Nicer place to live for a frugal low income person (San Diego: renting, crime)

[Simpleton1989]

I've reached my limit of DTLA and its adjacent areas.

The places i've stayed at have been nice though (renting out large furnished rooms with fast internet in the homes of Korean families). I want the same/similar set up but in a less filthy, homeless/crack head screaming in the streets, crime and vermin infested area of any where in California (maybe even in another state, i only have 1 suitcase woth of stuff and a keyboard).

The absolute ideal would be somewhere close to nature and not a touristy busy/busy area, but that's the ideal.

Would like some ideas or some ideas about how to approach searching for such a place.

I enjoy this life style for the time being, i can have a lot of money and also a lot of free time because my expenses are so low.

[stablegenius]

Big bear?

[davdaven]

How wedded to California are you? California options are few and far between. Maybe Redlands or Chico? Arcata could be a possibility, but I'm not familiar enough to say for sure. Possibly Visalia? Although it is just about the only place in California I haven't visited, I've been told by many that it is nicer-than-average for the Central Valley. All these places have relatively reasonable costs of living.

You'll likely have better luck out of state. I had a couple family members with fixed incomes retire over the past year, and they moved out of San Diego to Yuma. I certainly consider it a sub-optimal town, but it's cheap and they aren't the outdoors type. A fun day for them is shopping at Home Depot or Walmart, LOL. But my point is there is a lot to be had outside of California. Have you been to Tucson? Albuquerque? The only affordable parts of California are far from the water, so you might as well give up life in a costal state altogether and check out Salt Lake City or Colorado Springs or whatever.

[1200RT]

Originally Posted by davdaven

Maybe Redlands...

Funny, this popped into my head while reading this.

Might want to look at Redlands, or other IE bedroom communities (loma linda, yucaipa) if you want to stay in socal. Close to the san bernardino mountains and j tree. Although, I do agree that you might be a candidate for another state.

[Ruth4Truth]

Murrieta? What kinds of outdoor temps can you tolerate?


I'd check out Humboldt County: Arcata, Ferndale, Fortuna (cheaper), Loleta, for starters. Cooler temps, coastal.

[Jimrob1]

I'm also going to recommend the communities in Humboldt County. Its a rather isolated area of Northern Calif a long way from any major cities. So I don't know if that would be a problem for you. That area would probably be the lower cost area of Calif, if in fact there are any. Otherwise I think your going to find, you might need to leave the state and head over to Arizona or Albuquerque. Nothing is cheap anymore so its a challenge no matter where you go.

[Logicist027]

It's not going to be in California if you want cheap. If you want to get something beautiful on the cheap, might I suggest somewhere in Appalachia. Roanoke if you don't want touristy & Asheville if you're willing to take tourists. Greenville if you still want some semblance of a city because it's larger.

Other than that I think Albuquerque is a good spot that's still cheap. Realistically, you just have to leave California.

[Ruth4Truth]

OP, you can check Craigslist in Humboldt, under "shares", for shared households, to see what a room rents for in the different towns, to see if that fits your budget. You'll be in the middle of the redwoods, if that suits you.

[NW4me]

The northern third of California (everything north of Sacramento) is lightly populated,
yet full of incredible natural beauty. The North Coast has the redwoods, gorgeous rivers,
and mild weather year-round (although wet). Farther inland are Mt Shasta and Mt Lassen...
hotter summers and colder winters, but more sunshine.

Do you need a job of some kind? I'm guessing the most easily available work up there would be
in tourism / services (e.g. motel clerk, restaurant cook, etc.). The more stable jobs would be
in academia (Humboldt State / Chico State).... or in one of the prisons, sad to say.
In some of the towns up there, the local state prison is apt to be the largest employer.