For Sale in North County : A Look at Homes on the Market and the Costs
So you’ve heard that housing prices are finally beginning to flatten and you are ready to buy your little piece of North County. Exactly what will your money buy? What if you’ve only got a few thousand to put down? What if you’ve got a few million?
The typical price of a home in North County is about $250,000. That will usually buy you a nice three-bedroom, 2 1/2-bath house with a family room and two-car garage. But, what would you find if you weren’t looking at typical houses? What’s on the market differs from one day to the next, as buyers and sellers come and go. But, this is what North County Focus found on a real estate shopping trip to Poway, Rancho Santa Fe and Oceanside:
FOR SALE IN POWAY
Most expensive: $1.6 million
Least expensive: $139,000
Poway has a new performing arts center next to the high school and, for awhile longer at least, there are some fairly panoramic views of the valley and surrounding hills.
There are about 400 homes for sale in Poway, 10 times as many as were on the market last year at this time, according to Michaeline (Mike) Davidson of the Coldwell Banker office in Poway.
The most expensive house for sale in Poway was a 6,645 square-foot number that sits on 2 acres in the gated community of Green Valley Estates and sells for $1.6 million.
From the outside, this new house has a yen for Williamsburg, Va., but with all the modern conveniences. The brick face and large, columned portico are out of the Deep South. There is a working fountain in the middle of the walk up to the large front doors.
Open a door and you’ll find yourself in an atrium and hallway so cavernous your kids could play a pick up football game and just about have a regulation-size field.
The interior of this house is consciously deluxe with a glass corner that overlooks an outdoor waterfall, a kitchen large enough to cook for a small army, a maid’s pantry and laundry room, and a limousine-length garage. Of course, there is a pool and spa and even an area where the health-minded can install their own small gym. In case the rest of the family tree wants to move in, there are six bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms.
On the other end of Poway’s housing scale is a 30-year-old, 1,200 square-foot California ranch tract home on the east end of town. It’s listed at $139,000, but you may want to do a little bargaining. Davidson called it a “fixer.” The exterior is plywood sheathing covered by a thin layer of stucco that has peeled over much of the outside. Inside there are three small bedrooms and two baths.
As only a good real estate agent could, Davidson pointed out the home’s location nestled against some nearby foothills. “This is a perfect spot for mountain biking,” she said optimistically. “There are a lot of outdoor things to do around here.”
FOR SALE IN RANCHO SANTA FE
Most expensive: $6.9 million
Least expensive: $679,000
The first thing you learn about Rancho Santa Fe is that it is not called Rancho Santa Fe. Those in the know call it simply “The Ranch” in that off handed, shake-of-the-head way, as in “Let me show you around The Ranch.”
That’s what Jean Buckley of the local Grubb & Ellis office said. To get the idea of how important real estate is in The Ranch, all you need to do is look at the “downtown” part of the small village. It is almost entirely occupied by real estate offices which vie for the rights to sell homes ranging from $14 million to $300,000 for a small condominium.
The average homeowner on The Ranch is about 42 years old, has either inherited family money or started a business that hit it big.
They sell real estate a little differently here. First, don’t bother coming around asking to see a few homes you think you might want to buy without having some way to convince an agent you’ve got the cash to make it happen. Looky-loos are not welcome.
The jaunt out to see the property is in stretch limousine. “This is how we show real estate in The Ranch,” said Buckley.
Marketing tools are also a step above. Forget the black-and-white flyers with a fuzzy photo. The homes in The Ranch are sold with brochures so slick they put resort literature to shame.
Of course, resorts are what the agents are selling. The limousine’s first stop was at Casa de la Camellia--homes have names in The Ranch. This house was designed by Lillian Rice, the famed architect responsible for many early homes here, and it is as unpretentious as a home selling for $5.5 million can be.
The wood ceilings, oddly angled rooms and the plethora of fireplaces somehow make this large house homey. Of course, if you tire of feeling homey, you can always play tennis on the championship court, swim in the large pool or have a workout in the fitness pavilion.
But this isn’t the most expensive house for sale in The Ranch. That honor belongs to El Mirador, a Spanish estate on 4.1 acres. Louisa (Lou) McBride, the listing agent, says it’s a bargain at $6.9 million. After all, it was marked down from $11 million. (Technically, the most expensive property for sale in The Ranch is priced at $14 million, but includes 47 acres that can be subdivided.)
El Mirador has tons of extras. If you can think of it, it has been put in this house. Have a fantasy about playing gas station attendant? Use the 1,000 gallon underground tank attached to old Texaco pump. Have a food fetish? There are six huge refrigerators and four dishwashers.
In the basement, which looks like the engine room of an ocean liner, you can see the nine separate phone lines, all computer controlled so they can be operated from anywhere in the world.
The three-car garage--not to be confused with a separate, two-car garage--is about the size of a modest bungalow and was specially designed so that three limousines could rest comfortably with all their doors wide open and still not touch.
The pool cabana has a ceiling inspired by Lillian Rice. It is made of 1,600 hand-carved- and-installed wood pieces.
Every bit of door, window, and drawer hardware was hand cast in metal. Some of the sink faucets have been sculpted into brass swans’ heads. You control the hot and cold flows by stepping on the webbed feet below the sink.
And what about the living quarters and closets? Let’s just say that Imelda Marcos would be proud of these closets. They are constructed of Honduras mahogany with hookups for a stereo and television. The woman’s closet is really three separate rooms.
The least expensive house in The Ranch? For $679,000 you can buy a 2,000 square-foot ranch-style house on a quarter acre. If you forget the price tag and the location, this looks like a home average folks might buy. You can tell the agents in The Ranch aren’t excited about it, though. It is advertised with a one-page flyer with a photo pasted in the middle. One of the selling points is “easy care,” a dead giveaway in a neighborhood where cutting the grass in your Bermuda shorts simply isn’t done.
FOR SALE IN OCEANSIDE
Most expensive: $2.25 million
Least expensive: $75,000
Oceanside is rediscovering its status as a beach town and all that can mean for real estate. There are now some new $1 million homes along the beachfront, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find some bargains.
In fact, this seaside city has the lowest priced home in our sample, a 640 square-foot condo in the Fire Mountain neighborhood that is selling for $75,000. It is in a converted apartment building in a nice neighborhood. There’s even a view if you look between some of the buildings.
There are about 7,700 homes on the market in the Oceanside-Carlsbad-Vista-Escondido area, according to Dave Oleksy of the McMillan office in Carlsbad.
The most expensive home for sale in Oceanside is a sort of ersatz English-French garden home in the old beach resort development of St. Malo. This 4,600 square foot house is priced at $2,225,000.
At first, the house looks small, but take a walk around the back and the place doubles in size. It has four large bedrooms and five bathrooms. According to Oleksy, homes like this, especially in St. Malo, are often used as getaway homes for people from Arizona and Texas.
It is loaded with conveniences like large, built-in wine racks, a spa and walk-in shower, an oak paneled library and the obligatory wet bar. This development, built before the days of the California Coastal Commission, also has a private beach so homeowners don’t have to mingle with the riffraff.
