Finished grad school and ready to RELOCATE (Los Angeles, Bakersfield: real estate market, crime)

[Matthew-N-Pandora]

We are a soon-to-be married couple who are looking for a place to live in California. We have a few requirements: no snow, affordable (a ssttrreettcchh, huh?), near Prisons (the male wants to work in one), and near Universities (the female wants to work in one). We are both in a graduate level counseling program and the male will have his MA when we move. We prefer SoCal because we have family in Mexico, LA, and family in SanJose.

Why not ask the family there? Because they think the cost of living is "ok".
We have found Bakersfield but would like to have more than one option.

We ask two things if some of you whould do us the favor:
1. Please let us know what Bakersfield is like.
2. Please let us know of other areas that match what we need.

Thank you to all who are kind enough to offer a (then) newlywed couple some advice.

Matthew and Pandora

[elcapitan]

First of all, Bakersfield isn't for everyone. I lived there for about four years, my wife grew up there, and we still visit her family regularly, so I would say I know quite a bit about the place.

I would say it definitely has a bad reputation within California (known as the "armpit" of CA.) It does have one or two perks though. There a couple of decent schools, but that is irrelevant since you do not have children. It is also semi-close to better places; its about two hours from San Luis Obispo, 2 1/2 hours to coast, mountains, etc. People there consider it a positive in that it is close to Los Angeles, but I see that as a negative.

It is very flat, VERY dusty, and extremely hot from May through October. I always have to laugh when people there say "But it's a dry heat"- after twenty consecutive days of 105 degree temps you will see what I mean ; I was so miserable with having to stay inside with the A/C on full blast, paying astronomical electricity bills. It also heats up very early in the morning and doesn't really cool down much at night, so the heat is truly relentless.

We have two small children and decided to move away for their sake. The air is SOOO bad, especially when you consider that Bakersfield isn't really THAT big. Gang crime is on the rise, and we just decided that what was once positive about Bakersfield exists no longer. It has grown a lot recently BUT this growth is very deceiving. They basically keep building more and more housing tracts, but infrastructure and amenities have remained stagnant. Every once in a while they will build a new chain restaurant, and this strangely seems to keep the residents pacified.

There is definitely a sort of "Good 'Ol Boy" mentality in the air there, which you may be fine with, depending on how conservative you are. I do know that there is a very low percentage of college graduates, so the socio-economic landscape reflects that. There is a Cal State University there, but it ranks very low and has absolutely no presence in the town (doesn't feel anything like a "college town.")

Another thing is that it is supposedly one of the most over-inflated real estate markets in California. A few years ago there were many speculators with money from Los Angeles buying up property. It created a kind of artificial demand, and now prices a facing drastic corrections. It is still relatively affordable for California, but as they say, you get what you pay for.

Sorry for all the negativity, but I would definitely think twice about moving anywhere in the Central Valley, as they all seem to suffer from the same problems. Sure, there are nice people there, but there are nice people everywhere. Good luck.

[CrystalSpirit]

San Luis Obispo may be a nice choice depending on what you consider affordable and your income levels. It has Cal Poly and a large prison. It has almost perfect weather and is a beautiful little town. Within a 20 minute commute there are little towns with less expensive real estate as well.