Compare Scottsdale to Palm Desert (Phoenix, Sedona: real estate, how much, house)

[weilerahrendt]

I've lived in Phoenix and am now considering moving to Palm Desert/Coachella Valley area. Can someone list the differences between the two areas?

[movin'on]

Originally Posted by weilerahrendt

I've lived in Phoenix and am now considering moving to Palm Desert/Coachella Valley area. Can someone list the differences between the two areas?

I live in Scottsdale. It's not all that. Now, I did go through Palm Desert on my honeymoon. Right now, I think I'd vote for Palm Desert.

[fcorrales80]

Where is Palm Desert? I've been to Palm Springs and wanted to leave immediately. Reminded me of the hype surrounding Santa Fe, but with little intrinsic value and felt fake...Sedona is much more desirable than both. It is in the same relative location as Palm Springs?

[Synergy38]

Queens of the Stone Age are from there no? One of my fav bands!

[sablebaby]

Originally Posted by weilerahrendt

I've lived in Phoenix and am now considering moving to Palm Desert/Coachella Valley area. Can someone list the differences between the two areas?

Palm Desert/Coachella Valley???? Where the heck is that?? Please be more specific, we don't know where everything is.

[aj661]

Originally Posted by weilerahrendt

I've lived in Phoenix and am now considering moving to Palm Desert/Coachella Valley area. Can someone list the differences between the two areas?

Roughly 3.5 million people, wind vs no wind and 250 miles. Check out Salton City, about 30 miles SE. Looks like you could pick up a good sized lot with a 'view' for very little $$$.

Originally Posted by fcorrales80

Where is Palm Desert? ... It is in the same relative location as Palm Springs?

Pretty much. It's a little southeast of Palm Springs-Rancho Mirage (Gerald Ford's old place), is in between.

[movin'on]

Originally Posted by aj661

Roughly 3.5 million people, wind vs no wind and 250 miles. Check out Salton City, about 30 miles SE. Looks like you could pick up a good sized lot with a 'view' for very little $$$.

I've been there, it's a dump. A lot of date farms though.

[aj661]

Originally Posted by movin'on

I've been there, it's a dump. A lot of date farms though.

If you're referring to Salton City, it's worse than a dump. Some of the ugliest barren desert in the country. If I was younger, (didn't need to be closer to my doctors and had much more money), and wanted to to live somewhere fairly secluded yet close to the "metropolis" that is Palm Springs, I'd look at the Idyllwild/Pine Cove area on the back side of the San Jacinto mountains from PS. Never been there, but the City-Data page looks interesting. Up in the pines. C-D has the elevation at 3700 ft but Google Earth has them in the 5000 to 6000+ ft range.
Idyllwild CA
Idyllwild-Pine Cove, California (CA) Detailed Profile - relocation, real estate, travel, jobs, hospitals, schools, crime, news

[mattyk]

Originally Posted by aj661

If you're referring to Salton City, it's worse than a dump. Some of the ugliest barren desert in the country. If I was younger, (didn't need to be closer to my doctors and had much more money), and wanted to to live somewhere fairly secluded yet close to the "metropolis" that is Palm Springs, I'd look at the Idyllwild/Pine Cove area on the back side of the San Jacinto mountains from PS. Never been there, but the City-Data page looks interesting. Up in the pines. C-D has the elevation at 3700 ft but Google Earth has them in the 5000 to 6000+ ft range.
Idyllwild CA
Idyllwild-Pine Cove, California (CA) Detailed Profile - relocation, real estate, travel, jobs, hospitals, schools, crime, news

my family owns a cabin in idyllwild. it has beautiful summers and cool winters with wonderful snow. my dream is to retire to idyllwild some day

[LadmoFan]

If I wasn't getting older, I'd stay here, but in order to have a colonoscopy done I have to drive almost 200 miles round trip. They do not offer such things here and I will be needing one every five years. I have a family history of colon cancer so we pay attention to such things.

As to Salton Sea area. It all depends on the type of desert you like. The Salton Sea tends to be a bit warmer than where I am at as it does not have the cooling influence of the Sierra mountains which I live near. It is much like Death Valley as it is low in elevation, has plenty of wind, and lots of dry lake bed formations.

It also has wind. We have wind (yesterday the wind was doing about 30 to 40 mph and was cold) for most of the day. The Salton Sea will be much like this except a bit warmer.

As to Palm Springs and Cathedral City, both cities are not far away, it gets very hot there. Much hotter than Phoenix and the winds added to the heat makes it feel like a convection oven. It was the only place I ever went back inside our air conditioned car as the combination of heat and wind was too much. Both places make nice winter time retreats (think Snowbirds) but I would not want to summer there.

Finally, California has relatively low property taxes (thanks to Prop 13) based on how much you paid for your house. Our taxes are low as we bought our house in 1984 and there is a proportional yearly increase but last year we paid about $1200 for a 1700 square foot house.

California does have a failing infrastructure based on archaic budget regulations set up by our legislature. Gov. Schwarzenegger is trying to over haul the budget process but it is slow going. Not enough money is allocated to roads and other facilities because of the current budget process.

Gas is higher here too as fuel is specially processed to meet California air pollution standards. When last checked mid-grade gasoline at Albertsons was running $3.95 a gallon. By summer I expect gas to be around $4+ a gallon.

Then we get into utilities. Expect to pay more for electricity and water. Our summer electric bill runs on average of $350 a month. We run an evaporative cooler and fans most of the summer. During August I fire up the AC as this is when we have most of the humidity. California has not built any new power plants since the 70s so electricity is expensive. Also, we are known for brown outs when everyone turns on the AC and there is not enough power to go round. SCE customers are assigned a number so they will know when an expected "planned" brown out is scheduled. When the power load is too high, SCE will start rotating brown outs, to help reduce the system load. The last couple summers have been relatively free of brown outs but in 2000 they were numerous.

And now you know why I am thinking of returning to Arizona.

LF