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The goal of this web page is to provide information to help you compare the cost of living in North San Diego County to that in other retirement places in the U.S. Your actual cost of living however will depend to a major degree on your retirement lifestyle. ∙ Items that we believe may be approximately the same price or less costly than in most other areas of the U.S.: ∙ Groceries, dining out, clothing, car repair, chiropractic care, golf and many types of entertainment may cost the same or less in North San Diego County because of extreme competition between a large number of similar businesses. ∙ Heating and cooling costs are fairly low in most areas of North San Diego County (even though natural gas and electricity costs are quite high), because of the mild year-round temperatures and low summertime relative humidity. ∙ Items may be more costly than in most other areas of the U.S.: ∙ The cost of gasoline, electricity, natural gas and water are usually higher than in many other areas of the U.S. Your lifestyle however can offset some of these costs.
∙ Housing costs are higher than in many
other areas of the U.S. That's because North San Diego County's great
climate, natural beauty and many things to do make it one of the nations
most popular places to live. | ||||
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HOME PRICES AND HOME PRICE TRENDS HOME PRICES To Check Out North County's Active Retirement Home Choices & Prices-
Patty Anderson,
Our
Seniors Real Estate Specialist
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NOTE: To Return to Previous Page: Click-on
the back arrow About The Current Housing Market: The May, 2010, median prices of North County's Single Family Detached homes in all of San Diego County was up 15.3% from last year. Their prices are roughly where they were in early 2003. In Senior Communities, homes tend to be somewhat lower in price; In June, 2010, detached home prices started in the low $300K's, attached homes in the low $00Ks, manufactured homes where you own the lot, in the low $100K's and homes in Mobile Home Parks where you rent the lot, in the $30K's. There is an abundant inventory of homes from which to choose. Other Good News is that Interest Rates continue at near historical record lows, at least for the short-term future. | ||||
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A North County Home As A Lifestyle Investment-
- A North County Home Is Also An Investment In A Lifestyle North San Diego County offers: ∙ Near-perfect year-round Climates. (People who live in North San Diego County spend very few days sitting indoors, waiting for the weather to change- How much is that worth?) ∙ Beautiful coastal and hilly inland terrain. ∙ Hundreds of enjoyable Retirement Activities . ∙ An abundance of (more than 1500) fine Restaurants. ∙ Some great Active Retirement Senior Communities. ∙ Low Crime Rates that make it a relatively safe place to retire to. ∙ Excellent Medical Facilities . | ||||
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A North County Home As A Financial Investment- | ||||
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Until the market plunge, San Diego County real estate, like real estate in other parts of the country, appeared to be a good long-term financial investment (please click on > Median House Prices to see a 20 year graph of San Diego Metropolitan Median Home Prices). At current home prices, that are below 2003 levels, San Diego County real estate may again be a good place to invest some of the dollars you hope to pass on to your heirs. An additional benefit is that you will enjoy living in your investment every day. A factor to also consider is that It is reasonable to assume that the demand for the limited number of homes in our Senior Communities will increase dramatically when the Baby Boomers begin retiring in 2011. Many Baby Boomers will want to downscale to retrieve retirement income from the equity in their present home. (For more information, please see Figure #5 and Page 17 of Baby Boomer Generation ). |
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If You Become Financially Strapped In The Future- ∙ You may be able to tap into your home equity via a Reverse Mortgage or Home Equity Line of Credit (Note that Reverse Mortgages may not be available on homes in a Mobile Home Parks and condominiums and Home Equity loans may not be available at all on older mobile or manufactured homes). ∙ Learn about pros and cons for the various types of reverse mortgages at ReverseMortgage.org's Types of Reverse Mortgages website and get additional views of the pros and cons of tapping into your home equity at a CNN Money's (older but interesting) Pros and Cons of Reverse Mortgages web page. ∙ You may also be able to postpone payment of your real estate taxes while you live in the home, or obtain assistance in paying your real estate taxes (See more details under the TAXES section below). ∙ A few words about Real Estate Taxes- ∙ Even though home prices may seem high, California's Real Estate Tax Rate (@ 0.61% of home value) is low Compared To Other States . | ||||
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State Income Tax Rate (2010): 1% to 9.3% (to $1M income) Sales Tax Rate (2010): 8.25 - 8.75% About California's State Real Estate Tax Laws- For more information contact Davit L. Butler, County Assessor (619) 531-5481. ∙ Under Proposition 13- ∙ The California property tax rate is 1% of the purchase price plus any bonds or special fees. If there is no new construction or change of ownership, the property cannot be reassessed and the property tax cannot be increased by more than 2% annually. ∙ A good discussion of the details and history of Prop 13 is presented by Wikipedia . ∙ About Propositions 60 and 90- ∙ These propositions apply to those aged 55 or older who are selling their home and buying another of equal or lesser value. ∙ If both the home you are selling and the home you are buying are your principal places of residence, this program allows the taxable value of the home you are selling to be transferred to the home you are buying, thereby preventing an increase in property taxes. ∙ If you are 55 or older, you can move to San Diego County from any other county in California and keep your base-year value. ∙ You may refer to the California State Board of Equalization web pages for more details. ∙ Capital Gains Tax Exclusions and Tax Rate- ∙ The Prop. 60-90 property tax exclusions, when combined with the current Capital Gains Exclusions ($500,000 for married couples, $250,000 for singles) and low (0% or 15%) Capital Gains Tax Rates, provides a powerful reason to sell a property and purchase another when you retire. For exact details go to IRS Publication #523 "Selling Your Home." ∙ Property Tax Postponement Program- ∙ Please refer to the San Diego County Tax Assessor's State Property Tax Postponement Program webpage for more details. ∙ A qualified homeowner can with certain restrictions, defer payment of all or part of his or her property taxes on your house, condo, or mobile home. This deferred payment is a lien on the property and becomes due upon sale, change of residence, or death. ∙ Property Tax Assistance Program ∙ Please refer to the San Diego County Tax Assessor's State Property Tax Assistance Program webpage for more details. ∙ A qualified homeowner with certain restrictions, can obtain a once a year cash reimbursement for a portion of the property taxes paid. This amount will not have to be repaid and will not result in a lien being placed on your home. | ||||
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∙Winter Heating- Our winters are mild and therefore your heating utility bills may be lower than those in colder climates. ∙ Summer cooling- Our summers are mild (especially in the Coastal and Near-Coast regions) and the relative humidity is usually low and therefore your summer cooling bills may be lower than those in warmer climates ∙ Utilities Prices- Below are prices some of us North San Diego County residents paid in Jan, 2010. We do not know whether or not they are typical.
Electricity (616 KW-hr Baseline)- $0.0532KW-hr
Direct TV
Dish Network
Cox Digital Cable
Timer-Warner
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FOOD Groceries
We have many competitive Super Markets and many low cost neighborhood
specialty grocery stores like Trader Joes, Sprouts and Henry's Markets.
Nearly every city also has a Certified Farmers' Market (typically, where
streets are closed off and used for open air markets for one day of each
week) and some cities also have Farm/Fruit Stands. Click-on > VONS
Pick-
New Guests
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Restaurants
With more than 1500 restaurants to choose from you, will find that the cost
of dining out is very competitive and comparable to, or less than, prices in
most other US cities. if you want to compare prices yourself however, you
can use the links below to compare prices in our local Applebees and
Olive Garden restaurants to those for similar items in other locations.
Note: While most folks like these two restaurants, they are not necessarily
the least expensive and may not offer the best food or the best value for
your $.
Applebees
in San Marcos, CA
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GASOLINE
The price of gasoline
is typically higher in Southern California than in other states. You may
check out the current
Gasoline Prices
in San Marcos, CA.
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MEDICAL One way to estimate the cost of medical care in North San Diego County is to get a no-obligation Medical Insurance quote and compare its cost to that in other retirement places. To do so use 92078 ZIP code and provide your name, phone #, gender and email address. | ||||
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SPORTS
Golf: | ||||
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To Request Information,
Please
Phone (760) 473-4647 or Email
Ralph Anderson and
Associates
Patty Anderson,
our
Seniors Real Estate Specialist
will
be happy to provide you with detailed information on Available Retirement
Real Estate. Ralph Anderson can help answer your questions about Active
Retirement Living In North San Diego County.
- We Promise Not to Pester You With Unwanted Phone Calls or Emails! - | ||||
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-A Word or Two for Baby Boomers and Others Planning to Retire in The Near Future-
Retirement Planning should not be just about Financial Planning. It should also
be about maximizing the number and quality of your remaining healthy years and
managing your time to make them some of the best years of your life. Please
read on.... Consider this- Each of us has a limited time left to live, what one might call a “Remaining Years Account”. This account, instead of containing dollars, contains the total number of years we have to live. Unlike a bank savings account, you can’t go online to check the balance in this account so you never know how many years you have left. We constantly withdraw time from this account but don’t make many deposits. Similar to dollars in a Savings Account, where the account balance constantly depreciates in spending power due to inflation, the years in your Remaining Time Account constantly and quietly depreciate in quality over the years due to the natural aging process and also due to illnesses that diminish your capabilities. Although you can never check your Remaining Time Account’s actual balance, you can get an idea of the balance of an average person of your age by checking Actuarial Life Tables used by insurance companies. They show for example, that average Remaining Time account’s balance (life expectancy) at age 65 is only 16.7 years for men and 19.5 years for women. Unfortunately, according to MSN Money 42% of women over 65 and 38% of men in that age group already have disabilities that reduce the quality of their remaining years by decreasing their ability to live life to its fullest. These averages don't tell the whole tale however, Fidelity Investments found that the chances of one member of a couple living past 90 is about 50%. Other estimates show that, a couple has a 50% chance of one of them having a long-term care “event” at an average cost of about $150,000. Although these are mostly grizzly statistics that no new retiree wants to hear, they can also be used as a wakeup call to motivate us to Make a Retirement Lifestyle plan that: 1. Maximizes the number and quality of the years in our personal Remaining Time Account and 2. Maximizes the enjoyment and satisfaction we get from our remaining years.
Suggested guidelines for your Retirement Lifestyle Plan:
Cherish your health- Your health is more important than you retirement
savings! If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If
it is beyond what you can improve, get help.
Eliminate activities and habits that might reduce the number and
quality of your remaining years-
Such as: Smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, poor diet, overeating and
lack of exercise.
Plan a healthy physical lifestyle- Through diet, exercise, sports,
frequent health checkups, stress management and good medical care.
Make health your number 1 priority.
Plan a healthy mental and emotional lifestyle- Keep a positive
mental attitude no matter what transpires, stay close to friends and loved
ones, have fun, stay active, maintain an active social life, never stop
learning, take up hobbies, play games, take on creative projects and
mental challenges, strengthen and feed your spiritual life, help others,
go outside every day, learn to enjoy the beauty that surrounds you, learn
to enjoy doing things that don’t cost money.
Don’t’ Short-Change yourself- Find a home that you love in a
location that you love (whether you buy or rent); fix it up if necessary,
maintain it properly and be proud of it.
Allocate money in your budget for fun-filled and rewarding activities- Entertainment, dining out,
hobbies, traveling, entertaining, practicing your religious faith, etc.
Even if it is a small amount, make it a high priority, add it to your
budget and then spend and enjoy it!
Plan the phases of your retirement years (Read
The 3 Phases of
Retirement)
What has all of this have to do with Retiring to North San Diego County?
With our great Climate and huge selection of Senior Activities, we think
that it is one of the very best places to retire.
When comparing Best Places to Retire, North San Diego County offers; A
wide range
Prices of Homes
for retirees, has about average
Taxes,
ranks tops in
Climate, has
Low
Crime Rates
and offers a huge
selection of
Things to Do.
When selecting the best place for you to retire to, remember-
We Sincerely Wish You a Healthy and Happy Retirement! | ||||
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Disclaimer: Although we believe the information presented on this website and its links to be reliable, it is impossible to verify the accuracy of everything presented and therefore, we assume no responsibility for its use. Specifically- External links are provided as a convenience for our visitors, and are not the responsibility of, or under the control of Ralph Anderson and Associates. If you use these links, we take no responsibility and give no guarantees, warranties or representations, implied or otherwise, for the content or accuracy of these third-party sites and therefore, the application of or use of these data shall be at the sole risk and responsibility of the user and Ralph Anderson and Associates shall not be held responsible for any resulting loss or damage caused by use of such information. | ||||
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Rev. 4/19/2010 | ||||
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