San Luis Obispo- Too good to be true?? (Santa Barbara, Nipomo: buying a house, safe neighborhoods)

[Den Mathias]

I think SLO is my favorite town around! It has everything you could ask for! I love SLO!!

[mccrea9]

Hi all
Just a quick retort/ all replys seem to assume that you have to buy a house and that is the reason for accelerated costs of living in slo/ quick scenario I do most of my business on the internet and run a local service business in florida and make 100g plus a year / if you do the same in slo and rent a 1200 dollar a month condo/ then slo is easy / it is the housing purchase that is the expensive thing about slo/ I lived in Hawaii for 25 years and never felt a crunch,I rented/ I spent a month in slo recently and all amenities surrounding living day to day were no more costlier than here in florida
dont let housing hold you back from relocating to what i consider the best of ca/
Mike

[mccrea9]

replies sorry

[Dean Trails]

Originally Posted by mccrea9

Hi all
Just a quick retort/ all replys seem to assume that you have to buy a house and that is the reason for accelerated costs of living in slo/ quick scenario I do most of my business on the internet and run a local service business in florida and make 100g plus a year / if you do the same in slo and rent a 1200 dollar a month condo/ then slo is easy / it is the housing purchase that is the expensive thing about slo/ I lived in Hawaii for 25 years and never felt a crunch,I rented/ I spent a month in slo recently and all amenities surrounding living day to day were no more costlier than here in florida
dont let housing hold you back from relocating to what i consider the best of ca/
Mike

I am encouraged to hear your living experience with regards to San Luis. Did you find the amenties on par with the places you have lived in?
There seems to be lots to do in SLO along with the nice weather!

[mmouwse]

Originally Posted by Capt. Dan

Do they still have Poly Royal [party royal i think they used to call it]? Or did that little riot a few years back put an end to it?

Hi, Longtime county residant here. (26 years).
Poly Royal was put to rest some years ago after the riots. Yes, RIOTS! Too much partying offcampus under the influence. Students and non-students under the influence rioted reuslting in a total shutdown of the event.
Their behvior really pissed off the locals.

[the city]

Yeah, SLO is a small urban-rural fringe city. You have the urban downtown area surrounded by farms, suburban residential tracts, and ex-urban grid homes.

The city has 3 big-box centers and are building a fourth next to Costco. There building a Target and local health-food market.

SLO has a Kohl's (replacing mervyns), Gottschalks (like Macy's), Embassey Suites (big hotel), sears, home depot, ross, old navy, and tj max (replacing linens n things).

there is a wal-mart and k-mart in arroyo grande along with a regal cinema. pismo beach has an outlet mall and arcade, and grover beach has a good skate and paintball park. and downtown san luis obispo has 50 national resturaunt and clothing store chains.

paso robles and atascadero have more shopping. there's a zoo in atascadero and a water park in paso robles. the fair is in paso robles, and also in paso robles is a rollerskate rink and indoor batting cages.

plus, there are tons of outdoor stuff. and good concerts every thursday and friday in san luis obispo.

[mmouwse]

Originally Posted by Dean Trails

Thanks for all of the information. It appears my future plans have been shot down. No remodeling jobs and an over abundance of organic food...

Guess I will shuffle off to Buffalo.....

ummmm....don't shuffle off into the sunset yet, Dean.
I disagree with the idea that there is no hope for your organic food idea or your remodeling idea.

Economy IS down, things ARE tough, but....

Remodeling still seems pretty popular, maybe even more now than before. If your good and you price well, you will do well.

As for organic farming....I think there is plenty of room here for that. We have Farmers' Markets in every community at least once a week here in SLO County. Santa Barbara County also has Farmers' Markets in various towns on various days and people love going to buy their produce there! I know that many of the sellers at the Farmers' Markets do the circuit around the state! while it is true that we do have organic farms and boutique agricultural businesses here already, it is a large, hungry, growing market.

As far as buying land to grow your produce...well...depending on your situation, they may be possible. Real Estate Prices HAVE DROPPED DRAMATICALLY. This is a wonderful time to buy! But if you cannot buy, you can always rent. Good time for renters now too. Lots of properties available at reduced costs. Lots of vacancies, even acreage. Lots of acreage available close to towns.

If you want to contact some local realtors, I can suggest a few. Check the local paper online and watch it for a while to get a feel for rents in the different areas of the county.

There are also many local restaurants in the two counties with a tradition of buying local, not to mention some of the grocery stores.

Another interesting tidbit about this area....economic declines never last long. This area is soooo desirable and soooo many people wish to live here! This is not our first real estate bust or our first economic hardship. Our towns are fairly adept at recovering and reinventing as need be.
I know....this time, the state is involved. But....leaders change, viwpoints change.....paper trails end. The negative event ripples are still widening out towards shore but already they are weakening, and Obamas spending plan is aggressive and monies are already becoming available. Check out the USDA website which is suddenly offering money to rural businesses and builders and developers like our rural county.

I am not inclined to write alot more at the moment, (sorry!) but if you poke around on this site and do some county history research you should gain enough knowledge to see what I am talking about.

This may not be the best time to start a new business but with enough preparation, planning, a good business plan, lots of motivation and perserverence your chance of realizing your dream here in the near future are as good as you make it! (IMHO, of course).

Good Luck!

[Den Mathias]

Originally Posted by the city

Yeah, SLO is a small urban-rural fringe city. You have the urban downtown area surrounded by farms, suburban residential tracts, and ex-urban grid homes.

The city has 3 big-box centers and are building a fourth next to Costco. There building a Target and local health-food market.

SLO has a Kohl's (replacing mervyns), Gottschalks (like Macy's), Embassey Suites (big hotel), sears, home depot, ross, old navy, and tj max (replacing linens n things).

there is a wal-mart and k-mart in arroyo grande along with a regal cinema. pismo beach has an outlet mall and arcade, and grover beach has a good skate and paintball park. and downtown san luis obispo has 50 national resturaunt and clothing store chains.

paso robles and atascadero have more shopping. there's a zoo in atascadero and a water park in paso robles. the fair is in paso robles, and also in paso robles is a rollerskate rink and indoor batting cages.

plus, there are tons of outdoor stuff. and good concerts every thursday and friday in san luis obispo.

You seem to have alot of local information about San Luis Obispo, city. Do you have the inside scoop on how good the health care is in the City or The County for that matter? Good hospitals and doctors can make or break a locale.
Did you ever use the paintball park? It really is an awesome sport!

[the city]

Originally Posted by Den Mathias

You seem to have alot of local information about San Luis Obispo, city. Do you have the inside scoop on how good the health care is in the City or The County for that matter? Good hospitals and doctors can make or break a locale.
Did you ever use the paintball park? It really is an awesome sport!

i havent heard anything bad about the healthcare in the area. I know the hospital in San Luis Obispo is the best around. The Old French Hospital generalizes in Cardio and then the Sierra Vista Hospital is a general hospital. Twin Cities Hospital is in Templeton, and twin cities is not as good. the area is full of retirees escaping LA, so there is good healthcare. the paintball park in SLO is big, pretty cheap. they come to the fair to give out demos. i dont paintball myself, but my friends do and like it.

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[georgste]

I drove through the area in early 1980's and found the place isolated. The current population is still too low. I find the Monterey Bay area more appealing.