DH is looking for jobs in Santa Cruz!

[mom2tatum]

We've always talked about moving somewhere we actually want to live vs staying where we're already comfortable but not totally happy. The school my son is set to go to the year is wonderfully diverse and ok enough, however, there isn't a healthy family in sight! It's depressing. And, mostly, I hate the weather in the winter. HATE. I could live on/near a beach all year, but the winter is my enemy! I'm so ready to make a jump, and the time feels right for many reasons. I don't know how well it's all going to go, but he has finally extended his job search to Santa Cruz.  It seems like it'd be a good fit for our family, besides the housing prices :) - but maybe renting can be a possibility for awhile? We wouldn't sell our house right away here in Philadelphia area, but we are finally really thinking about trying a new location. I need a community of other natural living families (have a great one here, but no one is super close), want to be done with winter and not overwhelmed by the mainstream. 

Please share any tips for starting the moving process there?  Neighborhood suggestions?  Things to consider -

1. He is an IT job recruiter...so salaries don't usually pay much to start since he needs to build his base first to start making commission, etc.

2. I have a 2 and 5 yo and having the local public school be decent enough will matter to us.

3. I want a yard for playing and gardening. (2 BR min, indoor space not a huge concern, though)

4. Preferably the presence of other families of color

Thank you for any responses!

[coldandsleepy]

There's not a lot in the way of IT work in Santa Cruz itself, but if he's willing to commute, I expect your DH would be able to build up a great client base in the San Jose/Silicon Valley area.  (~30 minutes north depending on traffic.)

Housing costs are the biggest downside of the area.  I'm from the Philadelphia area originally and even though I've lived here for 5 years now, the prices still blow me away.  However, if you're willing to pay $2000 and up for monthly rent and you're able to accept that houses almost always tend towards the small size here, you can find some really great places to rent in the area.  The Seabright area has some really nice houses in it, and I like the far west side too (can never remember what that area's called, but most of what's off of West Cliff is nice).  I'd personally avoid things that are actually downtown because while the central location can be great, there's a lot of traffic, noise, unruly people (especially on weekends, when you get the normal population + drunk college students and/or tourists depending on the time of year).  There are some really nice places close to the university, and the elementary school closest to the university (Westlake) is supposedly very good, but you do have to deal with possibly having party-happy college kids living next door or something.

Most actual house rentals will have yards.  If you're willing to live a little out from town (in, say, Soquel) you might be able to find somewhere with a really great yard. 

Some of the schools here are really nice, some aren't, and it really varies by neighborhood.  There are a LOT of options for alternative schools-- Montessori and Waldorf, other less specific private schools, charter schools, homeschool co-ops-- if you're interested in that sort of thing.

I'm not a POC so take my assessment with a grain of salt-- there seems to be a moderately diverse mix of people living here.  Some ethnicities are better represented than others.  (Like most of California, we have a very strong Latino presence, for instance;  on the other hand, there seem to be very few southeast Asians.)  It's been a long time since I lived in the Philadelphia area but I think that the African-American population here is much smaller, though not non-existant.

You will definitely find lots of pro-natural living families around here though.

The weather's great here... not warm year round, but both our summers and winters tend to be very mild.  We do often get a lot of rain in the winter, but personally I'd rather deal with rain than snow!  And I sure don't miss the humidity from Pennsylvania summers.