Seeking a New Start in Southern California for Less Than $800,000

For 11 years, Alane Kruk created her dream nest in a two-bedroom 1954 casita perched above the Pacific Ocean in Dana Point, Calif., a desirable beach community in Orange County. A two-minute drive let her put her toes in the sand. She filled the house with her son's art and hung a framed American flag that belonged to her father, a veteran of World War II and the Korean War, on the guest bedroom wall.

Last summer, she and her partner of 20 years, who owned the home with her, realized that their aging parents needed them.

“That was a thing we hadn’t counted on,” said Ms. Kruk, a retired special education teacher. And it’s how she found herself unexpectedly house hunting at 66.

There was one more twist: She would be hunting alone (or rather, with her little dog Stella), after her partner told her he was moving in with his parents an hour away to care for them.

The couple put the house on the market, and Ms. Kruk decided to relocate south, to San Diego County, where her 97-year-old mother, her son, his wife and their 2-year-old son lived, a short drive apart.

“Being close to my grandson was super important,” she said.

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Next on her wishlist was to stay close to the water: “There was no way I was moving away from the beach,” she said.

Ms. Kruk was raised in Katonah, N.Y., in Westchester County, and later moved to Atlanta, which, as she pointed out, is “nowhere near the ocean.” But she’d developed a love of the ocean as a girl, when her family spent summers on Cape Cod in a rented bungalow “10 steps from the beach.”

She discovered Southern California in the 1980s on summer vacations from teaching, when she would visit her parents, who had moved West. She said she’d think to herself, “Oh my gosh, if I lived out here I could go to the beach in October.”

In the San Diego area last year, supply was limited at her target price. Ms. Kruk was comfortable spending between $500,000 and $600,000, though she could stretch a bit for the right place if she took out a small loan. If she were nudged inland, she at least wanted an ocean view.

Ms. Kruk drives a Tesla, so she needed an outlet to charge the car. She preferred a garage over outdoor parking, and she preferred an open kitchen, because she enjoys entertaining.

Aging-in-place features like single-story living and shower bars were a lower priority. “It wasn’t a major factor, but a big plus,” she said.

To help with the search, she hired an agent she’d known for years: her daughter-in-law and the mother of her toddler grandson, Alexa Devaney. “I got so fortunate that my daughter-in-law was in real estate and kind of knew me well enough to be like, ‘I know what you think you want,’” Ms. Kruk said.

Ms. Devaney, an agent with the Oppenheim Group in La Jolla, Calif., initially encouraged her mother-in-law to look at homes at the higher end of her range, because homes under $700,000 “are not upgraded and are in pretty original condition in the target areas that she was looking in,” she said.

Ms. Devaney shifted her strategy to encourage Ms. Kruk to consider 55-plus communities, where her neighbors would have time for socializing and where prices were more accessible.

After touring a handful of homes, they narrowed the search to a few two-bedroom condos of roughly the same size, between 1,000 and 1,100 square feet, in two coastal cities: one in Carlsbad and two in the same 55-plus community slightly north of that, in Oceanside.

Among her options:

No. 1

Ariana Drehsler for The New York Times

This airy, upper-level corner condo in Carlsbad had 1,028 square feet. It wasn’t especially close to Ms. Kruk’s family, but it was just a mile from South Carlsbad State Beach, and she could see the water from the terrace. The terrace was ideal for entertaining, but she worried it lacked privacy from the neighbor next door. A carport instead of a garage meant she’d have to install an E.V. charger. The asking price was $759,000, and the $431 homeowners association fee included access to a pool, a jacuzzi and manicured common spaces.

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No. 2

Ariana Drehsler for The New York Times

This two-bed, two-bath condo in a 55-plus community in Oceanside was seven miles inland. It had 1,092-square feet, with a freshly remodeled kitchen and a peaceful enclosed patio. The attached garage would be convenient for charging her Tesla. The building was on a corner lot, but that meant it was right up against the street, so she wondered if she would hear road noise. The asking price was $599,000, and the $375 homeowners association fee offered amenities including use of a pool, a clubhouse and a vegetable and herb garden.

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No. 3

Ariana Drehsler for The New York Times

In the same senior community, Ms. Kruk toured an end-unit condo with new flooring and a new open kitchen. At 1,064 square feet, it had similar features as its neighbor, including a patio, two full bathrooms and a garage. She liked that it was at a higher elevation, so she could see sunsets and the mountains on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. What she couldn’t see: the Pacific. She liked that it was slightly tucked into the community, not on a busy street. The asking price was $550,000, and the homeowners association fee was also $375.

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Which Would You Choose?

Which Did She Buy?