Hello Californians. I live in Virginia, and this has nothing to do . . .

[frankly_fedup2]

with politics.

I have been wanting to relocate to CA; however, I am on disability. I get $920 a month. (Woohoo).

Is there any place decent and SAFE near LA where I could live without a room mate and not live in subsidized housing? Seriously?

[doodadem]

1. Near L.A.? Doubtful........

The reasonable places to live in Calif. are rural and small towns. We bought a beautiful 40 acre ranch in eastern Calif. in the mountains, for less than we could have bought same amount of acreage in the midwest.
I'd suggest going to some websites like Homefair. com or MSN's reloe site, and doing some cost of living comparisons. You can plug in where you are now and current income, and where you want to go, and it will calculate how much you need in income for the new locale just to maintain.

[frankly_fedup2]

2. Thanks so much . . . will do.

I don't want to live in the city, yet I could not live out in the Mountains either, but I don't want a long drive to LA. Does that make any sense?????

Thanks again doodadem.

[tubbacheez]

3. Check craigslist for typical rents in these areas.

Orange Co. is south of L.A. by about 1 hr. Home of Disneyland and California conservatives.
http://orangecounty.craigslist.org/



Here's the L.A. metro area itself.
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/



Santa Barbara is about 90 min. up the coast from L.A.
http://santabarbara.craigslist.org/



San Diego is about 3 hrs south of L.A., near the border.
http://sandiego.craigslist.org/



Stockton is in Northern California, in the Central Valley. It was rural, but has recently become a high-growth area.
http://stockton.craigslist.org/




The San Francisco Bay Area is home to Craigslist.
http://www.craigslist.org/

[shanti]

4. hey you forgot sacramento!

but included stockton. :grr: sacramento's COL is not as good as it used to be, but is tons better than the bay area or so cal.

[tubbacheez]

5. sorry sorry, my bad. got tired of typing.

it was not supposed to be a commentary on the relative importance of California cities and their attendant populations.

plus, the OP was interested in L.A. i thought stockton was far enough north.








but by all means, please tell the OP what rent is like in sacto.

[frankly_fedup2]

10. I really appreciate all of your comments. Thanks for taking a little time

out of your day to give me some ideas.

I really would like to just rent a room or something to that extent. I don't know about sharing rent in an apartment with people I don't even know. I don't want to live with someone I don't even know when I don't even know the area I just moved to. Plus, I want a low-crime area.

I wish I could work. I miss it so much. I made $35,000.00 a year and now get $11,000.00. I had my own business and worked out of my home. Then I got sick and lost everything. My medication alone is more then my disability check. I have unbelievable insurance now through my husband's company. Health, Eye, Dental, and Prescription and it doesn't cost us a dime. We just pay a $10 copay unless I see a specialist and then I pay $15. So I would be losing that but I could get Medicare but it's $65 a month automatically taken out of my check. Due to my husband's income now, they take taxes out of my check as well. However, if we were no longer together, I don't think any taxes would be taken out. I do know they take out for the Medicare though.

I don't want to live in subsidized housing because I figure in a city, it would be a high-crime area. We really don't have any crime around here, so I am rather apprehensive about that.

I'm unhappy where I am and want a new environment. I really don't know what to expect in a large city such as L.A. With my health, I couldn't handle too much excitement anyway.

Well I quit my sad :nopity: and check into the possibilities you all pointed out to me. I have never lived anywhere but here since I was 4 and that was 41 years ago.

You've all been very helpful. Again, thanks for the help.

[robertarctor]

7. As a Sacto resident who grew up in Stockton

I'll take Sacramento over Stockton any day. Much more culture, better restaurants, better vibe, and a lot less of that gangland craziness. Cost of living's a bit more, but it's a much better place.

And stay away from the mountain towns, and some of the valley towns too. Too much meth abuse has turned some places (like Quincy in Plumas County) into something resembling 'Night of the Living Dead.' Of course, some people might find the idea of living in a zombie movie to be pretty cool ...

[shanti]

9. understood

the influx of ex-bay area people into sac has been an improvement, imo. this is the seat of state government, so the powers that be won't allow sac to get too rundown. it's also raising the rents in midtown, as a friend who lives there told me.

i grew up in orange county. sac is a huge difference, but the traffic is beginning to resemble oc's:-(

another area that is overrun with tweakers is marysville, not too far from quincy. there are few jobs and nothing to do and in those little towns but get high, and many do. lot of right wingers too and also infested with gangs and racists. i like to limit my time in those areas.

peace!

[Xithras]

11. Ack, stay away from Stockton!

Stockton is a very high crime area, and most of that new growth is in gated communities. It's had serious gang and drug problems as long as I can remember. In some ways, it's like Detroit or the northeastern mill cities...Stockton was a huge port and industrial town from the 1800's, but the industry left, the military left, most of the shipping left, and nearly all of the cities wealthy and middle class residents left starting in the 1950's. By the 1980's Stockton was simply an empty shell of an industrial city filled with people too poor to move elsewhere. The new growth has injected some new economic life into the city, but most of it is still incredibly run down and isn't an area you'd want to live in.

One unfortunate side effect of this is that many of the ghetto bangers getting gentrified out of Oakland, SF, and Palo Alto are ending up in Stockton because it has some of the cheapest real estate in Northern California. This just intensifies the gang fighting and drives crime up even higher.

The new development is primarily along the I5 corridor to the north and south of the city, and the homes are primarily being bought by commuters who drive into Sacramento or the Bay Area for their needs and don't want to "deal" with Stockton.

[lwin]

6. Sorry...in a word...

No. The cost of housing is sky high in SoCal. You couldn't rent a garage in Watts for under $1,000. Then you have the cost of transportation. You cannot do without a car in SoCal (our mass transit sucks), and gas is currently $2.50 a gallon, for the lowest grade.

[Helga Scow Stern]

8. You might want to check out Ojai.

It is increasing in cost daily, but there are still deals to be found--guest houses or a room, maybe even an apartment for most of your disability check. It is still beautiful here, and more and more live here and work in LA, or go to LA for city life. We also have Santa Barbara and Ventura nearby.

Once people come to Ojai, they often want to live here for some reason.

[democracyindanger]

12. Remember that cost of living is going to be higher in CA, too

Food, gas, sales tax, etc. Just something to keep in mind when doing the calculations.