Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > California > San Francisco - Oakland
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 10-15-2011, 11:55 AM
 
1 posts, read 8,083 times
Reputation: 10

Advertisements

Searching the country for suitable (affordable) places to retire within an hour or so drive to a great major city turns up Santa Rosa CA. It is just north (Sonoma County) of Marin County, one of the most expensive counties in the country. Is it just to long a drive into SF for commuters or am I missing something. Housing is depressed everywhere, but crossing into Sonoma makes a big difference in prices. Any thoughts?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 10-16-2011, 04:31 PM
 
Location: Northern California
159 posts, read 489,632 times
Reputation: 87
It's kinda too far to commute from SF I'd suppose. Not too many people do that, but the ones that do must really have a good job if that motivates them to drive that much and pay that much for fuel for driving in one day.

I've lived here my whole life, but I'm young, so I don't know what it's like for retiring. I can't wait to move out of here for my own personal reasons, but I think the northeast part of SR is a nice place to retire. It's quiet, very nice, etc. I don't think it's affordable, but this city in general isn't affordable.

Santa Rosa definitely has a lot of parts that are bad and there's gang violence, etc. But the "ghetto" parts of SR have some character and really good Mexican restaurants and two Vietnamese restaurants (which is hard to find in the North Bay) in my opinion so I don't mind visiting those places. I was raised in Southwest Rosa.

Last edited by CyanideThistles; 10-16-2011 at 05:09 PM..
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-24-2011, 10:23 AM
 
1 posts, read 8,008 times
Reputation: 11
Default Santa Rosa, CA is a great place to live!!

Santa Rosa is a great place to retire! My husband and I retired here in early 2010 and haven't regretted a moment of it. Besides being less than an hour away (during non traffic hours) from San Francisco, we are also in the heart of Sonoma Valley, close to the ocean and beaches (eg. Bodega Bay and surrounding beaches) moments from the Napa Valley and fantastic restaurants, there is so much sightseeing to do, hiking in some of the most beautiful areas of the country, tons of activities. Santa Rosa has about 150,000 residents and unlike a lot of the Bay area, people here are down to earth, back to nature. It's not pretentious even though there are some extremely wealthy inhabitants. Several celebrities have homes here - probably because of the peacefulness. The weather is considered mild. We really dont have winter - no snow. Almost everyday in the cooler months, the temp will reach at least 50 degrees. Summers are beautiful. Overall, I feel very safe here. There is very little violent crime that I know of. The downtown area has some homeless people hanging around but they dont seem to bother me when I am there. It does bring the overall view of the town down when you dont know the area. Personally, I feel very lucky to have the opportunity to live here in Santa Rosa!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-25-2011, 03:00 AM
 
Location: Northern California
159 posts, read 489,632 times
Reputation: 87
Quote:
Originally Posted by psm42 View Post
There is very little violent crime that I know of.
Not true. While I'm sure nothing will happen to anybody who's not into gangs or whatnot most likely, there is plenty of violent crime in southwest and northwest Santa Rosa. Large concentration of Nortenos in northwest SR, especially the Apple Valley neighborhood, and my friend who lived in Kawana Springs said quite a few drive-bys have happened there during the time he lived there. A brutal fatal stabbing actually occurred in front of an elementary school in the Kawana Springs neighborhood earlier this year. Just last month there was a drug-related shooting of a man in rural southwest SR, and three people were arrested in that incident. There was at least one other gang-related murder this year, I believe in June and it happened in the South Park neighborhood, where a Norteno was slain after a brief argument with a man.

The Roseland and West 9th areas also have heavy concentration of Nortenos and gang violence and drug smuggling. Avoid these areas if you don't like not-so-nice looking places and you should be comfortable with where you are. However, even in the nicer, slightly affluent neighborhood of Rincon Valley (in NE SR) there was a gang-related brawl that spilled out in the streets sometime last year, but this kind of incident is rather uncommon there.

I don't you mean to scare you off though, lol, but this is the reality of the city.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-08-2012, 08:33 PM
 
2 posts, read 12,633 times
Reputation: 14
Santa Rosa is an amazing city and has grown quite a bit in the last couple years. The nightlife is very active, always lots of people out and the weather is gorgeous here, probably the best climate I've lived in, and I've lived in quite a few US cities. The neighborhoods here are very appealing, and as a city we do have more run down parts, primarily the west side. But overall, crime is quite low here, especially when living in a good neighborhood. The schools are very good, especially the SRJC which is rated top in the nation, kids commute from all over to go there. Santa Rosa is the best that the Northbay has to offer, with an abundance of nightlife, shopping, resturaunts, and good schools and is one of the biggest and most charming cities in the bay area.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-09-2012, 03:37 PM
 
20 posts, read 146,615 times
Reputation: 46
I grew up in the area. Weather is really ideal. Winters are slightly rainier than further south but stay in the 50's mainly and the rain keeps things greener than say, San Jose. Summers are completely dry, in the 70's-80's and with a tad of coastal fog cooling overnight. Perfection. If you're a gardener/outdoorsy type, you'll love it here.

Santa Rosa is a decent size city and is mostly a nice middle class town. It has some bad pockets, but it's no big deal unless you're coming from somewhere very sheltered or rural. I personally like the older areas closer to downtown in the North/NE quadrant. Do some research and drive around different areas and I'm sure you'll find something to your liking.

Home prices are high but seem affordable to me now that I live closer to SF. I can see why my folks moved here - you have San Francisco 45 minutes away, wine country on your doorstep and it's a big enough city to have good dining/entertainment options on it's own. The commute is brutal, but now you're retired. Enjoy my hometown!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-09-2012, 06:50 PM
 
37 posts, read 121,072 times
Reputation: 74
I moved here over a year ago with an open mind, not really sure whether I was going to like it coming from the very "manicured area" of Palm Springs. It took some getting used to as not everyone here subcribes to "keeping up with the Jones''. Not necessarily a bad thing, I'm just sayin'.
I have grown to love it here...the best part is the weather...it is better than one can really explain...just delightful...rains enough to keep it healthy and green and the air quality is excellent with the exception of stagnant air days in the winter and occasional smoke in the air.
The restaurants, while most unprententious are diverse & serve excellent food and friendly service. People are some of the friendliest in all of California (I have lived all over this state)...There is community here, difficult to find in a moderate sized city. And home prices are low now and should be taken advantage of. If you can afford Fountaingrove check out
the Stonefield townhomes...they are a steal right now as there was some
litigation issues that are soon be history, there you can get 1800 sq. ft. for under 300K....there are alot of active senior citizens living in there, and if you have a small dog, all the better...probably going on with too much
information but my fingers are happy to share this great place to call home. John
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 05-24-2012, 08:51 PM
 
Location: Brookings
65 posts, read 218,323 times
Reputation: 85
Thanks John for your outlook on Santa Rosa. My husband and I are planning a move to the area this summer coming from Alaska.We are thinking of a smaller town around santa rosa we love rural life,gardening and being outdoors. I am disabled and we will be looking to rent in the area maybe some disabled housing ive heard are going up.
Glad to hear your happy there.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 05-30-2012, 11:04 PM
 
12,823 posts, read 24,320,281 times
Reputation: 11039
It's at the edge of our set of possible places. What nearly disqualifies it is the combination of still relatively high cost and how far it is from a major airport.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 05-31-2012, 09:21 AM
 
Location: New York City
675 posts, read 1,186,705 times
Reputation: 544
Sounds like a wonderful area ! I'm focussing on Rossmoor Ca in the near future (10 years). It's near Walnut Creek, where I lived for 7 years. Just was looking at condos and co-ops yesterday, lol.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram

Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > California > San Francisco - Oakland
Similar Threads

All times are GMT -6. The time now is 02:28 AM.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top