What I’m Going to Look For in a New House

I’m not quite house-hunting yet, but watching the prices here in Orange County keep on falling is making me think I could start looking in another six months or so. So for the sake of posterity, here’s what I’m going to be looking for:

  • No speed bumps between the house and the main street. Yes, this is my number one priority.
  • Overhead lights.
  • Over 1,800 s.f.
  • No gated communities.
  • No ugly tile.
  • More than five feet separating my house from neighboring houses.
  • Can’t back up to a major street, shopping center, or railroad tracks.
  • No swimming pool.
  • HOA fees < $100.
  • Within 15 minutes of work via surface streets.
  • No carpeted bathrooms.

Some nice-to-haves:

  • No confusing, hard-to-spell, overly effeminate, or Tolkein-themed street names (the city of Lake Forest has a neighborhood with streets named Shadowfax, Gondor, and Rivendell).
  • HOA fees < $20.
  • Backs onto a park or open space.
  • Big enough backyard to practice pitching in (i.e., > 60-feet, 6-inches long).
  • Washer and dryer *not* in the garage.
  • < 5 minutes to the freeway.
  • Mailbox directly in front of the house.
  • No bedrooms < 10×10.

Things I’m okay with that other people might not be:

  • Wood paneling (the 70s were probably the best years of my life — why *wouldn’t* I be okay with wood paneling?!).
  • A (mild) fixer. I don’t mind replacing the floors, painting, or getting the landscaping in order. (A cracked foundation would be a deal-breaker, though.)
  • A lot of grass.
  • Architecture that looks like it’s from the 1970s (see above).

Two points of reference for those of you who haven’t tracked Orange County real estate as closely as I have over the last couple of years:

  1. When I moved back to Mission Viejo in 2006, the lowest listed price for any single-family, non-retirement community house in town was $599,000. Today: $385,000.
  2. My old condo that I sold in 2004 is now listed at $75,000 less than I sold it for — and I sold it two years before the peak.

The cool thing is that all objective evaluation criteria point to a continued down-slope in prices here. I read last week that based on availability and sales rates there is currently 4.5 years of available inventory on the South Orange County market. And the vast majority of foreclosures that are or will be happening have yet to hit the market.

Still a great time not to own anything — for a few more months at least.

bkd