Where is the highest standard of living for the price in California? (Los Angeles: real estate, condo)

[RedWolf6450]

Hey California,

Curious if there is a general consensus, or opinion on where in California people enjoy the highest quality of living for the price? When you consider access to quality schools, healthy food, good restaurants, town amenities - health clubs, public pool and rec facilities, parks, hiking, access to arts and culture, clubs and town events.

Where are the towns where young educated 30 something professionals with future plans for kids moving? What are the best upper middle class zip code in California when you consider cost? In Northern California, obviously you have places like Mill Valley, Lafayette, Palo Alto, etc - but when you adjust for COL, they suddenly become impossible or completely absurd to live there, even when making pretty significant dual income (>$250-350k per year annually?)

My gut tells me places like San Rafael or maybe Walnut Creek take the prize in NorCal - but even these zip codes have extremely high real estate entry prices.

Any other ideas or perspectives on this? I guess another way to phrase the question - what zip code gives you the most for $1M?

Thanks!

[amokk]

Orange County. Or if you're in biotech, San Diego.

[RedWolf6450]

Originally Posted by amokk

Orange County. Or if you're in biotech, San Diego.

Thanks, Amokk. What towns in Orange County offer the highest quality of life? On a more granular level - are any of these towns somewhat left leaning and progressive? I do enjoy NorCal and Marin culture (lack of diversity in Marin aside), so I would be interested to find a town that has somewhat similar subcultures - appreciation of outdoors, the environment, science, etc.

[SUPbud]

ixnay on Orange County if you want 'left leaning and progressive'. of the six congressional reps in OC, I count 5 Rs and 1 D:
US Congressional Representatives for Orange County
Irvine is little more blue than the red ocean around it... that's where we send our Yuppies. (I use their excellent bike paths).


Other posters are free to disagree or offer their experience and perceptions.


In my opinion, Most of Southern California (minus the denser urban parts of Los Angeles County) offers the best quality of life and outdoor experience in the Nation. I'm not sure how one experiences 'science' outside of your explicit career field. For Arts and Culture, Clubs and Events, you will travel to the core of LA, even if you try to live just outside of it.


If 'left leaning and progressive' is your #1, you're living in the biggest, dirty-est, dense-est Blue urban core you can afford... when you lookup the public schools you'll fork over $20k/yr for private school for your future kids.



you sound like you know NorCal better than me and if you have $1M to spend you wont get much sympathy for your plight. Its on you to figure it out.

[Ruth4Truth]

quality schools, healthy food, good restaurants, town amenities - health clubs, public pool and rec facilities, parks, hiking, access to arts and culture, clubs and town events.

I notice you didn't mention weather. So, considering how unaffordable all the good places have become, I'm going to go out on a bit of a limb, and suggest, maybe places like Davis. It has everything on the list. It's not known for being upper-middle class, but maybe with the presence of the university, all those faculty members bring the profile up a bit.

There's always Monterey, but it's expensive to buy into, like the other places you mentioned.

[gizmo980]

Originally Posted by SUPbud

if you have $1M to spend you wont get much sympathy for your plight. Its on you to figure it out.

I don't think they're lookin for "sympathy" or saying it's a "plight"- also doubting they've got $1M cash to blow. Sounds like that would be their home budget (which isn't crazy by CA standards at ALL), and they just want input on where to get the most bang for their bucks. No need to get all snarky!

Now to answer OP: I think we'd need a little more to go on, as far as what you want in a town/region. Like what do you prefer in terms of weather, culture, scenery, city vs suburbs vs rural, etc; and will jobs and/or schools be a factor? Or is this simply a hypothetical, based on COL alone? I love where I live right now, in the Santa Cruz Mountains between Santa Cruz and San Jose. Just bought a lovely little house there for $640K, weather is nearly perfect, and I'm almost equidistant from the ocean and the city (SJ). Also have very low crime, and the people in my town are mostly great. So I'd say the "standard of living" is pretty high here, but it's certainly not the right fit for everyone.

[RedWolf6450]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

I notice you didn't mention weather. So, considering how unaffordable all the good places have become, I'm going to go out on a bit of a limb, and suggest, maybe places like Davis. It has everything on the list. It's not known for being upper-middle class, but maybe with the presence of the university, all those faculty members bring the profile up a bit.

There's always Monterey, but it's expensive to buy into, like the other places you mentioned.

I love Davis. Summer weather a bit of a bummer, and access to hiking and such is not super amazing. I agree that for NorCal towns it's up there for sure. Part of my post is for general interest outside of my NorCal bubble - I am very familiar with generally all nice towns in NorCal, but my knowledge basically ends south of south of Santa Cruz - though I have visited SLO many times.

[RedWolf6450]

Originally Posted by gizmo980

I don't think they're lookin for "sympathy" or saying it's a "plight"- also doubting they've got $1M cash to blow. Sounds like that would be their home budget (which isn't crazy by CA standards at ALL), and they just want input on where to get the most bang for their bucks. No need to get all snarky!

Now to answer OP: I think we'd need a little more to go on, as far as what you want in a town/region. Like what do you prefer in terms of weather, culture, scenery, city vs suburbs vs rural, etc; and will jobs and/or schools be a factor? Or is this simply a hypothetical, based on COL alone? I love where I live right now, in the Santa Cruz Mountains between Santa Cruz and San Jose. Just bought a lovely little house there for $640K, weather is nearly perfect, and I'm almost equidistant from the ocean and the city (SJ). Also have very low crime, and the people in my town are mostly great. So I'd say the "standard of living" is pretty high here, but it's certainly not the right fit for everyone.

Gizmo,

Part of the goal with my post was to step outside of my NorCal centered perspective. I am so deeply entrenched with evaluating towns North of Santa Cruz, that it is hard for me to broaden my perspective.

If I am being honest - Marin honestly would be pretty sweet for me - but it's so expensive that it is borderline off-putting. But culturally it feels pretty dead-on, especially with all the access to hiking, trails, people that like nature health stuff. Same with Oakland/Montclair/Kensington - it's simply the COL that is absolutely outrageous and I dream of finding something more reasonable elsewhere.

Living in the Bay Area for 30+ years I prefer the weather here - I'd say Oakland/Berkeley/Peninsula has the ideal weather. Extreme summer heat without substantial tree cover would be tough. I like Davis and parts of Sacramento, but man it is hot anywhere north of Fairfield in the Summer.

In terms of culture - access to good small cafe style music (no need for huge concerts), a good healthy eating scene with farmers markets, CSAs, ideally a town that celebrates the arts with theatre, art galleries, etc.

In a perfect world there would be plenty of folks in their mid-30s that would prefer to have backyard dinners and play music or have a book club rather than go to bars or an night on the town. Decent enough restaurants - prefer no chain spots and a cute downtown with a good small town all American feeling. I prefer Suburban rural style homes (decently sized lots, well tree'd, etc - think Walnut Creek, Lafayette, or Terra Linda San Rafael), but an ideal world still be able to walk to a coffee shop.

I like to cycle, rock climb - but could see myself getting into ocean sports pretty easily. Love to spend time in the mountains growing up in the Bay. With that in mind, access to good hiking or at least some type of health minded community is super important to me.

Jobs - hybrid remote. Ideally could go into the office 2x per week minimum, but not a total deal breaker. Elementary schools are important to me, but it's maybe 7 years out. Places like Benicia, Petaluma, Davis, Pleasant Hill, Martinez intrigue me - but want to step outside of what I know.

The reason I say "upper" middle class is because I feel like the Bay Area messes with ROI a bit. As someone that makes fairly substantial income, we are quickly almost put into a solidly middle class town super easily. Just trying to see what quality is possible for the money.

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Originally Posted by RedWolf6450

Thanks, Amokk. What towns in Orange County offer the highest quality of life? On a more granular level - are any of these towns somewhat left leaning and progressive? I do enjoy NorCal and Marin culture (lack of diversity in Marin aside), so I would be interested to find a town that has somewhat similar subcultures - appreciation of outdoors, the environment, science, etc.

San Diego has a lot of lifted truck types, military town. Nowhere near the coast is gonna be one million unless you want a cramped condo. Our public schools aren't rated very well as we have busing across the city. Read your kids will be in school with a bunch of ESL students.

[RMESMH]

Originally Posted by RedWolf6450

Gizmo,

Part of the goal with my post was to step outside of my NorCal centered perspective. I am so deeply entrenched with evaluating towns North of Santa Cruz, that it is hard for me to broaden my perspective.

If I am being honest - Marin honestly would be pretty sweet for me - but it's so expensive that it is borderline off-putting. But culturally it feels pretty dead-on, especially with all the access to hiking, trails, people that like nature health stuff. Same with Oakland/Montclair/Kensington - it's simply the COL that is absolutely outrageous and I dream of finding something more reasonable elsewhere.

Living in the Bay Area for 30+ years I prefer the weather here - I'd say Oakland/Berkeley/Peninsula has the ideal weather. Extreme summer heat without substantial tree cover would be tough. I like Davis and parts of Sacramento, but man it is hot anywhere north of Fairfield in the Summer.

In terms of culture - access to good small cafe style music (no need for huge concerts), a good healthy eating scene with farmers markets, CSAs, ideally a town that celebrates the arts with theatre, art galleries, etc.

In a perfect world there would be plenty of folks in their mid-30s that would prefer to have backyard dinners and play music or have a book club rather than go to bars or an night on the town. Decent enough restaurants - prefer no chain spots and a cute downtown with a good small town all American feeling. I prefer Suburban rural style homes (decently sized lots, well tree'd, etc - think Walnut Creek, Lafayette, or Terra Linda San Rafael), but an ideal world still be able to walk to a coffee shop.

I like to cycle, rock climb - but could see myself getting into ocean sports pretty easily. Love to spend time in the mountains growing up in the Bay. With that in mind, access to good hiking or at least some type of health minded community is super important to me.

Jobs - hybrid remote. Ideally could go into the office 2x per week minimum, but not a total deal breaker. Elementary schools are important to me, but it's maybe 7 years out. Places like Benicia, Petaluma, Davis, Pleasant Hill, Martinez intrigue me - but want to step outside of what I know.

The reason I say "upper" middle class is because I feel like the Bay Area messes with ROI a bit. As someone that makes fairly substantial income, we are quickly almost put into a solidly middle class town super easily. Just trying to see what quality is possible for the money.

Perhaps……..Rocklin.

Or Roseville.