Are you thinking about moving to rural California? Did you watch our best rural towns in the golden
state video? If you did we're looking at the other side of the California dream today that's
right we're looking at the worst world towns in California some people may be shocked to this but
California has plenty of good and bad rural towns some of the states that we've done lately have had
less than 10. we just couldn't get 10 really great towns or 10 really bad ones California
has enough to do probably three or four videos of 10. it's a big state it only makes sense more and
more people are moving to small and rural towns to retire or work remotely there are a lot of great
places in California those towns aren't on this list the towns you're about to see I'm sure have
plenty of great people they just have enough not so great stats that help get them on a worst list
and you should probably think twice or do a lot of research before you move there get it
got it good let's take a look number 10 here on California Huron sits about an hour south
of Fresno in what is known as the central valley which is a valley in the center of California like
the name suggests where a lot of farming is done and rural towns exist most of the towns in the
central valley wouldn't be considered great places to live like here on this is the type of town you
move to when you like really hot summers and are willing to roll the dice on water and air quality.
Huron has a livability score of 42. if you remember I said if it's in the 80s
it's great if it's in the 90s it's probably a gated community when you get into the 70s
it's middle-class blue-collar type thing when you start getting below 65 it starts to suck when you
get into the 50s it sucks and here we are at 42. they have a population of 6 821 residents the good
news is cost living is three percent below the national average housing is 34 below the national
average that is outstanding for California now where it really starts to suck is their crime rate
it's nine percent below the national average which is good what's bad is their violent crime rate is
198 percent above the national average about 39 of their residents live below the poverty line that
puts them about 158 percent above the national average the median household income here is 25 321
that's 54 below the national average now a lot of their crime might have to do with the harvest
season the population swells to over 15 000 due the influx of the workers town of huron was
actually founded in 1888 as a water stop along the southern pacific railroad's western route
number nine evanel california evanel is another central valley town and it sits about the midway
point between los angeles and san francisco around an hour inland from the coast it is just
south of huron and a little over an hour south of fresno back in the 1940s this was an oil boom town
they had three different oil companies drilling there for a while and that employed most the
residents these days it's pistachios and a prison that pays the bills this town is home to avenell
state prison just south of town avenell has a livability score of 54. they got about 13 000
residents i don't know if they count the prisoners their overall cost living is two percent lower
than the national average which is outstanding housing is 31 percent lower as we've learned
when a place isn't great to live things are cheap their crime rate again is lower than the national
average that's outstanding but their violent crime rate is 105 percent higher than the national
average about 32 percent of their residents live below the poverty line which gets them about 117
percent higher than the national average their median household income here is 35 000 so they're
doing better than huron if you want to buy a house here you can get a pretty run down place for under
150 000 but really if you want something decent you're going to be looking around 300 000 and up
california that's what it costs and i looked it up and yes they do count prisoners as part
of a local community so almost five thousand residents in avonl are prisoners number eight
hat creek california hat creek takes us out of the central valley sort of it's just there above
reading and reading is kind of the northern boundary of what's considered the central
valley and this one's just a little northeast of redding and there's not many people living here
this is a small community on as you guessed it hat creek this one's up in the hills a bit so
it's kind of a mountain town and it doesn't look terrible it's just got some bad stats
everything in this town is greater than an f they have one d which is cost living i mean
usually when you got really bad stats cost living usually shines it's like an a plus
no they get a d for that too hat creek is in the hills a little over an hour northeast of redding
in northern california they got a livability score of 45. their population it's kind of small it's
about 250 residents that was in 2020 their overall cost living is five percent higher
than the national average for a mountain town kind of that's pretty good really mountain towns
always are a little bit higher even if they suck housing is about 17 percent higher which is kind
of good for california and here's where it gets bad their total crime rate is 53 percent higher
than the national average their violent crime rate is 59 percent higher than the national average and
about a quarter of their residents live below the poverty line the town's economy relies on tourism
fishing camping and lodging this is a great part of california to camp and there is good fishing up
this area a lot of people will stop here or in this area for a day or two while they're let's
say doing a big camping trip then they'll go up to mount shasta area number seven cosmelia california
asmelia is about 20 minutes into the hill south of santa maria california if you ever take amtrak's
coast starlight north this is the first town you pass by as you leave the coast to go inland
there's not much to it the first time i passed by them all whoa was that a town this little town is
surrounded by hills and cows yeah they got tons of cows floating around this place it doesn't
smell great i'm sure one of those towns you don't want to be eating dinner in when the wind shifts
cazmilia has a population of just 140 residents their livability score is 53. now their overall
cost of living is 5 above the national average which it's california and you're not terribly far
from the coast so that makes everything expensive but the good news is their housing is nine percent
below the national average you look at the houses you kind of know why the crime rate here is 58
above the national average and their violent crime rate is 64 above the national average their
poverty level is even with the national average that's good median household income here is 71 000
someone's got to be making some serious money here and it raises everyone else's
average casmilia is a native american term for it is the last if you want to buy a house here they
don't have anything for sale but last year they sold a couple homes for under 150 000
that were basically shacks and then in april of 2022 they sold a pretty nice home for
380 000. casmelia is a superfund site meaning it's toxic by 1985 over 50 truckloads a day of toxic
waste were being dumped in casmelia respiratory disease and other ailments began to surface among
nearby residents the dump site was identified as the likely cause of the health issues
number six cabazon california cabazon is out in the middle of the desert in riverside county
california if you grew up in los angeles and drove out to palm springs or desert hot springs
something like that you pass by this place and you know you're passing by because they got these
giant dinosaurs off the side of the road and the indian casino right across the road at least they
called them indian casinos back then now it's called morongo casino resort and spa when i
was growing up you'd drive by there in big letters indian bingo and this sign was huge it like glowed
and made the whole area look like daylight cabazon used to be a great place for retirees not so much
anymore sometime in the 90s the stats for the area took a big turn they have a livability score of
45 now the city only has a population of about 4 000 and it's losing so by the time you watch this
it could be well below 4 thousand the overall cost of living here is still three percent above
the national average because you got that sweet indian casino across the way i'm sure that raises
the cost of living a little bit the housing is 14 below the national average so that's decent and
their crime rate is 14 above the national average their violent crime rate is 18 above the national
average 32.6 percent of the residents here live below the poverty line you know the stats aren't
as bad as some of the other ones on this list they're just out in the middle of the desert and
it sucks if you want to buy a house here don't matter of fact have your medication checked if
you're thinking about it if you want to buy a home in cabazon it's going to probably run at
least 400 000 to get something that's livable anything below let's say 300 000 probably at
some point manufactured street pharmaceuticals if not it looks like it probably did so this one's a
first for this channel there's no footage of ruth absolutely none ruth is like that uncle you have
that refuses to get on the internet i'm not getting on the internet that's how the government
gets you that's how ruth is there's no footage there's no pictures just a satellite view weird
oh and if this is the first time you're seeing my face i am not 20 and live in my parents basement
number five ruth california ruth california is in northern california on the south end of ruth
lake it's really on mad creek south of the lake this place is out in the middle of nowhere and
there's not much to it matter of fact they only have 184 residents this place is so far out in
the sticks there's no photos of it online this is as far as the google street view car went they got
to about this point said nothing to see here and turn back around i'm not even kidding like i said
ruth has a population of just under 200 residents and their overall cost of living is 21 above the
national average housing is 41 above the national average but you probably never move here so that
really doesn't matter their total crime rate is 56 above the national average and their violent crime
rate is 62 percent above the national average almost half the population here lives below the
poverty line it's actually 42.4 percent of their population and the average household income here
is almost 13 000 it is roughly five hours south of the oregon border make sure you stay till
the end because you get to see a wealthy town that actually made a worse dove list
number four desert center california desert center is the type of place you move to when
your life ambitions are to watch tv and eat stuff you bought at walmart that's about all you could
do here besides get a nice sunburn and clean dust out of your eyebrows desert center sits
between palm springs and blyth on the 10th freeway in the middle of the freaking desert
of california they don't even have a truck stop at this place there's no place to pull over here
and get gas something to drink nothing like that they got historic desert center cafe and judging
by the boarded up windows and post-apocalyptic cafe sign i'd say they're closed desert center has
a livability of 59 which is not bad for this list they have about 189 residents and their overall
cost of living is one percent lower than the national average bravo desert center housing is 41
lower than the national average if you want to move there looking on zillow the little community
that's just outside of where desert center is where most people live they got a little man-made
lake there and they're selling homes they go for 160 000 for a mobile home or a legit home which
doesn't look the greatest it's going for almost 600 000. they had a price cut last april for
hundred and forty thousand dollars now it does come with ten acres but at one point they were
asking for seven hundred thousand for this place their total crime rate is seventy two percent
above the national average and their violent crime rate is seventy nine percent above the
national average thirty three point nine percent of their residents live below the poverty line a
solar project was approved for this area it was two thousand six hundred acres of solar panels
it's the middle of the desert great place for them but a lot of the locals disagreed with the move
like what are you worried about you you're worried it's gonna bring in a bad element or something
it's solar panels in the middle of the freaking desert number three grizzly flats california
grizzly flats now there's a name sure california has a grizzly bear on its flag but it hasn't had a
grizzly bear living in the state in decades unless it's in a zoo or some kind of rescue thing just
last year grizzly flats was basically leveled by the cauldron fire and that's a bummer about living
in this part of california wildfires are a serious problem grizzly flat sits about an hour and a half
east of sacramento kind of in between lake tahoe and sacramento and it's a beautiful area it's
too bad it's got some really bad stats and the possibility of another wildfire whipping through
here grizzly flats has a livability of 44 they have a population of just under 900 residents and
their overall cost of living is five percent above the national average housing is ten percent below
the national average and i think the risk of a wildfire has a lot to do with why it's below their
total crime rate is 69 above the national average their violent crime rate is 75 above the national
average compared to some of the other ones on this list they're not doing that bad in the
poverty level only 18.7 percent of the population lives below the poverty line median household
income here is thousand three hundred ninety dollars this one has a ton of homes for sale
the homes range from a lot that might have been burnt out or not last year from sixty thousand
dollars for about an acre to homes that are going for three hundred thousand all the way up to some
that are 900 000 and they're beautiful it's a beautiful area they just have some bad stats
number two dobbins california dobbins california is in yuba county california about an hour and
20 minutes north of sacramento not too far from lake tahoe and the tahoe national forest if you're
living here and want to go in town you're going to head to yuba city which is a lot closer than
sacramento on lake francis the beautiful area the land is beautiful around here again they just got
some bad stats their livability score is 56 and a population of 710. overall cost of living is
18 above the national average housing is 31 above the national average and their crime rate is 39
above the national average so yeah they've got a lot of 30s here because their violent crime rate
is 39 percent higher than the national average and their property crime's 38 above the national
average but when you look at their poverty rate they finally get out of the 30s they're
24.8 percent of their population lives below the poverty line if you want to move here it can get
expensive they have some smaller homes and some lots that go for anywhere from twenty thousand
dollars for a half an acre to 175 for 15 but they also have a really beautiful home that i looked
at before i honestly gave this one a thought and it's going for 1.1 million dollars that's when
i quit thinking about it when i saw the price tag but this is a beautiful part of california
it's just too bad it's got those stats and again like this whole area there's a serious chance of
running into a wildfire or a wildfire running into you all right before we get to number one don't
forget we have another channel called on this day there is a link down below head over there watch
some videos give some a big thumbs up and give this video a big thumbs up all right on to number
one and number one geyserville california i was a little surprised to see this one
on this list the stats are not flattering i've been to geyserville it's been a couple decades
but it was i thought it was a great little place and it still looks nice its stats just don't
it's about two hours west of sacramento above san francisco not too far from the coast
near stewart's point kind of a cool place it has the russian river flowing right by town which
is cool russian river is a nice river a lot of people that have to work in the bay area will move
north of there and sonoma roseland places like that geyserville might be a little too far north
but i'm sure some people still do it they've got wineries around here it's not a bad place
let's look at the stats their livability score is 48 their population is about 975 residents their
overall cost of living is 55 above the national average and housing is 119 above the national
average their total crime rate is 16 above the national average and their violent crime rate
is 20 percent above the national average now here they're not doing bad in poverty it's actually 11
not bad and their median household income is about fifty six thousand dollars that's two percent
higher than the us average but this is like a small restaurant bed and breakfast and winery
type place just doesn't have great stats and it's uh expensive now this is why it's on the list
really because it is so expensive to buy a home here it kind of makes it get on a worse dove list
the typical home here starts off about 1.2 million dollars yeah not even kidding 1.2
million and some of them are almost five million dollars i mean they're beautiful homes and have
property and stuff like that go on zillow check them out it's amazing this place is too expensive
for the stats that they have all right that's today's video hope you guys enjoyed it hope
you got some information out of it now go out have a productive day and be nice to each other