patrick.net

Well, like the title says, I finally decided to buy.  A little of my Bay area housing history to set the stage.   I moved here in '98 when you had to pay asking or above to get anything that wasn't a total dump or in a crap area.  My Ex and I almost doubled our money on our house in Clayton when we sold in '03 (bought in '98 and paid full price for a house that needed $30k in repairs/paint/carpet/kitchen....everything).  We moved to Livermore in '03 and added about 35% more equity when we sold in October 2006.  Once again we had paid full price for a better house that needed about $10k in fix-ups/carpet.  When we sold due to the divorce, our realtor advised we missed the absolute peak of the market in Livermore by about 3 months and got an offer that was $25k less than asking, but, since we had made so much on both houses we agreed with a smile.

The short story is while we were married we lived within our means and didn't take any money out of either house, so when we sold our equity was converted into real money.  Well minus the over $50k paid on realtor commissions but that's another blog subject.  This worked out to about $225,000 each.

I knew the Livermore market was very over-priced and decided to wait out the impending crash and rent.  My Ex on the other hand bought as soon as she could.  This site and others like it have been very benefitual in my attempt to time the market.  I backed out of a short sale in Livermore last spring when at the close I was asked for an additional $23k, in cash no less, to close the deal.  It was the 2nd mortgage holder was who wanted the additional money to close the deal.  It was not my problem they made a poor loan decision with the seller and I backed out the deal and kept looking.

Life handed me a curve ball this October, and I was down-sized.  My company did offer me a position on the East coast.  I have nothing against the East other than not wanting to move there and advised I would be resigning.  I was given enough time to look for a home before I would be looking for work.  My girlfriend lives in the Central Valley and I decided to move there.  Also, you get twice the house for 1/2 the price compared to Livermore.  The short story is I put a bid in on a bank-owned home that had been sold a month prior and that deal fell thru.  I was the highest bid and had a conventional 20% down payment with a very good credit score.  My realtor did earn her commission this time since we looked at over 60 homes and I had her work up cost per square foot based on the comps/asking/sold prices before putting in an offer or a bid.  Two homes I made offers on did not appraise, and I backed out since the Valley market isn't going up anytime soon and I didn't want to part with any more cash than I needed to.  Time was running out when we put the higher than worked up square foot price bid in on the bank owned home.

Success!  My bid was accepted.  Now for the fun part....actually getting the loan.  I have an 800 plus credit score, plenty of money in the bank and 20% down and was still employed.  Still, since the whole mortgage loan industry collapse, things took much longer and I had to jump thru tons of hoops to close.  When the appraisal came in $10k under what I offered, yes there is a God, the bank actually re-wrote the contract at the lower price.

So after 3.5 years of renting and paying thru the nose on taxes as well stifling my home improvement gene, I finally have a home to live in, repair and deduct.  And since I have moved to the Valley my house payment including taxes and insurance is less than 1/2 of what I was paying in rent alone in Livermore.  Granted, its the Valley and while I will miss the Livermore wineries, I won't miss the traffic/cost of living and over all rat race.  Plus I can come back and visit anytime I want since I'm 58 miles away.

Thanks Patrick for you site and all the data you provided.

Ex-Livermore resident

#housing