house affordability in Petaluma?

[elyess77]

Thank you bellalunatic! You give me hope.

I like that it is economically diverse.

[Ready2migrate]

this is an interesting thread ! I live in Syracuse, NY and we are eyeing Petaluma also for affordable housing ! We've heard that there are alot of micro climates in the area, how does Petaluma compare to Sonoma in weather...the online weather stuff shows them the same, but that doesn't seem right

[RoadHazard]

Coincidentally, I know both Corvallis and Petaluma (I went to OSU). They're like night and day, pricewise and every other way you could think of. I have a hard time imagining the two towns in the same thought. ;-)

Corvallis is certainly much cheaper, and it's approximately in the middle of nowhere. Pleasant town and everything, but it's central Oregon versus the San Francisco Bay Area. Petaluma is bound to be about 5x more expensive.

Regarding Sonoma County overall, it's true that the microclimates do change considerably from one town to another; even from one neighborhood to another. If that's important you'll want to check out individual houses, not just generalize by town.

Having said that, the farther west you go, the cooler, wetter, and foggier it can get. Towns like Occidental and Sebastopol will be a bit cooler than Sonoma or Petaluma. Not by much, but there's a difference. Locals describe the "banana belt" on one side of Sebastopol, for example, so even small changes in location can make a difference.

I would say that buying a house in Petaluma for $250 would be a stretch. I'm sure it's doable, but I can't say whether you'd like it. Many families move out here from the Midwest or Northeast and literally cry because they can't buy what they think they want or deserve.

Nearby towns like Cotati or Rohnert Park might be a bit cheaper, but again, who can say if you'd like it there? Come drive around (or play with Google Street View for a few days) and see what you think.

Because Petaluma is at the southern edge of Sonoma County, it's commuting distance to San Francisco, and that makes it more expensive than, say Santa Rosa 20 miles to the north. Santa Rosa's a bigger town (and the county seat) so it may be worth a look.

[Ready2migrate]

Extremely helpful ! Since we will have one of us working in home from the computer, I think it might be best if we ditch our "perfect dream" of town-ish living and look out into the country north of Sonoma as you suggest. We want to be careful not to trade our middle class life in upstate NY with crappy weather for barely lowerclass life in Calif with so-so weather !... Maybe we should consider life in an RV in a state park (:

[grapico]

Originally Posted by Ready2migrate

Extremely helpful ! Since we will have one of us working in home from the computer, I think it might be best if we ditch our "perfect dream" of town-ish living and look out into the country north of Sonoma as you suggest. We want to be careful not to trade our middle class life in upstate NY with crappy weather for barely lowerclass life in Calif with so-so weather !... Maybe we should consider life in an RV in a state park (:

The country is where to be, the little towns are expensive... If you have that caveat you might be able to find something stuck in a redwood grove or out on some farmland. The weather is also good, it is quite a bit sunnier than SF. Roadhazard is right in that it gets cooler going west from SR to the coast, if you drive bodega highway west you can feel the temperature change if you drive often. I certainly wouldn't say it is COLD though, just going to be cooler the closer you move towards the ocean. Napa and Sonoma sit in a valley and can get pretty hot into the 100s. It can be 100 there, and 60 on the coast at Bodega Bay.

[Ready2migrate]

good to know, only wish we could find someone who's desperate to live in NY to trade houses with...ha ! seems like the migration is all west. makes you wonder about the days of living in a hollowed out tree or in an adobe shack (: