Los Angeles (San Diego, Orange, Simi Valley: custom home, high income, property tax)

[fastfilm]

Thank you, Ms. Phitt. I will be voting with my feet, in 3 years time. There is no way I can afford to stay here without lowering my standard of living drastically each and every year.

[UB50]

Originally Posted by Ms.Phitt

I'm not so convinced of that, especially when you're citing evidence that is purely anecdotal. Census and other statistics show that almost all the other states are in fact better than California in terms of affordability. Look at the Census data I recently posted. The state data is similar, although I didn't post it here simply because this is a Los Angeles forum and not a California forum.

She lives in Florida. I think Florida teacher's salaries have been fairly documented and so has the cost of housing. A $30K salary will not get you a $300K house.

[UB50]

Originally Posted by fastfilm

Thank you, Ms. Phitt. I will be voting with my feet, in 3 years time. There is no way I can afford to stay here without lowering my standard of living drastically each and every year.

I really don't understand why you don't leave now, you seem so terribly unhappy. There is no reason to wait three years when your life depends on it! If your standard of living drops every year, why would you wait another three years? Go! Go!

In three years, you'll just be in a worse position to leave!

[fastfilm]

Since you've displayed such celebratory zeal at the thought of my absence, I'll revisit what I wrote in earlier posts. I am waiting for my husband to accrue his proper pension.

I'm displeased with the turn for the worse in quality of life for all here in my neighborhood and Los Angeles in general, and will continue to work with assorted Neighborhood Watch, City agencies and activist groups to better those quality of life issues until we leave, so that we will have been part of the solution, not problem. Last night's meeting was with Code Enforcement officials for the San Fernando Valley.

[Ms.Phitt]

Originally Posted by UB50

She lives in Florida. I think Florida teacher's salaries have been fairly documented and so has the cost of housing. A $30K salary will not get you a $300K house.

Come on. You and I both know it won't! You will notice that in my post, I didn't deny that there are serious housing affordability and living wage problems all over the country. If anything, I urged people to vote and get active to do something about it because I know it's a huge problem.

What I'm saying is that if you think the prospects are bleak in Florida, and it sounds like they are, you'll find Los Angeles to be downright hopeless.

As I mentioned before, at the last Census, the median price is Los Angeles was $529k and it has worsened significantly since that time. As I also mentioned, the Los Angeles City Clerk's report states that a family needs to earn more than $100,000 to buy a median-priced home in Los Angeles.

So I'm not saying a Florida teacher's $30k salary will get you a $300k house. My point was that a Los Angeles teacher's $30k salary will not get you a $529k house.

[fastfilm]

Jumping in validate Ms. Phitt with admittedly anecdotal "evidence." Husband is a teacher, and of every teacher in L.A. we know or ever have met, only the ones combining salaries with someone else have ever afforded houses here. The single teachers maybe have small condos if they save for a very long time. So it would be misleading to advise any teachers reading this forum that plan to move here that they could afford a house. (I'm the one who started the poll up top!)

[Ms.Phitt]

Woops, sorry about that. After posting I saw new posts to respond to, so I deleted rather than posting multiple times (not knowing that it would still show up anyway).

Originally Posted by jcp123

My Mom lived there for 8 years back in the 70's and still hates LA with a passion. Too impersonal, too crowded, too expensive and too polluted.

Knock yourself out. I was here in the 70's, and those things were a whole lot better then than they are now.

Originally Posted by fastfilm

I'm displeased with the turn for the worse in quality of life for all here in my neighborhood and Los Angeles in general, and will continue to work with assorted Neighborhood Watch, City agencies and activist groups to better those quality of life issues until we leave, so that we will have been part of the solution, not problem.

Thank you so much for your efforts, Fastfilm. Yes, it's worth mentioning that even as I am making preparations to leave, I too am continuing to work with local police, gang units, the police chief, and city planners and officials, to try to improve the traffic, parking, and especially the gang problems, in the area. If it's not already apparent from my previous posts, I don't believe in complaining about something if you're not willing to do what you can about it. Even if there's not a whole lot one person can do, at least people like Fastfilm and myself are doing what we can. I suspect that I speak for her too when I say that my point in telling you all this, is so you can see I'm not the kind of person who likes to just sit around and gripe. I'm posting here because I see a whole lot of misinformation out there about L.A., lies and unsubstantiated claims being made... and I know that if I'm considering moving somewhere I want the whole truth not just the cr@p they feed tourists, so that I know what I'm really getting into. That's what city-data.com is about; otherwise it would be just another one of thousands of useless tourist websites. So I try to warn people who are considering moving here, continue to work toward solutions in the meantime, and encourage others to be part of those solutions.

Originally Posted by fastfilm

Husband is a teacher, and of every teacher in L.A. we know or ever have met, only the ones combining salaries with someone else have ever afforded houses here.

I'm sorry to confirm that your experiences with this are hardly unique, and are consistent with the statistics I've cited and with what I've been told many times by several Southern California teachers I know, including my father and several friends. One of them is a teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School district, who has to share an apartment with roommates and is still barely scraping by. By contrast, nauseating as it may be, this person found that the lowest clerks in the LAUSD administration buildings make close to $50k! A much better wage than the teachers, sadly! And yet, still nowhere near enough to for them to buy a median-priced home in the city they work for.

[johnlvs2run]

Originally Posted by Ms.Phitt

I urged people to vote and get active to do something about it because I know it's a huge problem.

I always vote, but realize my vote and other's counts very little in the outcome of elections these days, them being decided behind closed doors long before we get to the booths.

Canada and Australia have hand counting of paper ballots, a much more accurate and verifiable system.

blatanttruth.org/vote.php
theBlatantTruth: Black Box Voting

blackboxvoting.org/
Black Box Voting - Welcome to BlackBoxVoting.org, Consumer protection for elections

oilempire.us/stolenelection2004.html
Stolen Election 2004 -- The Rise of the Machines

[cambiodepiel2004]

I used to complain about living in a low income neighborhood in Tijuana Mexico, but since we bought an affordable nice 1500 ft apartment in Pomona Ca, I am
chocked to see how low class allot of people who live there are, allot on wellfair and disability leave, very loud, messy and just plain obnoxious. The color people are the worst, all of them on disability for this for that and yell everytime they have to say something, no shame or good matters.Then they have no shame they ask me for 1 or 2 dlls every time they see me and even invited themselfes with NO ionvitation to my house to eat after my guest have left.

[newportbeachsmostwanted]

I am not convinced that a low income neighborhood in TJ is somehow better than Pomona, but I do agree with you that Pomona has serious problems. I am sorry you are having issues there. My best advice for you is to-flee California! Move somewhere safe, affordable, friendly, and live a better life.

Originally Posted by cambiodepiel2004

I used to complain about living in a low income neighborhood in Tijuana Mexico, but since we bought an affordable nice 1500 ft apartment in Pomona Ca, I am
chocked to see how low class allot of people who live there are, allot on wellfair and disability leave, very loud, messy and just plain obnoxious. The color people are the worst, all of them on disability for this for that and yell everytime they have to say something, no shame or good matters.Then they have no shame they ask me for 1 or 2 dlls every time they see me and even invited themselfes with NO ionvitation to my house to eat after my guest have left.