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by abathur
1136 days ago
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> I'm one of the few people I know that has actually built a new house on raw land in the Santa Cruz Mountains in the last 10 years. It took me nearly 3 years for permits alone for an 1100 sq ft single story SFH built on flat ground near a public highway. How much did this set you back? I assume you're still living there? How have the fire seasons affected your insurance and sense of the area's longer-term viability? (I'm not in CA, but the redwoods have been stuck in my head for a while now. I've spent a lot of time daydreaming about moving to a few places including SLV.) |
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Some of the homes in my neighborhood (much older but roughly the same size) have gone for $700K-$800K recently, so new construction isn't much different in cost either way.
It just takes years to build.
I'm a software developer, and many familiar with Silicon Valley home prices will look at the SC Mountains and see immediate 50% or more reductions in house prices and just think they have discovered a real life cheat code to home ownership in coastal California.
It helps to like rain, yard work and chain sawing up large trees that fall after strong windstorms, doing one's own home/car repairs, and have a generator for the weeks long power outages. This isn't the type of area where contractors are thick on the ground and ready to work at a moment's notice. All of my neighbors do their own repairs. Public road closures after winter storms are common.
So the price differences between Silicon Valley and the SC Mountains reflect a lot more than just distance from one's favorite amenities.
I'm not being snarky, btw: I love it here.
Everything is a calculated risk and some people are just going to stay no matter what. Including me. And 3 of my neighbors who do their own work -- one remodeled his own house personally, where I used subcontractors to build mine -- work in the tech industry themselves. So the area does attract new residents.
It just takes more work than an average urban/suburban homeowner may expect or be used to.
With that said, in lots of the San Lorenzo Valley (like Felton) or adjacent areas like Scotts Valley one can have a pretty comfy small town living and still feel like one is in the redwoods.