While we’re touching on the Sacramento area, what can downsizers expect? Let’s look at Placerville, which is about halfway between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe. This is an older video but they are still in business:
Here is a 2,776sf short sale on five acres being offered for $450,000:
Only negatives about living in relatively secluded Northern California high desert areas are the weird people, arrogant introverted nerds (retired engineers), lack of a creative community, the sometimes goofy housing financed by these folks, and the lack of high quality health care. In other words, you get what you pay for.
No you get peace and quiet away from the idiots living in the cities
We’re just working it backwards – to downsize comfortably, you gotta find a place where you can buy a decent house for $300,000 – $400,000, and bank the load of equity from the sale of your house here.
I looked at El Dorado Hills too – it’s closer to Sacramento and has the health services nearby that seniors want. But the houses cost too much – many $1M+, and then the comment section here went crazy with the snob remarks: https://youtu.be/er0nDXbqgvY
Placerville is great. It’s beautiful country, just below the snow line, 45 minutes to Kaiser and other healthcare, and the people there are no more “weird or arrogant” then anywhere else – definitely less then here.