DeeAnn Noland has crafted her own slice of paradise in Southern California. Her property is perched in the hills, overlooking the city below. It spans nearly 7 acres and feels more like a resort than a home, boasting a 6,000-square-foot Spanish-style villa and a swimming pool topped by palm trees.
Her dream house isn’t found in Beverly Hills or Bel-Air or Malibu. It’s in Hemet — and it cost her $740,000. Southern California is riddled with luxury enclaves, but it’ll cost you.
As housing prices soar , some Angelenos are bailing on the big city in favor of places that are hotter, dryer and more remote, sprawling out into Riverside, San Bernardino and Kern counties in search of dirt-cheap mansions. In L.A.
, $1 million might not even buy a second bedroom. A few hours outside L.A.
, $1 million can buy a dream house. Noland, 67, grew up in Alhambra and bought her first house in Baldwin Park with her husband, Manuel. The tract home barely had a backyard.
Since then, she’s found the allure of open land, moving farther and farther away from city centers and buying bigger and bigger homes — mostly for the same price. Noland first landed in Cherry Valley near Yucaipa, buying a 2,600-square-foot home on an acre before buying her Hemet mansion in 2015, turning it into a tropical haven filled with horses, goats and a handful of exotic birds, including toucans and African crowned cranes. Noland does well, but she’s far from rich.
Her late husband was a civil engineer, and she b.
