in cali w/ those HIGH MORTGAGES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wouldn't worry too much about housing prices right now because, my guess is that they'll probably drop another 10-20 percent in the next two years. It might be wise to wait a couple of years because prices are going down and will probably continue to go down further.

Just in my area alone, houses have been sitting on the market for months and even brand new home prices are being reduced. Developers are having to offer all kinds of incentives to move those houses. There's just too much overbuilding.

You can even see it with the real estate ads. Just the other day I saw a Century 21 ad which talks about how homeowners need to hire them to sell their homes because there's too much inventory and too much competition between sellers. Not that I'm buying Century 21's argument about hiring them but, it just goes to show how bad the market is for realtors right now.

It's definitely becoming a buyer's market and probably will continue to be so with lower prices in the future. And, because of those high mortgages, foreclosures are skyrocketing. I'll bet there will be some pretty good foreclosure deals in the next couple of years also.

:typing

LydiaNN · Mar 16, 2007

One thing to bear in mind, too, is that even though home prices are so high, there are some really creative financing options out there. I know people who have bought homes in the last year that earn around $70K. The important things are having a decent down payment saved up and having a good enough credit rating to get the best terms. Otherwise, the mortgage will eat you alive.

Oh, and it is totally untrue that every desert town is a dump. Perhaps each of them do have undesirable areas, I'm not sure, having not visited them all (and I doubt the person who made the claim has either), but most of them are high growth areas with lots of professionals and families moving in.

Halinja, BSN, RN · Mar 16, 2007

Prices are dropping. I live in Bakersfield and have my house on the market. 9 months ago it was worth about 300,000. Now its worth more like 270,000.

As to gangs and crystal meth...hmmmm.

I live in a beautiful neighborhood, with emerald green lawns, where the kids run up and down the street to play without any trouble or fear. Yes, there are cruddier areas of town. Any town over 200,000 is going to have its slummy places. In my public health rotation, I got to see some of them. They weren't nearly as frightening as places I've seen down in Los Angeles.

Yes, there is a drug problem in Kern county. I would challenge you to show me a county where there isn't. Don't be fooled, drugs aren't limited by borders...

Housing in Bakersfield is comparatively affordable. Even more affordable in Visalia, Delano, and Porterville, where the hospitals are offering slightly higher wages than Bakersfield. The city is fairly clean, it's a pretty town, especially on the west side. The schools are way better than Fresno, or other areas a little further north.

Down side...and its big. The air quality here is between the third worst and THE worst in the nation, depending on which particular pollutant you are looking at. The bottom of the central valley is bounded on three sides by mountains. Air pollution flows down the valley and is trapped in the pocket formed by the mountains. It can be so bad that sometimes I can SEE the air between my house and the house across the culdesac.

Soooo....buy an air filter in your house. Have an exercise machine instead of going for walks on bad air days...which in the case of ozone is 300 days a year, 90+ for particulate matter. And be prepared for strings of days over 100 degrees.

Sheri257 · Mar 16, 2007

Prices are dropping. I live in Bakersfield and have my house on the market. 9 months ago it was worth about 300,000. Now its worth more like 270,000.
As to gangs and crystal meth...hmmmm.
I live in a beautiful neighborhood, with emerald green lawns, where the kids run up and down the street to play without any trouble or fear. Yes, there are cruddier areas of town. Any town over 200,000 is going to have its slummy places. In my public health rotation, I got to see some of them. They weren't nearly as frightening as places I've seen down in Los Angeles.
Yes, there is a drug problem in Kern county. I would challenge you to show me a county where there isn't. Don't be fooled, drugs aren't limited by borders...
Housing in Bakersfield is comparatively affordable. Even more affordable in Visalia, Delano, and Porterville, where the hospitals are offering slightly higher wages than Bakersfield. The city is fairly clean, it's a pretty town, especially on the west side. The schools are way better than Fresno, or other areas a little further north.
Down side...and its big. The air quality here is between the third worst and THE worst in the nation, depending on which particular pollutant you are looking at. The bottom of the central valley is bounded on three sides by mountains. Air pollution flows down the valley and is trapped in the pocket formed by the mountains. It can be so bad that sometimes I can SEE the air between my house and the house across the culdesac.
Soooo....buy an air filter in your house. Have an exercise machine instead of going for walks on bad air days...which in the case of ozone is 300 days a year, 90+ for particulate matter. And be prepared for strings of days over 100 degrees.

Yeah ... the air quality is an interesting phenomenon in Southern California. We almost moved to Bakersfield but, every time we put an offer in on a house (this, of course, was back during the boom, not now) people were trying to jack up the price up by $20K or more from the listed price after we made an offer. So, we just got tired of it and walked away from the whole thing.

We ended up moving to the High Desert instead. It's windy but, at least there's a lot less polution because it's on the other side of the mountains. But, as soon as you get back over the mountains, there's a big change in air quality. You can literally see how the marine layer/pollution gets trapped by the mountains.

And, by the time you get to LA, it literally looks like a film of dirt on the horizon. I'm not sure why people don't talk about the air quality in LA because it's just as bad, if not worse.

:typing

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Mar 16, 2007

Just for the record you named every DUMP considerable in California.

Not all of these places are dumps. Some of these cities are beautiful and rapidly growing. All of these cities have nice homes at affordable prices.