north of santa ana

NEW -> Contingent Buyer Assistance Program
Late 1990's. Paso was beautiful. The earthquake really hurt the town. It was old, quaint, peaceful, yet modern and chic at the same time. I was offered a job at a winery doing the same thing I did for the table grape farm I worked at. The pay was 10% less than what I could make in my old job and housing was 3-3.5x per foot compared to Bakersfield. I took a pass.



I grew up not far from Paso. Trust me, a police officer and a school teacher are the two highest paid employees in town. And that's another problem - SLO county has the highest percentage of civil service employees of any county in the state. There is no there there. Once you get out of high school, you have to move. You can only wait tables for so long. Did you see my comment on them closing schools?



I was last there exactly one year ago. My favorite French resturant on the planet is caddy corner from the park on the North East Side. It survived the earthquake.



http://events.sanluisobispo.com/paso-robles-ca/venues/show/726656-bistro-laurent



My mom gets her hair done at a salon that used to be next to McClintocks. My wife's best friend from High School lives in the area.



San Miguel is (or was) the gem of the California missions. Still an operating church untill the earthquake, it was scheduled for retrofit untill mother nature decided it wasn't to be. It was really beautiful in that it was pretty remote and totally unrestored.



Paso is still a lovely town, but it will never be as lovely as it was right before the earthquake. SLO sucks. Santa Maria is working class but charming in its own way. I gotta go eat dinner.
 
SLO County = dying if it weren't for the tourists from LA and the San Joaquin Valley (and the students who almost always leave the area after graduation because the job market sucks so bad and employers won't pay decent wages).



Paso Robles - part of North County (not as well thought of as other parts of the County by locals). Mostly a town that people from the Valley go through when they are on their way to Cambria, SLO, or Pismo. Becoming more popular for wine tours. Gang problems in this town.



Atascadero - where the State Hospital is. Enough said.



San Simeon and Cambria - filled with tourists during the summer who spend money on artsy stuff and overpriced homes (if they decide to retire there), and Hearst Castle.



Morro Bay and Los Osos - Morro Bay is still going because of tourists, but the fishing industry has been barely hanging on for a long time. Los Osos is going to be taxed to death because of the development and installation of the most expensive sewer system ever built in the United States being crammed down the residents' throats.



SLO - There used to be no "big box" stores there; now it's lost most of it's small-town charm. A lot of locals don't find it charming anymore in the least. Mostly a tourist trap place and a hangout for drunken students who leave every summer and leave permanently after they graduate. Many people can't afford to live in SLO unless they work for the university, the city, county, or the state gov't (prison or above-mentioned hospital for the criminally insane and sex offenders), or at Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant.



Five Cities area (Pismo, Arroyo Grande, Avila Beach, Shell Beach, Grover Beach) - survives on summer tourism. The area has some very expensive (for the County) homes that are mainly purchased by cashed-out retirees from the Valley and the LA area.



South of that (Oceano, etc.) is too close to Santa Maria and people don't want to live there. Big gang problems.



No_vas is right. A lot of schools in SLO County have closed over the years. Only the privileged few can afford to raise a family there - you have to own a business or work for the gov't in some way. The kids that stay there will never own their own homes or make enough money to really live a decent life. Also, there are a lot of street drugs in the County - I guess it's one way to either make some extra money or cope with your crummy life. Definitely not a "healthy" bunch of communities.
 
Absolutely love Bistro Laurent, but I also can't get enough of Villa Creek. Buona Tavola was better than expected. Enjoyed Artisan, but we always go back to Bistro and Villa instead.



Atascadero - where the State Hospital is. Enough said. -



Big House red, white and pink :) Actually, the square down there hasn't gotten nicer too, but it's the home depot there that has taken most of my atascadero time.



N of 26th is nasty, but you will not see any gangs down town these days. There's a gal at Rabbit Ridge who went CSULB and moved back to Paso a year after graduation. Gotten a few promotions, but still not making much for COL, but she wanted to be back in Paso. The job thing is tough... it's the reason I left my home town of Santa Cruz.
 
[quote author="Trooper" date=1215591692]<em>"A police officer married to a school teacher can afford an SFR in Paso"</em>



OK, now I just need to find myself a teacher ! (.....but not hs_teacher.....) ;-)</blockquote>


I recall a gal at Orchid Hill's tasting room telling us how well the red necks have embraced the transformation of the town. She said that they aren't even bothered by gays. It's still red state territory, but I thought it was pretty cool that red necks could become progressive.
 
[quote author="stepping_up" date=1215597027]I thought it was pretty cool that red necks could become progressive.</blockquote>


Yeah, now they marry other rednecks outside of their families :-P



Actually, SLO County is not all the progressive, especially N. County. A lot of residents go to Vineyard and other ultra-christian churches. Ever been to Gay Pride at the Mission in SLO? Even there, many gays and lesbians are still afraid of holding hands or showing any affection. The County is still very small-townish in many ways and word gets around quickly about someone who might be outside what they consider the norm.
 
[quote author="stepping_up" date=1215597027][quote author="Trooper" date=1215591692]<em>"A police officer married to a school teacher can afford an SFR in Paso"</em>



OK, now I just need to find myself a teacher ! (.....but not hs_teacher.....) ;-)</blockquote>


I recall a gal at Orchid Hill's tasting room telling us how well the red necks have embraced the transformation of the town. She said that they aren't even bothered by gays. It's still red state territory, but I thought it was pretty cool that red necks could become progressive.</blockquote>


Don't believe the hype. And absolutely don't say I didn't warn you. They want your money but don't want your 'kind'. I'm absolutely not defending it but it is what it is.
 
[quote author="no_vaseline" date=1215599440]Don't believe the hype. And absolutely don't say I didn't warn you. They want your money but don't want your 'kind'. I'm absolutely not defending it but it is what it is.</blockquote>


Yeah, but don't worry. The locals treat everyone like that. They want the dollars but like it better when everyone leaves, whether it be a tourist or a student.
 
They wrote a ticket to our waiter at BL for "not having adaquate lighting on his bicycle" (he had a taillight and a headlight). Which to me is code for "you're too poor, GTFO of our town." Upon further proding, they had written the same ticket to two other staff of the resturant who were Mexican and too poor to own a car.
 
I recall during the Christmas walk downtown meeting the redneck boyfriend of the interior designer right on 12th street and thinking, wow, these old time local men really are not what I expected. I get a genuine sense of welcome there, not the ''we want your money" attitude ala Mexico. I'll go into Ace Hardware and have people come up and say hello who remember meeting us. It reminds me of how small and intimate Santa Cruz was.
 
It's much more underhanded and subversive. Frankly, the people are polite to a fault. Santa Cruz is cozy. I wouldn't describe Paso as cozy. Maybe incestious.



And I like the place! What a sick bastard I am.
 
Lively downtowns in Socal? I can think of quite a few: Orange, Fullerton, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, Seal Beach, Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, Santa Monica, West Hollywood. Arguably Corona.



The redevelopment projects tend to fail because what works for a downtownish region is a good mix of housing and entertainment. You need either employment or a big recreational draw too (notice lots of beach communities on the list). Redevelopment tends to emphasize stadiums, skyscrapers, government offices, or professional schools, which are either occasional use or daytime use. There's no good reason to *live* within walking distance of such places, so they don't revitalize the neighborhoods.



There have been some worthwhile mixed-use attempts lately but they've had two problems. First, the live-work residences always have the garages on the first floor, which makes the "work" space unusable for commercial purposes. Second, they've been going up in the housing bubble and the prices have been beyond outrageous. I like City Place in Santa Ana but the original prices were INSANE. A million bucks for a 2000 sq. ft. townhouse? Even now their prices are laughable.
 
I don't know how this became a discussion of SLO county, but it is interesting.



When this housing bear bottoms out - and I'm as inclined to believe 2022 as a better date for that than 2010, for a few reasons... won't there be a stampede of retirees to SLO and SB county? Carmel won't be any cheaper. There must be a good way to invest around this trend.
 
From my observation, you will always have an exedus of retirees to the central coast from Norcal and Socal. The driving factor?



Driving.



If you get too old to hack the traffic down here, head there. Nobody drives more than 3 over the speed limit - EVER. Pay attention to the blue hair contingent there next time you're in the neighborhood. It only happens when property values skyrocket here. Prospective retirees can cash out and head out. IMO the "nearly dead" money is what drives property values there, because you certainly can't get a job (with enough) that will support housing prices there.



This topic deserves it's own thread.
 
I've wondered about some lots in Cambria. They have a major water issue, so they don't issue many new permits. There is a long waiting list for the ones allotted. There are lots with ocean views for exceptional prices. If they aren't on the waiting list for a water permit, they are dirt cheap. The further down the list, the less expensive. I've seen some for $75K, but not sure how long it will take before the permit is given. I've seen permits alone selling for around $200K. There is talk about a desalination plant, which would resolve the water issue, but there is a lot of protest. If it goes through, the prices of these lots will skyrocket.



I've seriously considered moving some IRA money into a self directed to buy one of the ocean view lots at the tail end of the permit wait list and eventually when it comes up, being able to build our retirement home on it. The biggest reason I haven't gotten more serious about it is that it would have us so heavily weighted in RE.
 
I've researched a bit into Cambria, though it is a bit unusual in that one operation seems to control almost all of the vacation rentals, and these rentals are a pretty gigantic chunk of the inventory. It may be a bit too remote for the ideal oldster retirement crowd in terms of healthcare. Who knows, perhaps in thirty years, Guadalupe and Lompoc will be 'upscale'.
 
[quote author="Hormiguero" date=1215659172]Who knows, perhaps in thirty years, Guadalupe and Lompoc will be 'upscale'.</blockquote>


Doubt it. Another area with big-time gang problems
 
[quote author="stepping_up" date=1215656807]I've wondered about some lots in Cambria. They have a major water issue, so they don't issue many new permits. There is a long waiting list for the ones allotted. There are lots with ocean views for exceptional prices. If they aren't on the waiting list for a water permit, they are dirt cheap. The further down the list, the less expensive. I've seen some for $75K, but not sure how long it will take before the permit is given. I've seen permits alone selling for around $200K. There is talk about a desalination plant, which would resolve the water issue, but there is a lot of protest. If it goes through, the prices of these lots will skyrocket. </blockquote>


In the past, it has taken lot owners <strong>years</strong> to get a permit. They are very limited in number. That's why they are so expensive. Also, if the desal plant ever gets going, it will take a very long time for it to get online, especially since the residents are protesting it.
 
We wouldn't be wanting to build on it for 20 years, so that's why I thought it might be prudent to get one now. The idea was to build our retirement house on it. $75K with an ocean view and a long wait seemed like it could be a good thing for us.
 
[quote author="stepping_up" date=1215662256]We wouldn't be wanting to build on it for 20 years, so that's why I thought it might be prudent to get one now. The idea was to build our retirement house on it. $75K with an ocean view and a long wait seemed like it could be a good thing for us.</blockquote>


If I had $75k, that I would be comfortable tying up for 20 years, then I would buy a lot there in a heartbeat. Mmmm... that just gave me an idea.
 
One seems to pay a big premium for a low water #. Good luck finding a two-digit water # and a five-digit lot price.



..and, of course, you wouldn't just be sitting on it - you would be paying property tax, I imagine. Unimproved Land is almost always a horrible investment, as far as I can gather.
 
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