California Bashing ... Enough Already! (Los Angeles, San Bernardino: lawyer, equity, income)

[justsomeguy]

Originally Posted by sheri257

You claimed there's just as much money in Texas ... I was just pointing out that there isn't.

As for the $8K difference ... that's everybody including janitors and waiters.

But when you look at the professions like architecture/engineering, healthcare professionals and lawyers the pay difference is $20K a year more, on average, in California.

Afterall ... why do you think the cost of living in California got so high to begin with and Texas stayed so cheap? It was because incomes rose in California, but not in Texas.

Of course California housing prices rose too much in proportion to incomes but, that may be corrected with this down market.

People seem to forget that fact that for everyone who paid $500K or more for a house ... there was a California seller who profited more than Texas homeowners ever did. There was a hellava lot of disposable income from those sales.

If you cashed out your California equity and paid cash for your Texas house ... chances are you were able to do that only because you lived in California. You would never have been able to do that if you lived in Texas.

Either way ... there's still a lot more money in California.

Umm. That's not why COL is higher in California than in TX......

[it's all good]

Originally Posted by justsomeguy

Umm. That's not why COL is higher in California than in TX......

It's higher here 'cause it's all good here. : ) We've got it all. That should start something, oh well... : )

[shannon94]

[quote=sheri257;1442086]
Afterall ... why do you think the cost of living in California got so high to begin with and Texas stayed so cheap? It was because incomes rose in California, but not in Texas.

Of course California housing prices rose too much in proportion to incomes but, that may be corrected with this down market.




Oh my goodness! How can you even say those two sentences together. My point is.....making more money is when you have cashola left over. So you make 20k more a year as a laywer in Cali. Your also going to pay 20k more a year just to live in a median priced house. There went the extra 20k. Like I said it's a facade. You get more for your money in Texas bottom line. Anybody who has moved here from California will tell you the same thing. They will also tell you they have more money than they did in California.

I didn't cash out on a home in California...bought a home in Texas in 2000...put down a CASH down payment that we SAVED and my home will be paid off in less than 6 years now (could be sooner). I will retire before I'm 45...THAT would never have happened in California for us.

I've been out to San Diego 3 times this year.....my friends make good money...but it's clear that I'm getting ahead faster than they are. They are all in debt to their eyeballs just to live there. Some of them live in the 500k homes with 2 new cars in the driveway. But they can't afford to go to Sea World with us or out to dinner. I don't equate debt with wealth...

Home prices would have to drop DRASTICALLY in California to fall in line with incomes again.

So...getting off topic..lol..sorry...no matter what..I would never BASH Cali....I love it. Just don't want to work until I'm 80 or be in debt. Maybe I'll live there again when the parents pass on and give me the house in La Jolla.

[shannon94]

[quote=it's all good;1441949]... as many people leave California there are just as many or more who come into it,


Not true.

[sheri257]

Originally Posted by shannon94

I've been out to San Diego 3 times this year.....my friends make good money...but it's clear that I'm getting ahead faster than they are. They are all in debt to their eyeballs just to live there. Some of them live in the 500k homes with 2 new cars in the driveway. But they can't afford to go to Sea World with us or out to dinner. I don't equate debt with wealth...

I don't either. There's the data and then there's individual circumstances. If you guys make California incomes in Texas then all the power to 'ya. I know neither I nor my husband could ever make anywhere near the same amount of money we do here.

So, as I previously mentioned ... we played the California situation differently than you're friends in San Diego. We only paid $150K for our desert house ... which is pretty much what Texas houses are going for these days.

But we're grossing $160K here so, even with Cali income tax and gas prices ... I seriously doubt we'd be better off in Texas since our cost of living is pretty low.

[it's all good]

[quote=shannon94;1442588]

Originally Posted by it's all good

... as many people leave California there are just as many or more who come into it,


Not true.

California is All That and a side of fries, too. : )

It sounds like friends are in debt because they overextended themselves, not because of where they live. Maybe they're just tired of going to Sea World, too, since they live there?

[shannon94]

Glad your not part of the problem! I want to hug you!! Where on earth did you get a house in California for 150k? Just curious.

[shannon94]

[quote=it's all good;1442772 California is All That and a side of fries, too. : )

It sounds like friends are in debt because they overextended themselves, not because of where they live. Maybe they're just tired of going to Sea World, too, since they live there?[/QUOTE]








Yeah they overextended themselves paying 500k for a crap house because thats all that was available. I use to have season passes to Sea World and the Zoo and I still like to go.
They actually said "I can't afford it...I have to put gas in the car." lol

By the way...more Californians are moving out than moving in...look it up.

[sheri257]

Originally Posted by shannon94

... as many people leave California there are just as many or more who come into it,


Not true.

She's right, although the numbers of people moving out of state are declining.

In California, on average, 221,000 more people moved out every year than moved in from other states in the 1990's.

From 2000 to 2004, the annual average net loss declined to 99,000 as more Californians moved inland from cities on the coast instead of moving to other states. San Bernardino has gained more migrants annually since 2000 than any other metropolitan area.

"It's the next frontier," said Marc J. Perry, who wrote the Census Bureau analysis.

State-to-State Migration Is Linked to Cost of Housing - New York Times

So more people actually left the state in the '90s when housing prices weren't that bad ...

But when coastal housing prices did get really bad, more people chose to move inland instead.

Interesting. If you read this board, you'd think just about everybody left the state all together because of skyrocketing housing prices.

[shannon94]

lol...part of that is NOT my quote.