New arrivals in Bakersfield find housing bargains, kind neighbors
Before moving to Bakersfield, Quincy Jones’ only memorable experience speaking with neighbors was the time someone was shot and killed across the street from his home in a gang-infested part of South Los Angeles.
Imagine his surprise about a month ago when, having just moved with his wife and two children into a large house with a pool on a quiet cul-de-sac in Rosedale, a knock came on his door. It was his new neighbors.
One after the other they showed up to introduce themselves and welcome the Joneses. One woman and her three sons brought over a batch of freshly baked chocolate-chip cookies.
He still sounds shocked. “Just the fact that people actually do that, like they do on TV,” Jones said, trailing off.
Bakersfield’s relatively low housing costs as compared with other parts of California have attracted growing numbers of people who could scarcely afford to buy a nice home where they had been living. Or, they sell their old home and find they’re able to get a lot more for their money in Bakersfield.
Of course, there’s more to moving than simply switching living spaces. In some cases, relocating to Bakersfield brings a pleasant cultural shift.
New arrivals say they are struck by the easy change of pace, and more than that, a feeling of personal warmth. They report running into less traffic, more patience and, for the most part, kinder people.
“It feels still kind of small and comfortable,” said Matt Bateman, another new arrival who with his wife sold their house in the Bay Area in July and moved with their daughter into a $540,000 home in Southern Oaks that he figures would have cost more than $1 million in their old neighborhood.
MEANINGFUL CHANGE
Intra-state migration is nothing new, even in California. But as local real estate people have observed, it’s happening more and more often lately as longtime Bakersfield residents find willing buyers among people priced out of coastal markets.
Also accelerating the trend, as The Californian has reported, is an exodus of local conservatives tired of the state’s overall liberal politics. While it may be too early to say how the migration will affect Bakersfield’s politics, it does appear many of the new arrivals are coming from larger cities — and appreciating the difference.
Bakersfield appraiser Gary Crabtree said he talked with a couple who recently sold their small, 40-year-old house in Pasadena for $800,000 and then bought a 2,400-square-foot, three-bedroom house in northeast Bakersfield’s Solera neighborhood for $315,000. ( The homeowners declined to be interviewed for this story.)
They don’t mind the heat much, Crabtree said, and they value the area’s refreshing afternoon breezes.
“They like Bakersfield because it’s two hours from everything,” he said, referring to the proximity to Los Angeles, the beach and the mountains.
A FOOT IN EACH COUNTY
Jones’ original plan was to bring his 78-year-old father with him on the move to Bakersfield, allowing them to rent out the four-unit complex in which they had been living in South L.A.
The search took a couple of years, and in the meantime Jones, 41, had two children (bringing his total to three), got married, lost his job at a motorcycle dealership and graduated from college.
On top of that, his father decided not to move after all, which means Jones and his wife, Jacqueline Osborne-Jones, drive into L.A. County at least twice per week to bring prepared meals and clean up the old house.
Still unemployed and considering a return to hardware-store work, Jones noted the new house is in the name of his father, whose retirement income is enough to pay the mortgage and all the bills at both properties.
The new house on Dee Dee Court, which cost $465,000, is like a dream compared with the cramped, two-bedroom place they left. Measuring 3,120 square feet, it has four bedrooms and 2¾ bathrooms on a little more than half an acre. Jones said his dog loves the ample backyard, to say nothing of how his kids feel about the place.
“The kids are always in the pool,” he said.
‘OVER CALIFORNIA’
The neighbor who brought the cookies, Lori Garcia, said her gesture was meant as a welcome message.
“We just took (the cookies) over to welcome them ... and let them know we’re tight here and look out for each other,” said Garcia, who has lived on Dee Dee Court for more than a decade and a half.
But even she and her husband are looking to move before long. He’s four years from retirement and talking about moving to Idaho, she said.
“He’s over California,” Garcia said of her husband. “Bakersfield’s cheaper than L.A. but California’s expensive to live. The taxes are ... crazy.”
MORE ROOM TO LIVE
Bateman, a public safety and regulatory supervisor with Pacific Gas and Electric Co., said his and his wife’s decision to move to Bakersfield was largely inspired by a desire to move as close as possible to her family in Southern California while also allowing him to stay with PG&E.
Although their new home on Fitzgerald Drive is somewhat smaller than their two-story house in the city of Brentwood, about 50 miles east of San Francisco, it’s on a much larger lot — about half an acre, great for their two dogs — and they have a pool and enough room to park an RV if they ever need it.
Plus, it cost $166,000 less than what their previous home sold for.
The air quality isn’t so bad, he said, and the heat waves last longer but otherwise aren’t so different from high temperatures the family sometimes experienced in Brentwood.
What’s more, he said, life is now less stressful: no more endless commutes, long lines at the store or uptight drivers.
“Generally,” he said, “everybody you encounter seems to be nice — friendly, if you will — and that was significantly different from the Bay Area for us.”
The day the family moved in, he recalled, his smaller dog ran off. Several neighbors helped him and his wife search for it, spending hours driving the neighborhood and calling for the dog to return.
When finally the dog was located and brought home, one of the neighbors, aware what a hard day it had been, dropped off a pizza for the family to relax with and enjoy.
“That’s the caliber of people that we’ve encountered here,” he said.