Well after spending more time looking for a way to move to the East Bay area of N. Cal we became very discouraged and didn't see any path forward given the housing shortage and very hot real estate market. Then there is the issue that we want to enjoy living where we move next and plan to stay until we can't manage to live there so that rules out some smaller or very hilly areas. We were not cheery visitors with son and DIL I'd say!
Once we got home we joked about moving to San Luis Obispo which is half way between each son's home (4 1/2 hour drive to each) but that would not make sense to matter how lovely the town and area. Then I started wondering about Sacramento, CA.
What do you know! It is semi-affordable, no bidding wars, great things to do and health care and only 1 hour 20 min to our Berkeley son's home. We could fly down to visit the one in Pasadena if we didn't want to drive. So now we are trying to learn about Sacramento via the internet and thinking this may be the workable path. Still have really no idea what we are going to do but we are in agreement that we don't want to stay living in Leisure Village although that may end up being what happens.
Then there is the question of how to do a move financially and logistically so I have been trying to
think of alternative ways to approach this. So here are all the options that I can think of right now.
* Wait until enough CDs mature to pay cash for a new home while house shopping long distance and then sell this one to rebuild our savings. Could be over 2 years to have enough unless we cash out early.
* Put our home on the market first then when it sells ...
1) Rent a home there for 6 months to a year if that is possible given the market and our having a dog. Possibly someone on a sabbatical or in need of long term house sitting. How would we find that situation?
2) Rent a series of long term Air B&Bs or VRBO homes that allow dogs.
3) Live in son and DIL's spare room
4) Rent local son and DIL's home for 6 mo to a year while they travel if they in fact do that.
* Resign ourselves to staying here and ...
1. Do 3 or 4 long term Air B&B or VRBO rentals each year to spend more time with N Cal family and be able to take dog
Truly wishing this wasn't so difficult to pull off. Of course after a weekend with a 2 year old who has perfected tantrums we won't mind waiting a bit longer until being closer LOL.
I was going to suggest Sacramento when you mentioned the Bay area. I live on the East side of Sacramento in the Sierra foothills. Some areas of Sac are very nice, Mckinley Park, Land Park. But Sacramento gets very hot in the summer and it can be brutal. No ocean. But it is only an hour and a half to the Bay area. I'd suggest checking out Auburn or Placerville. We, as I said live above Auburn and it does get hot but not like the valley. Also in the winter Sacramento can be fogged in for weeks at a time. Auburn is on the I80 side and Placerville is on the Hwy 50 side and both are about 3 hours from Berkeley. good luck!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the encouragement. I did live in Stockton for 2 years long ago and grew up in central Illinois so I understand about the summers!
DeleteFor what it is worth I've been doing similar thinking. Although in my case Texas would be cheaper than denver there are other issues and I dont want a full snowbird situation. I have chosen the 5hree or four times a year rental option. But then im.still not sure where he will land. My previous "sell home in Dallas in March put stuff in storage, find house in August" experience is something I would avoid if possible.
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to not put things in storage. We managed to avoid that with this last move and that was nice.
DeleteJuhli, not to make things more difficult, but have you considered going north to Santa Rosa? There is much to like there, including affordability, better weather than central California, an OLLI via CSUSR, wineries all over the place, and good coadtal and Bay area proximity.
ReplyDeleteWe thought about Napa but haven't looked at Santa Rosa. Will take a look.
DeleteMuch, much, much less expensive than Napa.
DeleteReally? Napa is much less expensive than the East Bay.
DeleteFound myself holding my breath while reading this post. I would really hate to move and yet we are facing having to possibly do that in order to keep PC's job. Or pray he finds a job here. So many decisions! I am thinking that maybe putting your house on the market first would be a good thing. If it sells quickly then you can find some place to rent or stay at some Air BnBs or your son's home while he travels. If it doesn't sell within an agreed upon time period, then you could cash in the CDs and put one of the options into play. Tough tough decisions. Hope the skies open up and you get a clear indication how you should proceed.
ReplyDeleteI hope you find a way not to have to move since that seems to be what would make you happiest. We are going to wait to make decisions until we decide on the location we would move to as we have no reason to move except our own desires.
DeleteI just moved. It wasn't very far from where I was living but it took all the planning of a long distance move except I was able to drive by and look at places I was considering. So just keep looking and making list and gradually the plan might fall into place. No guarantees in life but if you want it, go for it.
ReplyDeleteI hope you are happy with your move. We are taking it slowly but don't want to take forever to make up our minds either!
DeleteI'm sure you've considered, but . . . if you're not sure where you want to end up, it might be better to sell your house and rent for a year or two to test out your options.
ReplyDeleteThat makes sense to me but my husband doesn't want to do that. I think we will rent an AirBnB or VRBO as a vacation and explore several times instead.
DeleteWe were living in Santa Clara County before I retired. I had a spreadsheet, and it came down to Santa Rosa and Sacramento. Santa Rosa is more expensive. Golf is better in the Sac area. We live in El Dorado Hills, which is one exit past Folsom. It's described as the foothills, but it's not like living in the country. It's a suburb close to the amenities. Depends of what you like. We like the burbs.], and we love it here. Depending on which county you live in, check into Prop 90, which could allow you to transfer your old property rate to a new home in El Dorado County.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the suggestions. We have only been back in Cal for 2 years so the property tax thing won't help us much. We are looking for an urban walkable area with lots to do as we are not suburb people. In Atlanta we lived in an intown neighborhood that had restaurants, etc. within walking distance - love that.
DeleteMy husband and I just finished experimenting with renting a home closer to our kids. We learned much. 1)We love spending time with our family 2)We don't enjoy trying to keep up with two properties 3)We are glad we didn't sell our old home 4)We both missed our old home and will continue to live here for awhile 4)We will use short term rentals when we want to spend time with our kids 5)This rental experiment costed plenty, but was worth ever cent!! Juhli, thanks for sharing your own experiences with us. It really does help when we can learn from one another. Wishing you the very best!!!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good experiment for you! We have only been back in Cal for 2 years and aren't very attached to where we are. It was simply near my FIL who passed away last fall. We are an hours drive from the S. Cal son and DIL and 7 to 8 from the N. Cal family so we would just be flipping the equation.
DeleteSuch difficult decisions! Housing costs do limit choices. I'm sure that proximity to family will be more important as time passes. I'd try the different areas, especially with the dog, until you find your perfect solution.
ReplyDeleteI agree to take our time. We are taking our "unicorn house and location description" (as in it doesn't exist in our reality) and shifting to a must have, want, will accept list to see if that helps us move forward. Always the option to stay where we are and deal with it!
ReplyDeleteI wanted to add that Davis is a wonderful community with great bike paths, restaurants, lots of cultural things that you seem to like. Plus it is only maybe an hour and 15 to the bay area.
ReplyDeleteThanks - I'm going to try to get my husband to consider it.
DeleteMoving is so stressful, no matter how much you plan and are looking forward to living in a new place. When we did it 18 years ago, we rented an apartment while our houses sold and we built another---found a large complex that would rent with only a three month commitment but we ended up staying nine months and I've never been sorry we did it that way.
ReplyDeleteSounds like it worked well for you!
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