[Suze]

I was thinking of relocating to Northern California and was wondering if anyone could give me any information good or bad. I live in in Northern MN on 160 acres and would like to downsize to about 40 and hoping for a milder climate.

 

[Helena]

Have a friend that lives in Redding, CA northern CA. Have a ranch etc. I know she is always saying they either have a drought..for years..or they are watching the fires. I think it would be too, too hot. In the 100's !! Never been there so hopefully someone can give you better information than me. Coming from MN to CA would be a great change..have you visited and checked things out for yourself before moving ?? But..who am I to talk... we opened a map one night at the kitchen table and pointed to a town we had never been or seen and moved house and family.!! Guess it was the adventure of it all and have never regretted it either. Good Luck !!

 

[KrisW]

I'm south of San Fransico myself

HOT, today it's 75 and it's only 11 am.
EXPENSIVE, you better be sitting down when you see the price of 40 acres
Work is hard to find, no different than anywhere else.
But there's no snow, that is the best part.
You can grow anything here, except blueberries.

If you know the name of the town your looking at, I'll be able to add more .....

Kris

 

[jillianjiggs]

Well, everything I was going to add is here. It's expensive. Jobs are hard to find, and employers want a receptionist with a BA and 10 years experience for $8.00 an hour. Prices used to be affordable at least, but since we've seen an influx of bay area residents in the past few years, a small one bedroom apartment goes for $1000 in the Sacramento area. It's so bad that my fiance and I are living in my mom's garage trying to ferret away enough money for a place.

It's relatively mild in the winter time, with the occasional tornado or flash flood. The winter is pretty mild. It's 77* at 2pm here, and we've had record breaking temperatures the past few weeks. It's gotten up to 87*, and it wasn't even officially spring yet! Normally it's in the 60's-low 70's with the occasional rain and some wind. It gets HOT during the summer, with it being over 100* most days from May until at least August. Last year we got 100* temperature days well into October. Normally it cools down after August, though.

That said, it's beautiful here and there is a lot to do recreationally. That is, until most of our parks close this year due to a 5 million dollar budget cut-back in Sacramento County alone. We're part of a grassroots movement to save a 400 acre working ranch/park two blocks from here. Unless God sends a miracle, the entire park will close this June. I like it here, I like the scenery. I'd leave if it weren't for my family, though.

 

[Pops Black]

Suze, Don’t come here!

It is the best place in the world –great weather, beautiful mountains, sand beaches, and high dessert.

But:

36 million people, with a good percentage willing to take what you have…

the population is increasing by 8 million per year…

all those people want the same easy TV life you are thinking about. (No offense intended)

I’ve lived here all my life - in the central valley, south of Sac. It used to be a great place until the “city” came to town.

I’m moving where the tornadoes blow, the rain doesn’t fall except for the T-storms.

I’ll take it and like it.

My opinion only.

Pops

 

[Hank - Narita]

DH was born in CA and finally moved to AZ. We love it and prices are cheap. Not many people either and no sirens to worry about. Come out west for a vacation and check out different areas. Jobs are another consideration. DH's son lives in the mountains above Redding. He doesn't like the heat of the valley. Maybe a trial renting period or camping is what you need to do.

 

[jerneeon]

California sucks, Suze...

 

[bearkiller]

Suze,

Do NOT listen to all those sorry comments you've just read. They are all a bunch of jealous naysayers espousing the usual "Welcome to California, Now GO HOME" line of drivel. NONE, and I emphasise, NONE, of the comments above has come from anybody who lives in NORTHERN CA. NORTHERN CA has a low population. Trinity has only 13,000 residents, the second smallest population in a CA county. Humboldt is bigger, maybe 75,000 and most of them in Arcata-Eureka area

For those of us who DO live in NORTHERN CA we consider Lost Angeles BEGINS at Highway 20 (look at a road map.) Jillian Jiggs is down in Excremento where reside all the Socialist jerks that have turned this state into the People's Republic. She's right! A good place to be from!!!!!

Suze, you have not said anything about what you like so here are some options. If you like hot summers, cold winters and dry conditions try the high desert in Lassen and Modoc Counties. Too nasty for me!

If you like four seasons, warm to hot summers, mild winters with little to no snow, and growing conditions suitable for year round gardening with a few easy conditions try Trinity, Siskiyou, or even Shasta Counties. Siskiyou is wetter and Trinity is drier. Personally, my homestead is in Trinity County on the Trinity River, but when I get fed up with the heat or the homestead, I drive "over the hill" into Humboldt County and the summer long high overcast conditions that means the record heatwave was 78 F or so and go fishing. Not that far!

If you can't deal with the summer heat, like the ocean, and can put up with the afternoon winds, try going behind the Redwood Curtain into Humboldt or Del Norte Counties.

One of the very best kept secrets of NORTHERN CA is the little valley along highway 36 just east of Rohnerville. It is protected from those determined afternoon winds, yet is close to the coast, has plenty of water, but not enough to drown you, is warm enough to grow anything, snow is so rare I've seen it only twice in a long lifetime.

As everyone has mentioned land is expensive, but then that is the price we all get to pay for Mr. Magoo Greenspan destroying our dollar by printing so many of them. Pass them on quickly to those who are foolish to want to collect them and get yourself in the hard money crowd.

As also mentioned Redding can be most ugly in summer time. When you find ALL the cows hiding in the shade of trees at 0700 hours you know the day will not be kind and gentle. Those are times to head for the Redwood Curtain!

I've only just touched on the high points. There is MUCH to recommend NORTHERN CA as a place to live. If you want more, just ask.

bearkiller

 

[mzzlisa]

I moved from Plumas County in N. CA 6 years ago and don't regret it one bit! I lived in very small town for most of my life and yes, the area is wonderful, but there are NO JOBS! If you need to make a living, you don't want to move there. There isn't much industry now that logging has been severely curtailed. Unemployment in the winter is astronomical! Beautiful place, but being in California, the cost of living is high. Right now, gas is over 2.00 a gallon and its been that way for awhile. And the drought has been going on for years. I lived there most of my life, and I rarely remember a year when we could water as often as we wanted to.
But if you're bound and determined to move there, try Quincy in Plumas Co. or Susanville in Lassen Co. They are larger towns with a bit more industry. Land in Susanville is somewhat lower in price since its next to the desert. Good Luck!

 

[lacyj]

I'm in lower, northern CA, I love it, don't ever want to move. It is expensive tho.
I'm out of work and looking at having to take a low paying job. If I'm willing to commute again, I can make money.
I'm in the Mother Lode and there are still some reasonably priced properties, but they're above the snow line. Very rural and jobs are tough to find. Check out Calaveras County or Amador County, they're are fairly close to the BIG cities, yet low populations.
lacyj

 

[Lt. Wombat]

Hi Suze, my dad just sold his little 41 acre ranch in Siskiyou county for $1.39 million ... that's million with an M! Nothing special other than it had 2 wells, 2300 sf house and was totally fenced with 14' chain link.

He was floored when it sold so high. They started it at $600k, at auction, and it was at 1.3 within minutes to a family that got burned out in the San Bernardino fires.

 

[jerneeon]

I lived in California for eleven years, I still say California, as a whole, sucks...

 

[Suze]

Thank you for all your information on Northern California. I was looking for basic information to use as a starting point. Right now we get about 60 inches of snow in the winter and many days below zero. Anything milder is great and I do like having four seasons. I am looking for someplace without alot of mosquitos or tics. I can't even go outside without spraying myself down during the summer. Thanks again.

 

[lacyj]

We have mosquitos and ticks:
The mosquitos are the little ones, that get you and you hardly ever, see them...
The ticks, usually end up on the dogs, not to often on us...
lacyj
3rd generation CA, there are 6 generations of us now...

 

[Hank - Narita]

Our son lives in Lewiston and jobs are hard to find. The area is beautiful. It does snow and kind of remote. We used to live in Crescent City near the border. Property was cheap but not now with the prison in town. Glad we moved as the noise from the guard towers and the yard lights were annoying. Then the rain was almost constant; 100 inches a year.

 

[henny]

I lived in CA for 36 years and only I moved away to marry my DH. CA is a huge state that has 7 different climate zones! There is indeed something for everyone, but frankly I don't think you'll find your answers here. You need to visit the state, look at realty sites on the web, read about unemployment rates, contact the wonderful CA Ag Extension service for advice about growing seasons, rainfall, etc. California has much to offer, but you have to see if it fits your needs. Anyone who says California s***s obviously spent too much time in the city and didn't try to find their niche in the state. California isn't paradise, but there are so many places that are pretty close to being Paradise . I know that some day I will move back.

Henny

 

[Jack in VA]

Unless your 160 acres is worth well over a million dollars , don't expect to get much over a few acres in a remote jobless area. One of the best places on Earth to live.........50 years ago.

 

[RAC]

If you want to live within 1-2 hours of the coast, have lots of money, but don't expect to get much for it. 3/4 of all Californians live near the coast.

Southern CA is very smoggy--the Los Angeles and Riverside-San Bernardino areas regularly show up in the "top 5" lists of smoggiest areas in the country. Lots of traffic and very bad public transportation.

SF Bay Area--beautiful, but unless you are really wealthy (not just upper middle class working well-off, more like trust fund rich) or are on welfare, you can't touch anything decent. On the other hand, in SF proper you really do NOT need to own a car to get around. Good thing, too, because parking, insurance, gas, bridge tolls, etc. are expensive.

See if you can find some friends/relatives to visit with over there and stay for 2-3 months if you can.

California is great IF you bought your house prior to 1978 (before Prop. 13 passed) and kept it all these years. If someone leaves you a house in a will, it will be reassessed at current values, and you will no doubt have to get a mortgage on it just to pay the tax bills (this is only a slight exaggeration, btw, depending on where the house was located).

Bearkiller is right, there are some nice areas in the region that he mentioned, but there are also a lot of criminal types up there--growing pot in the state forests type of thing, for example, and a dearth of law enforcement to deal with it.

 

[jerneeon]

I lived all over the state and can say it sucks.

 

[Surveyorwill]

Having been born and raised in Rural Northern California, then spending time in the mid-west, on the east coast, and in the Rocky Mountains I can tell you there is no where like the north state, and was happy to come home again after 10 years of being away. I am not as far north as I might like to be, but as others have pointed out not a lot of good paying jobs up that way, and if your looking to farm then you may not be worried about that anyway.

As mentioned before there are many different climates relatively close to each other, personally I would stay out of the north valley, it’s hot and its dry, but that really is only a small portion of the area. Lots of farming and farm land in the northeast corner of the state, which is all high desert, so some snow (not as much as you get now I’m sure) the summers do get hot but not as bad as the north valley, and lots of open areas, if you need more info feel free to contact me.

On a side note: Dave, I don’t think Bearkiller’s comments were so disparaging, just stating an opinion from a true Northern Californian’s perspective. I grew up in a small rural town about 100 miles north of Sacramento in the Sierra Nevada Foothills. As I grew, I watched this small, close community become over run by those with that very attitude, “I have mine now, so stay away”, or “I have mine now, so if you want some you’ll have to pay” and the majority of those people came from south of Highway 20. Oh, and Jerneeon, I have been all over California, North of Sacramento and contrary to what you may have seen or experienced, not everywhere sucks just the sucky parts, just like anywhere else.

I apologize for breaking away from the original theme of the thread, just needed to vent a little on from an old soapbox.