Affordable California Living??

On 2003-08-13 21:00, Futura Girl wrote:
The s.f. valley is still probably within your reach seamus - stuff is still available under 300K - although in shady areas it's a start. and south bay probably has undiscovered pockets.

She's right about this fact, there are houses to be had in So. Calif for cheaper than $300K but it is a matter of what kind of neighborhood demographics you are willing to live with. If you got kids and you buy in a bad neighborhood, do you take a chance with your kids going to school with gangmembers or can you somehow scrape up enough money to have a house AND pay for private schools? If you don't have kids then take a chance and move to Carson or Reseda, or Panorama City or Altadena or wherever.... but if you have kids you need to consider what kind of schools and school children they will be associating with. Many people moved out to Palmdale and Lancaster because they desired to get their kids away from gangs - those gang problems only followed them out to their new homes and the gangs are still in their old neighborhoods here in L.A. Even if there isn't gangs there is just plain ordinary crime like being mugged in the streets of Silverlake south of Sunset, having your car broken into because some junky wants to raid it for CDs..... That's why people end up in the $400K and over market. Just something to think about.

P.S. We have no kids. I was willing to move to Carson (area of the South Bay where the prices are $100K cheaper) but my family said no way.

I appreciate the suggestions and am familiar with the valley and south bay. I lived in Torrance and Redondo areas for awhile, and have friends in the valley, but both are out of my range, and not at all what I'm looking for right now. I do however like the idea of Victorville. Granted, I have never been there, but the strategic location and and prices have definitely sparked my curiosity.

This thread has helped me get a more specific idea of what I'm looking for.
1)within 1-2 hrs of L.A. or Bay Area.
2)cheap real estate(around 100K).
3)an area that is likely to experience economic growth in the next 3-5 yrs.
4)a laid back community that is family friendly and has a bit of arts & culture about it.
5)other cheap and oddball places that don't fit #1. ie, Las Vegas.

Thanks again folks!

Seamus,

I am like you- I can't stand it when the temp. gets over 80 degrees. I was in Vegas Easter weekend for Mondo Tiki and it made my skin crawl. The reason houses are so cheap there is because IT'S IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DESERT! If you are self employed and work at home that means you will be running you AC all the time (with the subsequent bills). If you work outside-be prepared for heat stroke. The AVERAGE temp. gets over 80 degrees Six months of the year.

I hear it's the fastest growing city in the US. Yeah, they do have a big lake nearby but Las Vegas does not own that water. The states down river also have water rights and they are already screaming about the increased consumption. You get too many people in Vegas-well, you probably won't run out but your water bill will sure go up.

Victorville is also in the desert and it gets ungodly hot in the summer. It seems every time I've been out there the dust has been blowing something fierce. It's 85 miles from LA - 1 1/2 hours WITHOUT Traffic-but you have to go through the Ontario/Pomona mess. A far as culture goes, well, I'm sure it's on par with Lebec...

Now, LA ain't cheap. The neighborhood where I currently live (Adams Hill in Glendale) has seen the average home price jump 35 percent in the last year. L.A reminds me of NYC in the early 80's. I was paying $125 for a shitty one bedroom apartment on the Lower East Side and folks moved in next door for S700/month. Prices just went nuts (and have not come down yet). There seems to be more people willing to pay outrageous prices thus they stay high.

We do though, have that darned earthquake problem. I am curious what is going to happen to home prices the next time we have a "big one" and a bunch of folks flee?

Your current situation sounds nice: You own your home, you live near the beach and the weather is mild. If you can figure out how to better market your stuff then your pretty much set.

Just some things to think about.

Who doesn't like dirt storms and unglodly heat? If culture and art is what your after, we have Horney Toads and Joshua Trees instead. :wink: Like I said in all of my earlier posts you have 3 chioces here, blazing hot crazy heat with wind tunnel like breezes, or freezing your patooty off cold with freezing cold wind tunnel like breezes. It is already 100 here and it's not even the hottest part of the day. I think the hottest day this summer has been about 113. So if your not into windy cold, or windy hot, this might not be a place for you. When the energy crisis hit a couple of years ago my electric bill went from 125.00 in the summer to 350.00, for 1 month! We got a swamp cooler real quick. REALLY, I would seriously question leaving a home I owned that is 2 blocks from the ocean, in a beautiful state, (no state tax either) in exchange for Victorville. There are plenty of other places I would rather live, but on the other hand there are alot worse places on the planet. Just my 47 cents worth :D And where the heck is Lebec? I bet our Horney Toads are bigger than their Horney Toads! :wink:

[ Edited by: DawnTiki on 2003-08-15 14:05 ]

Thanks AC and Dawn, your points are well taken. The longer this thread continues, the more I really do appreciate our situation. I guess I'm just looking for a similar type situation in a better (more strategic) location. We might just end up moving up the coast a little ways. There are better towns to live in on the Oregon coast than where we are that are around an hour and a half from Portland. A few of them are actually experiencing growth as people flee the rising cost of the city. And if you know where and what to look for, there are still amazing deals to be had. We have many friends in Portland and if we were a little closer I don't think we'd feel quite as isolated in the land of mullets, meth and motorhomes.
Alot remains to be seen. We've got a couple of trips to make, and we have no idea how hard it might be to sell our home in this bad economy. I will also be launching a new, proper website soon that will help w/ my "marketing issues". And yes, there's always the earthquake issue. I have thought of that before. My LA friends have told me in the past that the best time to move there is right after an earthquake.
It was 93 in Portland yesterday and here it was about 70. We went upriver a few miles and it was in the mid 80's. The water was warm . It was great!

On 2003-08-15 14:13, seamus wrote:
Thanks AC and Dawn, your points are well taken. The longer this thread continues, the more I really do appreciate our situation...... We have many friends in Portland and if we were a little closer I don't think we'd feel quite as isolated in the land of mullets, meth and motorhomes.

Yeah, Seamus, WHAT WERE you thinking? (just kidding, but seriously now....) You are at the beach- the best property there is to be had. The inland empire (Riverside, San Bernardino) is full of mullets meth and motorhomes - there is no culture out there - you will feel just as culturally isolated in Palmdale or Apple Valley - you will have to tolerate the heat but then again you'd be 1 to 2 hours from L.A./O.C. Then again, you are already just 1 to 2 hours from Portland so you would not be moving yourself any closer to culture than if you just stayed right where you are and it sounds like you got a pretty nice place at the beach - can't beat that. Also what drive times are now with our traffic, you would find that what should seem like a short jaunt across town (for example from Santa Monica to Silverlake to go to Tiki Ti's) can take over an hour. after awhile you'd get burned out on the driving and just end up staying around your home in boonieville with the mullet crowd. I think Atomic Cocktail made a whole lot of really good points.

Ahhh, the Mullet Crowd and Boonieville, home sweet home!!

On 2003-08-15 13:08, DawnTiki wrote:
: And where the heck is Lebec? I bet our Horney Toads are bigger than their Horney Toads! :wink:

Dawn, It's about 3 miles North of the Tejon Pass on the Grapevine (about 50 mils south of Bakersfield). When you hit the Tejon Ranch and Fort Tejon State park your in Lebec.

And our cowshit is bigger than your cowshit, MOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

You forget, Atomic Cocktail, that hot hot weather makes the ladies to take their clothes off more quickly!
I am typing this in the nude :)
And I am not even going to mention why Don Henley was notorious for turning the AC on high after the kicking the heater...

oh me oh my - where is C.B.?????

[ Edited by: Futura Girl on 2003-08-18 05:00 ]

On 2003-08-18 04:58, Futura Girl wrote:
You forget, Atomic Cocktail, that hot hot weather makes the ladies to take their clothes off more quickly!
I am typing this in the nude :)

Hey Hanford,
Isn't it time we have a new addition to the T.C. Forum index? "Tiki Swingers", (Example: "My tiki, mai tai, and you baby, YA!!) That sounds like a good title for a song too. I'm all for it.

Seamus,

Why leave Oregon? It's beautiful up there. Portland is one of the prettiest cities I've ever been to. Are you nuts?

If you ARE nuts then move on down here to Los Angeles. Home of nuts.

Well yes if the truth be told, nuts might be a good start, but the hell with California.
Futura Girl planted a mental picture this morning that I haven't been able to get rid of all day!!
Vuh Vuh Vegas...

On 2003-08-18 19:47, seamus wrote:
, but the hell with California.

One less car in traffic.

just heard of an A.Q. Jones eichler-like ultramodern 5 bed 2 bath house VA foreclosure going for 155K... in...

Las Vegas

http://tours.tourfactory.com/tours/tour.asp?home=www.vahomes.org/pn/&slink=-2&t=141105

there's a thread on the dwell board about affordable modern housing http://interverse.com/ubb/Forum12/HTML/000080.html

You're killing me!!
That place is fanfreakintastic. I love Dwell too (thanks for the link). I dicovered it on a newsstand in a tiny town in the Oregon desert a few years ago and have been a fan ever since.
Thanks FuturaGirl. You rock.

My 1/1 in Los Angeles (Village Green - the most amazing parklike enviorment in LA) is now listed: $285K.
Motivated seller.

http://www.villagegreenla.net

pm me for details

With the housing market what it is today, just have to share my Mom's place here as I think it is a good deal for California living and she is willing to negotiate. A lot of Tikiphiles know my Mom, she has been to a couple of Tiki Oasis events, the Bali Hai, we hit Monkeyman's place this year on the SD Crawl, and she has participated in the Sacramento Crawl with me a few times. Finally at 93 years old she is selling her 60's California Ranch Home in So-Cal. It is a great piece of property in Lakeside, almost 10 acres, huge ranch home with plenty of opportunity to build an awesome Tiki space. Gorgeous pool...just needs some palm trees and Tikis. Her agent is Connie Vogt with Keller-Williams. Here is a link to a listing...thanks for looking.
http://www.sawbuck.com/property/San_Diego_Metro/92040_Lakeside/11084678-11611-Wildcat-Canyon-Road