WAY OT: Are basements common in So. Cal?

[rz]

sorry for the way off topic post, but I know several people here live in Southern California.

There is a (slim) possibility that my wife and I may move to the San Diego area in the next several months. Wife has fairly open offer for a lateral transfer; I might be able to swing being allowed to essentially keep existing job and telework from across the country.

Just to be prepared, we've started looking on realtor.com at houses in the area (mostly eastern suburbs). One thing they don't seem to mention is if any of the houses have basements. I grew up in the Northeast, where it seems almost every house has a basement. I now live in Florida where it is EXTREMELY rare that any houses have a basement due to the high water table. Having a basement is one of the biggest thing I miss about living up north.

[davester]

Nope, basements are not common at all in So Cal.

[crispy]

Fairly uncommon.

[Seacrest]

Only part of California with a basement is Mint's place.

[jdc]

unless you are looking at something built before the 40s, then the possibility grows -- but still pretty slim

and probably not a "full" basement, more likely a 1/4 basement or something small for limited storage

[Jp!]

basement was my number ONE (optional) criteria for my house when we built. (after the normal bedrooms, bath, etc.)

[rz]

ok, thanks. A good basement would have been something to offset the 50% markup in housing prices between here and there.

[spearmint]

[quote Seacrest]Only part of California with a basement is Mint's place.
Hey! I resemble that!

[GGD]

Even in the SF Bay Area of CA, basements are uncommon, but are becoming more popular in new construction. Quite often when you see an old run down house sell, it's torn down and then you see a huge pit being dug for a new basement. This is the only way to increase usable space without exceeding the max footprint size for the lot. If people are going to go through all of the time and expense of building a new house, they generally go for the max square footage of usable space that they can get, so many new houses have three floors, with one below ground.

Growing up in the North East, basements were standard, and I was once told that it was because the foundation needed to go deeper there to get below the frost line, which also explains why it's uncommon in CA.

[lost in space]

Very common in commercially built homes prior to the 30s, even in the Bay Area, So Cal too, but like jdc said, basements were small. The dozen or so houses I can think of in the Bay Area built in the 20s had one, a few in So. Cal too.They often had coal furnaces. After the 30s, rare.