Walkable downtowns for health-oriented retirees? (Long Beach, Seal Beach: real estate, condo, house)

[clearlite]

My husband and I are are in our early 60s and interested in moving to central or southern CA on a modest budget. We would prefer to live in a city or town where we could walk to the post office, bank, drug store, library etc from our home. We would also love to be able to safely ride our bicycles around a bit. My husband is interested in taking classes in chi gong, tai chi or yoga. I like to swim so a YMCA or community pool would also be wonderful. We will have an annual income of about $65,000. We are healthy, but would want to be within 15 or 20 minutes of medical care/hospital services. Our hope is that we might be able to afford a home (2b.1.5bath – 1100-1300sf) for around $250,000. I realize that this is not a lot of money to live on in CA, but we are hoping there might be a few cities or towns where this might be possible for us. Thanks in advance for your help.

[FresnoFacts]

Just a little more info that will help everyone if you don't mind.

Your preferred home size, are you thinking detached house or condo or either?

[Charles]

Originally Posted by clearlite

central or southern California
walk to the post office, bank, drug store, library etc
safely ride our bicycles
classes in chi gong, tai chi or yoga.
YMCA or community pool
15 or 20 minutes of medical care/hospital services.
home (2b.1.5bath – 1100-1300sf) for around $250,000

Ventura.

Here are three homes that meet requirements.

Real Estate Search | Redfin

There would be 14 homes that meet requirements if square footage requirement was a little lower.

[bhcompy]

Seal Beach fits those needs(and the city has a robust recreation program with access to the Olympic pool on the local Joint Forces base, yoga classes, etc), but at that price range(unless you rent), you're in Leisure World, which is a huge retirement community that's not walking distance to the downtown area(which is beachfront while Leisure World is a few miles inland at the northern end of Seal Beach). Los Alamitos is the local regional hospital and Long Beach Memorial and St Mary's Medical Center are the major hospitals all within 20 minutes

[clearlite]

Thank you much for the responses. We don't want a condo. We would prefer an 900-1200 square foot single family to that.

[Snort]

California is still quite the expensive place to live for anything near the coast (with some very northerly exceptions). I wish I could think of a town like you want (in CA) with a nice small home at that price.

[Clarks]

Alturas or Bishop might work.

[BRinSM]

the problem is that most of the places that fit your requirements (save the price) are near/on the coast. obviously, the CA coast has some of the most expensive real estate in the world. being open to condo living will open you to a lot more options. anyways, if you are willing to be flexible on living space, downtown san diego might be on option. besides that, there are some nice downtowns in orange county, including fullerton, orange and tustin. la county has pasadena and a few other nice little downtowns. however, detached homes in these areas are going to be 2x the $250k that you mentioned.

also, if leisure world sounds good like a good choice for you, you should know that you aren't allowed to finance homes in there, you'll have to pay cash.

[bhcompy]

Originally Posted by clearlite

Thank you much for the responses. We don't want a condo. We would prefer an 900-1200 square foot single family to that.

Leisure world has detached homes in the community, but there are downsides to that situations as BRinSM mentioned.