Best Small Town in California (San Diego, Bakersfield: for sale, real estate, condominiums)

[flpelle]

I am interested in retiring to a safe, open-minded, and less costly small town in California. Coming from Tennessee where it is cheap will be a shock. Ideally, I would like to own 5 acres and be in a friendly place.
A few nice restaurants, access to decent doctors, and affordable housing is key.
Does that exist anywhere in this great state?

[humboldtrat]

Can you be more specific? Do you want to live in the mountains, on the coast or in the desert?? Do you want to avoid snow?
Frankly, you might be better off staying in Tennessee. Everything here is expensive. There are lots of Californians heading for TN, AR, KY, the Carolinas, etc.

[o2bincdl]

Check out Fallbrook in San Diego County. Nice small horse property town. We are known as the avocado capital of the world. Still some nice pieces of property at decent prices for california standards. We are 20 minutes away from Temecula.

[Inthesierras]

The far north of CA is more affordable then most other areas of CA. Here is a website to search for homes, just set the prices you are looking for.

REALTOR.com - Real Estate Listings & Homes For Sale

[flpelle]

Mountains or valleys will work.
Can't afford the coast and no desire for the desert. Is there a "Mayberry" with some cool people and a family atmosphere out there some place?

[Woof]

As Inthesierras suggested, it would almost all be in the north. In no particular order, Mt Shasta City, Quincy, Weaverville, Nevada City, Placerville, Etna, Susanville, Yreka.

[Inthesierras]

Originally Posted by Woof

As Inthesierras suggested, it would almost all be in the north. In no particular order, Mt Shasta City, Quincy, Weaverville, Nevada City, Placerville, Etna, Susanville, Yreka.

Great suggestions. Property is still affordable and the small town feel is there.

[TheDragonslayer]

There are numerous horse ranches here in Humboldt county, dairy and horses are common here. The motto on a sign for McKinleyville is, " Welcom to McKinleyville Where horses have the right of way " . There are still rodeos in most of the towns here, The price of property is not too outrageous compared to the rest of the state and McKinleyville is on the coast and unincorporated, there is also Freshwater, Big Lagoon and Orick to the north of us. Acreage is easy to find here, even in McK and Arcata is just to the south between us and Eureka and it has a large agricultural section called the Arcata Bottoms . If you have Google earth use it to check out the area and you will see how much of Mck and the communities north of here are undeveloped. There are only 120,000 plus people in the whole county and Eureka is the largest city at 28,000 and has two hospitals, Fortuna has one and so does Arcata. I am always seeing people riding there horse on the beach and the trails in town.

[humboldtrat]

Check out Quincy, the county seat of Plumas county. Quincy Chamber of Commerce

[jessemh431]

What do you consider a small city? Like is Bakersfield small for you? I'm used to LA, so almost every city is a small city. But i looked on Realtor.com, and i found a 2.5 acre empty lot outside of Bakersfield for 30,000. The only thing is that you would have to build a home on the lot, though.

Heres the link. REALTOR.com: Find a Home - Listing Detail

Here's another property that's almost 5 acres in NorCal. It's covered in trees, but it's cheap and big. But again you would have to build your own home.
REALTOR.com: Find a Home - Listing Detail

This one has less trees and is also in the same area as the previous one (Hayfork, CA)
REALTOR.com: Find a Home - Listing Detail

Here's the link to that search. Hayfork, CA Homes, Real Estate, Condominiums & More - REALTOR.com