Might have to leave California, help me figure out where to go (San Jose: foreclosure, rentals)

[califlo]

I am fairly new to the city-data forum, and I am looking for help in finding a place to relocate. I moved here to San Jose, CA from Tampa last year for my husband’s job. So far, we have enjoyed living here but we have had the good fortune to have paid very little for rent as it is mostly been subsidized by his employer. While we would definitely not mind staying out here awhile longer, our goal is to eventually buy a house and paying Bay Area rent is not going to really allow us to save what we need to do that, and it would not leave much money for us to budget for travel, fun, etc. We know buying here is out of the question for us - too $$. Therefore, we need a new home! We are both in our early 30s and we have no kids. We would like to stay in California if possible. If we leave, where should we go? Where have you all considered moving to? Here are some characteristics that we want our new city to have:

-Weather: preferably no snow (or very minimal snow, < 5 in. a year), a moderate level of humidity with some noticeable rainfall (we are not interested in desert weather, but don’t really want to go back to Florida humidity either!), and we both love warm & sunny weather so we do not think we would do well in a city that is more often cloudy than sunny (like Seattle)

-Good air quality due to our health considerations

-Excellent hospitals/medical facilities nearby

-Affordable housing – pretty much anything less expensive than the Bay Area

-Low crime rate

-Near 4yr college/university, possibly 2 yr college might work (my husband works in higher education admin)

-Fairly diverse population and good acceptance of interracial couples (I spent a chunk of my childhood in Alabama, and my experience there as a multiracial person was horrible. I am not interested in moving to a place with a lot of racial issues)

-Moderate to liberal people and political environment(we are pretty liberal and agnostic, and hope to find a place where there might be other people somewhat like us)

Ideally, our new home would offer access to these things too but we would be willing to travel a little for them if necessary:
-a variety/quantity of ethnic restaurants (we like Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, Ethiopian, etc.) and cultural events/festivals

-reasonable access to outdoorsy stuff (hiking, parks)

-an assortment of stores for shopping like Borders, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Target, department stores

-less than 1- 1.5 hours from an airport

I know there is a lot listed here and we may not find a place that has all of this. Thank you for reading this and for any help you can give!!

[OC Investor2]

Have you thought about Austin Texas?

State capital. College town. Moderate climate. Pretty Liberal (Damn near communist compared to the rest of Texas) Good arts & music scene. Definately bette cost of living. I have a friend who has some rentals in the area and he raves about it.

[bhcompy]

in CA you're going to have a hard time finding what you want

you may want to try stockton though.. foreclosure capital of norcal and still in the bay area i guess. otherwise id say in the inland empire, but that is very arid

[TimC2462]

I echo OC Investor2's suggestion to relocate to Texas. There are a lot of similarities between California and Texas.

Tim C.

[EscapeCalifornia]

Originally Posted by TimC2462

I echo OC Investor2's suggestion to relocate to Texas. There are a lot of similarities between California and Texas.

Tim C.

Not sure about the "a moderate level of humidity with some noticeable rainfall (we are not interested in desert weather, but don’t really want to go back to Florida humidity either!" part though. Most of Texas is pretty damn hot and humid.

[CA central coast]

I'm going to say Santa Maria.

[joe stixpuck]

I'd pass on Stockton. Agree with checking into Austin though. If you'll not be able to do San Jose then nothing in/near the Bay Area will likely work. Maybe the Sacramento area though if ya wanna stay in CA?

[eureka1]

You might want to check out North Carolina, the college towns.But this is going to be a rotten year for anyone wanting to change jobs.You might want to hunker down and pay rent for awhile till the recession passes. Good luck!

[AKgirlinCA]

Dallas, Texas. Sunny. Affordable. Fairly low humidity. Abundant job market. Jobs pay what CA jobs do or more and COL is nearly half. Convenient location to other areas in the country for traveling. All the stores/shops/restaurants you could want or need. Nice people. Tons of schools. No smog. Plenty of sports teams for recreation. North Dallas and Collin County are very safe. Excellent hospitals. Need I say more? Also, if you like a little bit of "weather" you get the occasional thunderstorm which is fun. The tornado stuff is a bit overhyped.

[califlo]

Thank you all for your responses! I'm a little cautious about Texas - I visited Houston a very long time ago, and we only really drove through Texas a year ago to move from Florida to California. Does anybody know about the areas surrounding Austin? I only know of Texas what I see on TV (news, George Bush, etc...). As a multiracial person, I'm not so sure how I feel yet. How much like the deep South is Texas? :-) While Austin has a reputation for being liberal, we don't want to feel like we can't leave it to travel around the state, without being stared at or being surrounded by really conservative environments. Which is why we might be also a little hesitant to move to North Carolina.