Articles on Yucca Valley

Yucca Valley, California

Open spaces and starry nights make the desert bloom

Now here's a retirement haven where the remedy for old-age aches and pains grows right outside your door. The yucca plant is a home remedy for arthritis-good news for retirees in Yucca Valley, where the plants are so prolific that the town is named for them. "Some parts of the desert are pretty bare, and you don't see a lot but rocks and sand, and that's not the case in Yucca Valley," Mayor Bill Neeb says. "We're in a part of the desert where we get a little more water."

Maybe, but no one is ever going to mistake this arid desert community, where many homes are accessible only by dirt roads, for soppy Seattle. "It gets hot, but we don't have the smog and the humidity most of the time," says Bob Connors, 78, who left Claremont, Calif., for Yucca Valley. His wife, Charlyne, has grown to love the desert. And as soon as the sun goes down, there's a pleasant drop in temperature. Even in July, the average low is in the 60s.

"Yucca Valley is a place that most people wouldn't have thought about or have seen," says Andrew Schiller, president and founder of the real-estate website NeighborhoodScout. "It combines a very reasonable [housing] price, especially by California standards, with a high proportion of senior amenities."

The Connors upgraded to a larger stucco house with a tile roof when they moved to Yucca Valley, only about a half-hour drive from pricey Palm Springs. "People can cash out their homes from places down in the city and buy something that is probably nicer and bigger and probably still have some money left over," says Neeb, who lauds Yucca Valley's 1.3 percent property tax rate. "To own an acre or several acres is not impossible here."

And when you're not strolling around your spread, you can take in the wide, open spaces at the nearby Joshua Tree National Park or San Bernardino Mountains. Says Neeb: "People who want to sit on their porch in the evening and see the starry nights-this is the place to do that."

Population: 18,837

Median home value: $190,500

Age 65 or over: 21 percent

Cost of living: 1.7 percent above the U.S. average

Maximum state income tax: 9.3 percent

State sales tax: 7.25 percent

 

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National magazine points out Yucca Valley as a top-10 place to retire
By PAIGE AUSTIN
The Press-Enterprise

This week, U.S. News and World Report magazine named Yucca Valley one of the nation's top 10 places to retire.

It's an honor that will undoubtedly leave many of the nation's would-be retirees wondering: "Where?"

Long in the shadow of its famous neighbor Palm Springs, Yucca Valley is staking its claim as the

Ramon Mena Owens / The Press-Enterprise Edward Garcia walks past a mural on the Water Canyon Coffee Co. in downtown Yucca Valley.

 desert hot spot -- at least for the golden years.

 A report naming the town a top place to retire weighed cultural offerings, weather, taxes and home values.

However, for many town residents, the appeal is well known. Yucca Valley's moderate temperatures, starry skies and low cost of living attracted Brenda and Jerry Garrett four years ago.

"We love it," they said in unison Friday afternoon.
"It's the weather," said Jerry Garrett, 74, a retired Moreno Valley pastor.

"It's the view," Brenda Garrett said. "You can see for miles up here."

At 3,300 feet above sea level, the high desert air is clean and cool at night, with warm summers and occasional dusts of winter snow Jerry Garrett said.

Together, the couple take afternoon walks and watch quail families play in their backyard as hummingbirds buzz around the Joshua tree blossoms.

Their current monthly mortgage payment is hundreds less than their old Moreno Valley mortgage, and they expect to have their home paid off next year. Some of their eight children and 14 grandchildren gather at their desert home every Christmas.

Ramon Mena Owens / The Press-Enterprise. Yucca Valley is one of the fastest growing cities in the state and nation.

But it's the small-town feel of Yucca Valley that the Garretts have come to love.

Both are community volunteers, and Jerry Garrett is part of an informal group of community leaders who meet for coffee each week as "a group of old men who like to complain," he joked. Like many of their neighbors, they gather curbside every so often to wave and welcome caravans of soldiers returning to Twentynine Palms from Iraq.

Completely charmed by the community, the couple have even named their home: Haven Nook.
It's a haven, but it's also like a hidden nook, Jerry Garrett explained.

Not so hidden these days.

The population is steadily growing with a boom of housing developments in recent years. The town's population is 20,477, and 21 percent of the residents are 65 and older. In the June 11 article, the magazine based its findings on cost-of-living and quality-of-life factors.

Other cities in the top ten included Kennebunk, Maine; Melbourne Beach, Fla.; Sandpoint, Idaho; Natchitoches, La; Boone, N.C.; Dahlonega, Ga.; Fredericksburg, Texas; Salida, Colo; and Yuma, Ariz.
The report looked at weather, cultural offerings, tax rates and home values. According to the city, Yucca Valley's median income is around $30,000, and the median home value is $190,500.

Despite the desert heat, the elevation makes Yucca Valley 10 to 15 degrees cooler than neighboring cities, and evening temperatures drop to cool levels throughout the summer, said Cheryl Nankervis, executive director of the Yucca Valley Chamber of Commerce.

The town is 30 minutes from Palm Springs and neighbors Joshua Tree National Park, she said. There is little traffic, yet it's close enough to mountains, beaches, and shopping and medical centers, added Nankervis.

"Our town has a small-town feel," Nankervis. "But we are thrilled that people are finding out about us."