Moving to California, should I be scared? (San Diego, Oakland: sales, lease)

[grapico]

no 300k metro not big esp coming from 10 million metro...and going to an 8 mil metro.

[mysticaltyger]

Given that you have somewhere to live, I think you will be ok in the short run. I understand you do not want to live in a hick town in the middle of nowhere. Sonoma is certainly pleasant.

But I wonder if you are thinking about the long run. The long term trend is that California seems to be running itself into the ground with ever more taxes, regulations, and land use restrictions (that drive up the cost of real estate and general cost of living). Not to mention we have the worst credit rating of all 50 states. Quite frankly, all we need is a big earthquake to come along (which is now overdue in both the Bay Area & the southern part of the state) to really plunge us into chaos. Things could change for the better, but I would wait for evidence of that before counting on it.

We pay above average taxes here and get worse than average schools and other public services for what we are paying. Then there are the long coummutes, which become more and more of a grind over time.

If you are planning on staying child free (or do not mind being dependent on parental subsidies for long periods of time), California might still be worth the hassle. However, if your gf wants kids I would not come here.

[MtnSurfer]

Originally Posted by grapico

Yeah I'm pretty sure I will have to commute down to SF or SR, we will be between to Sebastopol and Bodega Bay.

On the job situation, her brother is my age and says he makes about 20 an hour waiting tables out there...that is more than I am making now as a sysadmin here...

Haven't you heard the skys falling, CA is falling into the ocean soon if the beaurocrats don't ruin the state first...

On the other hand if you see opportunity where other see gloom and doom there is a place for you here. The glass is definately half full for many who live here. And there are jobs especially in the IT field if you have good skills and education. Just be somewhat flexible as to 'where' to land a job. For example we have ppl driving in from San Jose to Ft. Ord, Seaside (near Monterey) because there are good jobs here, most carpool. For a good paying, stable job it is worth it. If it were me I would forget the commute and just move closer.

Derek

[grapico]

Originally Posted by MtnSurfer

Haven't you heard the skys falling, CA is falling into the ocean soon if the beaurocrats don't ruin the state first...

On the other hand if you see opportunity where other see gloom and doom there is a place for you here. The glass is definately half full for many who live here. And there are jobs especially in the IT field if you have good skills and education. Just be somewhat flexible as to 'where' to land a job. For example we have ppl driving in from San Jose to Ft. Ord, Seaside (near Monterey) because there are good jobs here, most carpool. For a good paying, stable job it is worth it. If it were me I would forget the commute and just move closer.

Derek

Yeah I hear you... it is the same doom and gloom in FL with budget cuts, unemployment etc. I mean where I was already going to school they are closing down summer session, cutting entire departments, and firing teachers across the board. Not like I am going from a great place to a craphole.

For me I see better and higher paying IT employment, there are entire areas or job roles which are non existent here, and even if there, they are lowly compensated to where it is laughable... better public schools for grad school in the area, etc. etc. Plus my gf(we might as well be married) there is absolutely no way she will stay where I am at, it will end our relationship to stay. We both don't fit in whatsoever where we are and feel like we are wasting our lives away.

As far as the commute, yes we plan to move closer in soon as we have the jobs secured, the place is only temporary.

And yeah, no kids, no debt, still young. I lived there "visiting" 3 months last year and loved it...After a year or so we plan on getting a studio in SF and ditching the car. But right now in this economy it is really hard to plan anything that far in advance, we've already had to change this plan as it didn't work out in FL (we kind of got stuck here), and back this one up before we can leave. I left my job in June to do a humanatarian thing in Africa, when I was finished and back for the Christmas holidays (got back Dec 15th) the country had went to crap, then got stuck here.

People were saying the same thing to me when I finished school during the recession 2002 and moved to Chicago, I found I did much better and was much happier. I already paid the highest taxes in the country there living in downtown Chicago, it didn't phase me and had much more money in my pocket due to the higher salaries.

And hey several years from now, if California has turned into some sort of armageddon, we can always leave ya know? I expect it might be rough for awhile, but hey if California goes down and doesn't get better, I'm pretty sure all the U.S. will be hurting as well. I suppose it WILL suck paying taxes into a budget I didn't get to use though :P I am worried about high gas prices, higher tuition down the road and limited enrollments.

FL is the same way if a hurricane hits right now... if it does uhhhh... budget problems galore as well as insurance fiasco.

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by grapico

Yeah I hear you... it is the same doom and gloom in FL with budget cuts, unemployment etc. I mean where I was already going to school they are closing down summer session, cutting entire departments, and firing teachers across the board. Not like I am going from a great place to a craphole.

For me I see better and higher paying IT employment, there are entire areas or job roles which are non existent here, and even if there, they are lowly compensated to where it is laughable... better public schools for grad school in the area, etc. etc. Plus my gf(we might as well be married) there is absolutely no way she will stay where I am at, it will end our relationship to stay. We both don't fit in whatsoever where we are and feel like we are wasting our lives away.

As far as the commute, yes we plan to move closer in soon as we have the jobs secured, the place is only temporary.

And yeah, no kids, no debt, still young. I lived there "visiting" 3 months last year and loved it...After a year or so we plan on getting a studio in SF and ditching the car. But right now in this economy it is really hard to plan anything that far in advance, we've already had to change this plan as it didn't work out in FL (we kind of got stuck here), and back this one up before we can leave. I left my job in June to do a humanatarian thing in Africa, when I was finished and back for the Christmas holidays (got back Dec 15th) the country had went to crap, then got stuck here.

People were saying the same thing to me when I finished school during the recession 2002 and moved to Chicago, I found I did much better and was much happier. I already paid the highest taxes in the country there living in downtown Chicago, it didn't phase me and had much more money in my pocket due to the higher salaries.

And hey several years from now, if California has turned into some sort of armageddon, we can always leave ya know? I expect it might be rough for awhile, but hey if California goes down and doesn't get better, I'm pretty sure all the U.S. will be hurting as well. I suppose it WILL suck paying taxes into a budget I didn't get to use though :P I am worried about high gas prices, higher tuition down the road and limited enrollments.

FL is the same way if a hurricane hits right now... if it does uhhhh... budget problems galore as well as insurance fiasco.

Two of our three kids live in Florida and some of our family still lives in Ca, beleive me the "doom and gloom" in Florida can not compare with California. You mention what happens when there is a major hurricane, wait until you see what happens when there is an earthquake. Hopefully you will never have to experience that.

I understand why you made the comment about Tallahasse not being a big city, but it is. Certainly it isn't a hick town.

I am not trying to be negative and I know you are excited about your move, I am only trying to warn you, as a few others have, California will not be a bed of roses. You get out of things what you put into them. You say Tallahasse isn't a major city but you are going to move to Sanoma.

Nita

[grapico]

Originally Posted by nmnita

Two of our three kids live in Florida and some of our family still lives in Ca, beleive me the "doom and gloom" in Florida can not compare with California. You mention what happens when there is a major hurricane, wait until you see what happens when there is an earthquake. Hopefully you will never have to experience that.

I understand why you made the comment about Tallahasse not being a big city, but it is. Certainly it isn't a hick town.

I am not trying to be negative and I know you are excited about your move, I am only trying to warn you, as a few others have, California will not be a bed of roses. You get out of things what you put into them. You say Tallahasse isn't a major city but you are going to move to Sanoma.

Nita

Sonoma is close to SF/Oakland/SJ Metro... I'm eventually planning on moving into it. Even Santa Rosa is significantly bigger than Tallahassee. 480k metro to 264k in Leon County here. and the SF bay area is 7-8 Million metro... I'd say that is a huge difference.


To me it is a small city, it has absolutely 0 big city amenities, not even a decent mall, no places like whole foods, bad restaurants, no industry, no big companies, nothing but country concerts and football games, nada, just government and university surrounded in the deep south, have you been here? Most people in this region are hicks outside of a few neighborhoods and campus. It is a quintessentially southern small sleepy city. Actual medium-larger size cities like Orlando, Tampa, Atlanta, New Orleans are all 5 hours+ away. I'm not the only one saying this either, I can pull up many many other posters with the same sentiment. The nickname here for it is Tallanasty. The rent isn't even cheap b/c 70k college students push the prices up. If you work in Law, Gov or involved at the University... fine, everybody else... might be a little dissapointed.
So yeah, Tallahassee left in itself isn't a hick city, and has some good areas (if you are a middle class conservative family), but the entire region commutes here to work/shop/dine etc. so that is who you are always bumping into, in the work place, in grocery stores, etc. etc.
For an example...
There are only 2 people in my department of 11 people that even live here, most commute from pretty far out, 3 of them from Georgia.
The entire nightlife is dominated by college bars... no thanks.
And then, you have the extreme cultural differences in the 2 different areas...polar opposites.
Even Little Rock is over 2x bigger to give you an idea.

[uptown_urbanist]

My husband works in IT, and knows multiple people working in IT (or formerly working in IT, I should say) who are still looking for jobs in the SF area after being laid off; just warning you, as the IT market doesn't seem to be great, either.

Still, you have savings and a place to stay (the place to stay is a HUGE thing!); just brace yourself for a potentially very long commute, and use your initial down time (although I realize looking for jobs takes up a lot of time, too) to explore different areas around SF, so that once you move to your own place you'll know where you want to be. The Bay Area is really expensive, but there's lots of free things to do (including most area museums, etc; they usually have one free day a month), too; might as well do it now while you have more free time!

Given that you have the housing covered and some significant savings, then I think you have far less reason than most people to be scared about moving to CA. You should be in good shape. Good luck with the move!

[MtnSurfer]

Originally Posted by uptown_urbanist

My husband works in IT, and knows multiple people working in IT (or formerly working in IT, I should say) who are still looking for jobs in the SF area after being laid off; just warning you, as the IT market doesn't seem to be great, either.

I have seen this especially with the high tech firms of the Silicon Valley. One thing I would recommend if you haven't looked into it yet is to check DoD work. While Gates has cut some poor preforming federal programs programs he shifted a lot of Gov't money to newer technologies and programs with promise for the next generation. And homeland security and well as national security are still top priorities. Our group is hiring as well as other groups I know of. But skills and good training/education are still very important.

Derek

[grapico]

Originally Posted by uptown_urbanist

My husband works in IT, and knows multiple people working in IT (or formerly working in IT, I should say) who are still looking for jobs in the SF area after being laid off; just warning you, as the IT market doesn't seem to be great, either.

Still, you have savings and a place to stay (the place to stay is a HUGE thing!); just brace yourself for a potentially very long commute, and use your initial down time (although I realize looking for jobs takes up a lot of time, too) to explore different areas around SF, so that once you move to your own place you'll know where you want to be. The Bay Area is really expensive, but there's lots of free things to do (including most area museums, etc; they usually have one free day a month), too; might as well do it now while you have more free time!

Given that you have the housing covered and some significant savings, then I think you have far less reason than most people to be scared about moving to CA. You should be in good shape. Good luck with the move!

haha...yeah was the deal breaker, at first we were going to go straight to SF, but then looked and looked (the ca news wasn't as bad 2 months ago) and didn't see too much... Then I put things into gear, started being more thrifty, sold a bunch of stuff I don't need on CL, etc. Now I have a decent amount in my bank account. I have plenty of "savings" but I don't want to pay penalty to cash that stuff out. I realized moving out there and paying full rent, sec deposit and not finding a job could quickly put me down to nothing. I'll be able to ride it out and search for stuff... I just really hope it doesn't take a year or something, now THEN I would be quite pissed. But I'm more than ready to wait 3-4 months for a job if I have to.

We are thinking the sunset district in SF btw, seems more affordable and laid back, not highly walkable, but adequate public transportation near.
We would like to get there sooner, but, if we have to wait 1-2 years to transition, that is fine too...I love the area, and well all her family is out there.

Unfortunately pretty much no markets seem good!

I appreciate the good hearted posts. I definitely need to do more exploring in SF. I was out there for awhile last year, but I mostly did outdoors stuff like Redwoods, Point Reyes, some of the smaller towns, wine tasting, lagunitas beer factory, etc etc. definitely lots more to see in SF.

[krock1dk]

Originally Posted by grapico

Well...moving out there in 3 weeks, all the economic news makes me worried though. No I don't have a job lined up yet, but I have plenty of money saved up I can probably live off of a year...

I am wondering how much tuition is going to go up as I plan to take classes there in the SF bay area.
Is education going to be cut drastically?
How bad can unemployment get?

That being said, the state looks bad as a whole... but county I am moving to is actually lower unemployment than where I am at now.

Honestly I don't think it is that big of deal, especially if you hate where you are currently and job isn't that good to begin with currently.

In this economy it may be DISASTROUS to move long distance without having a job lined up, especially when its to a bankrupt state like CA. California's unemployment rate is like the 5th highest or something like that. The state's unemployment rate will get worse and education is one of those things being cut, among many others.

Surely, there must be another state you could want to move to. Texas has the nation's best economy right now by far.