The Hunt
They Tested Their $800,000 Budget on the Edges of Los Angeles County
After meeting in Phoenix and discovering they were both from Southern California, a couple plotted their return. Here’s what they found at the border of Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties.
Nick and Katie Deponte grew up about 30 minutes away from each other in Southern California — she in Claremont, Calif., at the eastern edge of Los Angeles County, and he in Redlands, Calif., in San Bernardino County.
They didn’t know that until 2019, when they met in Phoenix and discovered they had a mutual childhood friend — one who later told them she should have fixed them up long ago. The Depontes got married in 2023.
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“We always talked about moving back to California to live close to our parents and siblings,” said Mrs. Deponte, 33, a physician’s assistant and educator. “But when our son Graham was born, we knew it takes a village to raise a child, and that motivated us more.”
Mrs. Deponte’s parents, who still live in Claremont, offered to contribute as much as $125,000 for the down payment on a house. “A lot of my friends need help from their parents, too,” she said. “We’re so grateful because we wouldn’t have been able to buy without their help.” She loved growing up in Claremont, a charming town known for its seven affiliated colleges and historic downtown village of shops and restaurants.
“Katie teaches at Claremont and works as a P.A. at a clinic, and I was able to transfer locations to California with my company,” said Mr. Deponte, 35, a sales account manager for fitness center design and equipment. “Now my sister moved here, too, from Huntington Beach, and we have lots of family nearby.”
As they geared up to relocate from Arizona to California, the couple got in touch with Laura Dandoy, an agent with the Real Estate Resource Group in Claremont and a family friend of Mrs. Deponte’s parents. She told them to consider resale value along with their more immediate needs.
“You can’t buy a house just because it’s pretty,” Ms. Dandoy said. “You need to think about the bones of the house and the school district to understand what affects value over the long term.”
The Depontes wanted a house with at least three bedrooms and two bathrooms, as well as some outdoor space for gardening and to accommodate their growing family and their dog, Zoe. Their budget of $800,000 would be tight for that kind of home in the area — the median listing price in Claremont was $1.18 million in September, according to Ms. Dandoy.
“There wasn’t much to see in their price range, so we looked at nearby towns to see if they could find a better match that wasn’t too far away,” she said.
Among those towns were Rancho Cucamonga, a few miles east in San Bernardino County, where the median list price was $914,201 in September; and the smaller Upland, sandwiched right between Rancho Cucamonga and Claremont, where the median list price was $910,970. But the preference remained Claremont.
Among their options:
No. 1
Four-Bedroom in Rancho Cucamonga
This four-bedroom, two-bathroom, single-family home from 1955 was in Rancho Cucamonga, about a 20-minute drive from downtown Claremont. The house was spacious at 1,636 square feet, with tall ceilings, a fireplace and lots of light in the living room. It had been refreshed with new carpeting, laminate wood flooring, and updated bathrooms. The garage had been converted into a second living room that they could use as a playroom for Graham, though Ms. Dandoy warned that the lack of a garage might hurt resale value. A door from the eat-in kitchen opened to a wide covered patio, and the fenced backyard had space for gardening. The asking price was $795,000, with annual taxes of around $10,000.
No. 2
Three-Bedroom Townhouse in Claremont
This two-level semidetached townhouse from 1987, in the Depontes’ preferred town of Claremont, had three bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms, and 1,469 square feet. There was a vaulted ceiling and a fireplace in the living room, an attached two-car garage, and a glass door in the kitchen that opened to a small patio and yard. The house was a few hundred feet from a freeway, which was convenient but a little noisy, and was within biking distance of the restaurants and shops in historic Claremont Village. The asking price was $659,500, with annual taxes of about $9,000. The HOA, which included the use of a swimming pool and a small private park, came with a $430 monthly fee.
No. 3
Cul-de-sac House in Upland
This three-bedroom, two-bath, 1,322-square-foot house from 1987 stood at the end of a cul-de-sac in Upland, about a 10-minute drive from Claremont. Built on one level and carpeted throughout, it had a fireplace in the living area and a breakfast nook in the remodeled kitchen. The enclosed backyard patio and garden was accessible from both the living room and the primary bedroom, which had a high ceiling. The third bedroom had French doors and was configured as an office, which the Depontes didn’t love. There was an attached two-car garage. The HOA community, with a $163 monthly fee, offered a pool, tennis courts and a playground. The asking price was $810,000 when they first saw it, then reduced to $798,000. Annual taxes were about $10,000.
Find out what happened next by answering these two questions:
Which Would You Choose?
Four-Bedroom in Rancho Cucamonga
Three-Bedroom Townhouse in Claremont
Cul-de-sac House in Upland
Which Did They Buy?
Four-Bedroom in Rancho Cucamonga
Three-Bedroom Townhouse in Claremont
Cul-de-sac House in Upland