Gold rush seen in these California desert towns

The Coachella Valley has several top areas for income growth, a Times analysis finds.

- BY TERRY CASTLEMAN

GINA FERAZZI Los Angeles Times IN THE COACHELLA Valley, workers toil in the fields during the evening in August to avoid the heat.

Jessica Bond, 31, owns a roofing company servicing the Coachella Valley with her husband. They live in a small unincorporated town called Thousand Palms.

They bought their home in 2018. Things have changed a lot in the seven years since, thanks to a housing market that is almost as hot as a September day in the valley.

“It’s ridiculous, it’s crazy,” she said. “The same house that was on the market five years ago has doubled in price.”

All around, she says, are signs of an influx of wealth: “You see what kind of cars are in people's driveways, you start to see motor homes and boats,” she said.

She can see a $100,000 pontoon boat in a neighbor's driveway, whereas two doors down there’s a Honda in the front yard on cinder blocks, Bond said.

As skyrocketing home prices push more and more Californians from cities to suburbs, exurbs and even other states, some so-called secondary cities are seeing an influx of new wealth.

Though not traditionally viewed as fancy enclaves, these smaller cities are booming as urbanites flee major metropolitan centers in search of increased living space or telecommuting options. One Southern California area that is clearly booming as a result: the desert burgs of Riverside County.

Two of the top three communities in the state that saw the greatest growth in average income from 2017 to 2022 were in the Coachella Valley, a Los Angeles Times analysis of tax returns from the California Franchise Tax Board has found.

Thousand Palms saw average incomes rise more than 3.5 times over that span, from $12,700 in 2017 to nearly $45,000 three years later. In nearby Indian Wells, incomes nearly doubled, from $139,000 to $256,000.