This is a new series I'm starting, on the neighborhoods of the area I primarily work, which includes La Mesa, San Carlos, El Cajon and Santee.
This area is bounded by 70th street, University Avenue, the San Diego border (which is highly irregular) and El Cajon Boulevard. On the San Diego side of the border, the neighborhood is similar until you get west of Aragon Drive and Rolando Boulevard. North of El Cajon Boulevard is all San Diego, and is also similar. East of 70th Street is a slightly older area of La Mesa with fewer trees centered upon Harbison Drive. South of University Avenue is Vista La Mesa.
The main commercial arteries serving the area are El Cajon Boulevard and University Avenue, there being no commercial activity on 70th Street away from the two main intersections.
Here is a photograph of University Avenue, as seen westbound from 70th. Joan Kroc Community Center occupies the center of the photo on the far side of University Avenue. They have everything from recreation classes to religious meetings to community programs and daycare. (click for whole picture)
Best Produce sits just out of the previous photo to the left, on the southwest corner of the intersection of 70th and University. If you want real fresh produce, you have the choice of them or Henry's on Spring Street.
The actual La Mesa area of Rolando is fairly small, but it shares character with the San Diego side. The neighborhood is mature, with a very large number of trees, as you will see, for instance. The main "neighborhood street" is Tower Street, on which sits Rolando School. (Tower changes its name to Solita at the San Diego border). (click for whole picture)
Once you're away from the main arteries, there really isn't much in the way of high density housing. Most of the neighborhood is single family residences, built during the 1950s if not before. The subdivision maps were laid out in the early 1900s, but not filled in until the post-war period. Any housing built since about 1960 is mostly replacement for an earlier original. The vast majority of houses are unique - I cannot think of a single tract development in the entire area. Every house is different from every other. This characteristic is pretty common in La Mesa, something most of the residents love.
Physically, the houses are mostly single story 3 and 4 bedroom, 1.5 to 2 bath houses from around 1200 square feet to around 1600, sitting on lots of about 6500 to 8000 square feet. In the fifty years since the neighborhood was built out, many have had additions, of course, as the lots have plenty of room. Many use the older pier support, but concrete foundations became mandatory while the neighborhood was in the later stages. Foundation issues and settling are rare, and those that existed have mostly long since been dealt with. Hardwood floors are more rule than exception. Asking prices start around $340,000 for something very livable, and go to just under $500,000. A family making San Diego Area Median Income of $72,100 can qualify for these properties fairly easily.
The thing that stands out about the neighborhood is how quiet it is. Many people seem to think it should have more of the character of the main streets, but once you are off those main streets, there's just nobody here but your neighbors (along with an occasional inquisitive realtor, of course!), and 95% of them live in detached single family residences. It's hard to take a picture a lot of places without trees blocking most of it.
Here's Alamo street, looking East from 68th: (click for whole picture)
Here's Rolando Knolls, looking East from Elma Lane: (click for whole picture)
And here's the Rolando Little League Field, on Vigo: (click for whole picture)
One thing the neighborhood does not have an abundance of is the panoramic views that happen through most of La Mesa. There are many properties with nice views, but the area is flatter than most of La Mesa, and it's hills that make for that kind of views!
The neighborhood school is Rolando Elementary, the Middle School is La Mesa Middle School (formerly La Mesa Junior High), and the high school is Helix Charter. Helix, in particular, has a long record of academic achievement. Here's the most recent account Helix Accountability Report Card
The closest community college is Grossmont, the closest four year college is San Diego State University, which is actually closer.
Here's the front of Rolando School, on Tower just west of 70th. Sunshine Park is immediately adjacent to the south. (click for whole picture)
Rolando is a very nice neighborhood to live in, with great central transportation. It's two minutes to Interstate 8 via 70th street, 5 minutes to CA 94 via Massachusetts. You have your choice of several major supermarkets within a mile or so. You can get to Mission Valley in ten minutes, downtown in 15. The San Diego Trolley runs adjacent to Interstate 8, and has stops at Alvarado Hospital and just east of 70th Street, and El Cajon Boulevard and University Avenue are both bus routes. Major shopping centers are found in College Grove (Wal Mart, Sam's Club, Target) at College and 94, or Grossmont Center (Target, Wal-Mart, Macy's, Theaters and dining) at Interstate 8 via Jackson and Grossmont Center Drive exits.
If you'd like to talk more about Rolando or any other neighborhood of La Mesa, Contact me. I will be happy to discuss which neighborhoods might be right for you, or the marketing of your current property.
Today's new consumer article is Procuring Cause and Multiple Agents, which talks about multiple agents and which one gets the commission.
Today's new consumer article is What Does It Mean To Fall Out Of Escrow?, which talks about the process of escrow and what really causes escrows to fall apart - and that it is not something to fear.
Today's new consumer article is Buying Teardown Properties and Condemned Buildings, a discussion of the basic issues of buying property with condemned buildings, or ones that you just don't like and want to replace.
There's another article set to go for tomorrow. I'm not sure about the rest of the week.
The tooth was taken out on Wednesday, as I said on my other site, and completely forgot to add here. Bleeding stopped Thursday, I have graduated down from Vicodin to Ibuprofen as of Thursday evening. Since Ibuprofen doesn't hit me nearly so hard, I'm planning to be back from mostly involuntary hiatus on Monday. I wrote two articles Saturday morning, which are set to publish Monday and Tuesday. I was going to write more but at this point I just don't know, because I'm pretty depressed about Mellon.
This week I was intending to start here with some more local articles, about the neighborhoods of the area where I work, as well as at least one Hot Bargain Property and Real Loans for Real People, but we'll have to see how things shake out. I loved that little dog.
Newly Written Articles
Customer Disservice and Alienation - Why Nobody Talks to My Clients Except Me - even a dental office mistake is something a good agent can learn from
If You Don't Think Agents Are Valuable, Do It Yourself. If you really think agents aren't worth anything, stop asking us to work for free, or give free advice.
Charles Schumer Administers Coup-de-Grace to IndyMac How to change a corporation from hurt but salvageable to dead meat, and cost the taxpayers four to eight billion dollars - all by publishing one letter.
Updated Articles
The High Cost of Waiting To Buy A Home talks about the expected costs of holding off one, two, or more years to buy the property you are interested in. In San Diego County right now, the reward for moving before the crowd will be much greater.
Stupid Negotiating Tricks: Appeal to Pity (or Falling for Appeal to Pity) talks about one of the common tricks of a certain type of buyer - and seller.
The Lure and the Trap of Debt Consolidation - Payment Versus Cost of Interest talks about how dangerous loan consolidation is - and how to do it right.
Signing Off Loan Conditions talks about the actual process of getting loan conditions signed off, with some common tricks of the less scrupulous loan provider thrown in.
Real Estate: Getting From Where You Are To Where You Want To Be talks about how to get from where you are to where you want to be when what you want is more than you can afford right now.
Just got home from running a couple of errands, and when we got back, Mellon was dead.
She was fifteen years old, and not in good health, so I'm not all that surprised, but it is like losing a family member. This has not been a good year for me, in any way, shape or form.
She was a pureblood dachshund, black and tan with a silver grey dapple on her. Her name was out of Tolkien elvish, "Friend" it meant, and she was. No champion dog she, but one of the most eye-catching dogs you ever saw, and she loved attention. I knew when I bought her that her hips were bad, but she was such a sweet little dog her whole life that everyone loved her, even though she started losing her mobility before she was five. All she wanted out of life were regular meals and a little affection. I did my best to provide those, and in return, she loved everybody. She never so much as growled at either of the kids, or anyone else for that matter (except Julia, who I felt guilty about introducing into the family with her so old and hampered).
She may have started losing her mobility early, but until recently you could always tell when she was happy. She would run little circles of joy when something good happened - special treat, mommy and daddy paying attention to her, or even just mealtime. She'd go round and round, hips pumping despite how damaged they were. She wasn't in pain, she just couldn't move as easily as most dogs any longer. When she lost the ability to run in circles, we bought her a little canine wheelchair that she hated because she couldn't get under the couch to take shelter from Julia. She couldn't run and play like the puppy, so the girls started ignoring her, but she was still happy with whatever anyone would give her in the way of affection.
Like every other dapple dachshund I've ever seen, she started losing patches of fur quite early. She was such a pretty dog when she was young, but even my wife (whom I met when Mellon was about three) had never seen her with all of her fur, and all of my pictures of her when she was younger (the way I want to remember her) are in storage. Luckily, she lived in San Diego, and she had a sliding glass door her whole life that got good sun in the afternoon. You always knew where you'd find Mellon in the afternoon - right there in that sunny spot.
Goodbye sweetie. Whereever dogs go, may you always have a warm sunny spot and as much food and affection as you need, without any young puppies who don't understand that you're old and can't play like that. You helped me in a very bad time of my life, and I will miss you badly.
Today's is only an update of a previously written article - but it's an update of one of the most important articles I've ever done, The High Cost of Waiting To Buy A Home. This article looks strictly at the costs you incur by waiting to buy, even if you have a dedicated program of saving for a down payment in the meantime. Delay isn't pretty. In the average case, waiting a single year to buy a $300,000 property costs you over $20,000 in terms of financial results. Considering the current state of the market, that's a very low estimate.
(I am finally scheduled to have that tooth pulled today. I hope to be more or less recovered by the end of the weekend, and back to doing the features I've missed such as Hot Bargain Properties and Real Loans for Real People.)
Today's new consumer article is If You Don't Think Agents Are Valuable, Do It Yourself, which discusses people trying to get real estate agents to do our core work for free, and how what their actions say overshadows whatever words they may utter.
(I'm not talking about any number of minor activities agents are happy to give out for free. I'm talking about people who try to get buyers agents to find their dream property, or listing agents to to market and sell a property, without engaging them for the transaction).
Newly Written Articles
How to Buy a Bargain Property, a discussion of what sorts of properties to look for.
Buying Your Final Home: Payment versus the Rate/Cost Tradeoff, in which I discuss why you want to pay attention to the real cost of the loan, not the payment - even when you're never going to pay it off.
Updated Articles
Credit Lines: Number and Length of Time Open
What to Beware in Third Party Services, talking about kickbacks and the lengths some agents will go to.
What Happens To Equity During and After Foreclosure?, talking about how the equity you may have thought you had will evaporate during the foreclosure process.
What to Do When Your Loan is Declined is a look into the process that many loan providers use as a bait and switch technique.
What Happens To Equity During and After Foreclosure?, a discussion of what it will cost you to allow the foreclosure to proceed instead of selling the property yourself.
Vampire Properties, discussing the property with beautiful surfaces that lures buyers in, only to discover the rotten substructure after they have bought.
Once again, I do apologize for only two new articles this last week. That was not the plan. Unfortunately, my tooth had other plans.
I still don't have the tooth pulled, but as of late last night, it seemed like the antibiotic had finally caught up to the infection, and the pain went down a lot over a couple of hours. It still hurts, even with pain killers, but it's not like being actively and continuously stabbed any longer. I'm going to try moving down to the Vicodin the general dentist gave me today instead of Percocet, and maybe I won't be quite so out of it, so maybe I can write something.
I am very sorry for the sparse output this week, especially after last week's vacation. I'm sitting here on Percocet and my jaw still feels like someone is stabbing it with an icepick. While this is an improvement, it's still very difficult to think, work, or drive. I do not think I'll be able to do anything more than reprints until we get clearance to extract that tooth. That moment cannot come too soon for me. I've already lost three full days of work over this, and the pain isn't any fun, either.
Want San Diego MLS?
Add to Technorati Favorites
Not in San Diego?
My other site is here
