Great Rural Towns in California to Retire or Buy a Home. - YouTube

What is going on everyone? Are you sick of  the city? Want to find a nice rural town get a  

mortgage and call it good? Who doesn't right today  we're looking at great rural towns in california  

yes they have some so close your mouth this is  the fifth video in this series we did the entire  

united states we did new hampshire montana and  tennessee was our last one today we're looking  

at the golden state a couple things about rural  california towns they rarely have jobs like most  

rural towns so you have to bring one or not need  one like retired or whatever and you'll want to  

look into getting solar panels for whatever house  you buy in california california gets a lot of sun  

and all the utilities in the golden state are  extremely high natural gas water and especially  

electricity with the towns in these videos we are  looking for that sweet spot a decent place to live  

that isn't too close to a major city it's easy on  the crime rate not five hours away from a hospital  

and not so far out in the sticks where you can't  get decent internet those things knock a lot of  

really nice small towns off these lists when you  don't have internet you can't work from home and  

if there's not a hospital doctor's office or  clinic or something nearby and you're getting  

up there in age not a great place for you to live  in the last video i explained that not all states  

have 10 good rural towns and i don't want to  waste your time with some places that are a reach  

and shouldn't really be on the list got it get it  good let's take a look at seven great rural towns  

in california number seven ferndale california  we start off in northern california and ferndale  

this is a part of the state that's called the  lost coast of california it's about a 30-minute  

drive south from eureka california the history  of this town is in the dairy industry ferndale is  

surrounded by a bunch of farmland near the mouth  of the eel river with forested foothills to its  

south this is a beautiful part of the state  and it's a beautiful small town it's got old  

victorian homes all over the place the downtown  looks like a freaking movie set housing here is  

up there houses here are expensive just like all  of california but in my opinion it's a little less  

than i expected for such a beautiful town so close  to the ocean there's currently nothing for sale in  

like downtown ferndale but on the outskirts you  have a couple places one's going for like 600 000  

then there's another one for about 500 000 with  a vacant lot for sale right now for 400 000. late  

last year and in february of this year they sold  a few homes for around 700 000 and that's normally  

what you could expect i would say right about now  to get something decent livable that's nice you'll  

be lucky if you find something that's a little bit  run down for under 400 000 in or around ferndale  

but it's california so it's to be expected we  keep getting comments whenever i say something  

is expensive like this and people nobody could  afford that and like i said in the last video  

yes people can't afford that if people couldn't  afford those prices they wouldn't be those prices  

some people can so ferndale gets a faded thumbs  up when it comes to real estate because they  

don't have a lot of options and when they do have  options it's pretty expensive like right now they  

have a home that's got 1700 acres and you could  see the ocean from the property and it's going for  

just under six million dollars when it comes to  the crime rate it's outstanding in ferndale it's  

31 lower than the national average so they get a  big thumbs up for that one and their internet is  

pretty decent and i'm surprised for being such  a small town out in the middle of nowhere they  

get 99 of the town is covered by sudden link which  they say you can get up to 940 megabits per second  

so that's solid when it comes to healthcare you  got a few options ferndale has a small community  

health center here which isn't terribly big but  about 20 minutes to the east of ferndale you have  

fortuna right across the eel river and they have  a couple places they have the providence redwood  

memorial hospital and they also have the fortuna  family medical group so you've got some options  

then if you need anything past that you can always  head up to eureka so they get a thumbs up when it  

comes to healthcare number six weaverville  california weaverville came to my attention  

from an email i'm getting ready to do a series  on small towns that need some new blood need  

some attention you know do our part to help save a  small town a lot of small towns are suffering and  

i got an email from a nice woman from weaverville  weaverville is one of those small towns that have  

everything it has the healthcare we need the  internet low crime fresh air good people i will  

be visiting there this summer and i'll give you  a more detailed explanation on what's going on  

weaverville but weaverville is about an hour west  of redding california and they have just under 4  

000 residents that enjoy a crime rate that's  30 percent lower than the national average so  

they get a thumbs up for that when it comes their  internet they have a few options you have velocity  

cable internet that gives about 150 megabytes per  second to almost 90 percent of the town it also  

says that they have dsl from frontier that covers  about 97 of the town with 50 mbps so i don't know  

frontier i thought they were going out of business  but apparently they're still here they were here  

near my home in oregon but now it's called ziply  or something like that i thought they got bought  

out but i guess not regardless always check before  you move to any small town and don't go off just  

what i'm saying about the internet because you can  get a house someplace that doesn't you know get  

internet from any of these companies so make sure  you check first like i said the crime rate here is  

solid it's 30 lower than the national average so  they get a thumbs up for that one their internet  

gets a thumbs up when it comes to healthcare they  have the trinity hospital which in my opinion is  

pretty good size for a town this small they also  have a couple different doctors offices they  

also have a dentist in town and an orthodontist  anything past that you just gotta head out to  

reading not too far away and reading's a good  size city and should have everything you need  

so they get a big thumbs up for their healthcare  the downtown is filled with cute little shops and  

like ferndale it looks like a movie set downtown  they got a brewing company called trinity county  

brewing mama llamas eatery and cafe new york  saloon that sounds fun and the red dragon chinese  

place so they got everything you need here unlike  ferndale it is affordable to buy places here they  

have a bunch of places that look decent livable  and ready to move in in between 250 and 350 000  

dollars which isn't terrible now they do have  some places that are little outside of town with a  

little bit of property that go for upwards of like  800 000 on up you can also grab lots of land that  

go for as low as 30 000 up to i think one was like  140 000 just for a plot of land so they get a big  

thumbs up for real estate because you got a lot  of options here this is a nice town you got a lake  

which is drying up right now because all lakes in  california are drying up but you have trinity lake  

right down the road which is nice weaverville  has a little less than 4 thousand residents  

number five cambria california cambria is a  seaside town in california between monterey and  

santa barbara along highway one this is one of the  greatest road trips you can ever take up highway 1  

the ocean's right there on the left 90 of the time  cambria is one of the small towns you go through  

cambria is an extremely expensive city to live in  it's beautiful and it's situated right amongst all  

these monterey pines it's one of the cutest little  towns you'll come across taking that route cambria  

sits about 40 minutes west of paso robles which  is probably the closest big city there morro bay  

isn't that big san luis obispo is kind of close  too but paso robles is a little bit bigger when it  

comes to health care it's a little weird they got  like five separate doctor's offices and judging by  

the price of the property here i'm sure there's  a whole bunch of other doctors just wandering  

around the town they have a small clinic called  the cambria community health district and that's  

got a couple doctors there and ambulances and all  that anything past what they can give you you're  

gonna have to go into paso robles which like i  said is only 40 minutes away so for healthcare  

they get a thumbs up when it comes to internet you  got no worries there spectrum covers about 98 of  

the town and you can get one gig so they get a big  thumbs up for their internet now when it comes to  

real estate this place is a little bit weird i  mean it's expensive but it's a little bit weird  

on the south side of town you have normal sized  homes where it's a normal community the houses are  

almost the same size as the lot typical suburban  american homes and if you find one for under seven  

hundred thousand dollars it's a freaking unicorn  these are normal homes that in most any state  

let's say missouri would probably go for about two  hundred and twenty five thousand dollars oregon  

they probably go for about five hundred thousand  dollars in california they go for over seven  

seven hundred fifty thousand dollars no pool no  wine cellar just a normal home then dotted around  

the rest of the town you have million dollar homes  but they don't just stop at one million some of  

them are two and almost three million dollars  so they get a faded thumbs up for that because  

it's just too expensive for the average joe but  they are beautiful homes so i'll give them that  

cambria has a population of just under 6 000  residents and they enjoy a crime rate that is 40  

lower than the national average so they  get a thumbs up for that one all in all  

if you can afford it cambria is beautiful and it  might be worth it if like i said you can afford it  

number four mariposa california back to the inland  part of california we go near yosemite and more  

reasonable real estate the town of mayor of posa  was first settled in 1849 and they had this chain  

of gold rush towns is what they called them this  was the southernmost of those gold rush towns a  

year after it was founded they actually laid down  the streets and the man that did it was john c  

fremont he's a big deal in california technically  mariposa isn't a town it's a census designated  

area in mariposa county but most people's called  mariposa this is not a bad place to live good  

clean air beautiful scenery and plenty of things  to do and like i said reasonable real estate just  

poking around zillow you can get decent homes here  for around three hundred thousand anything below  

that you're gonna need to probably do a little  extra work but right around 400 to 450 000 you're  

gonna get something nice and it's probably gonna  come with a couple acres and just like any place  

in california you have homes that are over 700 000  and get up way over a million if you need to go in  

to a bigger city for healthcare or whatever  you got modesto or you got fresno that's like  

not the best choices it's almost like choosing  between heat stroke and hypothermia mariposa sits  

about 45 minutes east of merced california which  merced is right between fresno and modesto and  

that would be where you'd have to go if you had  some kind of medical thing you needed taken care  

of that they couldn't cover mariposa now mariposa  does have a pretty decent medical facility  

called the john c fremont health district but you  know they're not terribly big so you probably go  

to merced and get anything taken care of that they  can't handle there so they get a thumbs up for  

health care as far as real estate goes mariposa  gets a thumbs up mariposa has a little over 2 000  

residents and they have a crime rate that is 41  lower than the national average that's outstanding  

especially for this part of california i mean  it's far enough away from fresno and modesto  

but still it's kind of in that area when it  comes to internet in mariposa you have sierra tel  

which i guess stands for telephone but they  cover about 99 of mariposa they have dsl and  

fiber where you can get up to 800 megabytes per  second so they get a thumbs up there too not bad  

number three quincy california quincy california  is a nice little mountain town that uh they got  

kind of close to getting burned down a couple  years ago with one of the forest fires they  

had up there the town of quincy is actually  considered another census designated area but  

people really don't refer to as that they call  it the town of quincy but quincy is in palomas  

county sitting about an hour and a half west of  reno nevada that's probably where you'd have to  

go if you wanted any form of entertainment pass i  don't know fending off wildfires from your house  

quincy has a good-sized hospital on the west side  of town it's called the plumas district hospital  

which it's a pretty good sized place for such a  small town now i understand that normally when  

you have a hospital this size in a small town it's  dealing with the county and that's what's going on  

here my friend stacy from high school she lives in  quincy i think she's a school teacher there one of  

the sweetest girls i know women lady now i guess  now that we're closing in on 50 here but i guess  

when you've known someone since they were like 14  they're kind of still a girl in your head i don't  

know anyway quincy gets a thumbs up when it comes  to healthcare as far as real estate it's kind of  

a mixed bag here it ranges it goes anywhere from  two hundred thousand all the way up to six hundred  

thousand i would say anything over three hundred  thousand is going to be pretty decent you wanna  

build your own cabin they have plenty of lots  going from anywhere from twelve thousand up to  

like 175 000. so they get a thumbs up because they  are fairly reasonable for california and they have  

a lot to choose from when it comes to internet  they have dsl from att that covers about 96 of  

the town with 25 megabytes but luckily they have  another one called pluma sierra telecommunications  

which has cable and fiber where you can get a  gig the downside is they only cover about 70  

percent of the town so they get a thumbs up still  quincy has almost 2 000 residents and they enjoy  

a crime rate that is 49 lower than the national  average so they get a big thumbs up for that one  

number two kernville california gardenville's a  nice little town and i guess it's still southern  

california but i like to call it central  california it sits in the sequoia national  

forest sort of and it is about an hour east  of bakersfield this is a great little town  

my wife's uh father has property there we used  to go up there in the summers all the time and  

go rafting down the kern river lake isabella's  right there so there's a lot of things to do here  

as far as healthcare goes you got the kern valley  hospital on the other side of lake isabella about  

20 minutes away from kernville it's a pretty good  size place and you should get most things taken  

care of there if you can't and you need something  more you got to go into bakersfield about an hour  

away so they get a big thumbs up for healthcare  because they're not doing bad when it comes to  

internet you got mediacom out there and 95 of  the homes can get mediacom and they have one gig  

internet there after that you got like kern valley  wireless gives you a fixed wireless for 50 megs  

and they cover like 96 percent of the town now  i like i've said in other videos you always got  

hughes net and via sat but those aren't the best  you know you get cloudy days and you don't get  

internet weird stuff like that with satellite i've  had to deal with hugh's internet for a couple days  

at a time on vacations and stuff every single  time it was a freaking nightmare so they get  

a big thumbs up for internet because minicom is  pretty good and when it comes to real estate this  

is california so things are gonna be a little  expensive you can get trailers there they have  

like trailer parks for under a hundred thousand  probably under sixty thousand in most cases but  

they also have homes for around three hundred  thousand three hundred thousand is your starting  

point in between three and four hundred thousand  you should be able to find something decent to  

live and of course they've got really really nice  ones that start off around seven hundred thousand  

and work their way up if you want you can go  extra cheap and uh live in a van down by the river  

so real estate they get a thumbs up too because  they've got a lot of options for you there  

and they're fairly reasonable for california the  town of kernville has less than a thousand people  

but during the summer when people start coming  up there for the lake and the river it swells to  

about 3 000 people or thereabouts but they're  still able to maintain a crime rate that's 55  

lower than the national average outstanding  kernville they get a big thumbs up for that one

all right before we get to number one don't  forget we have another channel called on this  

day there's a link down below we'd love it if you  went over and subscribed all right on to number  

one and number one truckee california truckee  california is one of the most beautiful small  

towns i've ever been through or visited i visited  when i was a little bit young probably 1617  

and i've been through there a couple other times  had lunch or whatever it's just a beautiful nice  

little place to hang out and be it's expensive  and it's in the sierra nevada so you know it's  

going to be beautiful but it's expensive truckee  is about 30 minutes southwest of reno nevada and  

it's not too far from donner lake and lake tahoe  it has the truckee river going right through town  

and it's really close to the donner party memorial  site you don't know about the donner party they're  

a bunch of pioneers that got stuck in the sierra  nevadas in the winter and may or may not have  

resorted to cannibalism at one point i saw some  movie about it or some tv show when i was a kid  

probably about 11 or 12. and anytime we ever went  camping or anything up there i was just totally  

afraid you know the worst was going to happen up  there when it comes to real estate truckee you  

know it's beautiful it's in the sierra nevada's  it's near skiing and everything you want to do  

it's expensive like i had said you could find  homes anywhere from 600 000 on up to 3.5 million  

okay so they're all over the map here they do  have some like uh condos and town homes that'll  

go for about 250 000 but that's about as low  as you'll ever see they get a faded thumbs up  

not because it's bad it's just so expensive the  average person can't really afford to ever buy  

a house here truckee has several options when it  comes to internet one of them's gotta fit what you  

need you got the pluma sierra telecommunications  which has one gig and they say they  

supply it to 99 the homes in truckee you also  have sudden link which covers about 99 of the  

town they give you almost a gig you have another  place called oasis broadband they have 100  

mbps and about 75 of truckee can get that so  they get a big thumbs up for their internet  

they got all kinds of options truckee also has  a solid hospitals tahoe forest hospital and they  

got all kinds of mountain medical centers and  outpatient things they've got everything you  

need here in truckee so you're good to go and i  imagine if there is anything else you need reno is  

right there 30 minutes away so they get a big  thumbs up for healthcare one thing i will mention  

they have a you know 24-hour emergency room here  which a lot of these places that i mentioned  

these small towns don't have truckee has around  16 000 uh residents which is a little high for  

this list they're almost at that 20 000 mark  where they fall out of the small town area but  

they're really spread out so it really does feel  like a small town those residents enjoy a crime  

rate that is 70 percent below the national average  bravo truckee you get a big thumbs up for that one

all right that's today's video hope you guys  enjoyed it hope you got some information out  

of it don't forget to give the video a big thumbs  up and let me know in the comment section below  

what state you want to see us do next all right  everyone have a great day be nice to each other