Brad

I'm in the valley and have been a boater for years. With oil now at $140 a barrel and gas hitting in mid-4s before summer, I think that you'll be hard pressed to find a boater who would rather tow their boat all of the way up to Tahoe instead of Clear Lake, Berryessa or Lake Folsom. All 3 are wonderful lakes and IMHO/past experiences, much more relaxed and family friendly places to ski and wakeboard. Plus those lakes don't require a full wetsuit as those are nice warm comfortable lakes! As for airfares, I can fly from SFO to DEN for $189 (RT on United), SFO to SLC for $184 (RT on Delta) around the Christmas holiday ... Jackson Hole if flying directly in JAC is a bit harder. I'd have to agree with Lexi... wait for the homes to be priced right! - Mon Jun 9 2008, 10:39

i'd have to agree that prices haven't come down as much as they will in the Tahoe Basin. With the California and Nevada real estate markets having gone down by 10-30% in many areas due to speculation, I haven't seen that decline in Incline Village yet (some areas in the Tahoe Basin are down a little).
A majority of Tahoe properties are investment properties (I've read as high as 70%), many used as rentals to help pay off the mortgages. With ARMs coming due, many are finding their primary rates increase (and potentially their vacation homes too!), and more people are willing to part with their vacation home than their primary home (esp. if their primary home is down 10-30% and their vacation home hasn't come down as much).
Add that to warmer winters causing shorter ski seasons and Tahoe historically being a winter attraction for those coming by car from the Bay Area and the Sacramento Area (have you seen gas prices recently?! ... And I doubt that the price of gas is going to be better this winter!).... there's definitely going to be a lower occupancy rate causing these mortgages payments to be coming out of pockets of the property owners (e.g. negative cash flow instead of that once positive cash flow).
Other destinations that are reached by flight are becoming more affordable in comparison esp. for the younger crowd that might not have been packing in 5 to a car. Why party in Tahoe when you can party in Aspen, Jackson Hole, Whistler Blackcomb, etc.
Of course those that live there will continue to live there and those that have been in the market for 10+ years have enough in the house (assuming that they didn't finance money out of the house) to keep them as profitable rentals for some time to come. If you plan on buying, definitely wait out this winter! - Mon Jun 2 2008, 11:57

I don't think it's illegal, but I don't know for sure and it may vary by state, etc. When a home seller accepts an offer they want to make sure it goes to completion, as their home is off the market while you are doing your due diligence (inspections, getting financing, and other contingencies). With more strict banking guidelines, the days of 0% down and "interest only" loans are gone, esp. when a borrower fits into the sub-prime group! I think the seller wants to ensure that if they are taking their home off the market (others typically won't make a back-up offer once it's in "sale pending"), that you'll get to escrow. Granted, if you were pre-approved by 3-4 banks with less than a 10% payment, I don't see why they wouldn't be willing to work with you. - Mon May 5 2008, 14:53

I'd imagine that it's based on the fact that Roseville and more so Rocklin, was over-built in the last couple of years. There's still builders with inventory and they are competing with more Bank repos / foreclosures (the Rocklin area has more entry-level / 1st time buyers) than in Granite Bay. Also, Granite Bay is a more desirable area with better schools that lures in home buyers that are seeing value. - Mon May 5 2008, 14:34

Hi Bud,
I also live in Folsom and agree with the other posters, but I wouldn't say that El Dorado Hills is more expensive per se. Serrano in EDH actually was cheaper per square foot for a comparable home where we ended up buying in North Folsom when we bought 3 years ago. But they had mello-roos, HOA, infrastruture fees, all of which remain the same or go up over time. I previously lived in the SF Bay Area and my HOAs over a 4 year time frame went from ~100/mo to ~300/mo. I live in an area where there are no mello-roos and HOA while mandatory to be a part of has a fee that is voluntary, and they don't dictate very many things at all. In Serrano we heard that they forced people to remove landscaping that they didn't deem "proper." Also we found that a lot of EDH and Granite Bay had gated communities and were a bit more well... you know. We liked that in North Folsom we are right in between all of the shopping of both Roseville and Folsom. We've found Folsom to be a very safe neighborhood with excellent outdoor activities and great schools. Overall for a major metro, Sacramento is about the most inexpensive that you can find in California and many other places in the US. The weather can at times be a bit hot, but last summer wasn't bad at all. And with the Lake and River right here, there's plenty of spots to cool off. - Fri Mar 14 2008, 16:18

With interest rates low and the real estate market dealing with a lot of issues, now is probably a really good time to buy. As soon as it's on the road to recovery, prices will quickly jump and the low interest rates will quickly vanish. While it's always possible that prices will decline, nobody really knows for sure and if this is your primary home, locking into a good long low priced mortgage now is probably a good bet. I personally live in Folsom and believe that it's a wonderful place to raise children. Davis always feels like a small college town to me. I also like the fact that Folsom is higher on higher ground which if global warming continues and we have wetter winters and rising sea water, not sure if I'd want to be in Davis! But if you have to commute into SF, Davis is definitely a good 30 minutes closer. If commuting into Sac, it's probably about the same, but Folsom is on the Sacramento light rail system. I believe that Folsom was in the top 10 most affordable list in last year's Money magazine... affordability of course not being cost, but probably more related to value (e.g. what you get for the money). - Sun Feb 3 2008, 01:31