Redding / Shasta - Talk me into it... or out of it... (Sacramento: city hall, rent)

[MaisonDeEtre]

Home look nice in my price range there...

So what's the good, the bad, and the ugly?

Seems too good to be true, so wondering what I am missing?

[CCbaxter]

Not much has changed.

https://www.city-data.com/forum/cali...ta-county.html

[MaisonDeEtre]

Originally Posted by CCbaxter

Not much has changed.

https://www.city-data.com/forum/cali...ta-county.html

Thanks for pointing that out, I just realized I had done that....

My current home search has me running in circles.

My apologies... long day... staring at too many listings.

[jcp123]

State of Jefferson might either talk you into or out of it.

Not that it’s done either for me, but I liked its perkiness and perseverance, so I wear its bumper sticker on my car.

[CCbaxter]

Originally Posted by MaisonDeEtre

Thanks for pointing that out, I just realized I had done that....

My current home search has me running in circles.

My apologies... long day... staring at too many listings.

Well here’s the deal, I’ve lived in Redding for 5 years. It was never my cup of tea as I am more a city guy and Redding is pretty parochial. If you search the forums there are a few threads on Redding. Pretty much they all talk about the same thing, first is the grinding, relentless, searing, burning heat. You will most likely find that topic in every thread and none of it is understatement. In fact it’s worse.
The second issue most threads bring up is crime. There is a homeless problem that is pretty deep and penetrating. If you go to the grocery store, you will see homeless, when you go to work, when you go out to dinner, when you go to the gas station. They’re everywhere. In fact there is a large complex of city buildings that include city hall, fire and police, a library and a large park with a baseball field, tennis courts and bocce ball courts. They had to fence the whole thing off because homeless were destroying the courts, bathrooms, field, etc. my kids won’t go to the library because it’s basically a building surrounded by a homeless camp and they can’t be kicked off because it’s public property.
As to the crime, as I said before I’ve lived here 5 years and have had nothing happen. If you don’t lock your car, it will get rifled through overnight, if you leave anything of value out, it will get stolen. But unless you’re doing drugs or selling drugs or participating in the aforementioned theft, you are pretty safe from violence.

The food scene in Redding is pretty limited. There isn’t a ton of cultural things to do but you do get some shows at the Redding Civic and the Cascade Theatre. If you like hiking, camping, or dirt bike riding this is the place for you.

Will you have a job here or a portable career? Not a lot of good paying jobs here. Also, not sure what your budget is but there are lots of options surrounding Redding. We just had some friends move to Shingletown. The elevation makes it cooler and it far enough away that the homeless aren’t as prevalent. It’s about 30 miles from Redding. There are some very nice houses out west of town and north of town. You only need to drive about 5 miles north of Redding and you’re in the Cascades foothills and that’s pretty nice.

Redding is like lots of other towns that made it big in the extraction industry, in this case mining and timber, and didn’t keep up when those industries disappeared. Redding sits at the north end of what used to be called Poverty Valley and it was called that for a reason.

If you’re truly interested DM me and I will hook you up with a Realtor friend who is very knowledgeable about town and she’s very low pressure. Tell her what you’re looking for and she’ll hook you up into the MLS feed.

Good luck.

[MaisonDeEtre]

Originally Posted by CCbaxter

Well here’s the deal, I’ve lived in Redding for 5 years. It was never my cup of tea as I am more a city guy and Redding is pretty parochial. If you search the forums there are a few threads on Redding. Pretty much they all talk about the same thing, first is the grinding, relentless, searing, burning heat. You will most likely find that topic in every thread and none of it is understatement. In fact it’s worse.



The second issue most threads bring up is crime. There is a homeless problem that is pretty deep and penetrating. If you go to the grocery store, you will see homeless, when you go to work, when you go out to dinner, when you go to the gas station. They’re everywhere. In fact there is a large complex of city buildings that include city hall, fire and police, a library and a large park with a baseball field, tennis courts and bocce ball courts. They had to fence the whole thing off because homeless were destroying the courts, bathrooms, field, etc. my kids won’t go to the library because it’s basically a building surrounded by a homeless camp and they can’t be kicked off because it’s public property.


As to the crime, as I said before I’ve lived here 5 years and have had nothing happen. If you don’t lock your car, it will get rifled through overnight, if you leave anything of value out, it will get stolen. But unless you’re doing drugs or selling drugs or participating in the aforementioned theft, you are pretty safe from violence.

The food scene in Redding is pretty limited. There isn’t a ton of cultural things to do but you do get some shows at the Redding Civic and the Cascade Theatre. If you like hiking, camping, or dirt bike riding this is the place for you.

Will you have a job here or a portable career? Not a lot of good paying jobs here. Also, not sure what your budget is but there are lots of options surrounding Redding. We just had some friends move to Shingletown. The elevation makes it cooler and it far enough away that the homeless aren’t as prevalent. It’s about 30 miles from Redding. There are some very nice houses out west of town and north of town. You only need to drive about 5 miles north of Redding and you’re in the Cascades foothills and that’s pretty nice.

Redding is like lots of other towns that made it big in the extraction industry, in this case mining and timber, and didn’t keep up when those industries disappeared. Redding sits at the north end of what used to be called Poverty Valley and it was called that for a reason.

If you’re truly interested DM me and I will hook you up with a Realtor friend who is very knowledgeable about town and she’s very low pressure. Tell her what you’re looking for and she’ll hook you up into the MLS feed.

Good luck.

That's a pretty realistic sounding assessment. Nicely done.

Career is portable, that's why I have questions about a lot of places in the various forums. My job goes with me, just need good internet.

Heat doesn't worry me nearly as much snow would, LOL! Preferred Arizona to the upper midwest on that count.

What caught my attention about the area is that home prices are reasonable for Ca. and it seems to be green in that region. But not yet in the snow belt. But not sure if it's in a rain belt in the way that places in Oregon and Washington have a reputation for.


Budget would be about $450K at max. But that's a nice looking house in that area, if zillow is to be believed.

Of course the worry is... "What's the tradeoff for the affordability?"

Where I rich I'd just do South OC or (in my dreams maybe) Maui. But can't afford much more than a pretty "craptastic" condo in locations like that. Not quite how I'd hoped to spend my later years, but would do it, if the right property became available in one of those kind of places.

So I guess what I'm really looking for is "South OC, without the price tag"... but of course that means some compromise is going to have to be made.

But often times it's hard to tell what those tradeoffs are from afar, and without the luxury of going somewhere and studying it for a time.

My job goes with me... but pay isn't great, and it does come with a 24x7 availability requirement (large scale info tech support)... so I'm really stuck picking from places I've already lived (most I wouldn't go back to)... or taking a huge chance buying without going to a place.

It's a rather stressful conundrum to be honest. But also a "first world problem" as they say, I guess.

The places I've been that I'm certain I'd like to spend my later years... are out of budget. Other places I might be as OK with but in budget, seem to be hard to find. And of course, one can't really know... until one is there for a while.

[tikkasf]

OP, you have not yet visited the Redding area ?


https://www.yelp.com/biz/americana-modern-hotel-redding

[CCbaxter]

Originally Posted by MaisonDeEtre

That's a pretty realistic sounding assessment. Nicely done.

Career is portable, that's why I have questions about a lot of places in the various forums. My job goes with me, just need good internet.

Heat doesn't worry me nearly as much snow would, LOL! Preferred Arizona to the upper midwest on that count.

What caught my attention about the area is that home prices are reasonable for Ca. and it seems to be green in that region. But not yet in the snow belt. But not sure if it's in a rain belt in the way that places in Oregon and Washington have a reputation for.


Budget would be about $450K at max. But that's a nice looking house in that area, if zillow is to be believed.

Of course the worry is... "What's the tradeoff for the affordability?"

Where I rich I'd just do South OC or (in my dreams maybe) Maui. But can't afford much more than a pretty "craptastic" condo in locations like that. Not quite how I'd hoped to spend my later years, but would do it, if the right property became available in one of those kind of places.

So I guess what I'm really looking for is "South OC, without the price tag"... but of course that means some compromise is going to have to be made.

But often times it's hard to tell what those tradeoffs are from afar, and without the luxury of going somewhere and studying it for a time.

My job goes with me... but pay isn't great, and it does come with a 24x7 availability requirement (large scale info tech support)... so I'm really stuck picking from places I've already lived (most I wouldn't go back to)... or taking a huge chance buying without going to a place.

It's a rather stressful conundrum to be honest. But also a "first world problem" as they say, I guess.

The places I've been that I'm certain I'd like to spend my later years... are out of budget. Other places I might be as OK with but in budget, seem to be hard to find. And of course, one can't really know... until one is there for a while.

Maybe rent for a while? Also, look into Paradise. It’s ear Chico and they are building hundreds of new houses there. As for internet, I understand they are laying fiber in all the open utility conduits and it will be a gigabyte system. You can watch the town grow around you.

[roadwarrior101]

While the area is pretty (good camping/boating nearby), its very depressed economically, not socially diverse, extremely conservative and not very exciting.

I'm sort of amazed at the people who come on this board and look for cheaper parts of California as an arbitrage. While there are a few exceptions, for the most part, California has been discovered. The parts that are cheap are cheap for a reason. They're generally not very nice. If I could not afford to live in a nice part of California, I'd rather move to another state where I could be in a nice location at a more affordable price.

[Ruth4Truth]

OK, you're used to Arizona, so you won't like Humboldt County, which also is affordable. The coastal area is cool (the opposite of Redding), but it also tends to be foggy and cloudy. Although "sunny Fortuna" promotes itself as a more sunny pocket in the area, that's probably relative. Still, for the heck of it, you might check out Fortuna and McKinleyville. Though they're a far cry from OC, if that's what your dream is.

You can afford Placerville, in the foothills of the Sierras east of Sacramento. There may be light snow now and then, but it's low elevation means there won't be anything extreme. On average, 244 sunny days. On average annually--2 inches of snow. Small town. Still not OC.

Here's this, in Cambria, CA (the coast!), just above your max $$, if all you need is 2 br/1 ba:
https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...-24281?view=qv

Here are some units in Ventura (as close to OC as you'll get in your price range). They're modest detached homes, though classified as condos, in complexes with a shared pool and other amenities, low HOA fees. They look nice, and are in your price range, not pushing the max.
https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...-91866?view=qv

https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...-95787?view=qv

That last one is within walking distance to the beach, grocery, restaurants. $385K.