Hobby Farm Living

[Spanky]

Grass Valley, California seems to a nice and quiet place for retirement. The climate is moderate. It has mountains and lakes. The cost of living is average. Check out this Christmas farm. It has 50 aches with water fall and creek.

If you can afford the price, would you consider it as a place for retirement?

[cube_rat]

Spanky - Grass Valley is a beautiful place. One of favorite places to visit. Nevada City which is up the road has great little shops. Interestingly enough, I met three shop owners a while back who are refugees from the corporate world in the bay area. They each had high paying, executive level jobs and decided to throw in the towel and exchanged their high flying lifestyles for some simple peace and quiet.

[SC]

I was there once and it was just beautiful, with lots of opportunities for outdoor recreation. I thought it was great except for the cost.

A friend of mine has lived there for about ten years. He loves the climate and the location, but complains that people there are greedy, evil SOB's compared to the midwest. He's planning to move to Colorado.

[Spanky]

Originally Posted by cube_rat

Spanky - Grass Valley is a beautiful place. One of favorite places to visit. Nevada City which is up the road has great little shops. Interestingly enough, I met three shop owners a while back who are refugees from the corporate world in the bay area. They each had high paying, executive level jobs and decided to throw in the towel and exchanged their high flying lifestyles for some simple peace and quiet.

They probably never look back to the corporate lives.

[Spanky]

Originally Posted by sc

I was there once and it was just beautiful, with lots of opportunities for outdoor recreation. I thought it was great except for the cost.

A friend of mine has lived there for about ten years. He loves the climate and the location, but complains that people there are greedy, evil SOB's compared to the midwest. He's planning to move to Colorado.

My brother lives in Boulder and really enjoys it.

[Want2retire]

Originally Posted by Spanky

Grass Valley, California seems to a nice and quiet place for retirement. The climate is moderate. It has mountains and lakes. The cost of living is average. Check out this Christmas farm. It has 50 aches with water fall and creek.

If you can afford the price, would you consider it as a place for retirement?

I would love to live in Grass Valley if I could afford it. I haven't been there since 1970 or so, so I am basing that opinion on the Grass Valley of 37 years ago.

I am not so sure about living on that Christmas tree farm!! Maybe it would be hard to get in and out of there in the winter. Since we're daydreaming, I'd rather daydream that I could afford whatever place I wanted in Grass Valley, and go from there.

[Spanky]

Originally Posted by Want2retire

I would love to live in Grass Valley if I could afford it. I haven't been there since 1970 or so, so I am basing that opinion on the Grass Valley of 37 years ago.

I am not so sure about living on that Christmas tree farm!! Maybe it would be hard to get in and out of there in the winter. Since we're daydreaming, I'd rather daydream that I could afford whatever place I wanted in Grass Valley, and go from there.

I guess the cost of housing has risen over 25% since last year. The median home value in Grass Valley, CA, is $439,000. It's not exactly affordable.

The Christmas farm is very pretty, but not a practical place to live since it may require a lot of maintenance and may be inconvenient to get in and out as you mentioned.

[mb]

Originally Posted by Spanky

I guess the cost of housing has risen over 25% since last year. The median home value in Grass Valley, CA, is $439,000. It's not exactly affordable.

Yeh, but still cheap compared to the Bay Area and that is where many of the new arrivals are coming from.

I have been thinking about the Sierra foothills as a possible retirement location. I don't like the heat in the valley in the summer and I don't want to deal with the snow and cold in the winter. I have been wondering if there is an optimum location (maybe 2000' or so) where you can avoid both the heat in the summer and the cold in the winter?

Doesn't Grass Valley get pretty hot in the summmer?

MB

[Jarhead*]

Originally Posted by mb

Yeh, but still cheap compared to the Bay Area and that is where many of the new arrivals are coming from.

I have been thinking about the Sierra foothills as a possible retirement location. I don't like the heat in the valley in the summer and I don't want to deal with the snow and cold in the winter. I have been wondering if there is an optimum location (maybe 2000' or so) where you can avoid both the heat in the summer and the cold in the winter?

Doesn't Grass Valley get pretty hot in the summmer?

MB

MB: 1,800 to 2,000 elevation puts you above the "Tule" Fog that during the winter is pretty common in the central valley of Calif. Also , except for very rare occassions, under the snow line.

As far as heat is concerned, a slight break there, but only about 6 degrees less during the summer. (But it's a dry heat).

All in all, probably the best climate available in Calif., with the possible exception of living on the coast. (I personally prefer it to the coast because the low humidity summer heat suits me better.)

Pretty hard to beat.

[Donzo]

Placerville or the Auburn area of the foothills are a good elevation. You don't get the valley fog, some snow that melts quickly, no smog and cooler summers. Both are big enough to have all you need locally.

[Spanky]

Originally Posted by Jarhead*

All in all, probably the best climate available in Calif., with the possible exception of living on the coast. (I personally prefer it to the coast because the low humidity summer heat suits me better.)

Pretty hard to beat.

My sister lives in Alameda. As you said, the weather is very hard to beat. I also like Oceanside, CA. The weather is pretty the same all year long - dry and warm.

[Spanky]

Here are some photos of Nevada county, CA. It seems to be a nice place for retirement, albeit not cheap.