PCSing to Travis Air Force Base in California? — unless you are rich, beware the housing situation

© 2019 Peter Free

 

19 June 2019

 

 

Introduction — who this is for

 

If you are of ordinary financial means and searching for a single-family house, PCSing to Travis is no picnic. Base housing, except for commanders, is mostly non-existent.

 

Civilian housing is in unusually short supply. Evaluated by midwestern and southern standards, it is also (usually) unappealing.

 

 

The "got'cha" glitch

 

Travis's surrounding cities are Fairfield, Vacaville, Dixon and Rio Vista. Woodland (where some more new subdivisions are being built) is arguably too far away to commute on California's congested roads. The state's reputation as a slowly mobile traffic jam is deserved.

 

The highly priced housing problem here is caused by San Francisco's attempt to crown itself among the most expensively useless cities in the world.

 

According to Fairfield-Vacaville Realtors, housing market prices in the City on the Bay are being bid upward by up to $800,000 over their listed (previously fair market value) price.

 

This insane trend is forcing people of more ordinary means to flee eastward. To the cities around Travis. A new connecting train makes this to-and-from work migration possible.

 

Travis's military folk are now casualties in a war between competingly excessive dollars.

 

 

A contributing hidden snag — VA loan limits

 

The VA's loan limit (at the prevailing VA percentage rate) is approximately $484,000. Going higher, requires that the service member (or veteran) produce 25 percent of the remainder in up-front cash. Naturally, this requirement impacts what most military folk are able to swing.

 

Ergo, some of the fiercest sale (and rental) competition occurs in the $485,000 to $685,000 range. Your BAH (basic allowance for housing) often will not cover rent and utilities. Not even close.

 

 

The on-ground result of this hidden loan limits got'cha is . . .

 

. . . a housing shortage and aesthetic ugliness.

 

In practice, I have noticed that most of the houses in the $485,000 to even $700,000 range are on postage stamp-sized lots. The situation is akin to living in detached apartments with nose-tip views of your neighbor's house wall.

 

Interiors are generally relatively outdated and often shoddy. Owners, apparently, either do not have the money to update, or do not care to — given the area's complacence-encouraging demand. Why spend money (as a landlord), when you don't have to?

 

It is as if the Bad Taste Fairy ran through this region with her Atrocity Wand.

 

City people probably will not care. Those of us who come from farms, rural situations and southern graciousness will.

 

Today, for example, my wife and I looked at a completely representative new home priced $540,000. Its backyard was comprised of a laughably narrow strip of thin mulch. This stripe was about 10 feet deep, measured from the rear house wall to the backyard's fence. Solitary confinement-like.

 

Shudder.

 

A drive through most neighborhoods here is like driving through a packed parking lot with strings of cheek-by-jowl houses sprinkled in among essentially bumper to bumper cars, trucks, boats, RVs and all manner of other traveling paraphernalia.

 

My western wide-spaces soul rebels, just visualizing this Roach Army mess.

 

 

And then, there's this — there may be no space for fifth wheel RVs in Travis's "Fam Camp"

 

Don't count on temporarily living in your RV, if you have one.

 

 

What to do?

 

Your best bet, as a PCSing military member, is to contact someone, who is about to leave Travis duty — before either of you moves. You may be able to take over the departing member's home by renting or buying it.

 

A slightly less desirable option is to wait (until after arriving) to scope out the "who's leaving" situation. Just keep in mind that everyone else coming in will be doing the same thing.

 

If you decline either of these "be prepared" options, you will find — upon arrival at Travis — that online listings are grossly out of date. In reality, rentals disappear in hours to two days. Attractive homes, even if you can afford them, seem to disappear in less than a week.

 

You will (trust me) be spending a lot of time driving around. You will need to. What looks good online is, more often than not, quasi-undesirable to horrible. Provided that you have any standards at all.

 

Yesterday, for example, we looked at a rental in the full BAH range. Its attraction was a uniquely nice yard. On the other hand, this nicely flowing home looked noticeably dated and presented an awful smell that clung to one's clothes upon exit. The owner had been elderly, mentally incapacitated, by himself and severely incontinent.

 

Those of you in medical field will understand that this kind of odor is almost impossible to get rid of in a house, even after pulling carpets and drapes. In my realty sales experience (from very long ago), no broker in her right mind would have listed such a property, without first fully rectifying the situation. Here, however, no problem. Someone will snatch it.

 

 

Beware, also, the property management (rental) application fee scam

 

That's the one where a property management service requires you to pay a credit application fee, before showing you any properties. With the housing situation as it is, what you think you are applying to see is already gone.

 

Recall that these credit checks negatively affect your credit rating.

 

 

The moral? — Come to Travis with bags of loot — or with your military adaptability in full display

 

Finding housing here can be a nightmare for those of us accustomed to decent homes.

 

Californians smilingly shrug this expensively crowded nastiness as being a "California thing". They seem to feel that we are the ones, who are screwed up.

 

In silent retort, I silently treasure Wyoming's two (often politically unpalatable to me) Senate votes. We "western sky and spaces folk" will fend off anthill people, as long as we can.