Welcome to Oceanside

Ideally situated at the junction of Interstate 78 and Highway 5 with over 3.5 miles of beaches is Oceanside, San Diego County’s most northern city. Camp Pendleton, the nation’s largest U.S. Marine base, separates the City of Oceanside from Orange County.

Photo by Gary Harmon

The earliest settlement in Oceanside was the San Luis Rey Mission, know as the “King of Missions.”  Other San Diego North County settlements branched out from there.  Before the turn of the century, families who lived on inland ranches near the mission, would travel to the seashore and picnic by the “ocean side” — therefore the name.   Special features worth visiting are Oceanside Pier, one of the West Coast’s longest wooden piers  and Oceanside Harbor, one of the finest protected harbors for small Craft in California.  Oceanside is a thriving urban center that offers residents and visitors virtually unlimited recreational choices.  Surfing, swimming, tennis, golf, boating, and sport fishing are just a few of the choices.

The “Coaster,” an express rail train, connects Oceanside to downtown San Diego with many intermediate stops.  The “Sprinter,” a light rail system, connects Oceanside to the North County cities of Vista, San Marcos, and Escondido.

Oceanside homes for sale offer a great variety of living styles.  You could choose Oceanside oceanview homes, condos, all types of single family homes, Camp Pendleton off base housing, and great senior communities like Ocean Hills Country Club homes.

New Real Estate Tax

This blog is about the possible affect of the 3.8% tax that will become effective January 1, 2013 as the result of Obama Health Care.   Since this new tax will affect some San Diego North County real estate transactions, it is useful to try and understand this tax and the possible impact it could have on North County home sellers.

Most importantly, this tax does not affect most North County home real estate sales.  This tax only falls on sellers with adjusted gross income (AGI) that are above $200,000 if you are single and $250,000 if you are a couple filing a joint return.  Please talk to your CPA or tax advisor for details and to learn all your options.

If we are applying this tax to the sale of principal residence, before anything happens, you have to have a gain on your sale of over $250,000 if your are single and over $500,000 if you are a couple filing j0intly.  This elimanates most people.  Since the price of most San Diego homes has gone down considerably over the last 6 years, not many San Diego home sellers have these large gains.   And again, you have to have at least the AGI’s mentioned above.

Here is a simplified example:  You sell your personal residence for a gain of $350,000 and you are filing as a single individual and your AGI is over $200,000.  You would subtract the $250,000 from the $350,000 for a taxable gain of $100,000.  3.8% x $100,000 is $3,800.  Again, ask your CPA since many other things go into this calculation.