Santa Cruz Real Estate - Current Rent and Land Costs

Today, I am going to delve head first into Santa Cruz area Real Estate costs, rentals and purchased and I will be including some links both here in the post and in the side bar.

First, let me tell you about a Real Estate Agent I have been watching for over a year now, Amber Floodman-Grewer of Coldwell Banker situated in Santa Cruz CA.

Her site is in my opinion, one of the single best Real Estate Websites out there. I have looked for property from New England, down to the Southeast where I am currently located and out to the west coast. If you are looking for great Properties and need a good experience doing so, I highly suggest going to this website first.

Now for a snapshot of sorts for what is available for my price range as far as purchasing land in Santa Cruz County, here is a list. MY search criteria is the following, must be under $500,000 and must have at least 4 bedrooms! My personal preference is somewhere north of the city of Santa Cruz. Now, no one in their right mind would turn down a great property in town, but I love the Redwood Forests too much to not be smothered in them for the rest of my life.
So via the search engine on the Coldwell-Banker website, I put in the area encompassing the areas of Ben Lomond, Felton, Lompico-Zayante and Boulder Creek.
If I use the additional search of "price-ascending", my first hit includes this lovely starter home -
MLS#: 736269
The price is $329,000.00. The house has 3 bedrooms, 1 full bath and 1 half bath. It's lot size is 11,804 sf, and best of all it has great views! And the Redwoods I love so much are everywhere! For me, the idea of waking every morning to the cool calm sounds of the woods is like heaven on earth!
So with a 10 percent down at 6.2% I would be looking at $1,814.00 a month. So, now I need to see how I can do with Rental Housing, can I get the same type of house for less than $2000.00 in this type of location?
Using the website Rentals.com, I put in the criteria of 3+ bedrooms, with a cost of $1,900 per month and included cats and dogs. No such luck, so I omitted the cats and dogs, and back came one hit - in Salinas! No thanks. It's not that I am trying to be totally picky, just want my trees near me.
Now I will run the same search using the Santa Cruz Sentinel Newspaper.
I found a 3 bedroom in Brookdale for $1500.00 per month, this is insane when buying and renting are almost equal in price!
I will have to address the fact that I will need a job that will pay me at least 30.00 an hour to be able to afford to live in Santa Cruz CA.
But that will have to wait for my next post! I will continue to hold out hope the my perfect job, and perfect home are only a search away.

Santa Cruz: A practical Plan for getting back home

Hello

I have been so busy lately with my 'other' interest * Jericho* that all my blogs have suffered. I will be spending more time here , I just have to go to bed later, and get up earlier right?

So, I need to formulate a plan, a plan for getting back to California. I know the normal things need to be included:

JOB
Enough money to last at least 9 months while I work
cheap place to rent as buying is out of the questions * unless God looks down on me, and helps me win the powerball lottery which is sitting at 300 Million right now!

JOB , oh... said that one already. I can't help it, its the most important thing in the list so far.
Now, what can I do? What are my talents?
I don't see many of my own talents, I just have a problem with doing that " make a list of your good points" stuff, but I see how I must do so now.
I am hoping to find something that I can do that will pay the rent.

I have been looking, the valley is OUT! For two reasons, one... hate it. Two... its just skyhigh for rents, I mean if I worked 2 jobs full time, that would not be enough money to live on. How do you valley folk do it anyway?

Next time I post, I hope to have some better ideas of how to get a job in Santa Cruz County. Pray I am successful in this.