Southern California Retirement Communities Offer Comfort and an Awesome Climate

Southern California offers a near-perfect climate influenced both by cool ocean breezes and warm inland sunshine. The sun shines approximately 330 days per year, with moderate, low humidity year-round temperatures.

About Southern California

When considering one of the Southern California retirement communities, you’ll have your choice of five metropolitan areas:

• Los Angeles Metropolitan – includes Los Angeles County and Orange County and is the 13^th largest metropolitan area in the world. Los Angeles Metro is teetering at 3.8 million residents.

• Inland Empire – the cities of Riverside, Ontario, and San Bernardino has a population of approximately 2 million.

• San Diego Metropolitan – North San Diego County has 26 miles of beautiful coastline with a population over 3 million.

• Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura Metro Area – has population of about 1.1 million people.

• El Centro – the east anchor of Southern California with a population of 43,000.

Southern California Retirement Communities

The Southern California retirement communities provide amenities and conveniences, such as fine dining, great shopping and a variety of entertainment options, but with low crime rates and under less crowded living conditions. Your choice of care options include: independent living; assisted living, skilled nursing; or dementia/Alzheimer’s specialty care.

Your floor plan options include:

• Luxury estates
• Mobile; Manufactured
• Condominiums
• Bungalows
• Conventional homes (detached homes)
• Senior care facilities
• Duplexes.

Once you have identified the type of care you need and the floor plan, you’ll want to check on the proximity to medical facilities; shopping; and your transportation options.

Your Choices Are Endless

There are over 1,800 Southern California retirement communities. You’ll have your choice of care and floor plans to help you live a comfortable lifestyle.

The five metropolitan regions offer an extensive array of activities and communities:

• The Los Angeles Metropolitan area has 260 retirement communities. The metro area is home to theme parks, beaches, shopping, motion picture studios, waterparks, zoos, aquariums, and museums.

• Inland Empire has 48 retirement communities. The community offers plays, music society events, fishing workshops and the annual Asian-Pacific Lunar New year Festival.

• The San Diego metropolitan area has 1,200 retirement communities. The metro area has museums, sports teams, wildlife parks and zoos to entertain.

• The Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura metro Area has 400 retirement communities and provides beach activities and culture of the arts.

• El Centro has eight retirement communities and is a great location for water sports enthusiasts.

Southern California Lifestyle

Your Southern California retirement communities offer a wide variety of activities: cultural, recreational, educational and social for the 55+ crowd:

• Golf courses, public beaches, marina and community piers

• Live performance theatres, restaurants, shopping centers

• Free courses for seniors at the local universities and colleges

• Farmers market, street fairs, sporting events, picnicking on the sand

• Sailing, motor boating, fishing, ocean swimming, surfing, coastal hiking

• Camping, arts, casinos and spectator sports

If this plethora of senior activities isn’t enough options for you, California has work and volunteer opportunities for retirees:

• The Human Society & Wild Life Assist

• Meals on Wheels

• Feeding the Homeless

• Reading Tutors and Youth Mentors

• Welfare to Work – helps families become self-sufficient

• Senior Centers

• Libraries

• Museums

• Historic parks

Southern California also provides Out and About, a free door to door shuttle for age 60+.

Southern California Living Expenses

To make your decision you should also consider California’s cost of living:

• California’s property tax rate is 1% of the purchase price; if there isn’t any new construction or change of ownership, the property cannot be reassessed and the property tax cannot be increased by more than 2% annually.

• If you are age 55 or over and presently own a home in any county in California, you may be able to transfer your existing home’s tax base to a home of equal or less value in San Diego County.
  

• Southern California winters are mild so your heating utility bill may be lower than those in colder climates.

• The summers are mild, especially in the Coastal and Near-Coast regions with relatively low humidity making your summer cooling bills lower than other warm climates.

• Southern California has competitive Supermarkets and low cost neighborhood specialty grocery stores, like Trader Joes, Sprouts and Henry’s Markets. Nearly every city also has a Certified Farmer’s Market, where the streets are closed off and used for open air markets for one day each week.

Southern California retirement communities will capture cool breezes, social activities and senior benefits throughout every community.

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