I will have to say that with the combination of the ocean, mountains and beauty, if there was a place in the US that I could live without worrying about costs, Santa Barbara is it. But unfortunately, I think my home there would be more around $5M or more.
I've lived in a lot of different cities (Seattle Washington, Portland Oregon, San Jose Calif, Los Angeles Calif, Tulsa Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, Wichita Kansas, Savannah Georgia, Phoenix Arizona) and a few others if I thought about it long enough. I did a little time in Raleigh/Durham area. Beautiful place, great food, decent economy, reasonable cost of living. But I have NEVER seen so many bugs in my life. You literally have to stop your car every 20 miles or so to scrap them off your window and headlights. There were moths the size of ravens. Beetles the size of my fist. Spiders that still give me the chills. Other than that the place was great. Phoenix is by far the nicest place I've ever lived.
I've also lived in several of these places. Can't understand how you'd pick Phoenix over San Jose, or even Portland with the rain. Of course I don't refer to SJ proper, but towns right next to it like Los Gatos. Extremely cool, and perfect weather most of the time. Bloody expensive though. Among the worst in the States in that category. I spent two years in Phoenix for some schooling. Ouch. For 5 months of the year I had to stay indoors it was so bloody hot. Traffic there is getting bad now as well. Grew too fast. Back to the subject of the thread. I would live in Avon, NC if I would ever consider the East Coast (which I wouldn't due to the humidity which is a killer for a western native). The place has some of the finest water sports around, but is smack in the hurricane zone. The windsurfers actually like that. I would be in Asheville if I was more of a mountain guy. Pretty town and area in general. Jay
I lived in Saratoga, right next to Los Gatos. The traffic was taking up half my life. It took me an hour to get to work, which was 9 miles away!!! You have to shell out $800 thousand for 2 bedroom cottage with one bathroom. Taxes are nose-bleed in California. Portland? It never STOPPED raining. I'd rather be hot 5 months out of the year than wet for 10 months. At least we have choices here in America.
What would you estimate the costs to build a top quality, eg all brick, wood floors,etc, house, excluding land? My only reference is looking at houses for sale and doing the math, but they of course include land, which varies a lot more than the cost of construction.
Well, everyone's idea of top quality is different. I know that generally, in the construction cost range of $95/sq.ft., you can get hardwood floors, Brick or Hardy Plank (which is a concrete type siding that looks like wood, but without the rot or upkeep), fireplace, unfinished and floored full walk-up attic, tile kitchen and baths, dual HVAC, built in closet shelving and drawers, 30yr shingles, plywood sheathing (as opposed to gypsum), granite kitchen counters with lots of cabinets, etc. If you have any specific things in mind, let me know and I can tell you if they'd be considered standard or an upgrade. Of course, if you go with a non-custom builder like KBH or someone, you can get a lower/sqft price (like $75-$80), but have corian as opposed to granite, vinyl siding as opposed to Hardy Plank or brick, etc. Oh yeah, and be stuck on a postage stamp lot of a 1/3 of an acre or less! Cash
Santa Barbara always gets on everyone's list of approved places to live - but few of us have Oprah's buying power I guess. Interesting reading this thread - virtually everywhere in the country involves some sort of weather compromise (at least). You would think that it should be possible for us Americans to live year round without relying on artificial means to sustain us (either heating or cooling). Part of it is that we are all just too used to keeping our bodies at 78 degrees 24/7/365 versus 20 years ago when fans and/or sweaters had to suffice. But still, really, can many people live in places like Arizona or even Florida without A/C and survive? And of course, plenty of poor people die every year in the north east from exposure in winters. That Al Gore fellow is hard to argue with on this global warming issue. I live in the Boston area - just love visiting the south west national parks - thought of living there - can't get around the idea of the heat year round and all that brown. Winters here are brutal (IMHO) but compare that to rain (Seattle) heat (anywhere south of New York) cyclones, floods, bugs (N/S C), property taxes(Austin), crime rates, poor infrastructure...oh damn it, let's just all move to the Virgin Islands - it's got to be new and fresh there, right?
No weather compromise in San Diego. If near the beach, don't need heating or cooling really, unless you want the house absolutely perfect. Then there is Hawaii. Many homes upcountry Maui don't even have heating or cooling. It does actually get cold if you go too high though (Kula). Makawao, Pukalani, Haiku pretty much always perfect. House prices match the weather, as in perfectly absurd.
I grew up in Saratoga! Small world. Traffic there can get nasty. The trick is no rush hour, and then its not bad at all. I was just there a few weeks ago, and compared to most big cities that have traffic all the time, it was delightful. I took "17" from SJO to Santa Cruz at about ten am, 70 mph the whole way. Yep, its spendy alright. No arguement there.