Anyone familiar with the Palm Springs California area?

[Hackerman]

I have been planning a move to CA for some years and we are finally leaving next week. We really wanted to live in Santa Barbara but the homes are soooooo expensive. We are looking anywhere from Pismo and SLO, all the way down to San Diego but as a starting point, we are looking at Palm Springs. The housing is very affordable there. And, it is only a couple hours to the coast. We are considering a home in Palm Springs with a summer rental near the coast or in the mountains.

From what I have read so far, Palm Springs sounds very nice, upbeat and pleasant. It's a huge LGBT community. Even the city council is all gay. I'm not gay but I have no problem with the lifestyle and generally find that group to be more open minded than most.

So, we are looking hard at Palm Springs. Other than the heat during the Summer months, what's the down side of PS?

Thanks for any input.

 

[invertedisdead]

Palm Springs is uber expensive and hot as all get out. It's pretty common to just leave in the summer and many do own multiple residences to beat the heat.

The climate is quite different between Pismo to San Diego, really depends on if you want to live in a desert, wine country, or the coast.

 

[macbill]

I spend my Winters in PS; I'm leaving for PS this coming Wednesday. I've never been in the summertime, but Winter is great. That's not to say they don't get huge storms. Roads close due to washouts. Because PS is so close to the mountains, the sun goes behind the hills at 3:30pm. Downtown is in shade. the Eastern part of the valley is in sunshine. There are 124 golf courses in Coachella Valley. Pretty good for a desert. Some subdivisions have fake canals: the water stops moving at 10pm. Some parts of the valley are very very windy.

 

[Endless Interim]

I have been planning a move to CA for some years and we are finally leaving next week. We really wanted to live in Santa Barbara but the homes are soooooo expensive. We are looking anywhere from Pismo and SLO, all the way down to San Diego but as a starting point, we are looking at Palm Springs. The housing is very affordable there. And, it is only a couple hours to the coast. We are considering a home in Palm Springs with a summer rental near the coast or in the mountains.

From what I have read so far, Palm Springs sounds very nice, upbeat and pleasant. It's a huge LGBT community. Even the city council is all gay. I'm not gay but I have no problem with the lifestyle and generally find that group to be more open minded than most.

So, we are looking hard at Palm Springs. Other than the heat during the Summer months, what's the down side of PS?

Thanks for any input.

I lived there from 2003 to 2010.When I was there it WAS the last of the true Coachella Valley.Now....crackhead village and a damn shame too.Rents were anywhere from 350 to 650.If you stayed out of Indio and some parts of Cathedral City you were ok.I owned a security company when I was there so I am very familiar with the area.In 2008/09 jobs were non existent and banks were closing branches,schools getting rid of music,sports anything after school,stores were closing anywhere from 2-4 hours early and laying people off.

The LGBT area was excellent until the new crowd came in and were nothing more than a bunch of meth heads screwing it up for everyone.So......I can go on and on...but,you get the picture.Sure, looks good just like a lot of other areas but like most other areas in this country it has gone down the drain.I provided security for The White Party,Dinah Shore party and so on.It got to the point we were going armed and has multiple incidents with LGBT folks being attacked,stabbed,killed to the point it just wasn't the same.

VERY fucking bitter about that time in my life....a lot was lost to a lot of us back then.I hope your experience is better.

 

[florduh]

Not familiar with Palm Springs, but SLO always seemed like the sweet spot in Cali. Greener than SoCal but warmer than NorCal. I worked there for a couple weeks and couldn't believe how little traffic there was compared to SoCal. It's a college town, so pretty open minded. Really nice little downtown area.

It's expensive, but less than Palm Springs.