I feel like all of Cali is unattainable , but I don't want it to be!

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by Sweetbottoms

Thanks for all the help/comments. After further eval and gathering more info we've we were informed my husband alone would be making about 80-90k and myself about 40-50K but with most of the info I've gathered here it seems that we'd still be probably lower middle class without any chance of buying a decent house thats not interior and in an extremely hot area of cali it seems. So we will be looking elsewhere probably back to New England. Dissapointing to find it is as unattainable as I thought.

I wouldn't call an income of $120K to $140K "lower middle class". Even by CA standards, that is an above average income....but it definitely doesn't go far in terms of housing. At that income level in the popular coastal metro areas, you would both be working full time and either living in a condo/townhome, or living in a single home in mediocre/crappy school district or you'd be up to your debt over your eyeballs in mortgage debt living in a decent school district. So, overall, I agree with your conclusion, as unfortunate as that may be.

[u225615]

Originally Posted by Sweetbottoms

My husband and I have never lived off th east coast we currently live in south Florida and previous in Maine and NH. We want out of florida ( schools are always on the bottom and we r sick of humidity/heat etc.) we have a two year old so her safety and schools are high on our list. We make combined 90k I work as a chef for Waldorf Anout to start school for digitl conematography as a second career and he's a 911 dispatcher former officer in school for accounting. Every time I look at Cali I feel overwhelmed and discouraged with prices. We would like to buy a home eventually and with a budget of $250,000 make I can't seem to find anything that does t require bars on the windows. My brother lives in Santa Monica but that's way out of our range. I don't know if I can deal with shoveling 6 feet of snow again but I don't want the constant stifling heat of Florida. Any suggestions on where to look? Help me narrow down some places maybe please

I'd recommend researching the suburbs of Sacramento.

Climate? Having moved from San Francisco I can attest that it took a while to adjust to the summers. However, a unique feature of the Sacramento area compared to most other inland metropolitan regions is the cooling effect of the Sacramento Delta. Although Sacramento is about 90 plus miles inland gardening magazines interestingly refer to Sacramento weather as "marine influenced." The net effect? hot but dry summers and cool pleasant evenings, nights, and mornings.Winters are typically mild although they will be cooler than what you experience in Florida but definitely no snow. And, for those who think hot is hot...think again humid hot is absolutely stifling. I prefer being baked than steamed.

Schools? Lots of options. Suburbs of Sacramento have strong performing public schools based on academic metrics such as average SAT scores and API (Academic Performance Index-a measure used by California to quantify academic performance. The higher the score the better).

Housing? Frankly housing inventory is low (there was a glut of short sales and foreclosures but it appears that much of that inventory has worked its way out (some people talk about the shadow inventory of homes waiting to be foreclosed/released by the banks but no one can say for sure). What is happening at the moment is a rise in home prices and an increase in home-building activity. Your budget of $250k will not buy a home in a prestigious address. However, it is enough to buy a brand new production home (cookie cutter home) with available granite counter tops, stainless steel appliances, etc or a newer home in a family friendly area with good schools. And, no need for bars on the windows or doors.

My personal opinion about the biggest obstacle for people moving to California? Securing employment. Some sectors like health care tend to do well even during economic downturns. Other sectors do not.

[ducviloxi]

Originally Posted by Tex?Il?

When people talk about California being expensive, they are talking about a specific California unnatainably expensive. lifestyle (walking distance to the beach, hilltop home, etc.)

You are joking right? Entry level houses in very typical neighborhoods are touching half a million dollars here... prices in nicer areas but hardly considered ritzy are about 800k-$1 million (Irvine, Tustin ranch etc.). The homes you refer to (blocks from the beach) are in Redondo beach, Newport beach, Laguna beach etc. and are in the $2-5+ million range. I think you need a reality check on home prices.

So, in ANY coastal metro area (LA, SF, SD) you will be hard pressed to find a decent sized single family home that is not falling apart or in bad neighborhood for anything less than $half a mil. which I consider shockingly unaffordable compared to median household incomes...but locals seem to shrug and pay it, does not bother them one bit even if the mortgage consumes 50% of their paycheck.

Real estate purchasing has had bit of a mania mentality since the boom and that mentality does not seem to have come off...people have a short memory and now I believe there may be a new bubble forming by people, especially investors, loading the market thinking they can get rich quick.

As for the other inland cities - Sacramento, Fresno etc.... they are pretty lousy, economy wise and livability wise. They have none of the attributes that make California living attractive - jobs, weather etc. but you still get all the negatives and compromises of living in the state such as high income taxes and poor infrastructure including bad public schools - so why would you live there, you could just go somewhere else and it would provide much better value.