Traveling Landlord Lament: Santa Barbara
Posted by travelinglandlord on April 28, 2010
If you’ve never been to Santa Barbara, nestled between the mountains and gorgeous California beaches, it’s hard to describe just how perfect of a place it… was.
Consider these advantages:
-Santa Barbara has perfect weather year-round.
-Santa Barbara sits right on the coast, and features lovely sandy beaches.
-Santa Barbara backs up to the mountains.
-Santa Barbara has eighty wineries within a half hour’s drive.
-Santa Barbara’s architecture is remarkably consistent, with low buildings with red Spanish tile roofs.
So what’s the problem?
Santa Barbara is a victim of its own perfection, and is now one of the most expensive places in the country to live. If a $1,000,000 price tag for an average size home (or a $6,000/month rental lease) is acceptable to you, and it probably isn’t, there’s yet another problem: the independent businesses, which were the heart of Santa Barbara’s charming personality, have almost all been priced out of the market.
Replacing them are stores like Anthropologie and Hollister, which belong in Kansas shopping malls, not some of the most beautiful streets in the country.
And so goes America: we have a fixed number of historic, beautiful, charming places, and no end to the desperation to get into them, which means that sooner or later only the very wealthy will be able to own homes or even sign a rental lease in these endangered places.
