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Old 07-29-2011, 03:45 PM
 
18 posts, read 31,662 times
Reputation: 14

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My husband and I packed up and moved from Boston to California a month ago, and we’re feeling dejected with the house-hunting. I could use a little help and some suggestions. First, our home finding guidelines:
  • Budget: $550,000-750,000
  • Looking for a minimum of .25 acre yard or at least something that abuts green space
  • Prefer not to live in a cookie-cutter neighborhood
  • Not looking for a fixer-upper
  • Work from home, so it has to be quiet
  • Don’t mind living out of town a bit
  • Commute unimportant - we both work from home
  • Within 2 hours’ drive of SFO or LAX, because we fly often
  • We really like artisan food and local ingredients
Not a house requirement, but some helpful demographic info: we don’t have kids, and we’re both early-40-somethings. Also, I know this sounds ridiculous coming from someone who just moved to California, but I’m fair and have a bit of a sun allergy, so deserty areas are out.

We’ve been looking around Sonoma County but haven’t quite found what we like – at least in our price range. We saw a lovely home in Glen Ellen, but it was tiny. We found a great place in Forestville, but the neighbors had cars parked in their lawns and we learned of a property line dispute. We saw some gorgeous houses in Santa Rosa, but the yards were the size of postage stamps. We’ve seen several near misses in Petaluma, but nothing quite right.

We like Sonoma, but we don’t have to live there. We’re open to other places, but as we’re staying near Sacramento, it’s tough to take a Saturday to drive around LA or something, especially when we don’t know any areas.

So, I’m turning to you, the best source of information I can find on places to live in California. Can you help a terribly dejected ex-Bostonian by recommending likely places to focus our house-hunt?

Signed,
Rootless in California
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Old 07-29-2011, 04:13 PM
 
Location: Northern California
3,722 posts, read 14,738,929 times
Reputation: 1963
San Luis Obispo - but 2 hours to LAX might be a stretch. $750K won't get you much on a quarter acre lot. Welcome to California!
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Old 07-29-2011, 04:23 PM
 
3,250 posts, read 6,317,502 times
Reputation: 4954
Quote:
Originally Posted by conquest View Post
  • Budget: $550,000-750,000
  • Looking for a minimum of .25 acre yard or at least something that abuts green space
  • Prefer not to live in a cookie-cutter neighborhood
  • Not looking for a fixer-upper
  • Work from home, so it has to be quiet
  • Don’t mind living out of town a bit
  • Commute unimportant - we both work from home
  • Within 2 hours’ drive of SFO or LAX, because we fly often
  • We really like artisan food and local ingredients
Check out La Habra Heights in LA County.

La Habra Heights Single-Family Homes For Sale


2nd choice,parts of N. Tustin.

92705 Real Estate
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Old 07-29-2011, 04:47 PM
 
4,332 posts, read 6,304,029 times
Reputation: 6139
Quote:
Originally Posted by conquest View Post
My husband and I packed up and moved from Boston to California a month ago, and we’re feeling dejected with the house-hunting. I could use a little help and some suggestions. First, our home finding guidelines:
  • Budget: $550,000-750,000
  • Looking for a minimum of .25 acre yard or at least something that abuts green space
  • Prefer not to live in a cookie-cutter neighborhood
  • Not looking for a fixer-upper
  • Work from home, so it has to be quiet
  • Don’t mind living out of town a bit
  • Commute unimportant - we both work from home
  • Within 2 hours’ drive of SFO or LAX, because we fly often
  • We really like artisan food and local ingredients
Not a house requirement, but some helpful demographic info: we don’t have kids, and we’re both early-40-somethings. Also, I know this sounds ridiculous coming from someone who just moved to California, but I’m fair and have a bit of a sun allergy, so deserty areas are out.

We’ve been looking around Sonoma County but haven’t quite found what we like – at least in our price range. We saw a lovely home in Glen Ellen, but it was tiny. We found a great place in Forestville, but the neighbors had cars parked in their lawns and we learned of a property line dispute. We saw some gorgeous houses in Santa Rosa, but the yards were the size of postage stamps. We’ve seen several near misses in Petaluma, but nothing quite right.

We like Sonoma, but we don’t have to live there. We’re open to other places, but as we’re staying near Sacramento, it’s tough to take a Saturday to drive around LA or something, especially when we don’t know any areas.

So, I’m turning to you, the best source of information I can find on places to live in California. Can you help a terribly dejected ex-Bostonian by recommending likely places to focus our house-hunt?

Signed,
Rootless in California
Check out Livermore in the far east bay. Its got a very cute downtown and a little wine scene (smaller version of Sonoma). Its cheaper when you get out there as well and a lot nicer than moving out to the central valley. Plus, you're about an hour from SFO.
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Old 07-29-2011, 05:21 PM
 
Location: Oakland, CA
28,226 posts, read 36,937,745 times
Reputation: 28563
Quote:
Originally Posted by roadwarrior101 View Post
Check out Livermore in the far east bay. Its got a very cute downtown and a little wine scene (smaller version of Sonoma). Its cheaper when you get out there as well and a lot nicer than moving out to the central valley. Plus, you're about an hour from SFO.
Great suggestion. There are some new cookie cutter neighborhoods, but plenty of older established areas too.
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Old 07-29-2011, 07:16 PM
 
Location: Vallejo
21,921 posts, read 25,248,755 times
Reputation: 19133
Oakland Hills, Lamorinda, Danville/Walnut Creek. Santa Cruz area, Boulder Creek. Monterey - but you'd be stretching two hours to SFO.
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Old 07-29-2011, 07:25 PM
 
Location: Everywhere and Nowhere
14,129 posts, read 31,295,823 times
Reputation: 6922
There are other airports besides LAX and SFO that have flights to other places. Not sure I'd restrict myself to two hours from those two spots just because of that.
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Old 07-29-2011, 07:40 PM
 
Location: Bay Area
3,980 posts, read 8,999,939 times
Reputation: 4728
Quote:
Originally Posted by Malloric View Post
Oakland Hills, Lamorinda, Danville/Walnut Creek. Santa Cruz area, Boulder Creek. Monterey - but you'd be stretching two hours to SFO.
They'd be stretching their housing budget by nearly double also (with the exception of parts of Walnut Creek)

Pleasant Hill, the hills of Martinez, possibly Benicia would also be good options.
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Old 07-29-2011, 08:16 PM
 
Location: Vallejo
21,921 posts, read 25,248,755 times
Reputation: 19133
Real estate bubble popped, it's not hard to find houses in Walnut Creek or even Danville for under a million now. I prefer the west side of both (especially Walnut Creek) to the tract housing the runs on into Pleasant Hill. As far as tract housing goes it's nice but too uniform.

Also, if you want more rural Sebastopol and Occidental (west of Santa Rosa)... Or head east of Santa Rosa although you run into cookie cutter there.
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Old 07-30-2011, 07:45 AM
 
18 posts, read 31,662 times
Reputation: 14
OK, you've spurred us on to explore Livermore today. We'd poked around the listings there, but haven't actually made the drive. I shall report back. Thank you!
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