Today we closed escrow on the sale of our town home in Santa Clarita (Saugus). Two years ago we bought a 3 bedroom, 2 ½ bath unit, in a complex at the corner of Seco Cyn and Copper Hill Rd, with a two-car garage and about 1300 square feet. In spite of the hassles of moving, we decided it was a good time to sell, because it looks like the housing market may finally be peaking. Of course, we thought it had almost peaked 2-3 years ago, but it just kept going higher. But prices have risen to such a level that we’ll soon reach a point – in fact we may already be there – where just a very small minority of households can afford to purchase a home in certain areas of Southern California.

Even though house prices may continue to rise, we decided it was time for us to cash out after having made an average yearly return of about 150% on our leveraged investment. It’s hard to do better than that! (Many people have fared even better.) We even considered selling sooner, but we needed to live in our place for at least two years in order to claim the allowed tax exemption on the proceeds. We’ll invest the funds for at least a few years (perhaps several) until prices decline sufficiently, and we’ve just about hit bottom. Then we can hopefully afford to purchase a single family home with a back yard, enough room for the kids to play, and maybe even space to plant a garden. Whether that takes place in a locale such as Southern California, where hoards of people put up with smog and traffic congestion for a slice of sunshine, remains to be seen, But we’re extremely grateful that the timing so far has worked in our favor.

We initially looked at the possibility of relocating to another city, such as Burbank (where I work) or Simi Valley (close to friends and family), but it turns out good ‘ole Santa Clarita is where we’ll stay for now. With the addition of a new baby to our family, we wanted to minimize the number of changes taking place all at once, and we’re already familiar with where everything is located in Santa Clarita. So we found a quaint two bedroom apartment just two blocks from our old place. The apartments are called “Provence” and have a number of amenities, such as an Olympic-size pool that’s heated year-round, a fitness center and a business center with computers and fax machines – not to mention cookies baked fresh each day! The complex is in Valencia on the corner of McBean Pkwy and Copper Hill Dr. Feel free to drop by and pay us a visit sometime!