Ah yes-- their lovely, lovely homes.
It's no secret that Santa Barbara is a pretty expensive place to live. We're probably only outdone by a few cities such as San Francisco and New York City. In a way it's understandable-- we live in a pretty nice part of the country, nicer than even SF and NYC. You're never more than a stone's throw away from the beach, and a few miles inland are the mountains. The weather is pretty steady year-round: never too hot, never too cold. Even its public schools are pretty good compared to other districts.
The downside to it is the fact that it IS a relatively small city. For someone who grew up in metropolitan LA, a population of 90K is small. There is no Wal-Mart. No Target. No JC Penney. No big-chain dollar stores. No discount supermarkets. For that we have to travel 40 miles north to Lompoc or 40 miles south to Ventura.
Still, it's a beautiful place to live, and it's easy to see why so many people come up here with the sole intention of studying at UCSB... only to wind up staying here longer (as evidenced by the numerous UCSB license plate frames around).
Makes you wonder, though, how anyone can afford it. Which brings me back to my friends in Buellton. Let's do a little comparison.
Here, $450,000 will get you one of the following:
1) An 1800sf, 3BR/2BA manufactured home in a mobile home park. No garage, just a carport.
2) A 1200sf, 2BR/2BA condo sandwiched between other condos, both on the sides and above or below you. No garage, just covered assigned parking. No different from apartment living, really.
3) An 1100sf, 2BR/1BA duplex home in a PUD. 1-car attached garage and driveway space.
4) A standalone 900sf 1BR/1BA cottage in need of a *lot* of TLC. If there is a garage, it only holds one car and is detached.
But in Buellton? More along the lines of a 2000+ sf single-family home in excellent condition, with a 3-car attached garage.
Crazy, isn't it, how much more your dollar will get you in 2 different cities just 30 miles apart? Crazier still, that Santa Barbara is NOT the most expensive place to live in the US. I don't even want to imagine home prices in the more expensive cities.
So I can definitely see why our friends uprooted. And their 30-40 minute drive into work every day at least entails a wonderfully scenic route with the oceans stretching as far as the eye can see on one side, and the mountains rising majestically on the other side.
Still, I've had my fill of long commutes. UCLA is not that far away from my parents' home, but with legendary rush hour traffic along the 405, they often turned into hour-long, grueling commutes while I attended there. When I worked at Amgen, I drove at least 45 minutes each way from their house to Thousand Oaks. Thank goodness that at least there was no traffic during the times I worked (10am to 7pm). Let's face it-- I've gotten rather spoiled these days in Santa Barbara, where our "commute" to work is a 7-minute... WALK. Even when we move to the new office building, the driving commute will be under 10 minutes.
Someday we hope to pursue the American dream of home ownership. Exorbitant home prices in Santa Barbara aren't helping that endeavor, but we're saving and keeping an eye on the market. Someday...
Yeah, I find it SO insanely hard to believe how much things cost around here. My parents paid less for their home in Indio (something like 1700sf, I think) than Joe paid for our little condo. Granted, they bought way back in the '90s, and Joe bought when prices were at their highest (2005ish?), but still. IT'S RIDICULOUS, and more than a little discouraging.
ReplyDeleteI was just talking to my mom about gym memberships. The $60 you and I each shell out every month, and is still a pretty decent price compared to other SB gyms? She gets access to all the same stuff-- all the equipment, plus classes like kickboxing and Zumba... for only $30/month. And if she opts for the weekend-only membership (Fri-Sun access), it's only $14. It even includes jacuzzi access, which *we* don't even get!
ReplyDeleteYeah... everything is freakin' expensive here. At least we're lucky enough to work at a company that actually pays us a salary commensurate with the cost of living here. I know of other companies in this area that do not. Well... back to scrimping and saving!
[...] which is your own personal preference for what you want in a home. I blogged last month about the insane cost of housing in Santa Barbara, and how it drives some people to live 30-40 miles away, either north in Buellton, or south in [...]
ReplyDeleteI didn't know that SB was so small, it sounds like a really nice place to raise a family (minus the high cost of home ownership part).
ReplyDeleteWhere can I sign up for the mobile home? :)
It's funny you mention the raising family and mobile home bit-- we are actually seriously looking at buying in a mobile home park not far from work and school. It's a resident-owned co-op park, so the residents own shares of the co-op instead of paying rent to a landlord. As such, the properties themselves are more expensive (that $450K home would sell for $200K in a rental park... but there you'd pay upwards of $700/mo in space rent-- and you know how rent creeps up) but the community itself is much nicer. There is an interview process and they do a background check before they'll let you live there, so it's a good assurance that it's a safe place for kids. There is a nice lake in the middle of the park where you can fish, and I like the close-knit feeling of neighborhood, something I don't find anywhere else in "stick-built" neighborhoods! I think we can live the "trailer trash" jokes for a truly nice place to live :-)
ReplyDelete[...] which is your own personal preference for what you want in a home. I blogged last month about the insane cost of housing in Santa Barbara, and how it drives some people to live 30-40 miles away, either north in Buellton, or south in [...]
ReplyDeleteI was just talking to my mom about gym memberships. The $60 you and I each shell out every month, and is still a pretty decent price compared to other SB gyms? She gets access to all the same stuff-- all the equipment, plus classes like kickboxing and Zumba... for only $30/month. And if she opts for the weekend-only membership (Fri-Sun access), it's only $14. It even includes jacuzzi access, which *we* don't even get!
ReplyDeleteYeah... everything is freakin' expensive here. At least we're lucky enough to work at a company that actually pays us a salary commensurate with the cost of living here. I know of other companies in this area that do not. Well... back to scrimping and saving!