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My partner and I are thinking of relocating and retiring in a city with a warmer climate than our current home of Washington DC. We cannot retire for three years, so we plan to take some time to check out a number of places around the country. One city that appeals to us is Palm Springs, which we visited a few years ago, briefly. We have two main areas of concerns:
1: Affordability. We can afford up to about $575,000, preferably a bit less. We would be looking for either a 2 bedroom condo with about 1,200 - 1,500 square feet, pretty much in move in condition, or a house of about the same size,condition. Would it be doable for us? (I know that nobody knows what prices will be like in 3 years...use today's prices as a yardstick).
2: Location. We currently live in a neighborhood close to downtown DC. We would like to stay in a built up area where many things are accessible by walking and/or easy public transit. We love to walk around DC. Therefore, we would like to live within walking distance (6-8 blocks??) of Palm Canyon Drive.
Is our preferred location doable given our budget?
I know that Palm Canyon Drive has a lot of restaurants, boutiques, etc. Does it also have the "basics" (e.g. supermarket/drug store/doctors)? Or would need need to drive to these things? Note that we have a car and would have one in Palm Springs, but we would be happy keeping its use to a minimum. (Now one of us uses it for work, but other than that, we use it about once every 10 days or so). Is this possible in Palm Springs?
We plan to visit Palm Springs in the near future to check it out.
the downtown area is not as it used to be. there are alot of closed businesses and in my opinion it is really stuggling. it is still a nice area just not as clean and bustling as it used to be. there are also new shopping areas that have popped up and that might be part of the reason the downtown area seems to be dying. remember one thing though. it is HOT you will need to run your air 24/7 in the summer. the winter is nice though. if you could do a summer home and a winter home that would be the best. well good luck to you.
My partner and I are thinking of relocating and retiring in a city with a warmer climate than our current home of Washington DC. We cannot retire for three years, so we plan to take some time to check out a number of places around the country. One city that appeals to us is Palm Springs, which we visited a few years ago, briefly. We have two main areas of concerns:
1: Affordability. We can afford up to about $575,000, preferably a bit less. We would be looking for either a 2 bedroom condo with about 1,200 - 1,500 square feet, pretty much in move in condition, or a house of about the same size,condition. Would it be doable for us? (I know that nobody knows what prices will be like in 3 years...use today's prices as a yardstick).
2: Location. We currently live in a neighborhood close to downtown DC. We would like to stay in a built up area where many things are accessible by walking and/or easy public transit. We love to walk around DC. Therefore, we would like to live within walking distance (6-8 blocks??) of Palm Canyon Drive.
Is our preferred location doable given our budget?
I know that Palm Canyon Drive has a lot of restaurants, boutiques, etc. Does it also have the "basics" (e.g. supermarket/drug store/doctors)? Or would need need to drive to these things? Note that we have a car and would have one in Palm Springs, but we would be happy keeping its use to a minimum. (Now one of us uses it for work, but other than that, we use it about once every 10 days or so). Is this possible in Palm Springs?
We plan to visit Palm Springs in the near future to check it out.
10 years of experience living here off and on....According to desert sun - over 1200 foreclosures in valley (see so you could manage to find a bargain in your range but not sure about the location. There are many grocery stores, drug stores but not within walking distance (reasonable) of downtown p.s. Closest is Jensens and Ralphs on Sunrise/Tahquitz and Sunrise/Ramon. You might consider looking at South Palm Springs in Biltmore area, Deepwell and surrounding areas with closer, newly developed shopping - which is where I live. If you drive the entire length of sunrise, tahquitz, ramon, 111, vista chino you'll get a good idea of the layout and where and types of commercial dev. Larger retail shopping has come to ps but majority is in the east valley i.e. Palm Desert. Medical facilities everywhere - Rancho Mirage you have Eisenhower and Desert Regional in Movie Colony area. Contrary to belief there are more year-round residents than snowbirds. I must warn you though that electric bills can be high (edison) even with moderate use of AC. A typical 3 bed/3.5 bath will have 600 - 800/mo bil in summer months - with therm set at 79, new a/c, cfls and energy conservation. Don't be shocked when it comes in the mail. Believe me I've done everything to conserve and become enegy efficient. Ask around. Even an 800 sq foot condo 1bd/1bath will have a 200 -300/mo electric bill from June through August. Hot weather begins around May and this week we'll have the first week below 100 according to the news. And contrary to part-timers, we do have a monsoon/humid season in late July and August. You will need a car though, can't get around without it. There is the Sunline bus but I've never used it. I'll stick with my air conditioned car. Also if you're allergy prone you'll have issues with lawn scalping, etc. throughout the year. If I were to retire, I might consider staying here but I'd take the ocean over the desert anytime. Milder climates allow for more outdoor activity throughout the year which is one reason I don't much care for the heat of the desert.
Here's the weather information you can navigate through the months to
get an idea.
[URL]http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KPSP/2008/5/17/MonthlyHistory.html#calendar[/URL]
Here's the mls - find properties
[URL]http://desertareamls.com[/URL] Desert Area Multiple Listing Service
Here's the local paper:
[URL]http://desertsun.com[/URL] MyDesert.com | The Desert Sun | Serving Palm Springs, California
Information on Utility Bills:
http://www.lgc.org/freepub/energy/casestudies/case2.html (broken link)
[URL]http://www.mydesert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200880912016[/URL]
Valley Foreclosures
Irvine-based RealtyTrac releases its new housing figures today showing foreclosures across the Coachella Valley are up 41 percent over last month.
The figures, which track homes in various stages of foreclosure, show Indio leads the valley in the total number of foreclosures with 397 homes. Desert Hot Springs and Palm Springs follow suit with 322 and 195 respectively. Only Indian Wells – which has a median household income of $119,000 – had single digit foreclosures with 9 homes.
RealtyTrac is an online service that monthly tracks foreclosures nationwide.
Last month, Coachella Valley had 1,257 homes in various stages of foreclosure. In January, the valley had 1,089 homes in foreclosure. The new numbers represent a 63 percent increase since then.
We....middle-aged lesbian couple...we're just in P.S. for a week looking for a house to lease in preparation for our upcoming move. We found a great gay friendly realtor, a lifelong resident, that showed us around for several days. Liz Glass at Las Palmas Realty. What we found was that you can rent a lot more house than you can buy. We found a 1500 s.f. 3b/2b, pool, 2 car garage, incls pool service & gardener, nice safe area of Cat City, $1400. And if something goes wrong, we call the landlord. So many are advising renting over buying now too. In your price range, you would have some great places to pick from, without the taxes, insurance, maint, HOA, etc.
Palm Springs itself did look rather vacant. There were a LOT of commercial and retail spaces empty, and yet rents are still quite high($3 sf + NNN). It looked to us that most of the new businesses are further from P.S. More toward Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage, La Quinta, that end of 111. We were only there a short time, so could be wrong but...
We are counting the days until we move! YaaHoo!
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