Homes for Sale Near Camp Pendleton CA Military Base
When military personnel get PCS orders to their new duty station, one of the first things they or their spouse does is start looking at homes for sale or for rent near base. Near Camp Pendleton, California, military families have many options: base housing, renting a home in Oceanside, Temecula or surrounding areas, or buying a home.
BASE HOUSING near Camp Pendleton:
1. Wait time. Depending on your rank, you can get into base housing at not too long of a wait time, weeks, though of course at other ranks, the wait can be unreasonable. You need to check with Camp Pendleton base housing web site.
2. Quality of home: Base housing comes in a range of sizes, quality and age, just like out in town homes.
3. Finances: When you move into base housing at Camp Pendleton or any base, the military pays you BAH (housing allowance) AND deducts your full BAH from your paycheck. If you are renting out in town, and you can get a rental for less than your BAH, you get to keep the difference between BAH and rent in your own pocket.
2-2015 UPDATE TO THIS TOPIC-- SEE my new blog post, "Where do military families live when stationed at Camp Pendleton CA" -- includes links to search homes in particular neighborhoods in Murrieta and Temecula AND Video-like links to Google Maps Street Views of those specific neighborhoods.
RENTAL HOMES near Camp Pendleton:
1. Wait time. Usually homes are coming vacant and ready for a new renter about 4 weeks before the vacancy because the renter has to give 30 days' notice. However, in towns like Oceanside, Temecula and Murrieta near Camp Pendleton, where many tenants are military, some homes have a longer notice that the tenants are leaving (like you, on PCS orders). A great place to find these homes is where military homeowners and agents whose clients are military-renter-friendly post their rentals, www.MilitaryByOwner.com. We also have quite a few military tenants who know PCS dates further ahead of time, and so our rentals might have further-out available dates, so do check the SandToSeaProperties Homes for Rent page as well.
2. Quality of home: Rental homes in Oceanside, Temecula and Murrieta come in a range of sizes, quality and ages, as well as a range of types of neighborhood and related schools. Visit my Blog on Schools Near Camp Pendleton CA.
3. Finances: Your BAH pay for rental or buying homes near Camp Pendleton is currently as of February 28, 2010, more than you will pay for a rental out in town. As you probably know, if you don't spend your BAH every month (like when your rent is less than your BAH), then the difference stays in your pocket. This is a positive for your finances and makes renting out in town better for you financially.
HOMES FOR SALE near Camp Pendleton.
1. Wait time: now as of February 2010, the market for homes for sale in Oceanside, Temecula, Murrieta and Hemet has dropped in price so much that there are multiple offers being put in on each home that comes on the market (if not overpriced), and buyers are having to make offers on multiple homes and be patient and persistent to get into contract to buy a home (on average, 1 to 3 months, we're seeing). One in contract, the process to buy takes 30 to 45 days, give or take, and depending on the parties and the home involved.
2. Quality of home: homes for sale in Oceanside, Temecula and Murrieta near Camp Pendleton come in a range of sizes, quality and ages, as well as a range of types of neighborhood and related schools. Visit my Blog on Schools Near Camp Pendleton CA.
3. Finances: Your BAH is your housing allowance in your pay. Yes, it is YOUR money. When you pay BAH for military housing or a rental, you are paying your money into someone else's pocket (Uncle Sam's pocket for military housing, or your landlord's pocket for rental housing). Now let's say you buy a home near Camp Pendleton.
A. Monthly Cost: Right now, in the Temecula, Murrieta, and Hemet areas near Camp Pendleton (less so in Oceanside, which is closest to base), when a military family buys a home, most can buy using 100% financing through their VA loan privileges and have their monthly payment for the loan's principal and interest as well as the taxes and insurance ("PITI") be less than the rent they would pay for a similar home in the same neighborhood.
B. Cost Over Time:
1. While you are stationed at Camp Pendleton, your BAH should be a bit more than the monthly cost to buy, so you are saving a few to a couple of hundred dollars monthly.
2. When you PCS from Camp Pendleton, your new base housing allowance will be different than it was at Camp Pendeton, perhaps more if you go overseas or another large metropolitan area, or perhaps less.
a. If you sell, assuming you are only doing so because the home price went up to give you a profit and you have a life reason to sell, the home near Camp Pendleton is no longer owned by you, so ongoing expense.
b. If you continue to own the home, you rent it out. If the tenant's rent is more than your monthly expenses of principal, interest, taxes and insurance ("PITI"), then you have a few extra dollars in your pocket monthly AND that tenant is paying your whole cost of that investment. Keep in mind, that VA loan is a 20 year fixed loan and is being paid off over time. Once it is paid off, and you are retiring, that is monthly income for you. We feel that this is one of the best financial benefits the military gives you. You need to do your homework and take it on for yourself, as the military does not really concern itself with giving you indepth classes on this. (Perhaps they do? If you've found such a class, please comment below and let me know; I'd like to get the word out.)
c. Expenses: Over time, owning a home does cost money (maintenance, management if you pay a property manager, etc.). It takes time and thought: phone calls to handle the occasional repair that comes up, monthly receipt of the tenant's money, some added paperwork. And yes, at times there will be repairs and maintenance that are a few hundred or more dollars, though these should be reasonable with proper care and maintenance of the property and screening of tenants. And the tenant's deposit should cover damage the tenant himself does, reducing your costs, so make sure you do screen tenants and collect deposits up front.
d. Power of the Tenant's Money: What other investment out there will pay off over time with someone else's (tenant's) money? Not stocks, not CDs, none. Let's take an example: you buy a $200,000 home, and your monthly PITI is $1600 (typical example currently in Temecula, Murrieta, Hemet). In three years, you rent the home for $1500 a month - yes, let's assume rents went down (though the market looks like they will go up because of all the homeowners losing their homes and needing to rent). The tenant is paying $1500 toward your $200,000 mortgage every month; you pay an additional $100 per month for that investment. You pay 1/16th of the monthly cost of $200,000. That tenant's $1500 multiplies the power of your $100 and allows you to pay off (buy) a $200,000 loan.
e. Power of Your Money: Now let's say you send a check for an extra $133 dollars per month, marking in the check description that it is to be paid to Principal on your VA loan. $133 x 12 months = 1 extra payment of $1600/year. This reduces the time it takes to pay off the VA loan to apx 21 years, which - AHA - is just one year longer than the typical military retiree spends doing his 20 years. And at that point, the home is paid off and whatever monthly rental the tenant is paying is pure cash for you the homeowner. And add in the fact that over time, real estate has been shown to double in value every 10 or so years; probably a decent bet if buying homes at the current prices so much lower than the height of the market.
*Disclaimer: This is my experience, opinion and belief. I am an avid fan of real estate as a way to build wealth. I have been a student of it for years, own rental properties, and believe in it. You need to do your own homework and investigate your options relating to your finances before investing.
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