When we started looking for a house to live in, we were living a different life. Both my husband and I had spent years in relationships that didn’t work, and all the while we were friends. When we both ended up single at the same time, we finally started dating. We got sick of what we called the “love commute” — he lived in Santa Cruz and I a 90 minute drive away in San Francisco. He loved Santa Cruz, and I was in the middle of a career change, so we thought Santa Cruz would have a lower cost of living. Ha. I looked for a rental for months, till finally we decided to move in together.
He owned a tiny bungalow in Live Oak, which he had to sell at a loss. We got a housesitting gig, and after despairing that we’d find anything worth buying, we found our house just as our housesitting was ending.
The different world we were buying in is one that people, until recently, seemed hardly to remember. 1996 Santa Cruz was at the end of a long slump that started October 17, 1989 – the day of the earthquake that devastated downtown Santa Cruz. By 1996, prices were still depressed, and hardly anyone was moving. The house we ended up buying was the only one that we saw that we’d even consider. Although there were some fine houses up the street, all around our house were little old bungalows and cottages. One property, owned by the composer Lou Harrison, even had a shed that he’d formerly raised chinchillas in that had been converted to a rental. It was not exactly your upmarket neighborhood.
Flash forward to 2006, and the different world we’d found ourselves in. For one thing, when we bought we hadn’t thought about kids at all. Our house, built by retirees, was not really suitable for children. So the arrival of our first child brought on the first remodel. With the arrival of the second, we were no longer in the income bracket for a remodel — I’d quit making much money after the arrival of the first. So we shifted everyone around.
Another thing that had happened in the intervening years was the expansion of population in our county southward. They were taking all the little farms along Soquel Drive and turning them into subdivisions. The few holes in our street were filled in with new houses, and the little cabins and bungalows started to disappear. We still have a few, but now, in contrast to when we moved in, our neighborhood is definitely upscale.
A funny thing happens when people come to our house the first time. Though we’ve had the recent dip in the real estate market, they see our house as a million dollar house. I suppose it was… but we don’t feel like a million dollar family! Homeschooling takes its toll on the family budget. The amount of money I can bring in per month is less than a week’s groceries. And since I don’t feel capable of homeschooling both of them, we have a private school tuition as well. Before we had kids, we took adventurous trips to Vietnam and India. After…well, we did take a roadtrip to the Eastern Sierras this summer. I guess that counts as exotic when you’re from liberal Santa Cruz!
But the thing that feels weird about our luck — buying a great house in a great neighborhood when no one else was buying — is the real estate envy we see when people come here. As one girl announced when her mother dropped her off, “I didn’t expect your house to be so WEALTHY.” Good thing her mother had already left and didn’t have to hear her little pitcher mimicking what she no doubt said as she drove up! I wish I could tell people, yeah, we got so lucky on the stock market we’ll never have to work again. Or yes, my family has always been incredibly wealthy and I’m completely at ease with it. Instead I smile, shrug, talk about the luck we had…
When our house WAS a million dollar house we talked sometimes of what we’d do if we sold it. We realized that we are right where we want to be, so there was no point. Given the way California property taxes work, we wouldn’t be able to afford buying another house!
So here we are. And when you come to visit, don’t think we don’t know how lucky we are to be here! And the way things are going, you might just get lucky, too.
