Unreal Estate Game: California (Southern)

[Rain Man]

Assume that you idly buy a state lottery ticket while getting a doughnut at 7/11, and voila! You're a winner! You win your choice of one the five houses that will be shown.

I'll give you five houses in a state, and you vote on the house you would take.

Background rules:

Assume that your job situation won't need to change - you can find an identical job or work from home or whatever, so jobs don't matter.

Consider the house itself and the location and anything else that's important to you (schools, restaurants, lot size, etc.). Feel free to do a google map search to check out the neighborhood and the area.

You cannot sell the home. You can live in it as long as you like, but when you move out, it reverts back to the state as a prize for a future winner.

All houses will generally be in the $900,000 to $1 million price range.

All maintenance and utilities and taxes are cost-neutral compared to your current home.

If you wouldn't move into any of these homes, you can instead accept a cash prize of $50,000 (tax free).

Today's state is the southern half of California. Here are your five houses:

Laguna Beach - http://www.realtor.com/realestateand...1_M12787-40236

Long Beach - http://www.realtor.com/realestateand...3_M12510-40484

Palm Springs - http://www.realtor.com/realestateand...2_M18387-50197

San Diego - http://www.realtor.com/realestateand...1_M15629-17870

Thousand Oaks - http://www.realtor.com/realestateand...0_M20595-52621

[eDave]

Laguna Beach. No question.

[TinyEvel]

Palm Springs.
1) I'm ten years away from retirement and PS is where it's at.
2) the house design is my style. I lived in Hollywood Hills for a minute and the PS hone is reminiscent of our pad up there.
3) I'm guessing most people will pick Thousand Oaks. It's the So Cal version of an Overland Park home.

[underEJ]

Love the Long Beach home, but I don't like Long Beach at all. There isn't enough money to get me to live in Thousand Oaks. Palm Springs is beautiful, but I don't get along with triple digit temperatures. I guess I choose Laguna Beach out of the two condos.

[WhawhaWhat]

Originally Posted by eDave

Laguna Beach. No question.

This.

[tx4chiefs]

I took Thousand Oaks, based only on the conditions of the contest and images of the living quarters, not taking in neighborhoods or weather.

[BlackHelicopters]

Palm Springs

[Halfcan]

Originally Posted by eDave

Laguna Beach. No question.

Yep. Iove that area, I have family there.

[ThaVirus]

****, at first I thought this was a tough one. Palm Springs seems to have a bit of the seclusion I'd be looking for while also providing the most recently built home. That said, the backyard looks pretty cramped and I don't love the architecture.

Thousand Oaks has the nicest exterior look.

I like the feel of the high-rise in San Diego but the view is entirely underwhelming and it's got less than half the square footage of the others.

Initially I was hesitant on Laguna Beach because it was built in 1964 but based on the photos it appears that place has had a complete interior remodel. It's ****ing GORG inside and in, presumably, a nice area. That makes it the easy choice.

[ThaVirus]

Has anyone ever lived in a high-rise? Maybe the view makes it worth it but I feel like having to take the elevator every time to and from your house would evolve into such a ****ing hassle. Probably adds like 20 minutes to your trip every time you leave the house depending on how high up you live.

[Shag]

Laguna. Absolutely love that area, and would be awesome to live there. You get shit for space in coastal CA, but that place seems pretty sweet.

[scho63]

For me it's Palm Springs. I like the idea of retirement in the desert environment and you can't swim in the Pacific much unless you want massive shrinkage! Too damn cold.

[Simply Red]

I enjoyed the balance of Long Beach, personally (the only time I was in LA)

[Rain Man]

My rankings:

#1 - Laguna Beach - Laguna Beach is a beautiful place, and this is within walking distance of downtown. The condo is really nice, though it's smaller than my general minimum. The size is almost a deal killer, but everything else is pretty much ideal. It's Laguna Beach. In the end, I can't vote against Laguna Beach.

#2 - Long Beach - It's easy to discount Long Beach, but check this place out. It's twice the size of Laguna and it's three blocks from the beach. It's in a nice neighborhood and the house is pretty cool. This is really a great value. If it was closer to some restaurants, it would be my #1.

#3 - San Diego - Excellent views, and the unit probably barely meets my size requirements to be livable (with a wife). However, the 22nd floor is a little too high for me in terms of being able to connect with the environment. At that height, I think the views might be a little more static. That's really nitpicky, though - I could easily live here and San Diego has a good reputation in my mind. You're in easy walking distance of all sorts of good stuff.

#4 - Thousand Oaks - It's a pretty big house that's nice looking, and it's five miles from the ocean and walking distance to a mall. This is a great house and I could live there. I mark it down only because it's kind of a subdivision feel, but even that isn't bad.

#5 - Palm Springs - It's a really cool house and I like the smaller feel of Palm Springs. It's also walking distance to a Panda Express. However, it's less than half a mile from the airport, which could be a noise problem. For that reason alone I mark it down, though I don't really know how busy the airport is.


All five of these are attractive, in my opinion.

[Garcia Bronco]

Make mine 50k. Except for the absence of an Ocean, Colorado is better than all these places.