Quote Originally Posted by Fosco33

That's great advice if I could A) find something is SoCal under half a mil and B) have 20% of a half a mil in cash handy...

Guess I'll either have to suck it up and by a property somewhere else and move back here for 'the second house'. Bummer...

Anyway I can put down just 5 or 10%? Should I tap my 401k savings (one-time w/o penalty) to do this OR just continue renting/investing?
Fosco, So-cal is an "almost" unique anomaly. I owned a home in Camarillo in the Heights. I bought in 1990 for 217,000, I'd suppose that's about an $800,000 home right now.

End of the line, it's all relative. You can buy with less than 20% down, however, it'll delay the formula. Of course, 15 - 18 years is still much better than 35 - 40 years which has to be the median in the LA market right now (it wouldn't surprise me if it's higher). I'd think that most families in Southern California won't ever have a paid for house and just accept that. It is very sad to have to "rely" on appreciation to make it work. Appreciation will end one day, it has to, the only alternative is for income to rise, and that is not likely to happen.

Watch out for PMI no matter what you do.

If you can leave So-Cal, I'd do that. While I recognize it is a wonderful place to live, at least related to weather and activities, there are many other great places out there where you can make a better overall purchasing decision.