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Well, I live in McKinleyville and I love it here. This has actually been a decent summer, not too hot or too cold. Last winter was a drag with rain lasting till the first week of June, but it does not rain 200 to 300 days a year. It can be chilly when the fog rolls in, but so can San Francisco during the same time of year. I happen to have a niche job, I run my own garden business and am thriving. The home building construction has been going non stop here in McKinleyville with 3 new sub divisions going in soon with more than 400 more homes total. One of my clients moved here from Anchorage Alaska 4 years ago and she and her husband opened their own business, she is a speech therapist and her husband is an audiologist. Of course we do have the nations most expensive gas at $3.30 for regular and milk is $2.69 a gallon. We don't have any theme parks, a big zoo or cosmopolitan frills. Life is slower here, the freeway is not jam packed with cars because we do not have a rush hour, our water is clean and so is our air. For me the pluses out weigh the negatives; like the pot culture, or 50 inches or rain a year, or the higher cost of living. Ten years ago a new home costs about $135,000 and now a new home here in McKinleyville will run about $270,000. McKinleyville is still a small town that needs to develop a good structure, Arcata is nice, a lot like a mini Berkeley, but the youth/college culture dominates there. I love Eureka because it has some of the most beautiful Victorians and other assorted homes from Craftsman to Spanish style, but the town is still mired in the logging era and has had many mills shut down. It can be really rough here, but if you are tough and willing to work hard, you can make it work for you. If it gets too glum in the summer, the heat and sun is only a few minutes inland.
Well, with the idea of making good investments in mind one recommendation in that regard is to rent/lease when you first move to the area. Do not buy at first.
I know the tendancy is to want to buy right away especially if your money is burning a whole in your pocket from a recent sale. But the problem with that is you will be doing this from afar without real local knowledge of the area. And on top of that after living in any new place for a time you will have a much more realistic view of what you really like regarding neighborhoods, etc... Plus if for any reason you decide its not for you after a while you will not have to lose all the initial investment and real estate transaction costs which can be excessive in the short term. Selling becomes and expensive proposition when the seller pays both buying and selling agent fees. Unless owning and building equity over the years this is a losing proposition - a poor investment decision. The other alternative is to keep the property and rent it out. But unfortunately in Humboldt County many rental homes end up getting trashed as they are used for grow houses. Once all the mold builds up from the plants it ends up ruining many of the homes. Plus the curcuits get blown and the electrical gets fried from lighting all the plants. Then the renters simply walk away. Here is one of many articles discussing this occurance: cannabisnews.com: Marijuana 'Grow Houses' are Creating Problems
Why not look at it as an initial trial run since you are having some concerns anyway? It doesn't hurt to be cautious when making a major move like this. Remember living in an area like Humboldt County is completely different than visiting as a tourist. You will never really know whether you will like it or not until you have been there for a time. So why not error on the side of caution? Just something to think about. Simply from an investment standpoint it makes more sense when you take all the emotion out of the equation. Know your investment before sinking all your money into an unknown market.
And those $10/hr jobs may be harder to come by than you think with all students, starving artists, old hippies, etc... looking for work. Ideally it would be best to find a telecommute type position from which you could live anywhere and not have to rely on the impoverished local economy.
Derek
Derek, I don't think people realize how hard jobs are to get. It is a world most of us have never lived in. How many here can remember the depression? I doubt anyone can. I was born at the very tail end of it, my first memories are probably during and after WW2, anyone younger than me(most on these boards) have seen mostly good times, expecially in Ca. There have always been plenty of entre-level jobs and jobs requiring no skill available. This isn't the case now. As you memtioned so many of those jobs are taken by hippies and college students.
If the Op really wants to make the move and it sounds like he does, there isn't much else that can be said, right?
Mtn. Surfer: We plan on renting for a minumum of 6 months. Your post makes good Sense & good DOLLARS $$$ & CENTS$$. My wife has ongoing coveration with College of the Redwoods for an Administrative position. Obviously, IF there is an "offer" of employment for her, we would really BE MORE LIKELY TO "PULL THE TRIGGER" SORT OF SPEAK.
As for opinion... everybody has their own....In a nut shell, the whole country's economy is screwed.PA,CA...Dont really matter where you start or end, JOBS are just not available.
We know what were up against.Were not kids dreamin up a fantasy life. I moved to FLA. for 3 years back in 1995 after the untimely death of my parents.
I know what it takes to start over completly, some people are resourceful, I consider myself to be a MASTER of resource's & my ability to utilize resource's always carried me far when I focused in on the task at hand.Thanks again for the continued input in regards to our move.
Rents are not too expensive here: depending on what you are used to of course. The apartments in my neighborhood are two bedroom units and they rent for about $700 a month. There are other apartment complexes here in McKinleyville that have similar units and the rents range up to $1000 a month, give or take. The rents on apartments in Arcata are way higher and harder to find because of college student demand. I would not suggest too many apartments in Eureka, but I would suggest buying an older home there. It is not too hard to find a home that needs some work, if you are handy with tools, in the $160,000 to $200,000 range. Eureka does have some nice to fair neighborhoods and really has all the bigger stores. Pick an architectural style and you will find it in Eureka. Ignore any posts on how Eureka stinks, the pulp mill has not been running for a while and that was the bulk of the smell, that and there are a lot fewer logging trucks and logging yards. There is also the town of Blue Lake, no lake, that is inland from McK and Arcata and it is warmer and less populated even. Fortuna is also a good option for housing and jobs. Ferndale is lovely to visit, but hard to find housing or jobs, same goes for Trinidad and Fieldbrook. Go to Google Earth and check out the towns from overhead, you will see how the towns are laid out. Google Earth cannot keep up with the growth in McKinleyville.
Status:
"Keep calm and carry on."
(set 17 days ago)
Location: Eureka CA
2,609 posts, read 2,853,746 times
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Varies from place to place but locally it's because of limited housing stock and the fact that a lot of locals with houses on the market can afford to wait until they get their price. They're selling because they kinda sorta wanta move to be near their daughter in Oregon and not because they're rushing to their next corporate job in Cleveland. Up here housing prices are coming down slowly but rents have skyrocketed.
Varies from place to place but locally it's because of limited housing stock and the fact that a lot of locals with houses on the market can afford to wait until they get their price. They're selling because they kinda sorta wanta move to be near their daughter in Oregon and not because they're rushing to their next corporate job in Cleveland. Up here housing prices are coming down slowly but rents have skyrocketed.
I see. Well, while I have your ear so to speak, can you recommend a web or other resource for FSBO land for sale in north humboldt county (other than craigslist)? realtor we are working with says land below $100k is becoming more and more available...
I spent about 6 months of last year in Humboldt. Now I'm back at work elsewhere. I really like it up there, but once you cross the "Redwood Curtain" you're in a whole 'norther world. I've never really worked for any length of time for anyone else, and have or had several licenses (including law) and have been a contractor, etc. I could make a reasonable living in Humboldt County, but would be damned if I'd pay the ridiculously inflated real estate prices. Finding the right rent is the least expensive way to go. "Investing" in a home has lost its lustre in the last few years.
The real estate overpricing has, I believe (I was also licensed as a broker, forester and real estate appraiser at one time in another life), more to do with land values than anything else. The "company town" nature of Eureka, for example, and the "craftsman" (better, "crapsman") style housing built around the logging and pulp industries doesn't warrant the pricing. I could whittle a better house out of cardboard than some of those things. Granted, costs are kind of high, and Pierson's has a monopoly, but bringing in a couple of containers full of construction materials from elsewhere would build a decent house. Might even insulate for a change, too.
I think it has to do with land values and the fact that much of the regional land is off limits to residential construction. That and how much is a single redwood worth? Even without the trees, prices are ridiculous.
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