How Much Does it Cost to Live in Santee California
You’re thinking about moving to Santee, California, a suburb of San Diego, one of the more affordable areas of San Diego. But what are the costs that you need to know about before making that move to Santee? Watch this video or read on to find out everything there is to know about the cost of living in Santee, California.
Home Prices & Mortgage Payments
First, let’s take a look at the median price of the home in Santee compared to the county of San Diego. The median price right now in the City of Santee is $820,000. That might sound like a lot; however, the median price at the moment in the county is $1 million. It’s actually $180,000 cheaper in Santee than the rest of the county, on average.
What that means is that the average mortgage cost, if you’re putting 20% down at 5.5% interest is going to be right around $4,700 per month. That’s figuring property taxes and insurance compare that to a $1 million mortgage payment at the same terms. And you’re looking at about $5,700 a month. So it’s about $1,000 a month cheaper living in Santee, than you’ve got elsewhere in the county.
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Property Taxes
That being said, there are some things you need to think about when you get into the different costs, of course. In California, we are limited to 1% property tax of the purchase price of the home. That is because of a proposition called Prop 13 that went into effect a number of years ago. That limits property taxes to 1%. There are a lot of politicians trying to get that overturned so they can make more money off of you. But hopefully that doesn’t happen.
What the government can do is they can raise those property taxes by 2% per year, every single year.Let’s just say you had a $1 million property, that means you’re paying about $10,000 a year in property taxes. They can raise the property taxes by 2% of that 10,000 per year. About $200 a year that it will go up every single year.
The great thing is they can’t reassess that property value. If the home appreciates in value and it goes to $1.5 million, they’re not going to get reassessed at that $1.5 million. It’s just that 2% per year that it’s going to go up.However, if you add on a second story or add on an extra bedroom, they can come and reassess at that time and you will start paying more in property taxes. A lot of people will try to avoid that and add unpermitted additions or converted garage illegally, that kind of thing. Because they’re trying to avoid that property tax, but it’s not best when you go to resell that house.
Each city around San Diego, and Santee is no exception, has their own little extra bonds they passed. The voters pass that can raise the property taxes. Property Tax in Santee is actually about 1.19%. And that’s because of local bonds that have been passed such as sewer bonds to help pay for infrastructure in the city of Santee.
San Diego is just over 1.2%, so slightly cheaper in Santee but effectively about the same as the actual city of San Diego. Something else you need to keep in mind about property taxes in Santee and in the county of San Diego, is there something called a Supplemental Property Taxes. This is a surprise bill that everyone gets 6 to 12 months after they buy their house. And that’s an extra tax bill on your property taxes.
And the reason for this, a little bit complicated, I’m not going to go into every little detail about it right now, but what you need to know is when you buy your house at say $1 million, if that house was purchased originally at $600,000, it was a $400,000 Delta there.
When you go and pay your property taxes upfront in your escrow, they’re basing it off of that old property value, your property tax that you’re paying in escrow. If you have an impound account, then your lender is going to factor that and you’re going to be paying every month the correct property tax value.
However, you got to make up the difference in that $1 million to $600,000, that $400,000. They’re going to tax you at that 1% prorated based on where it falls in the fiscal years. If you bought the house halfway through the fiscal year, they’re going to say, okay, we’re going to take that $400,000 and multiply it by 0.5, $200,000 times 1%, $2,000 tax bill.
A little complicated, but don’t be surprised when you get that bill six months down the road, you got to pay $2,000 to $3,000 more and you originally had to pay. And I get that call a lot from clients going, “Hey, what happened?” I try to make sure now that really explain that to people up front, don’t be surprised you might get a tax bill down the road.
The other thing about property taxes is sometimes there can be Mello-Roos an addition to the property taxes. It’s paid with the property taxes and that is for some of the new build communities, they will have this additional fee or tax called Mello-Roos. That’s paid with your property taxes.
Most of the communities in Santee do not have Mello-Roos. However, the Weston Community in Santee definitely does have Mello-Roos. It’s about $125 per month, about $1,400 to $1,500 per year. And of course, there’s going to be an HOA with this particular community as well, around $300 per month. Even though you’re buying a single family home, you’re still looking at around $425 extra in Mello-Roos and HOA fees.
Depending on where you’re buying in Santee or elsewhere in San Diego, there could be Mello-Roos, especially if it’s a new built community.
Income Tax
The other thing here of course is income taxes. This is statewide whether or not you live in the city of Santee or elsewhere, but we do have marginal tax brackets here in California. If you make between $61,000-$312,000 per year, you’re going to be in the marginal tax bracket of 9.3%.
If you make more than that, our top tax bracket is just over 12% per year. That’s state income tax and then of course you have federal tax as well.
Sales Tax
The other thing we got here is sales tax. The county of San Diego has a base sales tax rate and then each city can kind of add to it, etc. In Santee it’s 7.75% right now. That’s actually the same as the city of San Diego. Anything you’re going to be buying, anything except for groceries, you’re going to be paying 7.75%. For groceries, you actually do not pay sales tax at all.
Utility Bills to Consider When Living in Santee
Let’s take a look at utilities and what it costs for you to just live your life and have your home and run your gas and electric and your water and your internet, all those sorts of things.
Gas & Electricity Costs
The gas and electric company here is called SDGE or San Diego Gas & Electric. It is owned by Sempra Energy and it is the most profitable division in all of Sempra Energy. Why is that? Because they charge us the highest rates. Get used to shelling out quite a bit for gas and electric in particular.
In the city of Santee, it is warmer out there. The average temperature is right around 75° versus 70° in the city of San Diego. We can get hot in the summer, it can often be in the 90s°, sometimes above a 100° in the summertime. And if you live in the valley of Santee, it’s going to get quite a bit warmer than if you live up on the hill.
The temperature may be similar, but you get a good breeze if you live up on the hills of Santee. You can lower your energy costs that way. However, if you’re running your AC a lot, expect to be paying somewhere in the neighborhood of $300-$500 a month for sure! It could be more depending on how inefficient that air conditioner is or how inefficient your home is.
If you really want to make sure that the home you’re buying or if it doesn’t to make sure we’re putting this soon is energy efficient upgrades like dual pane windows, insulating your attic, insulating your walls, and making sure that your home is as energy efficient as possible to save on that gas and electric bill.
If it is very energy efficient, you might be paying less, maybe $200-$250 a month. And again, if you run an AC a lot, which I tend to do in the summertime, then you’re going to be paying more.
In the winter, it can get a little cold in Santee. You might kick that heat on every once in a while. That’s going to add to your bill during the winter time, but it doesn’t get super, super cold. But it can get cold at night during certain seasons.
In January, it can get into the 30s° at night, there can be frost on the ground so you’re going to kick that heater on and you’re going to pay a little bit more during the winter months for gas.
Water & Sewer Costs
The Water District in Santee is called the Padre Dam Municipal Water District. You’re going to be paying probably about a $100-$150 a month. That’s going to include your sewer in that as well. Now, if you have a lot of irrigation, you’ve got a grass you want to water, you’ve got a pool. There’s a lot of pools in Santee cause those get warm. You’re probably going to be paying more like $200-$250 a month for your water.
Internet
The other big thing nowadays that we always need to talk about is internet. Internet is basically like gas, electricity, and water nowadays, you need it to run your life. There are a few different internet providers in Santee. There’s basically Cox Communications and AT&T.
Between the two, I’d go with the AT&T in most areas in Santee, not all. You got to plug in the address that you’re looking to buy. You can get fiber internet, you can get 1gbps internet upload- download for about $80 a month via AT&T. Again, not everywhere has it. You need to check specifically your address.
Actually now they have 2gbps and 5gbps that you can get. That’s probably a bit excessive. I used to have fiber internet when I lived in another part of San Diego. Where I live now, doesn’t have it. And I really, really miss the fiber internet. It makes a huge difference in your upload, download speeds and how fast your computer runs and all that kind of thing.
The other option is Cox Communications. They do offer broadband 1gbps download, but it never really hit that at all. And your upload speed is limited about 25mbps. I’s actually pretty slow and it’s very, very inconsistent as well, fluctuates quite a bit.
It gets rather frustrating if you’re trying to stream a lot or upload things, that kind of thing. If you can do it, get AT&T fiber internet, that’s $80 a month versus about $120 a month for Cox for a similar but less quality service.
Transportation
Now let’s talk about transportation costs around Santee. Your main mode of transportation in Santee is going to be the car. It is East County, San Diego. You’re about 15 to 20 minutes into the actual city of San Diego. From Santee, just over the hill, over the 52, you could be in Kearny Mesa. That’s only about 12 minutes away.
If you’re trying to get to Downtown San Diego it’s a solid 20-minute drive. The average San Diegan drives about 12,000 miles per year. In Santee you’re probably going to be driving a little bit more than that because you are a little bit more remote outside of the actual city of San Diego.
However, right now gas prices are about $6 per gallon in San Diego. Probably going to go up at at 12,000 miles a year with an average MPG of 25 miles per gallon. You’re going to be spending right around $3,000 per year for commuting from Santee. It might be a little more because of a little bit longer commute times.
The other option if you work in Downtown, you can take the trolley. The trolley does run from Santee all the way out into or other way into Downtown San Diego. The thing is it’s kind of slow. It’s going to take you close to an hour to get to Downtown from Santee.
When I lived in Santee I did work Downtown and I really want to take the trolley, but I just could not spend an extra 2 hours of commute just on the trolley to get to and from work. And then I’d have to get to and from the trolley as well. You’re looking at 5 minutes to the trolley, etc., like the 2 hours and 20 minutes round trip essentially is what it would take to commute from Santee to Downtown.
I’d rather drive. I left early for work. I used to be in construction, I’d go Downtown and work Downtown, I’d be there in 20 minutes. On the way home, it would take me longer. There’d be traffic. However, there’s a couple routes to get home. It usually takes me 25 to 30 minutes to get home. From Downtown you can take the 52 to get back into Santee, or you can take the 94 to the 125 to get into Santee.
You just need to look at Google Maps and see how traffic is and save some time that way. If you were to get a trolley pass, you’re going to be spending about a $100 a month on that trolley pass.
Pool Maintenance and Bug Control
Now just a couple other costs to think about if you’re moving into Santee, you might have a pool because a lot of homes have a pool there. You could maintain that yourself. You might cost you $40-$50 a month in chemicals, or you probably want to hire a pool maintenance guy. And that’s probably going to run you about $120-$150 a month right now for a pool maintenance.
And then in some areas of Santee, there can be a lot of bugs, especially ants. When we lived in Santee, we would spray for ants about every 6 months. They would spray and it would keep the ants away for about $120 every 6 months, maybe $150 depending on who you hire. Spray for ants and keep those ants away from your house.
That’s all the costs of living in Santee, California. Let me know what you think about the crazy cost of living here in Santee and in San Diego.
Curtis Chism, Realtor
858-281-2568 | Mobile
mailto:info@sandiegohomes.io
Chism Team | DRE #02105113
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