Will Eureka be the next expensive town? (San Diego, San Francisco: new home, employment)

[BodegaHead]

Eureka and Humbolt county already is expensive when you consider how bad the economy is there. there is very little chance for most people to make a decent living up there and the cost of things is similar to anywhere else in CA. The rent and real estate is cheaper but still buying a $300k Humbolt house with a $10 hour job is just as silly/impossible as buying a $800k Bay Area house with a $25 an hour job. Mendocino county in my opinion is also extremely expensive when you look at the cost of living vs available jobs and local wages.

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

Great post. We should be careful what we wish for. On the other hand, having all the growth go to the Bay Area and LA won't work out long-term. But if the water supply in CA gives out, people and industry will have to relocate to somewhere else in the US, anyway.

I drove to Redding last weekend and Lake Shasta is full again! All this rain has done the trick. It was almost all the way to the tree line. Just beautiful. Back to normal.

[TheDragonslayer]

It is much warmer here, and less wet, we still get plenty of rain, even in a drought year like last year we still got more than 30 inches. But the biggest obstacle to a real estate boom is our isolation and lack of jobs, also inadequate health care. It is 5 hours to San Francisco, 3 to 4 hours on a good day to Redding and it feels like a trip to San Francisco with all the twisty windy roads. Our airport has minimal flights out of here and is expensive. Eureka also has a lot of beautiful architecture in a variety of styles from Victorians to Craftsman and modern. But there would have to be a reason for people to want to come up here. What would bring them here, our clean water and air? Fishing is pretty much gone as is logging, we do not really have a tourist industry, just drive through tourists. People move up here to get away from the big city life and crowds. If any town up here is expensive it is Trinidad and Ferndale.

[sourdough]

If enough Retirees relocate. Healthcare support will follow.

[TheDragonslayer]

Originally Posted by sourdough

If enough Retirees relocate. Healthcare support will follow.

It is not working. I have been up here since 1992, the health care system up here was barely adequate back then and it has not become better. We have a good nursing college, CR, college of the redwoods, in Fortuna, but after doing internship here, most end up getting jobs elsewhere where they stand a chance on making money. Doctors too tend to end up moving away for better and greener pastures. If one is retiring young and does not need a job, then it is great up here. The doctors and nurses here now are overworked and underpaid. The county has grown by about 5,000 people since I moved here in 1992 and McKinleyville then was below 10,000 and is now approaching 20,000 or more by the next census, its the only town that is growing. Eureka is actually about 1,000 less then in 1992, they all moved here. I do not mind that retirees move up here, I welcome them, many of them are my clients that I mow yards for. But a warning to those that want to retire up here, price of homes is about the same as in Fairfield, Vacaville, Pittsburg and Antioch, but the price of gas is higher, $2.89 for regular, price of everything else is higher too, but the back side is that income is much lower across the board, for example a plumber makes between $65 and a top of $90 an hour, less if it is a journey man working for a plumber.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by TheDragonslayer

It is much warmer here, and less wet, we still get plenty of rain, even in a drought year like last year we still got more than 30 inches. But the biggest obstacle to a real estate boom is our isolation and lack of jobs, also inadequate health care. It is 5 hours to San Francisco, 3 to 4 hours on a good day to Redding and it feels like a trip to San Francisco with all the twisty windy roads. Our airport has minimal flights out of here and is expensive. Eureka also has a lot of beautiful architecture in a variety of styles from Victorians to Craftsman and modern. But there would have to be a reason for people to want to come up here. What would bring them here, our clean water and air? Fishing is pretty much gone as is logging, we do not really have a tourist industry, just drive through tourists. People move up here to get away from the big city life and crowds. If any town up here is expensive it is Trinidad and Ferndale.

I thought the idea behind the thread (but this could just be my assumption) was that if tech and/or other industry needed a place to expand, the Bay Area being full-up and gridlocked as it is, Eureka might be a place to consider. In other words, could Eureka be the next expensive town, if that's where industry chose to locate?

It sounds like the answer is "no", unless there could be road improvement for access, but it sounds like the terrain won't allow that, anyway.

[sourdough]

Folks are yet motivated to move in mass. If the drought continues in the Southwest. A migration is predicted.

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

Originally Posted by TheDragonslayer

But a warning to those that want to retire up here, price of homes is about the same as in Fairfield, Vacaville, Pittsburg and Antioch, but the price of gas is higher, $2.89 for regular, price of everything else is higher too, but the back side is that income is much lower across the board, for example a plumber makes between $65 and a top of $90 an hour, less if it is a journey man working for a plumber.

It's amazing how much cheaper labor is up here. My mechanic only charges $70/hour. I was used to paying easily twice that in the Bay Area. It's only $20/day (including overnight) to board my dog at a professional facility! Same with the vet. I took my dog for a physical and her Bordatella shot and I think the total was about $50.

When I first would ask how much something cost, I'd blurt out, "Oh my God that's so cheap!" and they'd look at me funny. I'd say, "Oh, I'm from the Bay Area where everything is so expensive" and they'd understand ha ha.

And rent is cheaper, which also means security deposits are lower, too. So, even though some things are more expensive, like gas (which I can get in OR, since it's so close), it's still cheaper overall, I think.

[Chuck5000]

Zero chance of the tech industry deciding to colonize such a sleepy town so far from a major airport and without major entertainment. Companies are just starting to go to Portland, for example, and it will be a long, long, long time before that city is tapped out.

Younger professional workers do not want such remote locations. A company would literally do better to open an office in an up and coming city like Pittsburgh or even Milwaukee than Eureka.

BodegaHead above is totally right re: relative expense of even "cheap" coastal parts of CA.

[wannagettaway]

I am a Bay Area resident who has been considering relocating to Eureka (or a neighboring small city like Fortuna) and have been really surprised by the cost of houses in the city considering how low the household income supposedly is and how high the unemployment is.

With 10% unemployment, no major industry, an average household income of just $36k why are most family homes between $350-$650k? I could get a one-time windfall from selling my house and buy something similar up there but I am not really seeing any jobs in my field (design/illustration) so I'm worried about long-term prospects... I love the area and would be willing to take a pay cut and learn to live cheaper, but don't want to end up on unemployment or working at McDonald's.

Are things in the Eureka area really as dismal as they appear from the outside, or is that just locals trying to scare away Bay Area techies from driving up prices?