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THe La Quinta Cove is unmatched in beauty, in my opinion, compared to anywhere else in the desert area. I'm talking about geographical beauty with the mountains, birds, palms, etc.
We own two homes in the upper cove. Live in one and rent one out. Have NEVER had any issue with crime of any sort at either residence. There is a bad element anywhere and everywhere unfortunately. mod cut: You simply cannot find more for your money or better views/hiking than in the cove area. Currently you can find a beautiful newer santa fe home with pool and privacy wall/gate for anywhere from $220-$500k. We live in the higher end of the scale and couldn't be happier. We could afford to live in a similarly priced "gated" community elsewhere in the desert but I nearly wretch at the thought of living in a home that looks exactly like the other 500+ homes in the neighborhood. The "gated" aspect creates an absolutely false sense of security. In the past few years, if you research the desert sun, you'll find most crime in the desert is in Indio, Coachella, and Desert Hotsprings. Although, I firmly believe, some bad "element" exists everywhere.
One more thing, the proximity to the miles and miles of desert reserve for hiking and mountain biking is literally steps away from your door front anywhere in the upper cove. Old Town La Quinta is located down at the bottom of the cove area and its full of eclectic high-end boutiques and restaurants.
In my opinion, coming from an upper-middle class income standpoint - if you're open minded, artistic, or athletic, you'll LOVE living in the upper La Quinta Cove.
Last edited by scirocco22; 05-24-2009 at 02:17 PM..
Reason: baiting ...I think you're saying a lot of the same things.
Wow!!! I tried to ask for this info about "The Cove" but sure didn't get answers this complete!! Now that I have been to The Cove it all makes total sense.
We just returned from a 6 day house hunt, viewing close to 50 homes in La Quinta Cove, Palm Desert and Pinion Flats (up in the mountains).
We bought a new construction home in Palm Desert. It just worked out best for us with the proximity to work, all the amenities close, not at all far drive- or bike ride -to trail heads and great schools (which we felt seemed better than anywhere else). Now I am worried about the utility bills, though, as one person here mentioned it is several hundred dollars a month! Yikes!! Currently our most expensive utility bill where we live now is in the high $300's....lowest around $100. I hope we don't go higher than that in Palm Desert!!!
During our extensive home search we drove up to Banning and through Thousand Palms but must not have found the decent neighborhoods in those areas. We never bothered to look at houses in either place. We scatched Indio after reading & researching about it and seeing for ourselves how very windy it was near the 10. We didn't look at houses there though we saw what appeared to be some great bargains listed.
We were lucky to spend the week in the vacant home of a future co-worker up route 74 in Pinion Crest. Wow! Talk about views, stars and a wonderful cooling breeze!! Also, we visited another friend up in Mt. Center who has a ranch there and had dinner in Idyllwyld. Gorgeous!! It was 30 mintues to Mt. Center and 45 to Idyllwyld. A crazy up hill switch back drive but lovely! If you could do that drive (to Pinion Crest)....which isn't all that far....It took us 20 minutes to get from the house in Pinion Crest to the bottom of the 'hill'...and you could AFFORD a home in Pinion Crest!!..it would be worth it. NO cheap houses there, I'm afraid!
Okay, here is what we saw in "The Cove" in La Quinta. We were casual observers....we do not live there and don't have any extended knowledge of the area. But this is what we saw having been out there for three days in a row...8 hours a day.....house-hunting. Our price range was between around $190,000 to $300,000...with most falling in the price of about $250,000-ish.
Our favorite, the very first house we saw out there, was at the VERY top of The Cove....right there by the trail head. GORGEOUS veiw....literally a step across the street to the trail. The house was lovely, too. Bad news....we saw what looked like some kind of shady activity in the parking area of the trail head. Quick exchanges of something...then driving away. Also so some teens who looked at us as if we were invading whatever they were up to. Behind the house was another house which looked pretty rough and unkept. We looked at MANY houses in The Cove. There were a LOT of them for sale within our price range. Some were a bit higher priced, too.....high $300 - a few at low $400. Most were short sales and foreclosures. There were also many, many rentals there. We did get into some very nice homes. Also a couple of shabby ones. The things which turned us off of the nice homes we found were the surroundings. Check the back yards of the neighbors behind, to the sides and across from the house you are looking at. A few things we saw were....an 80lb or so pit bull tied with a heavy chain to a pile of old tires, cluttered yard full of scrap metal, chickens, a sandy yard which appeared to be the local stray cat littler box, a yard with a huge speaker hook up (we lived in Ft. Worth in a neighborhood which was not un-like what we saw in The Cove....weekends were all about burning trash in the back yard while blasting Tejano music....I have no idea if the booming Tejano music would be the same deal in The Cove or not....but we sure didn't want to find out). Again, this wasn't true of every house we looked at....but do check what you will be living next to. Also, look up and down the street....at all the cars parked along the roads. We were there on week days and the streets had a lot of low riders, lifted pick-ups, etc...parked along the sides. See how the yards are kept. There ARE some very nice 'sections' in The Cove....but wow how it can differ from one end of the street or block to the other. What finally told us to not look any further in The Cove was witnessing a young man getting arrested, cuffed and taken away by two cruisers right in the middle of the intersection in the mid-section of The Cove in broad daylight. We are a 40 something family of three with a toddler...that scene scratched The Cove for us. Had we been just a couple....or a single, active oung person....maybe we would have still considered The Cove. But with a young child....it just didn't look like a good neighborhood for her.
We did not have the chance to look in other areas of La Quinta because were were trying very hard to stay as close to the $250,00 price range as possible. There was nothing we could find for sale with our specs and price range coming up in other areas of La Quinta.
I have lived in LQ Cove for a year now. It does have its ups and downs.
Its very beautiful out here. I look out to the mountains through my kitchen windows. There are many, many beautiful (and expensive!) homes out here but of course, there are the bad ones. In the first 8 months, my daughters bike was stolen, and then my car was broken into and stole all my cd's.
I then have neighbors who routinely have loud parties. I'd say its 90% good with the 10% bad. It is very quiet around here during the day.
Crime is everywhere unfortunately. There have even been crimes in the gated communities.
There are great deals out there right now. Great place for training and hiking. All areas in the desert have their own share of the good and the bad. LQ cove is a nice community with a great park and cool little town feel. I know of some great hiking trails if that is what you are into. I go with some friends about once a week (usually in PD or PS, though).
Call me if you want me to send you some interesting listings (I am a realtor). 760-333-2134.
I live in the La Quinta Cove and I love it. I know there is a bad element here...but they are all over the CV Valley, even in Palm Desert, Palm Springs and Rancho Mirage...though they seem to have less trouble.
You definitely want to stay out of DHS, NORTH Palm Springs, Cathedral City and Coachella!! (Gang problems...more than the other communities.)
The problem here in the CV seems to be "affordable housing" mandates by the state and section 8 housing with so many vacant houses. They'll rent to ANYBODY, but the Cove patrol does it's best to make them comply with the neighborhood's needs. Yes, it can be aggravating. It does cause some blighted areas, so you're smart to drive around and LOOK. The TOP of the Cove seems to be more affluent than the bottom....the perimeter is astoundingly beautiful. (Montezuma.) There are homes there that originally cost MILLIONS.....and some fantastic bargains out there.
It will take awhile for the housing market to recover, but when it does, I think the Cove will regain it's growth spurt of a few years ago. I love it because it has such a diverse population...artists, writers, entertainers, restauranteurs, wealthy and not so wealthy. There is no HOA which is perfect for me...and I bought a great home here (a Santa Fe) and painted it a fabulous color! I would have trouble doing that elsewhere. I also have some great neighbors!
Palm Desert is nice....great shopping, upscale stores, more prestiguous. But when I was shopping, the Cove offered what I was looking for. Non-conforming and more vibrant to me! But that's just me. Lots of people love Palm Desert.
There are some lovely new gated communities in Indio...some really pretty ones, so if you do plan on leaving during off-season...the Cove might not be a great idea. If a house looks vacant, it could be a problem for you while you're gone. Gated communities, too, have burglaries...but not as much.
I guess there's no Utopia, but you seem very informed already...I'm sure your instincts will lead you to YOUR right place!
I live in la quinta cove because I believe it is financially the best area to live in in the desert at this time.
The people who bought expensive property here, or bought ruins and revamped them have a vested interest in this area. That will preserve it and prevent it from being overcome with crime.
In one of the three most expensive areas in the whole US a guy across the street was robbed twice: a victim who was not cautious about the help he hired around his home.
Many people who came to our garage sale laughed about the references to "crime" in lq cove. They had moved here from the coast and said people in the desert complaining about crime in the cove didn't have a clue what was going on in the outside world - that here it was super safe - comparatively...
Pros for the LQ Cove
Air is clean, traffic flows well, there is the opportunity to buy very low cost homes and improve them and not be loosing money when you do as in most other places in the country. There are a lot of families here - typically they defend against crime and gangs - It is beautiful in a different sort of way, homes are architecturally attractive, not cookie cutter people here give me the feeling of trying to promote healthy lifestyles, la quinta schools are good, I have substituted in all the schools in this district and the next district, electricity is IID not Edison and consequently quite a bit cheeper (they actually produce the electricity, Edison buys it from them). It is three hours to havasu, two hours to the beach, two hours to the snow...
Cons - there are some seedy houses here - you have to examine your immediate neighbors before settling, the heat is unbareable - just ridiculous - unihabitable- three or four months out of the year. I just work inside all day and go home and get in the pool - plus I like really hot weather - most people dont. It does not offer the cultural, entertainment opportunities that are available in orange county.
message me if you need specific info
We bought a foreclosure home in the lower part of the cove at auction for $140k-ish. Santa Fe style, 3/2 1500', stucco-ed block perimeter wall, unheated pool, 2003 construction, 5000' lot (common cove size). Took a bit of cleanup, but the views out the windows or from outside are fantastic - the cove is surrounded by a little mountain range. Great stars at night and fantastic to wander outside in the early morning to a hemisphere of blue ringed with hills and watch the light move down the hillsides. We spent November of last year to the first of June this year - great weather during that time, but back to Oregon for the life in hell summer season. All manner of handy stores (Costco, Lowes) within 7 miles, great thrift store shopping thanks to the affluent and fabulous. Golf courses and fancy-schmancy cars (Bentleys, Aston-Martins, Ferraris) are everywhere. Restaurants of all manner.
Our neighbors in the cove are mostly Hispanic - we've no issue with that - people are people. We are not into the whole gated community - HOA thing, and the cove is free of that.
While there our car had a spendy radar detector and camera removed from it while it was in our garage unlocked with the garage door open, us home, at about 10 in the morning. Pisser. We were told that some thieves cruise about on bikes as they can do quick and quiet thefts and getaways. A couple months after leaving the cove for the summer our door was broken in and electronics were stolen - might have been a $1500 hit including the door repair - not worth doing an insurance claim with our $1000 deductible.
Greatly enjoyed being close to the Joshua Tree National Park, the Salton Sea, and the little towns up in the high desert.
Medical care is a huge industry - lots of old rich people to be ministered too. Palm Springs airport is close enough and a treat to use - those who have used it know what I'm talking about.
All in all quite pleased with our choice for winter digs - 5-10 years from now if we decide two homes are too much hassle I expect the real estate market will treat us kindly.
It's a place where you can be your own person. People paint their houses any color they want. There's strange decorations in yards, including a sailboat in a lawn and a black light as a patio light. You'll see mysterious lights in the mountains and find weird stuff in the desert like a giant ocotillo with Christmas ornaments hanging from it. It's not for everybody, but for some of us it's wonderful!
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LQ cove is nice
