Bakersfield or? (Redding, Shafter, Tehachapi: travel, house, business)

[sehnsucht5150]

Hey all, Ive been a longtime watcher of the forum here. Im considering the move from western pennsylvania to california. Ive been looking into a lot of places, and honestly, it seems california is the most appealing to me. Im trying to find a reasonably priced place to live, and hopefully start up a business. A lot of things point to bakersfield. Seems you can get a house within reason and the climate isnt too bad? Where I live we get (statistically) 59 days of sunshine a year, and the winters are brutal from lake effect snow, gotta get away from it. Im 25 years old, own a business that can go just about anywhere, single, no kids, really wanting to get to a place with a nice mild climate and something thats not going to cost an eyeball. The other business i want to start where i go is going to be dealing with painting and dealing with a lot of off road / industrial equipment, so thats a high priority. Do you think Bakersfield is a good place to start in cali, do you have any other suggestions? Golf courses, atv riding, rolling hill areas are a big plus for me personally. I live in an area with about 25k people, so i dont want to get somewhere overcrowded, it would be ideal to be just outside of a city to where i can drop in and out, make an easy commute here and there, basically to have some space and be able to breath. let me know what you think, very interested in hearing responses.

[Roaddog]

When you say mild climate what do you mean? Bakersfield probably has a lot of what you talk about but the climate isn't mild, we do have a lot of sunshine but the summer temps get real hot, for the last 3 days or so it's been over 100 degrees (Hot). there are rolling hills at the outskirts and places to live outside the city, my wifes uncle painted equipment before he passed on and made a good living, houseing is affordable with prices dropping but the weather may take some getting use to.

[sehnsucht5150]

Hey thanks for a reponse! Well as far as the climate, im just looking for an area in which its not snowing much, if any at all during the ''winters''. As far as the summer, if it gets up to 100 every now and then, not a big deal. Im sure its hot out there even being dry heat, but with the humidity out here, its probably fairly close and honestly as long as the sun is out, im happy. I just dont want to be in a place where its the middle of nowhere, im definitely going to travel and look at bakersfield this summer so i can see just how hot it is, and how the area is, but just wanted to gather as much info and see if its really something i'd be interested in. I'd like to travel a little bit more throughout cali and see what else i like, but given some of the prices, ill be limited for now because i'd like to stay well under 200k for now. I wouldnt plan on moving for another year at least, but trying to get an idea of pricing, hopefully it'll be reasonable then, maybe even lower than now.

[Suzer]

I think the weather in Bakersfield is very nice, but the summers and late spring are very hot, albeit dry.

No snow since I've lived in the area. I'm not a fan of snow either, to the point of being afraid of it (driving conditions).

[sehnsucht5150]

Yeah the snow is really getting old, i didnt mind it as a kid, but the more i stay here, the more I loathe the winters. I think this year we had something like 117 inches of snow so we got hammered, and usually in jan through feb it hovers around 10-15 degrees. Everyday its either snowing or raining with grey clouds, so really, i think im just ready to change things up and get to somewhere a lot nicer. Im kind of in a mountainous area and really when comparing, it seems like california has the potential to be very similar, but with a much better climate. So thats definitely something im looking for.

[jdavid93225]

Well, Bakersfield is a pretty good place to go if you don't want much snow. It does snow there occasionally. Most recently was about four or five years ago, and they had one storm that dropped about six inches of snow on Bakersfield. Where I live in the mountains we only had three inches from that same storm. That was very unusual (for Bakersfield). The nice thing about Bakersfield is that there are some decent communities not too far away that don't have the heat or congestion of Bakersfield, but are still close enough to get there easily. Some of these communities are in snow country, like Lebec, Frazier Park (where I am), Tehachapi, and Lake Isabella. Generally, though, the snow in these places is pretty mild most of the time (2 to 4 feet a year). Some other places you might want to check out are Hart Flat and Glennville. These are small communities outside of Bakersfield, but offer more in the way of rolling hills as stated in the OP. There are quite a few places to ride ATVs in the hills and mountains around Bakersfield, and several places to golf in or near town.

With all the things you mentioned, you might want to also check out the North East part of Bakersfield, along Highway 178, near the mouth of the Kern River Canyon. There are rolling hills, some nearby places to ride ATVs, and the Kern River Golf Club and Lake Ming are very close. In my opinion, it's one of the prettier areas around Bakersfield, as long as you're not right next to one of the oilfields. This area is on the edge of Bakersfield, so it's an easy drive into other parts of town, but also an easy drive to get out of town, at least to the north and east.

Check out this link for more information about Bakersfield:
Question for the Bakersfield haters

Or this one for photos:
Bakersfield Photos / Pictures

[rkb0305]

Personally, I would never recommend anyone move to Bakersfield. Winters are foggy, summers are hot, the air quality is horrible. Have you looked into anyplace in northern CA, like Redding, or something? I don't know that it is wonderful there, either, but it has to be better than Bakersfield.

[Caliguy2007]

Bakersfield sounds like a good place for you,but if your looking for someplace smaller and near to Bakersfield,then their's a cute little town called Shafter,which has a population of around 16,000 and it's about 15 mins north of Bakersfield.

[elcapitan]

Visit for yourself before you commit to anything. Check out the rest of California while you're there, just for comparison. Research, research, research.

[sehnsucht5150]

Yeah thanks for the replies! Im trying to do as much research as possible before i make the visit out there next month. Its kind of like a circle, you find a place to consider , sounds good, then find out its not exactly what ya want. So a little frustrating but i certainly wont give up. Like I was telling someone else here on the forum, if i could find a place that was similar to PA without the weather, i think it'd be pretty nice. I live about a half hour away from the mountains, its busy enough, but definitely not overcrowded, enough space to breath and not have your neighbor right beside ya. Something like that would be ideal, maybe next to a decent city to drop right in and etc. Thanks again for replying!