Just out of curiosity, what small towns in California might be recommended for (1) good place to retire: (2) good place to garden. I'm currently living in a tornado alley and it doesn't seem to me to be a very good place to settle down. I'd like to live inland.
Thanks in advance!
Certainly is cheaper inland but the central valley in the summer is HOT. Talking 105 F with weeks off 100 F. I think the foothills is the latest niche if you don't have to drive to work. I would think around an hour from Redding, Sacremento or Fresno would be OK. All three are college towns, so there would be some intellectual stimulation. Must be some on-line realtors. Near Auburn, East of Sacremento, on Route 80, would have you on the way up to Lake Tahoe. Down side would be that Sacremento is a large employer, so the market may already be tight. I like hills and lakes so, I'd probably prefer the Redding - Chico area. But if you find the right house, it could be anywhere. Sit down before you look at prices.
Good luck,
- Bill Coloribus gustibus non disputatum (mostly)
I think you need to narrow your query to Northern, Central or Southern California. Then ask what towns or cities should be eliminated from consideration. California has scores of towns / cities that fit youdr requirments.
Branson
My mom's house is for sale in Georgetown, Calif. It's within a reasonable commute to Sacramento (about an hour away), but it's up in the foothills at 2500' MSL, so it doesn't get the brutal summer heat of the valley and doesn't get the deep snows of the High Sierra.
Gorgeous house -- my little brother, the building contractor, built it. My mom, with her green thumb & PhD in botany, laid it out for easy/good gardening (the house & yard). (The inside looked like a conservatory. I quit travelling with my mom because she was always stealing cuttings, then smuggling them across state/ international borders. I was *so* freaking worried that we'd get busted!)
The house sits on one acre, has it's own well, propane backup generator (the power can go out for a week at a time in the hills), woodburning fireplace with a heatalator thingy'bob along with um, I think propane heat. (Gee, I'm not sure what the primary heat is.) Air conditioning. Killer view. Decks. 2 car garage.
1-1/2 bedrooms, 2 baths. (Ma didn't want any of us to move home. She put a futon in a small room that would make an awesome home office.) Walk-in master closet and the master bath is bigger than my kitchen.Mature pine trees, two cherished cedar trees and one oak tree on the property.
The house is in USDA Zone 7. Cold enough for apple/pear trees. Hot enough to grow tomatoes out in the yard. Very nice growing season!
The town has, oh, maybe a couple of thousand people. It's an old Gold Rush town. Lots of Victorian buildings downtown and a big supermarket down in the new mall a mile down the highway from downtown. Ma's house is about a mile from downtown, headed "upcountry."
Email for details...
Jan in Alaska
If you are very wealthy and money is no object there is a beautiful little town called Soquel. It's about an hour north of San Jose airport and in the rain forest with huge redwoods, and on the ocean. Just beautiful. Nice and cool in winter and not horrible in summer.
If you aren't very wealthy I'd say the Austin, TX area is far more money wise and weather in winter is an average of 65 degrees during the day with maybe one week of "sort of" freezing, and about one very short lived ice storm a year.
Soquel is just East of Santa Cruz and way South of San Jose.
Most of the time it will be cool and overcast. On days when there is a heatwave inland, it is very pleasant. Prices are probably in the $800,000 - $1,200,000 range. Prices have gotten high all along the coast. A little less near Morro Bay, west of San Luis Obispo. The most affordable coastal homes would be up in Humbolt and Del Norte Counties but they have more rain than most places in the "Land of Eternal Spring and Summer".
Look at the foot hills away from large metropolises, so that you don't have to compete with commuters for your best deal.
- Bill Coloribus gustibus non disputatum
It is also not North of San Jose or its airport.
I was in Austin once...being a college town, it is somewhat more, uh, less, uh, YOU know...than the rest of Texas.
But all things considered, would one really want to leave in Texas?
Persephone
(prepares to be shot down...)
I agree that you need to do a little traveling and research on NorCal, SoCal and Central. There are too many small towns to even begin. Inland could also mean Coast Range, Central Valley, Sierra Foothills. Decide whether you want hot, foggy and damp, or snowy cold winters etc.Growth rate, medical facilities, cultural: there's a lot to consider. Emilie in NorCal Sacramento Valley
I lived all over California. For relaxed living at "reasonable" prices, consider the foothils, roughly along Hy 49, the old Goldrush Country. From Grass Valley to Mariposa. Around 2000 feet altitude. The Valley is very hot in summer and very foggy in winter. The coast is cool/cold in summer and mild in winter.
Look for the cost of real estate, in all locations, on Realtor.com
Keep in mind that you lose 3.5 degrees temperature for every 1000 feet elevation and 1.5 degrees for every 100 miles of latitude. (A huge difference between San Francisco and San Diego, and between San Francisco and Lake Tahoe)
CA is a place you retire FROM. Unless your a multi=millionaire. Very high prices, high taxes, high prices, and the people suck. If you may be sending kids to school, they'll become idiots. It's the land of being Politically Correct. I would go to the NW - Or, WA. ID. Up state NY is very nice (buy a
4-wheel jeep). But CA would be my last choice. I live in San Diego, CA.
San Diego, a Navy city, a Republican City. California's version of red-necks. Cops pack 45s. Their Representative "Duke" Cunningham was just sentenced for selling defense contracts and the Fee Bees are looking at the city to find out where the civil retirement funds went to. The airport is a lot of fun too. Your plane will drop down among the high rises before it lands. Exciting stuff. On the other hand, if you are just passing through, there is Africa USA, the San Diego Zoo, promenades along long sandy beaches and, a little place I like to call Mexico.
There are good people who live there like my brother-in-law and my brother lives just to the north. But then he is ex-marine (if there is such a thing) and an ex-cop, so it kind of figures. He grows bananas in his garden. No, not goes but, grows bananas.
Bob should take-up surfing and relax.
To the North East is Idyllwild, a community high in a pine forest, overlooking Palms Springs and some serious desert.
As you move north in California, there is more and more of live and let be attitude, until you get to us tree huggers.
- Bill
Coloribus gustibus non disputatum
I don't know about Texas, per se, but the oldest business in Austin is Scholtz's Beir Garten:-) (if you put an umlaut over a "u" [u] it sounds a lot like an English "o"). The it is an university town and then there is the music. Austin, to me, sounds like an oasis,
- Bill Coloribus gustibus non disputatum
Let me just have one final kick. In Soquel, you would be competeting with people who work in $ilicon Valley for the homes. Perfect for retirement.
- Bill Coloribus gustibus non disputatum
The message
from Bill Rose contains these words:
(if you put an umlaut over a "u" [u] it sounds
new it dewnt
Janet
retreat there every year in a Buddhist Dharma Center. I drive myself from the airport to the place and I've been there enough to know where it is, thanks. I don't think I mentioned anythng abut Santa Cruz.
I have no idea what you just cryptically tried to say. I am from New York where I lived on the ocean, which is where my mother lives to this day and I wouldn't move back up there for any reason. Austin is a hip, young city and its older croud are not put out to pasture. It's a place full of retired people who think young and are vibrant.
So, please explain in English what you are trying to say.
It's a beautiful place to live. Tons of city parks, bike trails everywhere, public transportation, plenty of theater and all the "acts" come through here. We see Carlin, Richard Lewis, Kathy Griffin, Lion King full production, and there is a great orchestra which hosts people like Nadia Salerno and there is nothing like he music scene. We also have more wildflowers along the roads than any state in the union, ecology minded people including a large gather of people involved in the "Save Our Springs" project. There are natural pools of clean water to swim in, amazing sunsets, the largest urban bat colony in America, great shopping and a population of people, 67 percent which have higher education and of those, half have PhD level educations.
I love it here. Houses are affordable and beautiful.
What? No hookers in Austin?
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