La Quinta isn’t just the name of a chain of hotel suites. The town is part of the famed Coachella Valley, where tens of thousands of excited concertgoers descend on the desert to attend the annual three-day Coachella Music Festival. But after the wild music fans go home, life goes on as normal for residents in this resort town area.
La Quinta is a resort city in Riverside County, near other famous vacation spots like Palm Springs
La Quinta isn’t just the name of a chain of hotel suites. The town is part of the famed Coachella Valley, where tens of thousands of excited concertgoers descend on the desert to attend the annual three-day Coachella Music Festival. But after the wild music fans go home, life goes on as normal for residents in this resort town area.
La Quinta is a resort city in Riverside County, near other famous vacation spots like Palm Springs. People come here to soak up the desert sun, whether to play on one of the legendary golf courses or just to hike among the beautiful views of the Santa Rosa Mountains. La Quinta is located very close to the San Andreas Fault line that occasionally causes so many earthquakes, which provides a sense of living on the edge. Tourism makes up a big part of the local economy and "snowbirds" from colder regions often flock here to escape the winter months.
Moving to La Quinta
If you want to move to La Quinta, it’s like a permanent vacation spot. Rental property in La Quinta is widely available simply because there are so many people who want to live here. Yet despite the desirability of living in a resort town, the population here is still small enough that there is plenty of room to spread out. This is not a place for urban sprawl.
Considering that La Quinta and nearby Indio are in a resort area, it’s surprisingly affordable. One-bedroom La Quinta apartments are priced comparably with many Midwestern cities, so you can spend more of your time enjoying the palm trees and mountains than working just to pay your rent.
Finding an apartment that has all bills paid can be a challenge, but you may still be able to find other incentives that make your apartment even more affordable. Some apartment complexes may offer move-in specials or discounts on security deposits.
If you have pets, you may be able to find a rental home that allows them. Landlords and property managers may allow certain types of pets, though they may require additional security deposits or increased monthly rent.
When you want to rent an apartment anyway, including in La Quinta, you’ll have some things to line up first. Make sure you have good rental references from previous places you’ve lived, so that new apartment managers won’t be worried you’ll trash the place. And of course you need a legitimate job, because you’ll need to prove that you earn two to three times the amount of the monthly rent.
Life in La Quinta
La Quinta is in the middle of the desert, so there’s no way around saying it: it’s really hot! Summer temperatures regularly get above a hundred degrees during most of the summer. It’s definitely a dry heat rather than miserably humid, but it’s still just plain hot. Some people prefer this kind of climate, but if you’re not one of them, almost every place has air conditioning and you can just hide indoors from the weather like Midwesterners do during the months of snow storms. But if you’re moving here because you don’t like the cold, you’re in luck: even the average winter temperatures are above 70 degrees. Leave your parka behind, because you won’t need it here.
Like most other cities in the desert, you’ll need a car to get around. La Quinta has very few public transportation options. Fortunately, commute times are pretty short because the area isn’t that large, so you don’t have to worry that you’ll spend a lot of time stuck in traffic.
Living in La Quinta really is like a permanent retreat. The fact that you can live among such beautiful views for such a relatively low price makes this a great place to call home.