Advice on Relocating to Oceano (San Diego, Arroyo Grande: real estate, apartments, rent)

[Magi]

Can anyone tell me about Oceano? I'm in the market to buy a 2nd home (just retired from 25 years in law enforcement--woohoo) I know the real estate prices are decent for places within a couple of miles to the beach, but are the neighborhoods?

I'd love to know the name of real estate folks who aren't all about half million dollar and up houses. My goal is to get a place in the 200-250 range and eventually rent out my current digs to offset the new place.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[PecanPie]

Don't know how much research you've done on this, but I just ran a realtor.com search for Oceano and there were about 6 condos or townhomes for $250k or under. The cheapest house listed was $280k and it quickly jumped up from there, for not very large homes.

I don't know enough about the area to say what other cities might be nearby or more inland that would be cheaper, but $250k is pretty low for California especially anywhere near the ocean.

[JRKRL]

Oceano is okay, I like it. Not sure the exact stats now on the neighborhoods now but when I lived there we didn't have too many problems. We lived closer to the beach. Back then it had a reputation of having more crime than some of the other areas but we were never affected. It seems a bit more run down now, was just there a couple of months ago and wish there were more job opportunities as I would love to move back to that area. There are several other cities very close by not sure if you have looked into them such as Arroyo Grande, Grover City or Nipomo, a bit further from the beach but seem to have nicer neighborhoods.

[Magi]

Thanks for the insight, JRKRL and PecanPie. As I have always aspired to be trailer trash at the beach, run down doesn't bother me... I figure eventually, I'll sell my home down here as well as the condo/cottage up there, and upgrade, but houses are simply not moving right now.

I grew up in San Diego and saw Pacific Beach go from the dregs to multi million dollar, Capitola went from trailer parks and apartments to Silicon Valley West. I'm hoping Oceano can stay a hamlet for a couple of decades, at least.

Oh, if you're interested in seeing if the bad guys are close by, you can go to felonspy.com It's elucidating, if nothing else.