Want to move to CA (lived there before), but see people leaving (San Diego: HOA, refinance)

[Donna7]

[quote=greatbasinguide;129773]No matter where you go, there you are.

I LOVE this one...Mike Brady.

[2KidsforMe]

hi. Just curious Puflle, why Massachusetts? My husband and I moved to the Boston area from OC after grad school. 6 years and 2 kids later we are still here. What about MA is calling you? Thanks for any reply.

[shannon94]

Originally Posted by Caliguy29

I agree with you....Alot of Californians are no longer leaving the State,but just moving inland towards The Inland Empire,The Central Valley and The Desert.

Not true!!! You should see all the California plates I am seeing out here in Texas now. A friend of mine left Cali for Idaho and said the same thing is going on out there. By the way...the friend that moved to Idaho...left the inland empire, lol

[fastfilm]

Ditto to Shannon. Both personally, anecdotally, and even according to posting on this venerable relocation site, California citizens want OUT of our beautiful but ruined state. It is not fixable within our lifetimes, and virtually every political decision favors illegals over American middle class citizens. The future of California will be for the very rich or the poor qualifying for myriad government programs. The rest of us must leave.

[speedoflight]

It is so sad to see how bad CA has become. It is getting worse every year with things getting more and more expensive. It makes you feel like if you were barely swimming a few years back, well, now you're treading water to survive and next year or the years after, you wonder what you will be doing - scrambling for a floatation device? I am a Californian and love CA and whenever I am away and come back, it has that home feeling to me but...I am not at all blind to the myriad of issues. It is a really big problem when you work so hard and still can't afford to buy yourself a basic thing called a home. CA has become to show what happens when things get out of control. Fastfilm is right - it is fast becoming a place where only the very wealthy or the very poor can survive. The middle class is being annihilated trying to work itself to death to afford a basic house, pay for taxes, rising healthcare costs, etc. The thing is, even if/when you can afford to buy that $600-700k basic house, you will be tapped so dry that you won't be able to afford much for yourself or your family. What kind of quality of life can you even have??? For all its beauty, you won't even get to see or enjoy the state if all you have is work and being enslaved to your house. I hear so many people talking about leaving all the time. I have yet another colleague who is talking about leaving as she has a young son and an elderly mother to care for and is so tired of having to work so hard with no end in sight. I also have a TX friend who turned down a very good job offer here for he said he did not look forward to having to work for the rest of his life to pay for a house if he could even afford to get one.

Originally Posted by fastfilm

Ditto to Shannon. Both personally, anecdotally, and even according to posting on this venerable relocation site, California citizens want OUT of our beautiful but ruined state. It is not fixable within our lifetimes, and virtually every political decision favors illegals over American middle class citizens. The future of California will be for the very rich or the poor qualifying for myriad government programs. The rest of us must leave.

[outofcal]

I, too, am out of California for I cannot afford the cost of living, taxes, traffic, pollution growth, crime and the endless constant political harangue... Not to mention real estate developers and their abysmal greed. In years past the San Joaquin Valley used to be tranquil, peaceful prime farmland but thanks to real estate development and population pressures it's no more. It's been many yrs since you left California and in that time, I dont know how closely you have followed our econo-socio-political affairs, let me tell you it has changed quite a bit and I am not sure for the better. I, personally, am in the process of selling my land and relocating out of state. Glad my children and grandchildren have all moved out and have their lives, one in Co. the other in NC. In my opinion, California, for the most part, is not the best place to rear children or grandchildren... Sorry I sound so pessimistic but I just wanted to present you a different perspecitve... Real estate prices, nice weather, cafés, alternative life styles and art galleries is not the only consideration.... Best of luck to you and your family.

[speedoflight]

The traffic is horrendous here in the Bay Area. People pretty much keep to the towns/cities that they live in so that they can cut down on having to drive across the bay. I love SF the city but boy oh boy, don't try driving in there. I had a business meeting just last month at the Embarcadero area and spent only 45 mins in my meeting. I had to park my car in a garage as there's no parking to be found on the streets, had to pay about $15 just for parking for less than 1 hour.

Originally Posted by outofcal

I, too, am out of California for I cannot afford the cost of living, taxes, traffic, pollution growth, crime and the endless constant political harangue... Not to mention real estate developers and their abysmal greed. In years past the San Joaquin Valley used to be tranquil, peaceful prime farmland but thanks to real estate development and population pressures it's no more. It's been many yrs since you left California and in that time, I dont know how closely you have followed our econo-socio-political affairs, let me tell you it has changed quite a bit and I am not sure for the better. I, personally, am in the process of selling my land and relocating out of state. Glad my children and grandchildren have all moved out and have their lives, one in Co. the other in NC. In my opinion, California, for the most part, is not the best place to rear children or grandchildren... Sorry I sound so pessimistic but I just wanted to present you a different perspecitve... Real estate prices, nice weather, cafés, alternative life styles and art galleries is not the only consideration.... Best of luck to you and your family.

[puffle]

For those that replied, I am not running away...we are moving back to Mass. after experiencing it for too short a time two years ago. Since being back in Ca. it gave me a chance to see it with open eyes as opposed to living in it for 43 years. When we lived in Lexington, Ma. we did not come across materialistic people wearing and driving their wealth for all to see. In fact, by just looking, you would never know who had money and who didn't because it isn't something you talk about or show off there, which I truly appreciate now. The list is too long, but change is good and life is too short. Oh, I didn't say anything about the Hispanic language...I said there is mainly Hispanic culture in California as opposed to the East Coast.

[speedoflight]

Actually it depends on where you are in CA. In the Bay Area, it's not dominated by Hispanic culture but by Asian culture - Chinese and East Indians in particular.

Originally Posted by puffle

For those that replied, I am not running away...we are moving back to Mass. after experiencing it for too short a time two years ago. Since being back in Ca. it gave me a chance to see it with open eyes as opposed to living in it for 43 years. When we lived in Lexington, Ma. we did not come across materialistic people wearing and driving their wealth for all to see. In fact, by just looking, you would never know who had money and who didn't because it isn't something you talk about or show off there, which I truly appreciate now. The list is too long, but change is good and life is too short. Oh, I didn't say anything about the Hispanic language...I said there is mainly Hispanic culture in California as opposed to the East Coast.

[socketz]

"Not true!!! You should see all the California plates I am seeing out here in Texas now. A friend of mine left Cali for Idaho and said the same thing is going on out there. By the way...the friend that moved to Idaho...left the inland empire, lol"

Agree. It's scary how many Californians I ran across, spoke with and heard about while I was in TX for a week looking at homes. I also hear the same thing is happening in parts of the SE around the Carolinas. We do have well over 20 million people in CA, so we can easily lose a couple hundred thousand and not suffer much. As for the Inland Empire, I fear the main people that have been moving there are investors flipping homes, that's actually a bad thing long term.

I'm leaving San Diego for an excellent career opp, otherwise leaving would have never crossed my mind. I honestly think there are not many better places to live in the world, let alone the US. If you buy in one of the good school districts, the schools are excellent. People are pretty friendly, crime is low and there is very little materialism....seriously, even in the 'old money' spots of San Diego like La Jolla, people are really down to earth. It's just a San Diego mindset....warning though, that 'down to earthness' sometimes feels complacent in a way and I would not recommend this area to career oriented people with 'fire in their belly'. That has always bothered me about SD, but I've accepted it as a tradeoff for the resort-like lifestyle.

As a CPA, you can probably walk down the street and find a decent job. Like most of the US, there are tons of jobs for accountants out here (thanks to Sarbanes Oxley). As for your husband in Medicine, we are heavy on Socialized medicine, so Kaiser/Sharp, etc rule here.....which for medical people close to me has meant lower pay than other areas of the US....again, the lower salaries are all part of what we call the 'Sunshine Tax'...the lower pay is worth it to many.