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You're gonna have to go with a gated community. I spent about 4 months flying back and forth out here trying to find my house NOT in a gated community.
Finally had to say "fuck it" and gave the gated communities a shot. Once I gave my agent the green light on gated, the whole thing became a lot easier. Tons of really nice places.
Only problem you're gonna have is the same one I had. Everybody is upside down on their mortgages. When I finally found MY house, I ended up paying the owners $137,000 extra over what the bank would loan. The house is incredible and 2 years ago would have sold for twice what I paid...but the bank didn't even want to loan the full $725,000!
They stick straight to appraisals and won't loan one thin dime more. And the appraisals are a combination of the housing market (which is super low) and comparing homes that have sold in the last few months in a couple mile radius.
So you get the mixed blessing of low prices on great homes AND the unfortunate side effect that the banks won't even loan the full amount of these great deals because of the market dropping so fast. So you're gonna need to make sure you have plenty of extra cash if you want to get the home you really want.
Mine is in the N.W. part of town right off 95
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