A Nice Place to Live

During lunch today, I went to see a vacant home on the market located in an entry level neighborhood of Fountain Valley. We lived in Fountain Valley for 3 years prior to our current home so now most of the city well. It's actually a rather boring city without much to offer with regard to entertainment and dining but the city's motto sums it up well "A Nice Place to Live." It straddles the 405 freeway and is thus centrally located to other cities of more interest such as Huntington Beach and Costa Mesa. There are no ghettos in FV but also no luxury estate homes either. Households in FV (and there are plenty of them because it's a sprawling suburb) tend to be solidly middle class with a 1800 sq ft, 3 bedroom home build in the 70s priced around $675k. That figure is pretty astounding to us given that we sold our home 3 years ago for $455k and it was significantly larger. We had bought almost 3 years earlier for $265k but, nevertheless, it stings to see what we missed out on by selling instead of holding and renting it out.

Anyway, this house that I visited today was in decent shape. Certainly not a fixer but certainly not what one would expect for $640k (especially for someone buying from out of state and new to the OC market). It was listed with 1700 sq ft but about 350 of that was actually just an enclosed patio. The wood shake roof was original and was on its last legs. Some nice improvements had been done such as new appliances, newer tile and neutral paint tones. It also had a pool but it looked rather dingey and had an ugly fence surrounding it. I could see someone either loving or hating the enclosed patio. Because it is located in an entry level area of FV, I can't imagine that this would be a house that someone would be moving UP into unless they were previously in a condo. It's shocking to think that a $640k home is a STARTER home. Thank God for interest only and no documentation loans!

Total spent Wednesday:
$0 brought lunch
$43 TJ Max
$3 Starbucks
$5 takeout fastfood dinner for 2 (saved $5 with Entertainment card)

Total spent today:
$63 various groceries, lunch and stuff for dinner at Costco