According to Bill Ostrem, president and CEO of The EastLake Company, South County is ready to step up into the high-end housing market.

“We’re starting to see a major shift in perceptions of South County as a very desirable address. This allows for a new expanded role from the current first- and second-time home buyers to the high-end market as well,” he says.

According to Ostrem, the area is maturing and there is a trend of second and third move-up home purchases. That occurs when people who already own homes in the area see the value of their residences rise along with the rest of the market. Homeowners then sell their old residences and move into larger and more expensive houses – and, with competitive interest rates on home loans, the mortgage for the new house often is not much larger than the old one.

Next summer, EastLake will open The Woods, a unique neighborhood offering semi-custom and custom homes on lots ranging from 7500 square feet to 1.5 acres with home prices estimated to range from the mid-$400,000s to over $1 million.

Affordable Housing

The City of Chula Vista is committed to offering residents a variety of housing options, from luxurious estates and single-family homes to condominiums and apartments; several new affordable housing projects have recently opened and experienced overwhelming success.

The 40 affordable apartments in Cordova Village south of East J Street in Rancho del Rey filled up quickly upon completion last year.

And an affordable first-time home buying project in EastLake Greens, Antigua, sold out within months of opening in January. Built by Western Pacific Housing, the 130 condominium homes were priced from $129,000 and available to low-income households. The city assisted qualifying first-time homebuyers with a portion of the down payment and closing costs.

According to the City of Chula Vista’s Housing Manager Juan Arroyo, “The Antigua project is unique because it is a ‘for sale’ opportunity. Most affordable housing projects are rentals.”

Due to the popularity of the Antigua home buying program, The City of Chula Vista has worked with EastLake to provide homes under a similar program.

“These are excellent examples of how a public-private partnership can help ease a community’s affordable housing needs,” says Ostrem. “The EastLake Company has been working with forward-thinking city officials for more than 20 years to plan and build a variety of home products in the 3,200-acre master-planned community that will meet the area’s housing needs.”