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My husband has been hired as a nurse at the San Luis Obispo Men's Colony, his start date is in early April. We're getting ready to relocate to the area from Maine.
I feel like I've looked at hundreds of rentals online and still can't get a feel for where we should be. Morro Bay looks beautiful and Santa Maria (where he lived as a teen) has more affordable homes than SLO, but with rising (skyrocketing ) gas prices, I have a feeling we need to try to live as close to CMC as possible. My husband doesn't mind a commute at all, if you can even call a ride on 1 a commute, but I just worry about fuel costs. I would love to live in SLO, but I'm not sure we can afford the housing there.
We have a three sons, 10, 8 and 4 months. My husband's take-home pay will be between 5,500-6,500 per month, not including overtime and bonuses. I'd like to try to rent a 4 bedroom house, but I'm okay with a 3 bedroom for a year until we get acclimated and know for sure if this is where we want to be. We don't have family in the area, so we don't get date nights or need any kind of night life to speak of. We love getting out of the house and finding things to do as a family. I'm trying to get a handle on which areas to live in that have good school systems.
Are we out of our price range? Everyone talks about how high the cost of living will be, so I try to factor that in when I think about how much rent we can afford. Can anyone point me in the right direction as far as finding legitimate rentals? I've checked Craigslist and since I can't come out to view the property, I have to do this all online. A lot of the ads on Craigslist set off serious warning bells.
So, good schools, large-ish home, safe, family-friendly...do I need to lower my expectations?
Thank you to anyone who replies. The information you provide on these boards have been a great deal of help to me so far.
There's a 5-bedroom in SLO for $1850/mo in a really nice neighborhood, with a fireplace and dining room plus 2 bathrooms. Really good guy for a landlord, and you can have a dog. Call my friend Allyson Nakasone at (805) 234-0809 for more information about it.
Rents really aren't that bad around here, especially now that Cal Poly University has opened a huge dorm facility on campus. That took the pressure off in surrounding towns, so now it's a renters' market. Santa Maria is cheaper but there's quite a bit of gang activity there and lots of pesticides floating in the air. Not to mention the commute. Morro Bay is nice, but foggy. Probably the cheapest rents within a reasonable distance from CMC are in Atascadero, Paso Robles and Grover Beach (20-40 min commute).
The schools are great in SLO and Morro Bay (and Arroyo Grande). You probably heard that SLO was named the 'happiest city in America' recently (in a book called 'Thrive' followed by a feature on Oprah). SLO is surrounded by open space with hiking/biking trails. There are parks and wineries, community gardens, farmers markets every day, plus the ocean and mountains nearby. Just beauty everywhere. You can garden year-round. The University has a wonderful Performing Arts Center. This is a tourist destination so there's plenty of shopping, including budget options. We're about 4 hours from LA and San Francisco.
Don't lower your expectations at all! You'll love it here : )
You'll want to avoid Santa Maria, it's really spiraled down into something unrecognizable to people that grew up there (my husband grew up there and graduated from Santa Maria high in the late 70s.)
If you don't mind hot summers (without the East coast humidity) you might consider Templeton or Atascadero. Morro Bay is lovely, and you may find a decent rental. The schools are good, but the high school has major issues with alcohol and pot (my daughter just graduated there.) The people are super friendly in all the towns, so you'll do well no matter which you choose in SLO County.
Renting in San Luis Obispo proper is possible with his salary, but the cost of living for other things will be higher for you, so you might try to rent out of the City to save money. Arroyo Grande (east of the 101 is very nice.) Morro Bay, San Luis Obispo, Templeton, would be my first choices.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ingrid0382
Hi!
My husband has been hired as a nurse at the San Luis Obispo Men's Colony, his start date is in early April. We're getting ready to relocate to the area from Maine.
I feel like I've looked at hundreds of rentals online and still can't get a feel for where we should be. Morro Bay looks beautiful and Santa Maria (where he lived as a teen) has more affordable homes than SLO, but with rising (skyrocketing ) gas prices, I have a feeling we need to try to live as close to CMC as possible. My husband doesn't mind a commute at all, if you can even call a ride on 1 a commute, but I just worry about fuel costs. I would love to live in SLO, but I'm not sure we can afford the housing there.
We have a three sons, 10, 8 and 4 months. My husband's take-home pay will be between 5,500-6,500 per month, not including overtime and bonuses. I'd like to try to rent a 4 bedroom house, but I'm okay with a 3 bedroom for a year until we get acclimated and know for sure if this is where we want to be. We don't have family in the area, so we don't get date nights or need any kind of night life to speak of. We love getting out of the house and finding things to do as a family. I'm trying to get a handle on which areas to live in that have good school systems.
Are we out of our price range? Everyone talks about how high the cost of living will be, so I try to factor that in when I think about how much rent we can afford. Can anyone point me in the right direction as far as finding legitimate rentals? I've checked Craigslist and since I can't come out to view the property, I have to do this all online. A lot of the ads on Craigslist set off serious warning bells.
So, good schools, large-ish home, safe, family-friendly...do I need to lower my expectations?
Thank you to anyone who replies. The information you provide on these boards have been a great deal of help to me so far.
Thank you so much, Terre! I left a couple of messages for the number you gave me but haven't heard back. I'll keep looking around though. All the info you included in your post is great. I hadn't even considered pesticide, thank you for mentioning it.
It's a shame about Santa Maria, Trixie. My husband has really been pushing for Santa Maria or Orcutt, but I think since I don't know the area well enough to understand which parts of the area are better to live in, the whole idea needs to be scrapped.
I think Arroyo Grande or Atascadero is where we'll focus our search for housing. I can't to seem to find anything that doesn't look really run-down in our price range for SLO, and I've been looking for weeks
Thanks again, this has been the best source of info so far.
We're still looking. We'd love to find a 3 Bedroom in the $1500 price range in a good (great) school system that would only leave a 20 minute commute for my husband. So far I'm finding a lot of double wides or apartment complexes that don't have any interior photos listed on their web site.
This relocation is proving to be quite a challenge from 3,000 miles away
You definitely do not want to live in Santa Maria or Guadalupe (and Orcutt's pretty dangerous too). Those have been known to be dangerous and full of gang activity. I've been there and I personally did not feel comfortable alone at night (and I'm a male).
I'm very familiar with the area since my parents have gone to college there and still have a house there. I would recommend Morro Bay, Los Osos, Cambria, Cayucos, or San Luis Obispo itself. It just depends on what you are looking for. I've spent about a third of my life there in our vacation home.
Morro Bay and Cayucos are very similar to each other. Morro Bay is larger, it has the Embarcaderro with tons of great restaurants, both expensive and casual (love fish and chips at the Little Hut and dinner at the Harbor Hut and Bayside Cafe!). Morro Bay has a good, nice, clean schools, but I believe the middle school is actually in Los Osos (there's only elementary and a high school in Morro Bay). I never went to school there but friends that have said they were good and challenging. They aren't ground-breaking award winning systems, but my policy is that if the parents (and it sounds like you are!) and teachers are involved, the student will get a good education. The beaches are beautiful, and the locals are friendly.
Cayucos is really expensive and very small. I'm don't even think they have a high school there if I remember correctly. It does have a small, cool downtown and a nice beach, but it will probably be tough to find a place to rent or buy for a reasonable amount.
Los Osos is larger than the previous other two, but by far the most sleepy. There's not much in the way of restaurants, and it only has Elementary Schools and a middle school. I personally like it, but there's definitely not a lot to do in the town. The whole town is basically residential. Remember that Morro Bay is about a 5 minute drive, and San Luis Obispo is less than 15 minutes away though, so there's plenty going on there.
Cambria is more foresty and reminds me more of Los Osos. I'm not sure about their schooling system, but I know there's not a lot in the renting or buying of homes. I like to visit, but I wouldn't want to be here since it's farther from San Luis Obispo.
San Luis Obispo is probably the nicest town I've ever been to. There's a lot of nightlife, shopping, restaurants, movies, outdoor stuff, anything you'd want to do. The downtown is so much fun to be in and that's where everything is happening. Cal Poly, a very good college, is located here, and keeps the town thriving with college kids. One note- don't walk though the Mission at night though, it can be dangerous due to the drug-addict homeless. I don't mean to make that sound worse than it is, there's no problems around town during the day, the town is actually really safe day and night, just don't walk through the actual mission at night. The only real downside this place has is that it's not right on the beach.
My advice would be to look for a place in Morro Bay or Los Osos, in that order. There's just so much to do. Everyone loves the outdoors- surfing, kayaking, running, biking (there's a ton of bike races), farmer's market in both Morro Bay and Los Osos, culture, tons of quant shops, etc. I like Los Osos, but the beaches can get smelly because they are in the bay, while Morro Bay's beaches are actually not in the bay, and the parts that are in the bay don't smell, they smell fresh and salty like any normal ocean. Hard to explain but once you'll get there you'll see. Morro Bay has more to do though, so that'd be my first choice, followed by Los Osos, and then San Luis Obispo.
I hope this helps you in some way coming from a local.
Location: San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties
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Quote:
You definitely do not want to live in Santa Maria or Guadalupe (and Orcutt's pretty dangerous too). Those have been known to be dangerous and full of gang activity. I've been there and I personally did not feel comfortable alone at night (and I'm a male).
Gangs pick on each other, they don't bother the Anglos.
Last murder in Santa Maria was a couple of white guys shooting at each other.
Thanks for taking the time to write up that review CAgnarly! Really helpful information.
I've seen differing opinions on Santa Maria. Just for the sake of getting in to something short-term, I considered the St Claire apartments located a few blocks from the country club. The local schools were rated really low though, so it's not a possibility. Even the private Catholic school (St Mary of The Assumption) sounds pretty iffy.
My husband lived in a home bordering the country club back in the late 90's. It sounds like things have really gone downhill.
Even if it's just gangs bothering other gangs,it's going to be a complete culture shock for my sons just having gangs around. The only gangs around here are made up of kids who would probably pee themselves if they were dropped off in Compton for five minutes. We have absolutely zero experience with gang-related violence. People in Maine stare at other people constantly, something I've noticed can be a sign of aggression in other states. My sons are going to be so clueless about this stuff and I just want to ease them into things. It sounds like Santa Maria isn't an option for us at all, which is unfortunate since the price is right.
Thanks for taking the time to write up that review CAgnarly! Really helpful information.
I've seen differing opinions on Santa Maria. Just for the sake of getting in to something short-term, I considered the St Claire apartments located a few blocks from the country club. The local schools were rated really low though, so it's not a possibility. Even the private Catholic school (St Mary of The Assumption) sounds pretty iffy.
My husband lived in a home bordering the country club back in the late 90's. It sounds like things have really gone downhill.
Even if it's just gangs bothering other gangs,it's going to be a complete culture shock for my sons just having gangs around. The only gangs around here are made up of kids who would probably pee themselves if they were dropped off in Compton for five minutes. We have absolutely zero experience with gang-related violence. People in Maine stare at other people constantly, something I've noticed can be a sign of aggression in other states. My sons are going to be so clueless about this stuff and I just want to ease them into things. It sounds like Santa Maria isn't an option for us at all, which is unfortunate since the price is right.
The private high school is St. Joseph's in Orcutt and is hard to get into. Your kids have to test into it.
You would be better off living in Nipomo or Arroyo Grande. Templeton, Atascadero, Morro Bay, Cambria, and Los Osos are pretty much retirement or tourist communities and have higher house value and it's hard to find a job unless in Santa Maria or San Luis Obispo.
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) gas prices, I have a feeling we need to try to live as close to CMC as possible. My husband doesn't mind a commute at all, if you can even call a ride on 1 a commute, but I just worry about fuel costs. I would love to live in SLO, but I'm not sure we can afford the housing there.
Help from a local
. Hard to explain 
but once you'll get there you'll see. Morro Bay has more to do though, so that'd be my first choice, followed by Los Osos, and then San Luis Obispo.
