California's cheapest place to live has a hidden drawback
The median price for an existing single-family home in Lassen was just $286,500 in June 2025 - a fraction of the $899,560 statewide median and the $1.4 million average seen across the Bay Area. While Lassen offers striking high desert landscapes and unbeatable value, some buyers may be surprised to learn that the local economy has long been tied to the state correctional system. 'There's a large prison there,' said Billy Taylor, a real estate agent based in neighboring Plumas County, 30 minutes from Lassen County.
'A lot of the locals work as prison guards, and others move there to be closer to incarcerated loved ones.' The facility - High Desert State Prison - has been one of the region's largest employers since it opened in 1995. But long before the prison arrived, Lassen County was known for something else entirely.
'It's a very rural town known for cattle ranching and timber harvesting,' Taylor said. 'That's what it was built on - it was strictly ranching before the prison came in.' It's also a draw for outdoor enthusiasts, he added, with 'world-class hunting and fishing,' including large mule deer and the famous Eagle Lake trout, a prized species unique to the area.
Susanville, the county seat, has a population of nearly 10,000 and still reflects that rugged, frontier identity - one that may appeal to buyers looking for space, affordability, and access to nature. Taylor emphasized that Lassen County offers exceptional value, particularly for those priced out of more populated markets. 'You can't build a house for what existing homes are selling for,' he said, noting that buyers can find ranchettes with acreage and 'elbow space' at prices rarely seen elsewhere in California.
Most homes, he added, are selling below asking price, typically within 5 to 10 percent of list. Lassen isn't the only county offering relative bargains – four others also posted median home prices well below the statewide average, according to the Realtors' report. Lake County at $301,380; Trinity County at $311,000; Siskiyou County at $315,000; and Plumas County at $328,750 are the most affordable in the state.
Plumas, in particular, is attracting buyers from Nevada and the greater Reno area, thanks to its mountain views, small–town feel, and access to Lake Almanor – a quiet resort community locals call 'what Tahoe was 30 years ago.' According to Zillow, California's average 30–year fixed mortgage rate stood at 6.88 percent as of July 18. But in Lassen and other rural areas, sellers are showing more flexibility.
Jordan Levine, senior vice president of the California Association of Realtors, said homes are staying on the market longer, and sellers are more open to negotiation. 'Amid stabilizing home prices and a greater availability of homes for sale, California's housing market rebounded in June, but remained below year-ago levels,' the Realtors Group said in a news release.
Heather Ozur, California Association of Realtors president, added: 'With more properties on the market and price growth flattening, conditions have become more favorable for prospective buyers who have been waiting on the sidelines to re-enter the market and take advantage of increased negotiating power.' With scenic terrain, low prices, and a slower pace of life, Lassen County may offer an appealing alternative for budget–conscious buyers – as long as they're not deterred by its prison–town identity.
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BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
The Caribbean islands that give you a passport if you buy a home
Scroll through homes for sale in the Eastern Caribbean and it is no longer just bewitching beaches and a laid-back lifestyle being touted to woo and more property listings are offering a passport too – and political and social volatility in the US is said to be fuelling an upsurge in of the region's island nations – Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, and St Lucia – offer such citizenship by investment (CBI) from as little as $200,000 (£145,000).Buy a home, and you also get a passport that grants the holder visa-free access to up to 150 countries including the UK and Europe's Schengen the wealthy, the islands' absence of taxes such as capital gains and inheritance, and in some cases on income too, is another major draw. And all five of the region's schemes allow buyers to retain their existing citizenship. In Antigua, estate agents are struggling to keep up with demand, says Nadia Dyson, owner of Luxury Locations. "Up to 70% of all buyers right now are wanting citizenship, and the vast majority are from the US," she tells the BBC."We don't talk politics with them, but the unstable political landscape [in the US] is definitely a factor."This time last year, it was all lifestyle buyers and a few CBI. Now they're all saying 'I want a house with citizenship'. We've never sold so many before."Despite Antigua's programme having no residency requirement, some purchasers are looking to relocate full-time, Ms Dyson says, adding: "A few have relocated already."US citizens account for the bulk of CBI applications in the Caribbean over the past year, according to investment migration experts Henley & Partners. Ukraine, Turkey, Nigeria and China are among the other most frequent countries of origin of applicants, says the UK firm which has offices around the adds that overall applications for Caribbean CBI programmes have increased by 12% since the fourth quarter of 2024. Everything from gun violence to anti-Semitism is putting Americans on tenterhooks, according to the consultancy's Dominic Volek."Around 10-15% actually relocate. For most it's an insurance policy against whatever they're concerned about. Having a second citizenship is a good back-up plan," he Volek says the ease-of-travel advantages the Caribbean passports provide appeals to businesspeople, and may also present a security benefit. "Some US clients prefer to travel on a more politically-benign passport."Prior to the Covid pandemic, the US was not even on Henley's "radar", Mr Volek restrictions proved "quite a shock" for affluent people used to travelling freely on private jets, prompting the first surge in stateside CBI applications. Interest ratcheted up again after the 2020 and 2024 US elections."There are Democrats that don't like Trump but also Republicans that don't like Democrats," Mr Volek says."In the last two years we've gone from having zero offices in the US to eight across all major cities, with another two to three opening in the coming months." Robert Taylor, from Halifax in Canada, bought a property in Antigua where he plans to retire later this invested $200,000 just before the real estate threshold was raised to $300,000 last only does being a citizen avoid restrictions on length of stay, it also gives him the freedom to take advantage of business opportunities, he explains. "I chose Antigua because it has beautiful water, I find the people very, very friendly and it also means great weather for the later part of my life."Still, such programmes are not without controversy. When passport sales were first mooted in 2012 by the then Antiguan government as a way of propping up the ailing economy, some considered the ethics a little took to the streets in condemnation, recalls former Speaker of the House Gisele Isaac. "There was a sense of nationalism; people felt we were selling our identity, so to speak, to people who knew nothing about us," she of some other Caribbean nations that do not offer CBIs have also been quick to criticise, including St Vincent and the Grenadines' Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves. He has previously said citizenship should not be "a commodity for sale". Among the international community, there are fears that lax oversight may help criminals get through their European Union has threatened to withdraw its coveted visa-free access for Caribbean CBI countries, while the US has previously raised concerns over the potential for such schemes to be used as a vehicle for tax evasion and financial crime.A European Commission spokesperson tells the BBC that it is "monitoring" the five Caribbean schemes, and has been in talks with their respective authorities since says an ongoing assessment is seeking to substantiate if citizenship by investment constitutes "an abuse of the visa-free regime those countries enjoy vis-à-vis the EU and whether it is likely to lead to security risks for the EU".The Commission has acknowledged reforms carried out by the islands, which it says will have an impact on its evaluation. For their part, the five Caribbean nations have reacted angrily to claims that they are not doing enough to scrutinise Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit has described his country's CBI programme as "sound and transparent", adding authorities had worked hard to ensure its government says passport sales have raised more than $1bn since the initiative's inception in 1993, paying for vital infrastructure including a state-of-the-art St Lucia, Prime Minister Philip J Pierre says the island adheres to the highest standards of security to ensure its CBI does not inadvertently aid illicit need to appease the world's superpowers with raising revenue is a delicate balancing act for small Caribbean nations with meagre resources, dependent on the whims of programmes were labelled a lifeline at a regional industry summit in April, with funds used for everything from cleaning up after natural disasters to shoring up national pension schemes. Antigua's Prime Minister Gaston Browne said money raised had brought his country back from the brink of bankruptcy over the past from buying property, other routes to Caribbean citizenship through investment typically include a one-off donation to a national development fund or similar. They range from $200,000 in Dominica for a single applicant, to $250,000 for a main applicant and up to three qualifying dependents in Dominica and St Kitts. In Antigua, investors also have the option of donating $260,000 to the University of the West the face of international pressure, the islands have committed to new measures to bolster oversight, including establishing a regional regulator to set standards, monitor operations and ensure six principles agreed with the US include enhanced due diligence, regular audits, mandatory interviews with all applicants, and the removal of a loophole that previously enabled an applicant denied by one country to apply in days, passport sales account for 10-30% of the islands' Huie, a journalist in St Kitts, says his country's CBI scheme is "generally well supported" as a result. "The public understand the value of it to the economy, and appreciate what the government has been able to do with the money."
Reuters
5 hours ago
- Reuters
Report: Chargers LT Rashawn Slater lands record extension
July 27 - Los Angeles Chargers left tackle Rashawn Slater has agreed to a record-setting four-year, $114 million extension, ESPN reported on Sunday. The deal includes a record $92 million guaranteed and makes Slater the highest-paid offensive lineman in history at $28.5 million per season, per the report. Tampa Bay Buccaneers left tackle Tristan Wirfs' contract has an average annual salary of $28.12 million and Detroit Lions right tackle Penei Sewell earns $28 million, according to Spotrac. The Chargers confirmed that they agreed to terms on a multi-year contract extension with the two-time Pro Bowl selection but did not provide any financial details. Slater, 26, was a first-round pick (13th overall) in the 2021 NFL Draft and is entering the final year of his rookie deal. His fifth-year club option is worth $19.04 million this season. Slater has started all 51 of his games for the Chargers, including 15 last season. He was limited to just three games in 2022 due to a ruptured biceps tendon. He made the Pro Bowl in 2021 and 2024 and was named Second Team All-Pro in 2021. --Field Level Media
The Guardian
5 hours ago
- The Guardian
The heartbreak of watching a parent fall for fraud: ‘Dad, this is a scam – have you given her money?'
Bomba wasn't the first, but she exploded in our lives like a digital grenade. She's not real, I told my dad – then in his early seventies. I was in Australia at this time, where I've lived for the last 13 years. Physically speaking, he was still in California – but within himself he was adrift in a rapidly sinking lifeboat, floating in a morass of debris primarily of his own doing. But it must be said before I go further: my dad isn't the bad guy in this story. Not this time. At times, he was the bad guy in other people's stories– but that is another story. If she's not real, he countered, then how is it that we've spoken on the phone? That we video-chatted? I'll admit that threw me. In most catfishing stories the catfish goes to great lengths to avoid video chatting. But my dad being the unreliable source he was, I wasn't entirely sure he was being truthful about that detail. It was a heartbreaking thing to have to break down for my dad. My dad – who had once been a handsome, charismatic Lothario with swagger, with game – now had to be told by both of his daughters that this chic Bomba was 100% not real, not into him, not what or who she says she is. He didn't believe us. Bomba had presented herself, via Facebook, as a widow living in Naples, Florida. She and her late husband had been in the gemstone business, and she was a millionaire. A lonely millionaire at that, looking for love and companionship. She's not real, Dad. I begged him to understand. But I've seen her bank statements. Why would she show you her bank statements? Because her money is tied up in Europe, she can't access it, but she wanted me to know she has it. Dad. This is a scam. Have you given her money? Did she ask for money? Dad? DAD? Needless to say, he didn't believe me. The thing about my dad and money is that he had lived a life of great abundance and great scarcity. He'd been born into 1950's Midwestern high-society, the son of a department store titan, and then – as many of his cohort did in the sixties and seventies, he 'dropped out.' He spent most of his twenties and early thirties in the Motown music scene – he was a talented saxophone player – and in that scene he became addicted to heroin and other substances. He was a low to mid-level drug dealer himself and I am pretty sure there are things I still don't know about that time. What I do know – because I lived it – is that, while he was never what you'd call 'straight' – he did straighten out. He began the long process of untangling himself from heroin after I was born, but he'd never kick his dependence on alcohol and weed – and that taste for opioids would come back for its pound of flesh. He aimed higher. He got 'good' jobs. He started businesses. He achieved as an athlete, and was the basketball coach at my high school. For a period of time he, and those around him, flourished. He had money. And then he lost it, along with his second marriage, his house in the California mountains, his fancy RV … and his pride. By the time Bomba appeared, he was still nursing the faint hope that he might – somehow, some way – get it all back again. Even though by this time he'd burnt so many bridges he was practically an island, and was thoroughly physically incapacitated by the severe scoliosis he'd always outrun as a younger, fitter man. For the pain that the gin couldn't help, his doctors prescribed OxyContin. We'll get to that. He never admitted to sending Bomba money, but my gut says he did. I'd hoped maybe that would be the last scam, but then this happened: my dad called one afternoon to tell me that he was going to buy my husband a better boat. How, I asked? Because I've won the lottery, he said. My heart sank. Dad. It's not real. He forwarded me the documents he'd been sent – on Facebook – by some guy, let's call him Bob. One was a 'winning certificate' telling him that he'd won US$580m. I pointed out to him that I couldn't find anything online to verify it – and plenty of things to alert us to the fact this was a scam. Other things he forwarded me were full of spelling errors and other 'tells'. Still, he was intractable and unpersuadable. By this time – the time that my sister and I refer to as the whole lottery thing – or just the scam – we knew, to the penny, what my dad had left in the bank – which was about $50,000. His social security checks were paltry, and he was carefully rationing what he had left on fast-food, cheap gin, weed, and dog food and meds for his golden retriever, Sonny. What happened next took place over a period of about six weeks … maybe more, maybe less – to be honest, it's all a trauma-blur. Like clockwork, the scammers told my dad that in order to receive his winnings he had to cover the costs of the paperwork, transfer fees, insurance, and other vague items – that bill was around US$10k, give or take. He paid it. Then he was told that because they'd be delivering the $580m dollars in cash to his doorstep, he'd need to cover yet more bank fees, and the cost of the delivery itself, and various other dubious requirements – to the tune of another $10k or so. He paid that, too. When the money didn't arrive and the scammers went quiet, my dad finally understood he'd been scammed (or so we believed). The FBI got involved, only to tell him that his money was, essentially, unrecoverable. They told him the obvious: don't give them anything more and stop contact. This is where things get really weird and where my dad's fragmenting mind and broken spirit came into stark relief. Now that my dad knew he'd been scammed he was understandably furious. But because of his own days as a low-level crim who had engaged in his own scams (there's a weird story about a fake timeshare business he was a part of, and something to do with diamonds) – he was determined that he'd out-crim the crims. Somewhere in this timeline my dad had been hospitalised for the third or fourth time in as many months. We'd recently been told that he had alcohol induced brain atrophy. And there was all the oxy. And the deep well of anger, sorrow and fear. Somewhere in this timeline I'd had to call the police multiple times from my home in Australia and send them to check on my dad – who had, again, threatened suicide. Against this backdrop – my dad resumed communication with the people he knew had already stolen around US$20k from him – nearly half of all the money he had left in the world – the people the FBI had verified were, indeed, scammers. Weird, scary things happened. He threatened them. They threatened him. At one point, a plan was made to meet in a park after dark where, apparently, they were going to give him money. To this day I'm unsure as to whether my dad did, indeed, go to a park at night, wander around in his painful gait, confused, ashamed and angry, his pants too big for his dwindling frame – an image that cuts me to the bone. I was so angry with him. He was honest with me about not having cut communication – and then he relayed the fact that they were, again, asking him for money. It was, essentially, to cover the same kinds of fake costs that he'd already paid. But this time, he was sure they were going to make him whole. So he gave them the rest. All of it. Every last cent. In the last week of his life he was texting friends and family asking for $300 to send to the scammers for the petrol they said they needed to drive him his millions. In the last days, he was, quite literally, penniless. A few days after my dad died the scammers found my sister and me. We typed our outrage into the ether, screamed into the void, told them that they had blood on their hands – but we know that there was not a single person on the other end of that message. There are whole fleets. My dad was likely talking to multiple people – many of whom are probably living their own tragedies, in service of traffickers. Knowing that our experience wasn't uncommon was a cold comfort. We knew we weren't the only adult children grappling with the devastating fallout of financial scams. The scammers my dad encountered were not sophisticated, he suspended his own disbelief wilfully. But many scammers are sophisticated – their scams don't have spelling errors and inconsistencies. With AI, they are getting harder and harder for people to detect. Especially people who aren't tech savvy. As their children and loved ones, talking to them about changing their passwords and not clicking on links feels like the epitome of taking a knife to a gun fight. Financial scams aren't the only scams – I've come to see the other 'scams' that, over time, chipped away at my dad. Fox News convinced him that all of his many troubles could be blamed on immigrants, feminism, China … others. The Maga cult that conned him into thinking that Donald Trump would usher in a new era of success aimed at those who most needed it. The big pharma scam that told my dad that he could manage OxyContin – even though he'd told them he couldn't. These days, I've come to fear that the entire American project is a scam. The call is no longer only coming from shadowy figures on Facebook, it's coming from inside the house – the White House – with the President himself hawking gold bibles and bizarre coins and EFTs. My dad fell for all of that, too. There is a character in my new novel, Mother Tongue, named Eric. Eric has fallen for the Maga scam, for the Fox News scam, the Christian Patriarchy scam … but he goes down a far, far darker path than my dad did. Creating Eric was cathartic, as was creating his daughter, Jenny – who, like my sister and me, felt the sting of knowing that her father's view of the world, of women, of humanity, was so painfully distant from her own – and that it was a worldview that, if realised to its fullest potential, would cost her dearly. When I first began to draft the character of Eric, I thought I was writing about something rare, drawn from the distinct and precise experiences I'd had with my own dad. By the time I finished, it was clear that I was writing about something many children are grappling with when it comes to their susceptible parents, and my heart breaks for them, too. Mother Tongue by Naima Brown (Pan MacMillan, $16.99) is out now
