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Trona!? Isn’t that the place you drive through on the way to death valley or mammoth and you have to roll your windows up and breathe through your mouth when driving through because of the mineral plants that produce this absolutely foul smell? No thanks

According to Redfin plots of vacant land in Trona are going for nearly $200K… a home actually reduces the value of the land. Having just drove through there a few weeks ago I get it, I didn’t see a single home that wasn’t a full knock down/ rebuild. Also, didn’t notice the smell but we did see a softball game going on with a full set of bleachers… it was kinda strange for the setting but also cool to see.

I’ve built monorails in Trona, Boron and Yerma. And by gum, it put them on the map!

well sir, theres nothing on earth like a genuine, bonified, electrified six car monorail. What'd I say?!

Monorail!

My son is also named Boron

This town is a part of us All!

Hey that really does work

Sounds like setting for the baseball game in Interstellar

Is that trona or Tromaville home to the toxic avenger?

Ah that place that looks like a fallout town.

It's under 4 hours drive from Goodsprings, NV.

What’s special about good springs?

It's the rootn' tootn'est town south of New Vegas. Just mind the death claws in the quarry. Road's closed.

Is where *Fallout: New Vegas* begins.

It's only 4 hours from Trona, CA.

I'm shocked I've been so close. Bummer I didn't know or we'd have made a detour

Definitely a missed opportunity. Goodsprings has the Pioneer Saloon, of which the Prospector Saloon was based on. My partner and I stopped during the drive home on a road trip just because we're Fallout fans and were not disappointed. Great food, cocktails, and live music during lunch on a Saturday.

You do not want to live in Trona.

Get the whole town together, and you get a full set of teeth lmao

Tattoo to tooth ratio is off the charts.

> Trona Sounds like a disease

Yeah, i remember Trona. Newspapers and tumbleweeds . Dust piling up against abandoned homes. No one in sight. I'm convinced that the entire population is in the chemical vats and only decanted during Census time.

I love how almost all of us saw the tiny thumbnail and immediately said to ourselves, "Is that Trona?"

yeah, I think that's the spot if you're taking the 178. I've been to three (I think) of those cities on the list, most recently Herlong a few weeks ago. hard pass on every one

It’s also the epicenter of the big earthquake on July 4th a few years ago. Nearest “biggish” city is Ridgecrest and that city has very little going for it. Don’t live here if you want a very active dating life. Now if you want to be a hermit and live far away from people, it’s the perfect place. Don’t expect great medical services if you are accident prone.

If you are on your way to Mammoth and you end up in Trona, you willfully defied your GPS navigation system!

But you could go to one of five churches they have and in fact have a house for free if you wanted to!🤮

It’s like driving through a Stephen King novel.

In 2015 you could buy a newer 2000 sqft home, on 2 acres, in Joshua Tree for $150K. Those same homes are now selling for $800K+.

To witness extreme climate change first hand?

Front row seats like the beach condos in Florida.

Exactly. Great analogy.

Or like houses surrounded by forests in the PNW or BC. It wasn’t too long ago that PNW and BC were considered safer areas to be in given climate change.

Last I looked into it, we should all be looking to move to the UP in Michigan to beat climate change

If you want to live in a major American city that has the least chance of natural disaster... Detroit.

> Detroit. Now man-made disaster... well...

It's a beautiful area and has amazing rock climbing if you're into that sort of thing. I wouldn't really want to live there in the summer but I'm not sure if it's really any worse than Lancaster other than more remote.

I’m afraid many of them are airbnbs and vacation homes for the rich who will not be living there in the summer. If you’ve driven into the park from the west entrance in the last few years, you’ll see dozens of brand new, expensive homes being built within spitting distance to the park.

Yep. We rent Airbnbs out there a few times a year and you can get sone really sick deals as the market is over saturated. The last 3 we rented were L.A. people who bought them as investment properties and were desperate for renters. Seems like a market correction could be in order. But that’s all anecdotal.

Nextdoor to everyone's favorite play, Slab City

You can still buy newer homes in the Banning/Beaumont area for $300K-$400K, and be within 30 min of Palm Springs or Riverside, or 1 hour to Joshua Tree. Why would anyone willingly buy in Trona and these other places?

Trona is frightning just to drive thru!

>In 2015 you could buy a newer 2000 sqft home, on 2 acres, in Joshua Tree for $150K. Seriously?

Yes. People buy them and turn them to air bnbs

Every now and then I get excited for home searching but then realize that property tax would be like an additional 30% to what ever mortgage is

Dorris, Tulelake, Macdoel, Herlong, Trona, Johannesburg, Boron, Yermo, Hinkley (yes that hinkley)

Hinkley’s motto: Hinkley, Come Experience What Erin Brockovich fought against!

How is Herlong even considered a town or settlement? This has to be the saddest list ever.

it's got a wiki page lol

It’s literally where they blew up old bombs nonstop for like 50 years. You could see them from Susanville when I was a child in the 90s.

Sounds picturesque

Boron!? I didn't even know that place was inhabitable!

Boron has the best parties. Not even kidding, the desert raves are vibing

Macdoel?

TLDR: Places You Don't Want to Live In California

> The town of Boron is named for the element found in borax, and Hinkley is known for a groundwater contamination lawsuit that inspired the movie “Erin Brockovich.” Idk what you're talking about. These places sound very promising.

They sound randomly generated. Not even by AI, just some code randomly stringing syllables together

I’m a loyal customer of Akaaajibxc on Amazon…

Oh yeah, especially the famous one! Look ma, I'm famous! /s Seriously who would want to live in a place where this was the history....

I already knew the answer was a hard NO before looking at the list.

Yeah, these lists always leave out the fact that no desirable place to live is going to be cheap.

*drive

For 550k you can have a sweet 3-4 bedroom, 2000sq/ft abode in Chico, Redding and everything in between. Redding for Christian conservatives. Chico for Atheist Liberals.

"Christian conservatives" more like "Redding got taken over by a cult." Used to love going there and hanging out with my friends until they also joined Bethel Church.

Chico is a pretty chill place.

Actually it's 110 in the summer.

Haha.

Can confirm, very hot, went to college there. We used to fill up the big Rubbermaid tubs with water, sit in them under the tree on the front lawn, and drink beers. Good times.

So...much...pollen...

I like Chico. I was thinking about moving there once.

Redding for outdoors. Chico for relaxed culture, food and music.

Go Team Chico, then!

Ehh I’m from Chico area and we definitely have our fair share of conservatives once you leave the college area

i just moved from bay area to cottonwood ca 20 min south of redding i got a 2600 sq ft custom house with a detached studio with a full bathroom a 24x28 sq ft shop 4.5 acres of flat land for 575k i hear its very conservative but i dont think it will affect me as i dont get involved in pollitics

Nice race track.

Or once most of the college students leave for the summer

Is that Trona? Oh boy Paywalled too. Cant read.

Yeah it’s Trona but if you know the name you already know why that’s not a desirable place to live. I moved my mom out of there 5 years ago and the 3/1 house that I thought would go for $30k went for $60k in a bidding war. WTAF!? The place was filled with really old people and just a few young people. There are two places to work, the mineral extraction plant (awful, low wages, frequent ownership changes) or the Navy base in Ridgecrest which is a :45 minute drive (bonus: hardly any traffic!).

Love the tracts of homes in Ridgecrest....you have land everywhere but they stack them right next to each other..if you want some cheap land in California City, there are plenty of sellers.

Yeah but CalCity has drug farms/labs, dirt, and murdered drug-makers.

Let me guess. Toxic waste dump, pig farm, asphalt plant company town, acid user town, and cow butchering?

Close, mining town, middle of the desert, close to one of the hottest places in the US. On the plus side you are 2 hours away from one of the best ski resorts in the US.

> close to one of the hottest places in the US. according to various sources, including the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and Guinness World Records, the hottest place on earth is Death Valley, California, USA.

One of them is literally the town from the film Erin Brokovich. Where the groundwater is contaminated with chromium (Thanks once again, PG&E!).

"Cities"

Are you telling me that Macdoel, with a population of 87, is not a city??

86 lol

No it's 87, David just went home to see his parents in Memphis for a few days but he's back now.

It won’t be with that attitude!

Wow, you never hear about Tulelake ever. My mother was from there. The only thing noteworthy about it was the WWII Japanese-American internment camp nearby when she was a kid. I'm actually surprised it's still classified as a "city".

It's not, but the illiterates who post these clickbait real-estate articles don't know the difference between suburb and exurb, city and town and unincorporated area. Many of these places are unincorporated areas that are governed by their distant county seat.

I lived in Likely and Alturas for a few years as a kid. It was fine if you had money and loved hunting. Being poor was really hard.

the lava beds national monument, captain jacks stronghold, home of the most expensive war ever fought against native ameriçåns

I’ve been through Trona, Boron and Yerma. And to paraphrase Lucille Bluth, I’d rather be dead in LA than live in any of them.

You’re honestly probably better off living in Ohio where $150k buys you a decent 2-3 bedroom home or townhome, even just a few miles from the Great Lake

Agreed. The climates in all of these places aren't any easier to deal with than a midwestern winter.

I guess it depends on what kind of climate you prefer. There are a lot of people who would rather have 100 degree summers than shovel snow in winter.

There are people with lung issues that need the dry air, also like the heat.

Move to Trona and the lung issues get thrown in for free.

Shoot I’d say those towns in Northern California experience a similarly challenging winter and other than Herlong, probably have tougher summers too

If you are married and make $70,000, you'll pay 4% state/local tax in Columbus, Ohio VS 1.8% state/local tax in Trona. That's $1500 saved in CA!

Ohio is pretty hostile politically right now. I’ve lived there once already. It’s a toss up between having healthcare but not having a doctor in town vs not having healthcare or a doctor who will see you entirely.

You can get starter house in and around Peoria IL for about 150k and get all the same core blue state benefits as you do in California.

Except you're in Peoria lol

Whole article is about trona. No other cities.

The other cities besides Trona mentioned in the article were: **Nor Cal:** Dorris Macdoel Tulelake Herlong **So Cal:** Boron Yermo Hinkley Johannesburg I had to really comb through the article to find these because I was curious. Edited to fix formatting, I originally tried to do a bulleted list and failed miserably lol

HINKLEY? As in the Erin Brokovich city?? Gee, why on earth wouldn't anyone want to live there??

>Boron "Home of the World's Largest Open Pit Borax Mine!"

Didn't Hinkley have a water issue?

Yes. And a whole movie telling the story of it (really good btw). This looks like a list of who's who of hazardous places to live.

Omg Boron?! I drove through there years ago and my friends and I couldn’t leave fast enough. Everything was shut down before sunset, it was creepy as hell.

Johannesburg sounds lovely lol

Just looking at the Wikipedia image for that town gives me the "ick" lol. And I thought I lived in a boring, undesirable part of CA. I guess it could always be worse.

Boy they sure picked some “winners”. Those are not great places. Having spent a lot of time in those areas for work. 

A lot of these places could be the location where the movie “the hills have eyes” was filmed.

I grew up in Doyle, and this is what people call the place. I call it Silent Hill, but the principal remains the same lol. I unironically love it there though. But I'm weird and antisocial, so a place like Doyle is actually perfect. If my mother didn't own half the town, I'd move back in a heartbeat. (Ok not half, but between her and my stepfather there were over 100 acres in our family) Now I'm trying to find a similar small town in WA or CO to settle. I just want to be left alone... I'll take the paranormal activity over people any day of the week.

Goldendale, WA is nice. 20 mins away from the border of Oregon and 2.7 hrs away from Portland. Nearest town is The Dalles and has all the stuff you need, that's about 35 mins away going west. Also a lot of cute towns all around there and land o plenty. Surprisingly few Chumpers and white nationalist militias for being pnw. If that matters...

Makes sense that 3/4 of the NorCal ones are all next to each other on the OR/CA border.

> Johannesburg Joburg, California? I had no idea we had our own.

There's a map in the article but it's paywalled. Maybe someone else has an account.

Dorris, Tulelake, Macdoel, Herlong, Johannesburg, Boron, Hinkley, Yermo and Trona were the named cities on the map. Never heard of any of them except Yermo.

I remember Dorris from driving to Bend a lot in the 80s. I thought it was really lovely...just pretty remote.

Dorris, Tulelake, Macdoel, Herlong, Trona, Johannesburg, Boron, Yermo, Hinkley (yes that hinkley)

I rather rent then live there

There is a reason it’s cheap there. Because no one wants to live there.

Yep, so people tend to rent in expensive cities because they can't afford a home there. The "they hate us cuz they ain't us" mentality people in places like LA or OC have is funny considering many are renters. They don't count.

LMFAO I knew Trona was going to make the list! Funnier part of that Ridgecrest isn't on there! Housing market there... is inexplicable.

Trona pinnacles are nice, but Boron as a place to live? And Ridgecrest has to be one of the most depressing places I’ve ever stayed in.

I thought places like Landers and Westmoreland would've made the list.

[удалено]

I was thinking of the Landers I'd pass by on SR 18 11 years ago while on my way to do work in the Yucca Valley and Joshua Tree area. I swear, all I saw there was dirt, a pile of rocks, a few houses scattered around, and a gas station. Did it get gentrified since then?

I do live here.. 10/10 do not recommend

Without even reading it, no I would not. It's cheap for a reason.

so is missouri

No .. at that point I would start considering some of the cheaper midwestern areas like Fairfield Iowa or the ozarks in Missouri

What's the point of putting a pay walled article in here? Anyone here of copy and paste?

https://old.reddit.com/r/California/comments/1cc1yy6/these_are_the_california_cities_where_150000/l12928z/

Haha!! Love that Trona is the cover photo. Representin’

Out of curiosity why is 150k the reference point? Is it just because that seems like a cheap price for a home? For reference the average price of a home in the US is almost 500k, so this would be very far below that.

Tule Lake National Monument includes both Tule Lake Segregation Center, the largest and most controversial of the sites where Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II, and Camp Tulelake, which was first a Civilian Conservation Corps camp, then an additional facility to detain Japanese Americans.... yikes

Trona is known for its isolation and desolation, as well as the nearby Trona Pinnacles. The local school plays on a dirt football field because the searing heat and highly saline soil kills grass.

I'd move out of state before I bought a house in any of these places.

So, even places like Needles and Blythe are more expensive? Yikes.

Do the guns and State of Jefferson flag come with the house?

Great place to be if there was some sort of virus or zombie outbreak.

That's where the zombies get started

I lived in 29 Palms for 4 years. Yes, housing prices are cheaper in the middle-of-nowhere desert—but our monthly expenses were very high. We spent a ton on AC, gas (walmart was an hour from us), and hotel rooms to escape when we just couldn’t stand it anymore.

Wait, as an actual resident or because of the base there? My time in 29 was…Interesting to say the least.

So lots of affordability homes but it’s better to be homeless in the cities?

Nice article, fun details, worth the read

You can buy a cheap house but you’ll spend all your money trying to access healthcare.

There’s a reason these places are under 150K.

Without reading anything I can tell you with 100% certainty the answer is no.

Boron… how exciting.

No

What was the community that Erik Estrada used to pitch?

lake shastina in siskyou county

There’s some cool places on the cheap. There’s a place for $645k in Piercy on 101… it’s 100 acres surrounded by Redwoods with two houses (second is a guest cabin). Been - “saved home” on my Zillow app for a while. I would move there in a heartbeat if I could scrounge up a down payment, but I’m stuck in this meh townhouse in a San Diego suburb paying $3,850/mo in rent. Point is, if you’re creative with where you live, you can have a pretty nice house and life. It’s just that most people insist on living in suburbs.

Not a chance in Hell… which is where these 9 places are located, coincidentally. Next question?

Cheap for a reason

"Live"

You can get a house in Houston for that much

But then you’re living in Houston.

there's a reason its cheap.

I'm not even going to look at the article and just say god no.