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Retiring to SoCal , Are there afforable homes?


JEFF IN MODESTO

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A former colleague of mine lives near Hilo; his job is out of town. I've never stopped to wonder whether the area is affordable.

Florida has some great bargains, but the four months of humidity, thunderstorms, and insects (mosquitos, no-see-um/sandflies, and in some places deerflies) are unattractive. The winter freezes aren't nice, either. You could buy two houses on my street for $300K and have some money left over for remodeling.

Puerto Rico, including Mayagüez, was wonderful when I was a kid there. Lately, the economy has tanked, crime apparently exploded, and those who can make decent livings on the mainland (degrees, skills, English fluency)are moving to the mainland. Orlando is a popular destination. On the other hand, the NW coast north of Mayagüez from Rincón to Isabela remains a popular surfing-vacation area for Floridians.

Fla. climate center: 100-119 days>85 F
USDA 1990 hardiness zone 9B
Current USDA hardiness zone 10a
4 km inland from Indian River; 27º N (equivalent to Brisbane)

Central Orlando's urban heat island may be warmer than us

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There are some deals to be had in Riverside, most of the area is USDA 10a, sunset zone 19, but you'd have to avoid the low lying sunset zone 18 areas which are 9b. There are mature cuban royals and foxtails all over the place, and triangle palms downtown, so it's clearly a good palm growing area. Summers are scorching hot, but since you're already used to the heat in Modesto, you'd like it here, because even though it's slightly hotter than Modesto, it's less humid. A lot of things that folks in San Diego have trouble with thrive here because of the almost year-round heat.

The downside is that the beach is a grueling 1-2 hours away through heat and nasty traffic. The closest beach is Zooport, by the end of a beach day you will have crossed path with probably one million people. Rainfall is almost non-existent, but water is cheap as dirt. There's a lot of nice hiking around, and Palm Springs is one hour away.

I love coming down here in the Winter, so far, every Winter has been hotter than Santa Cruz is during the Summer. Several times we ran into 90-95F weather in the middle of December and January. We also come down during the Summer, but Summer is often hell, 105F, you don't want to be outside during the day. But it's great for growing some palms to size, which I then haul up North.

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Riverside can be nice, yes indeed, but it's no substitute for the beach areas.

The huge palm growing problems are: (a) low humidity and (B) regular and frequent Santa Ana winds. Sometimes a and b are in combination and that can be lethal to many palms that have to have humidity.

Some places that might be great for a palm garden are made less so by those winds.

If you locate in the Inland Empire be sure to avoid the "wind tunnel" right near the Cajon Pass, which acts as a giant wind tunnel, and I mean 100 mph.

A mile or two can make all the difference.

While it is more scenic in the macro sense, go for Riverside over San Bernardino, though the areas to the west of SB, like Rancho Cucamonga, are great. Redlands is a nice place but cold as ice.

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  • 5 weeks later...

If my memory serves, San Diego County has a limit on how many new dwelling units can be built in the entire county of something like 2,000 units per year, after a referendum was passed in dinosaurian times.

I hope that law's no longer in effect, or it's been modified.

You might have a buildable lot, but be unable to get permission to build.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong . . .

I looked into a lot in an average part of San Diego. There were actually 2 adjacent lots, in a cul-de-sac that I was considering buying. One was flat in part with a steep slope leading into a canyon. It was a beautiful view. The second lot was only slope. The first lot probably only had a little over 1000 feet total that was able to build on fairly easily.

The obstacles that I would have faced would be grading permits at around 30K - 40K, plans for the hose at over 10K, environmental studies of the area, and to pay to run a sewer line to my property - possibly additional permits for this at around 50K?, conservation plants for the native plants, and on and on and on. Then, there's the setbacks (codes stating the minimum distances for structures (and possibly other things) from the property lines. They can easily drag things out for years.

I would imagine that there very little you couldn't build here, but it would be very expensive. One of my companies clients lives on a street in La Jolla where here neighbor is building this $30,000,000 mansion on the cliffs overlooking the ocean. She told me that the city made him upgrade the sewer lines on Torrey Pines road. They worked at night, I bet it took them a month with more than 10 people a night on duty, and a full array of construction vehicles. This may have been heresay.

This probably goes beyond your original questing, but I think it's good stuff to share.

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