Not sure where to live in CA. Want warm weather. (San Diego: apartments, high crime)

[valgal123]

I will now look into Florida. I see it is cheaper. I have been there and the humidity was intense. Worse than Washington, worse than Hawaii.

Thank you everyone for the help!

[BayAreaHillbilly]

As you may or may not know, here are the trade offs:
Warm but very rarely hot during summer days, cool but not cold winter days, cool nights, advection overcast / fog, expensive (e.g. the coast)
Borderline hot summer days, cool but not cold winter days, warm to cool nights in summer, frosty nights in winter (slightly inland)
Hot summer days, cold winter days, warm nights in summer, freezing a__ nights in winter (way inland).

[saybanana]

Pasadena and the surrounding areas might be a good place to be, even perhaps Eagle Rock is which is between Glendale and Pasadena. While it is usually warm most of the year, here are a few cold weeks and a few very hot weeks.

[BodegaHead]

How about Ventura? It's coastal, great weather & a little cheaper or similar COL then a bunch of the places you listed. In between Santa Barbara & LA area.
Definately go South if you want good coastal weather, SF is miserable.

[mayorhaggar]

Move wherever you can get a job. The economy is not that good in California and it's worse in Florida. At least California has a lot of wealth and successful industries like tech and entertainment, Florida really doesn't have much other than retirees and seasonal tourism, and doing any work for retirees or tourism doesn't pay well. If you can get a job and you live with roommates and are frugal you can live pretty much anywhere provided you aren't making minimum wage, if you can get a job somewhere like Whole Foods you should even be able to live somewhere like the Bay Area, Whole Foods here are full of young hipster employees, and they have to live somewhere (probably Oakland these days). The questions is whether you can get a job like that, there will be competition.

Also the weather in Florida is over 90 most of the year, I grew up there. 70's are kind of rare, you get them mainly from around late December to March with some cold snaps in between where it can get down to around 30. The weather in California is different, for one thing the air is really dry so it's way less humid and temperatures are more volatile--it gets cold at night even in summer, and can get hot during the day. The more inland you are, the hotter it is because mountain ranges block the cold Pacific wind from getting inland. In the Bay Area it can be 65 degrees in San Francisco in July, and 95 degrees about 20 miles inland.

[jaijai]

Originally Posted by valgal123

I will now look into Florida. I see it is cheaper. I have been there and the humidity was intense. Worse than Washington, worse than Hawaii.

Thank you everyone for the help!

Oh no! Not Florida!
Don't give up on CA so easily if you want to be here.
It's just that you may not be able to find the perfect climate.
Your criteria in that regard is a bit unrealistic.
Any beach / ocean community will have, at some point, rain or if you're in the north east, often snow in the winter.
And the ocean communities every where except for the pacific coast have high humidity.
Maybe you should focus on some of the communities in the San Diego area (SoCals weather seems to come closest to what you're looking for) where you could find a room-ate in a community that is quiet and peaceful.
There must be at least one Whole Foods market down there.

[valgal123]

Okay, thanks everyone! Yeah florida looks bad for the fact that there are no jobs.

I'm back to looking into CA.

Whole foods in CA

Berkeley
Beverly Hills
Campbell
Cupertino
El Segundo
Fresno
Glendale
La Jolla
Laguna
Long Beach
Los Altos
Los Angeles
Mill Valley
Monterey
Napa
Northridge
Oakland
palo Alto
Pasadena
Petaluma
Redondo Beach
Redwood City
Roseville
Sacramento
San Diego
San Fran
San Mateo
San Rafael
San Ramon
Santa Clarita
Santa Cruz
Santa Monica
Santa Rosa
Sebastopol
Sherman Oaks
Sonoma
Thousand Oaks
Torrance
Tustin
Venice
Walnut Creek
West Hollywood
Woodland Hills

[SportyandMisty]

I vote Cupertino. The weather is mild most of the year. You don't need air conditioning except for maybe 5-10 days/year. Surfing in Santa Cruz is driving distance. Winter isn't particularly cold, although every couple years there is an overnight "freeze".

[BodegaHead]

Originally Posted by SportyandMisty

I vote Cupertino. The weather is mild most of the year. You don't need air conditioning except for maybe 5-10 days/year. Surfing in Santa Cruz is driving distance. Winter isn't particularly cold, although every couple years there is an overnight "freeze".

For most people expecting the "California dream", the water & climate on the coast anywhere N. of Santa Barbara is most likely going to be COLD & disappointing. Santa Cruz & Monterey are nice, but it is far from warm by most standards,the water is COLD & it is often foggy & chilly right on the coast. I think you should take a road trip through the state & see what area you like the best if you are able to.

I live in Sonoma county 5 min. from one of the Santa Rosa Whole Foods & it's nice here, but the coast is freezing & unusable except to look at & beachcomb most the time, especially if you make $20,000 a year & can't afford a boat or a nice place to stay,it is also a 40 min. drive. If you want a beachy lifestyle I would look into SoCal, I love NorCal but the coast is not warm most the time & the water is always COLD.


If warm & sunny is your thing look into LaJolla , then commute to there from a cheaper area as LaJolla is hella expensive. There though you would enjoy a sweet beach life. San Diego is right there too if you want to live in a city. Also what kind of town to you want? For example there is a HUGE population & culture difference between Sebastopol & San Diego. Do you want a town,city, big town,small city,small town?

[valgal123]

I'm not exactly sure what i want regarding city, big city, town, small town. I don't want to be in a small town. I like variety, that is very important to me. I need to live somewhere there are a bunch of meetup groups that I live close to. I need to live somewhere there is a church with groups for young singles. I need to live somewhere there are healthy restaurants. Then also the warm weather, cleanliness, beaches.

now to give more information on myself:

I'm a very extreme frugal person. I wear clothes with holes because I don't want to spend the money, I would rather save. I get by on $30 a week on groceries and I eat organic, unprocessed food. I don't get haircuts, I don't wear much makeup, I don't get manicures and only have a couple pairs of shoes. because of this and my willing to live with roommates I feel that I could live anywhere.