For many California residents, the cost of living in the state makes it practically impossible for buying a home and/or starting a family. While many areas, including the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and San Diego, are known for being expensive, California’s Central Valley is drawing scores of new residents due to its affordable real estate and a more favorable cost of living.
The median price of a home in Fresno is $325,000, well below the state average of $813,000 as of April 2021. According to the ACCRA Cost of Living index, there is a dramatic difference in the categories of grocery, housing, utilities, transportation, and health.
So, for almost a third of the cost of the average median price of a house in California, you can live a few hours away from those large, expensive metropolitan areas and can still enjoy so much of what California has to offer its residents living in the Central Valley.
Low costs aren’t the only benefits
While the lower cost of living is certainly a selling point for many residents when considering a move, living in the Central Valley comes with other benefits as well. The area has many amazing things to do. It is the gateway to some of the nation’s most beloved national parks — Yosemite, Kings Canyon, and Sequoia.
The Valley is home to some of California’s best wineries. The top varieties grown in the Central Valley include: chardonnay, zinfandel, merlot, moscato, and pinot grigio. In addition to the region’s big-name established wineries, Ernest and Julio Gallo and Franzia, The Wine Group, the second largest wine producer in the country is located in the Central Valley. The group owns Almaden, Big House, Concannon, Corbett Canyon, Cupcake, and the original Franzia brand, among others.
If you the travel the length of the Central Valley, your journey will take you through an ever changing landscape, from some of the most productive farmland in the world to the rugged natural beauty of the mountains, the Cascades in the north to the Tehachapis in the south, from the Coastal range to the west to the mighty Sierras to the east.
Living in the Central Valley
Many California residents are finding the Central Valley to be a refuge from the skyrocketing cost of living in Southern and Northern California. Due to its affordable real estate, many people find that buying a house in Central California offers them the chance to make the dream of owning their own home and even, perhaps, starting a new family a reality.
Recently, the Central Valley played center stage in “Del Rio” novel, an exciting new thriller that begins and ends in Del Rio, a fictional Central Valley town located somewhere between San Francisco and Los Angeles, but also has the story’s protagonist, D.A. Callie McCall, traveling to Mexico’s West Coast to find a killer.
The Central Valley has it all — a favorable cost of living, affordable real estate, easy access to recreation, and now, it’s home to a new and exciting mystery!