Just back from Lake of the Pines, Auburn (REPORT) (San Jose: relocating, hoa)

[hbowman]

Hi there,
In an earlier thread I had mentioned that we were looking into relocating from San Jose to the Auburn area, specifically Lake of the Pines. We visited last weekend, spending one day driving around the Auburn area and one day looking at homes in the LOP with a realtor. Here's what I found...

* Not as remote as I expected:
Auburn itself has everything most people would need assuming you are willing to take a monthly trip to Roseville (30 minutes away) to go to Costco, the mall, and more options for restaurants. LOP is also only 10 minutes from a Target and Safeway, autoparts, ACE hardware, and chain restaurants (I know, not everyone's fav). There is also a small shopping center right outside the gates. I went into the grocery store (Holiday Foods) and from what I can tell, this would serve our needs 95% of the time. In general, prices did not appear to be much different from safeway. Rough distances from LOP with mild traffic-
- 2 minutes to basic essentials (small grocery, ace hardware, gas, couple restaurants)
- 10 minutes to target, safeway, belair, several restaurants mostly fast food, cleaners, auto repair, etc
- 15 minutes to the highway 80 entrance and "old town" Auburn
- 30 minutes to Roseville - shopping meca, costco, home depot, mall
- 45 minutes to central Sac (apparently about 50 to the airport)
- 1 hour to Sugar Bowl skiing
- 2.5 hours to downtown San Jose

* Small town feel, but not so small
Auburn feels just small enough for my tastes. There is still land around you, as opposed to bumber to bumper housing, as in San Jose. The Old Town is really cute, with preserved buildings from gold rush days. There are a few good restaurants (Bootleggers, Ale House, Wine Bar) and mostly boutique shots that sell antiques and housewares. The Downtown (a street less than a mile long) seems to be bringing in some good places as well,but still felt pretty "down home" with a rural feel. A plus in my mind.

* Lake of the Pines
I really like it. We found that you get a little less for your money than we thought (from our MLS research). Still cheaper than San Jose, but not "cheap" by any means. We looked at houses on the lake, off the lake with a lake view, on the golf course, no lake or golf course. We really want to live on the lake with a dock as we want to boat and waterski. If not, you can rent a slip in the small marina on a first come first serve basis. Most homes we saw needed updating, as they were built in the 70-80's. To get a 4/2, 2500 sqft, reasonable condition home on the lake that doesn't need alot of remodeling, it comes in at roughly a million. For lake view about 700K. For golf course about 650-700. Off of both, it was much cheaper, from about 500-650K.

The lake is in the middle of the community with homes and golf course surrounding it. They have a decent pro shop and sports lounge area to get food while you're golfing. The clubhouse was nice and overlooks the lake. They use it for events and have dinners there Thurs and Fri nights. They are in the process of approving a proposal to build a new one (possible HOA due assesment I would think). The pool is right on the lake with a little beach. There are small parks all around the community on the lake. They can also be reserved for parties. I believe there are two places to launch your boat (if not off your dock)- the marina and one of the parks. There are no jet skis/personal motor craft allowed on the lake.

They have quite a few activities for kids in the summer- swim club, sailing, crafts, golf team, summer camp, probably more. Lots of clubs and activities for adults and seniors (bridge club, golf club, geneology club, garden club etc).

The public schools are right outside the gates- Bear River High, Magnolia Middle, Cottage Hill elementary. All have good ratings relative to CA standards (to some that's not saying much, but if you are going to be in CA, it a good place to be)

Costs:
HOA- 1750 /yr (includes use of pool)
Golf (1 adult) - 1025/yr (also can pay by the game)
Golf (up to 17 years) - 100/yr
Boat slip in Marina (100 slips) - 450 /yr
Boating on lake and general use of marina- 157/yr
Swim team- 20.00/yr
Tennis - 80/yr

It all adds up :-)

Stats-
Elevation 1500 ft
230 acre lake (skiing, sailing, fishing swimming)
Summer Avg Temp - hi 89/low 59
Winter Avg Temp hi 57/low 37
1996 lots, avg size is 1/4 to a 1/3 acre each, some alot bigger
percipitation- 35in annually

LOP website: Lake of the Pines Association -

Overall we had a great trip and got a really good idea of the area and what you get for the money in LOP. Given that decent lakefront homes are more than we thought, we are now considering how important it is that we be on the lake, and whether we will consider lake view or on golf course. It may turn out that there is nothing that fits our ideal closely enough.

Hope this trip report is helpful. Please email me if you have any futher questions. Please remember that this is a "visitors" point of view and a "locals" point of view may be different.

Thanks.

[hbowman]

I forgot to mention that the don't allow fences that surround your whole property at LOP. You can fences if they are contained in your yard (for a dog, child, etc), but not all the way around. You can also have them if you've got a pool. I have not read all the cc&rs on the details, but this is what the realtor told us.

Thanks.

[CityGirl72]

I've always liked it up there - so glad you love it too!

[rain2day]

I went to a private school near LOP back when it they were still building (early 80's). I moved away a long time ago so it was great to read how things are out there now.
I am curious if hbowman ended up buying at LOP or somewhere else?

[hbowman]

Hello,
We did not end up buying in LOP, as we really were set on something on the lake and determined that we weren't willing to spend as much as was needed to get lakefront.

Thanks.