Perris When It Sizzles

by Tony Chavira

Last week I was sitting around with my uncle and his girlfriend, talking about their property in Perris, California. Our office recently completed work in Perris on the renovation of a large strip mall into a semi-walkable space (while maximizing parking, of course), so I was already interested in how their community was developing.

“But you both work around the border between Los Angeles and Orange County,” I said. “Why would you choose to live in Perris, of all places? Don’t you drive a million miles to work every day?” Their answer was gratuitously predictable: buying property in Perris is cheap.

But suddenly, personal circumstances have made it very tough for both of them to live that far away from work and family. Suddenly, they need to move closer and don’t know what to do with their property in Perris, the property that they’ve both spent the past three years building, improving and developing into their own slice of heaven. Still making payments on the property, they need to figure out how to turn a profit (or at least break even) in a community where the next few years of development will be crucial. Typically, I don’t turn any research I do into personal advice for whether or not you should consider selling your home, but they’re family, and they really wanted to weigh their options before they made another big financial choice. Based on some general research, here were my answers to their questions, and maybe they can provide some insight into the status of development at the edge of Riverside county:

What’s happening in Perris right now?

In the last few years, the city of Perris completed and approved their General Plan. Naturally, the city wants to focus on the “small town” aspect of living in their community, and I feel that it’s a good direction to go. Land use plans for 2030 slice the city into sections that will serve the walkable, Main-Street-U.S.A.-style communities; the more rural, natural farming communities; and industrial work areas that will also serve as gateways for the tons of truck traffic that Perris seems to get.

Perris has a lot of open, unused land, and most of that land is zoned as agricultural by default. Something I like about the plan is that the city plans to take a lot of that agricultural area and mix in a bit of commercial ambition. This might eventually support building area for businesses like Lowe's, or even a really cool farmer’s market kind of community, full of small, local farms. But these plans are mostly focused near the 215 freeway; if you’re looking for land value to increase in the more rural south residential area you might be waiting for a while; serious infrastructure improvements still need to be made.

Will property values go up?

I think that the value of property will slowly increase as long as the residents are willing to work with the city’s General Plan. What people tend to forget is that not all of Perris needs to be developed in order for their property to go up in value. If Downtown and Freeway Business Park call for more public services, everyone else will be at an advantage as well. If the city creates more firefighting, school or police services, then even residents in the more rural areas will have access to those services. The densely-populated areas will provide the tax money and the more rural residences will benefit from the increase in public services. A win-win in my book.

What about the trains? I heard that they’re going to add a train directly into Orange County …

Right now, the General Plan is looking to negotiate a full-blown Metrolink station in downtown Perris. They’re always talking about tunneling a train through the hills to Orange County, but that’ll cost the county something like $200 million dollars per mile! The money can do so much more when it’s invested in roads and local trains and buses. Right now, bet on more localized transportation rather than inter-county trains.

Should we keep our property and just rent out the house?

This really depends on what you want. Perris is an interesting community because it is completely surrounded by communities where residents pay 30%-40% of their income on their housing. But many Perris residents are able to maintain their income-to-housing ratio at less than 30%, which I think is awesome. The 2006 census showed that the median household income was $35,522, meaning many Perris residents are able to pay less than $12,000 a year on their housing. If this doesn’t cover the cost of your loans, I’m not sure if it’s worth it to rent the space out. On the other hand, if your family’s lived in Perris since its 1911 inception, I would advocate renting out part of your house for some added dough.

We really don’t want to, but should we sell our property in Perris?

This really depends on how long you think you can hold onto your property. The General Plan for Perris is smart, conservative and attainable over the course of 20 years; residents will begin to see benefits in the next five. I really appreciate Perris’s pace of development: they’re trying to slowly shape a community that doesn’t edge out residents who need their housing to be affordable. If the value of property can rise with the income of the residents, Perris will be the ideal community to live in come 2030. It’ll also be great to watch Perris totally stick it to the bureaucrats, providing its own affordable community on its own terms.

Until then, it’s all about weighing your options. I mean, where do you want to live? The world is your oyster.

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