Is Ma. more or less expensive than California? (Boston, Worcester: mortgage, environment)

[puffle]

Would love to hear from former Ca.'s living in the Metro Boston area. Do you find it is less expensive to buy,rent and just basically live than Southern California? I keep hearing from people on this site that Ma. is sooo expensive but when I see what housing and rent goes for here, in the suburbs of Ventura County,Ca., I wonder? I three bedroom two bath condo with a patio and two car garage that is 1400 sq. ft. is asking $2600 in rent and to buy was $650,000. What do you all think. Would we be saving money if we moved to Ma. or would it be more of the same??????? Please help!!

[2KidsforMe]

Well Puffle, you know that "expensive" is a relative term. Comming from Irvine, CA I feel like the cost of living is better here in MA. For $700k we bought a beautiful 2900 sq ft colonial, with a full finished basement, and almost an acre of land in a very nice town. The house did need some work, but nothing too outrageous. We could not touch a place like this in Orange County. Not even close. My husband only pays 5.3% state income tax here vs. something like 9.25% in CA. Sales tax is a flat 5%. No tax on clothes (yeah!). Where we see a big hit is in the winter heating bills and our health insurance. Car insurance was pretty comprable, but we have a pretty hefty vehilce excise tax (something like $700/yr) we have to pay to our town.
We just got back from a trip to SoCal last week, for a wedding. All of my nostalgia for CA has pretty much gone out the window, I am sorry to say.
The crowds, the smog (man, oh man, the smog) the traffic, the lack of trees and open space, and the "edginess" in general just really got to me. So, I guess even though MA is a little more affordalble (for Us anyway) what we get here is something that can't be put into dollars and cents. It's a quality of life that I don't think we could ever have again in SoCal.

[seldomseen]

The cost of living in CA especially SoCal is more than MA...and in terms of real estate, you will get more for your money in MA that in CA as a whole.

[NY'er lost in MA]

....but you have harsh winters and the added utilities such as heat that will be 10x more than what you pay in SoCal.

You also have to figure in moving costs- cross country....that is a big and expensive move. To say you would be saving money?? Not sure you would actually. Maybe in 3-5 years after the move, but not at first. Not sure how the job market is out there, but here it is very competitive. That's a whole other topic, but it would also depend on what salaries you could move into vs. what you have out there.

Any big east coast city has a high cost of living. If you can find strategic suburbs and get more for your money, then you would do well.

[Parsec]

Originally Posted by NY'er lost in MA

....but you have harsh winters and the added utilities such as heat that will be 10x more than what you pay in SoCal.

You also have to figure in moving costs- cross country....that is a big and expensive move. To say you would be saving money?? Not sure you would actually. Maybe in 3-5 years after the move, but not at first. Not sure how the job market is out there, but here it is very competitive. That's a whole other topic, but it would also depend on what salaries you could move into vs. what you have out there.

Any big east coast city has a high cost of living. If you can find strategic suburbs and get more for your money, then you would do well.

I can vouch for the moving expenses part. Our moving expenses for moving 2bd/1200 s.f. of stuff from Atlanta to Boston (around 1200 miles) plus a car, plus our plane tickets and hotel for 2 nights was around $15,000. Thank God all of it was reimbursed through relocation benefits. I should note that the movers did all of our packing/loading/unloading, so all we had to do was unpack.

[2KidsforMe]

Our move from CA to MA ran about 13k, but we did all of the moving, packing and driving ourselves (yikes!). That included gas, hotels and the like. Took about 5 days to drive it.

[Micah Girl]

My mother in law lives in Pasadena and when she comes to visit us in Worcester she is horrified at the grocery prices. They are much more expensive than CA. The housing here is cheaper in general than anywhere in Southern CA.

[Stockholmaren]

I'm glad I'm not having to pay those prices - we're using PODS, and the cost will be about $2,000 + the gas of driving our car the 1,000 miles to Boston from Ohio.

[ChunkyMonkey]

Originally Posted by Micah Girl

My mother in law lives in Pasadena and when she comes to visit us in Worcester she is horrified at the grocery prices. They are much more expensive than CA. The housing here is cheaper in general than anywhere in Southern CA.

It really depends where you shop. I think groceries are quite reasonable lately since Stop and Shop lowered all the prices to compete. The great thing is that there is no sales tax on top of it. I usually use banana prices to compare (because I actually remember the price). In the past it has been as high at 69 cents a pound. Now, you can find 39 to 49 cents no problem.

[linkawe]

My wife, three year old daughter and myself moved from the Bay Area to a small town in Massachusetts, about 30 miles inland from Boston, in early 2006. I took a job in nearby Maynard.

I think the cost of living in Northern and Southern California is roughly comparable -- the Bay Area is probably even more expensive in terms of housing costs. My wife and I are in our mid-40s and were still renting dinky houses way outside of San Francisco, just to pull off a reasonable rent. We lived 35 miles outside of San Francisco in a no-name town in an 1100 square foot house that cost #1,800 a month to rent. I remember a 900 square foot house coming up for sale on our block. It needed a new roof, repaired foundation, and needed to be essentially gutted because the interior was so old and beaten. It was a two bedroom -- tiny little thing. It sold for $610,000 as-is, within three days. It probably needed about $150K more put into it. And it'd still only be 900 square feet, on a small lot, 35 miles outside of the city.

I know the California real estate market has softened a lot since late 2005, when that little house was for sale. But I know it's still in the stratosphere.

The job offer back East was a new beginning for us. Sure enough, I found a house that was 2,000 square feet on a half acre lot for $397,000. All around us are trees, farms, and really nice neighbors. It's quite stunning. And our three year old daughter loves it here: the snow, the "real summers," the forests and farms. This area is especially geared for families.

When we visit San Francisco we still feel like freaks for even having one kid. Back here in Massachusetts the average family size must be 2.5 kids -- there's a lot of big families.

We toyed with the idea of moving to the Sierra Gold Country, the foothills, about 2 hours outside of the Bay Area. The houses are more affordable there. But honestly, for the same money you can live in a much more settled area, and be less than an hour away from the Big City -- Boston and Cambridge.

That reminds me. Taxes are pretty high here, but on balance they're no worse than California. The only difference is, your tax money actually works for you here. I'm talking about schools. In a lot of the places we lived in, the Bay Area had bad public schools. So all that tax money goes into a black hole. Most people with kids in the Bay Area know that if they value their kids' education, they'll pony up the cash for private school. So in spite of the high taxes, there's more money to shell out -- on top of the insane mortgage.

Our town's school system in Massachusetts is highly rated on a national score. When our daughter hits public school age, she'll have a great school system to go to. We'll be very involved with her education. Most parents are. And our tax money will pay for most of it.

I love California. I grew up there. My family is still there. I wish I could pull out a California Native card and get 50% off of everything. But I can't. California used to be the place that you could run to from other parts of the world, and find a better life. It was an accepting, open and relaxed place. Not anymore. It's still a great place, and sometimes I miss it. But I don't miss the economic oppression there.

I think the people that are doing fine in California are the ones who timed the real estate market well. Mostly, just lucky. If you bought a house before 1996, the thing tripled or more in value in a few short years. All that extra equity could be leveraged into a bigger lifestyle, or a better house. But a lot of people who didn't luck out with timing the real estate market got left way, way behind.

I know a similar phenomenon happened here in Massachusetts. My position is a relative one -- California relative to Massachusetts. But I still think the upside of New England far exceeds what California offers. At least right now.

You'll have to be comfortable with "weather," as they say. It's definitely an issue. Personally, we like it. The seasons constantly remind you of the passage of time. The landscape is always changing. It's amazing. Summers are hot, winters are cold. There is a certain monotony to California's two-season environment. But it might just be novelty for us.

But for us -- so far, so good.