Looks like Dave and Julie will be moving out soon. They finally decided to get a boat to live in, although it's still a while before the deal is finalized. My sister has to move by May (start or end, I don't remember) and my brother, if he's fortunate, may go to UC Berkeley this Fall. All these factors mean that it's probably time to look for a home to live in. Something big enough that Steph and I (and later Chris after he lives in the dorms for a year) can live in without getting in each other's way.

First off I look in Yahoo, where I find their real estate section. Not very useful at all. I follow a link to Prudential who have some sort of online auction of a few homes in California and Nevada. There are a couple in Walnut Creek which look interesting, although probably too far for Steph. Then I go to NewHomeNetwork.com which has some brief listings of new home communities. Very little information on the homes themselves but they do list a lot of them.

The first thing to notice is that most new houses start at the low $300k, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Naturally, there are new developments in Berkeley, with most of the new homes new UCB in Hayward or Freemont or the Dublin area. Ok, I guess I should find out what I can afford, so I use a little mortgage calculator. Looks like about $3000+ a month for a $500k home and $2200+ for a $400k home, depending on down payment and interest rate. $1800+ for a $300k home, although at that point the down payment can make a big difference.

Eek, I'm thinking. That's more than twice as much as I'm paying, and it would be tough for my sister and I to make the mortage payments every month while we live there. Apartment living is starting to sound quite all right. Maybe it'll be better to wait a year until I have enough stock to make a good-sized down payment. I read a bit about seller and buyer brokers.

What kind of house do I want? New development, suburby is quite fine. At least three bedrooms and two baths. A 2-car garage. In terms of square footage I don't really have a good grasp of that, but 2000+ square-feet would be great. Yard is not as important although nice. It's just a white picket fence sort of American Dream Home that you see in 50's tv shows. Something that I can grow old in, raise a family in (after Steph and Chris move out).

I looked at the new development in Sacramento and it's a good $100k less than around here. Sacramento would be a great place to a have a house, but the daily commute would be a killer. Suppose I could get a RV van like Dave and stay at work during the week, although at that point why have a house? And there are way too many choices. It'll be better to get a broker to help me.

I'm too much of an impulse buyer. If I had all my stock options available now I'd just choose a house and buy it, and probably only take a day or two to do it. The more I look the less sure I become, I tend to second-guess myself too much. Same thing happens at work. It's better if I have only one or two choices, make my decision and then live with it. I can deal with that, it's harder to deal with making the best decision out of a dozen choices.

Anyway, am I going to end up buying a house? I don't know. I'll have to scale down some of my requirements. Not a new home, probably not as expensive so it won't be as nice. I want to feel safe, somewhere quiet, within walking distance to BART and maybe a mall. Close to a mall would be good. See? Too many little things that would be nice.