BG, the garage you are seeing in the photo is not a garage, but the entrance to one of the two cellars, which are not included in the sq ft. The garage is to the right, and is plenty big enough for our needs.
In answer to your questions and comments above, I’m not quite sure what your point is in reference to air quality, but as to “very exclusive areas”, how so? We must have very different ideas about exclusivity. I think of Beverly Hills, Rancho Santa Fe, Cap Ferrat. Marin County is nice but not exclusive. Montetico may have parts which are exclusive, but Santa Barbara certainly isn’t. Expensive, yes, but that is not the same thing, and drives at the core of the issue.
Coastal areas usually carry a premium, but inland cities can be equally expensive e.g. Pasadena, Sierra Madre, San Marino, Paris, London. So you cannot measure home values based on proximity to the coast, moreover, coastal areas are not all created equally.
We weren’t looking for a condo and only bought the one in Maui due its price per sq ft and location. It was almost half the price for comparable condos we’d seen (even in Maui). We are a few minutes walk to the ocean, with restaurants literally on the shore line. We are also right next to stores. The choice was made easier because it left us enough to buy a more substantial home in France, which is a much more regulated and less bubble prone market.
BG, we were very committed to buying in CA, and I very much doubt you will find many buyers who conducted such a thorough search over the many years as we did. But, we became increasingly disillusioned with a market that wreaked havoc around the world, and yet still managed to rob those who waited patiently of an opportunity. This is why we expanded our search.
I know you have a problem with my perspective, because it seems unimaginable that anyone could question your undying loyalty to CA, but trust me our choice was preferable in that it conformed more to our needs, cultural sensibilities, and vindicated our sense fairness. There is no bitter, convoluted psychological process involved.
