Simple 4 questions -- Culture/Weather

[socketz]

Originally Posted by GoPadge

You know I don't mind diversity, I think its a good thing to be around and to interact with the various cultures around us.

But sometimes I wonder why a majority White school is considered to not be diverse, but a majority minority school is considered to be diverse. If color truly doesn't matter, both schools should be considered to not be diverse.

This is one of those things that we've all wondered about but are often terrified to bring up for fear of being tagged as a racist. It's a double standard for sure.

[socketz]

Speedoflight,

Is not much of what we believe to be fact bred from perception as opposed to experience ? Perception is a powerful force in the world. It sells almost everything we buy. It creates fear where there was once peace. We'll never change that.

Also, CA is not as bad as you make it out to be. Owning a home is not the panacea everyone cracks it up to me, that is alot more to life to be enjoyed, and CA is a great place to enjoy many things other than home ownership.

[aceplace]

Socketz, there's more to it than just owning a house, as opposed to renting. California housing is inferior to DFW housing at whatever occupational or financial level you're at. Mostly, Cali doesn't manufacture very much housing for its population, and the law of supply and demand becomes pretty grim, either renting or buying.

California has a negative migration. That means that there are more Californians leaving the state than Americans moving to California. The state continues to grow because of foreign immigration, and the birth rate, but its living conditions are not at an acceptable American standard of living.

Are some people willing to make sacrifices in order to be there? Undobtedly, yes. Most people? No.

[socketz]

Originally Posted by aceplace

Socketz, there's more to it than just owning a house, as opposed to renting. California housing is inferior to DFW housing at whatever occupational or financial level you're at. Mostly, Cali doesn't manufacture very much housing for its population, and the law of supply and demand becomes pretty grim, either renting or buying.

California has a negative migration. That means that there are more Californians leaving the state than Americans moving to California. The state continues to grow because of foreign immigration, and the birth rate, but its living conditions are not at an acceptable American standard of living.

Are some people willing to make sacrifices in order to be there? Undobtedly, yes. Most people? No.

You can find housing that is of similar quality to here, but you pay dearly.

Builders like Centex, KB, Pardee are the standard fare for the common folk...lots of small independent builders as well. The Darlings and Sotherbys don't exist in CA for the everyday homebuyer. Now, if your wealthy, some of the most spectacular homes in the world are in CA. But that's a tiny percentage.

California could easily stand alone as its own country. last I checked, it was about 13% of the GDP of the entire US: Manufacturing, Hi-Tech, Financial, Agritculture...it's the world's interface to the pacific rim, which is where most of the world's growth exist. It's pretty well rounded. Note that Texas also contributes much of its growth to an influx of foreign immigration as well, so I'm not sure we're much better in that regard. I feel that CA will always be a desirable place to live, but I agree that the housing market got a little ahead of itself and has now made it somewhat unattractive. But that problem is fixing itself as we speak, and in 5-7 years, the net migration back into CA will be positive again. I've lived (not just visited) all over the US, and there isn't much that compares to Southern CA. But if your looking for early retirement, it's not going to be your first choice...not at this point in time. During the next RE upswing, maybe.

Tradeoffs.

[speedoflight]

I have NEVER said that CA is horrible. Don't get me wrong at all. I LOVE CA as it's my home state. It has amazing scenery, abundance of career opportunities and the list goes on that makes it a great place to be for a while or forever. Is owning a home an important factor? It's all relative. In TX, or in most places, it's easy to own a home. Not mansion quality of course but it's relatively easy. You don't have to make that much money to live very well there or own a very nice home. That's not the case for most parts of CA. Hence, it's a dream that many people cannot attain that easily. You could make an excellent salary here in CA but that won't buy you much. Is that a problem? Yes it is. Is it a problem understood by most people outside of CA? No. Since it's relatively easy for you to attain a home living in TX (assuming you live there, pardon me if you aren't), it's not a big deal for you and you probably don't think too much of it but it is a big deal for a lot of Californians who strive so hard to want to buy a home and can't.

Perception comes from rumors, gossip, the TV, movies and what people say around us. It's based off human imagination. It can breed contempt, hatred, envy, jealousy, desire, and the list goes on. What breaks perception is reality, i.e. actually having the ability to see things for yourself. We are ALL guilty of perception to a degree. If you have not been to say Africa or Asia, you may have your own perceptions of how life is like there. But if you've ever had a chance to go and really experience life, then that experience breaks the made-up perception to a real viewpoint. People get tons of perception about life in CA from the TV because Hollywood bases a lot of its stories on CA. Hollywood is a great PR and perception engine for life in CA and life in the US. If you talk to people outside of the US, you'd hear their perceptions of it based on movies, TV shows and celebrities. Perception of other lands and people has driven the age of discovery. When Marco Polo returned to Europe, he brought with him stories of Asia/Cathay. These stories brewed perceptions of what life was like in these places and over time, these perceptions drove people to want to explore and see more. Nothing in life is always black/white and so polarized. It's what you make of it. Perceptions are not bad just as long as you are aware of your own ignorance and limitations and we are all guilty of that.

Sure the real estate market is correcting itself but CA will always be more expensive than most places in the US. And it will always be hard for one to own a home here. It has never changed in the past 30-40 years. Sure, a CA home was cheaper 30 years ago than today but it was still more expensive than the other places in the US. 20 years ago, I paid $550 to rent a studio apartment in SF and my friends in Kansas would tell me that it's what they pay for their mortgage on their 4-bedroom home. There's way more demand for housing than supply here in CA. The state's population is very high and it's extremely congested in large metro areas. The law of supply/demand is always going to hold true. Only those who have a poor understanding of economics will sit and think that if they wait a year or two, that $650k tiny house will be cheap enough to afford. So, it won't be $650k, it'd be $640k instead. That's still very high. There's absolutely no business analysis done to show that CA home prices will dip to to where the average Joe can run out and buy a home. All economic analysis have shown that it's going to be harder for the average Joe to afford much given the stagnation of salaries, inflation, increase in population and the law of supply/demand.

Originally Posted by socketz

Speedoflight,

Is not much of what we believe to be fact bred from perception as opposed to experience ? Perception is a powerful force in the world. It sells almost everything we buy. It creates fear where there was once peace. We'll never change that.

Also, CA is not as bad as you make it out to be. Owning a home is not the panacea everyone cracks it up to me, that is alot more to life to be enjoyed, and CA is a great place to enjoy many things other than home ownership.

[socketz]

Good post. I agree with you.

[Synopsis]

Originally Posted by socketz

This is one of those things that we've all wondered about but are often terrified to bring up for fear of being tagged as a racist. It's a double standard for sure.

Ditto on that. I couldn't agree with you more.