Moving from Virginia Beach to California (Los Angeles, Torrance: real estate market, to rent, insurance)

[darkblue]

I am currently living in Virginia Beach, Virginia. I lived in Bay area for 3 years and Los Angeles for 3 years. I miss california very much. But then i was single.Now I am married with no kids. After few months I am planing to go back to California. not decided which place in california.I still need to decide on moving to california. Here in Virginia Beach, There are not many jobs for IT people. I work in IT. Thats the main drawback as far as i am concerned. I bought a new single family home for $320K which is of 1700 sqft in a 7000 sqft lot.I can not do this in california. My work place is 3 miles from my home.We have gold course in 5 miles.We have popular beach which is 20 minutes drive from my home.Still i feel that i miss california.
May be because of
1 - It's diversity. Bay Area is a mix of whites,blacks,latino,chinese,filippino,indians etc.,
2 - More jobs in IT
3 - More places to see
4 - Weather is better (not lot better) than VB

I need your sugegstions whether I need to move to Cali or not.
I lived in Brea, Anahem, Torrance in LA
I lived in Belmont,Foster City,Sunnivale in Bay Area

[flo2900]

$320K here will get you a small 1-2 bdr condo with no backyard...or maybe you want to rent...you`ll have to work more to get less
Just my 0.2 cents

[Mach50]

1 - It's diversity. Bay Area is a mix of whites,blacks,latino,chinese,filippino,indians etc.,

OC is not at the level of the Bay Area when it comes to diversity.
OC's weather is awesome.
OC's IT sector is mainly in finance and the failing mortgage market.

[MagicTouch]

I work in IT ... got a higher paying job out of the state of CA...

Good Luck !!

[IceCool]

can i ask what state that is as I'm also in the IT sector.

[paul65k]

10 years ago I had a similar decision to make. We had been transferred to the Dallas area and had been there for in the end 15 months, 10 days, 11 hours and 5 minutes!!!

You may be able to tell from my tone that we were less than content in Dallas. Sure we bought an AMAZING 3600 SqFt single story home on a 1/2 acre lot with a pool and every amenity you could imagine for 20% less than we had sold our 2300 SqFt ocean view home in San Clemente for. The people were very nice....some of the nicest we have met and actually many things were more reasonable. Gas was certainly less expensive, going out to eat was a little less but amazingly enough other things were amazingly more expensive. Insurance (homeowners and auto) for instance was triple at the time (hail and wind were the issues in Texas); utilities were almost triple in Texas (in San Clemente we opened a window when it got hot, and closed it when it got cold). The property taxes in TX were exactly triple (3% vs. the 1.025% in San Clemente) even though the value of the house was less so only 2.4X at the time.

But the biggest reason we came back to OC was that we just could NEVER get used to the weather there......in the winter you closed all the windows at the end of October and used the heater till April......in May you closed the windows and ran the AC 24/7 till October....not to mention that the weather was changing all the time. The expression they use in Texas is "If you don't like the weather hang around it'll change in an hour".

We had become so spoiled by the weather and the outdoor lifestyle in San Clemente that we just couldn’t adjust. Sure you get 1.5 to 2X the Square footage in other areas of the country for what you will pay in CA......because you need it! In CA (at least here in San Clemente) you need to look at the outdoor area as living space because you can use the outdoor space around 300 days a year...so it's really a part of your extended living space.

We decided to come back and live where we wanted to live....I didn't have a job but we made the decision to live where we wanted and get the best job I could get. Fortunately it's worked out....career has progressed well and the fact that we have been in the real estate market here in So. Cal for the past few years has been great!

If I was in the same position again today I would do exactly the same thing. Sure the real estate prices are much higher....but it can still be done and quite honestly the window of opportunity to buy here in So. Cal will be very, very good in my opinion over the coming 12 - 24 months. There will only be so much So. Cal and only so much beach and every year there are more people looking for less opportunity.....if you take a long term view and have a strategic plan to get where you want to be YOU CAN GET THERE....the big question is what is the most important thing in your life, once you get that sorted out....which it sounds like you have, then you make your decisions, formulate a plan and MAKE IT HAPPEN!!!

Best of luck!

[darkblue]

Originally Posted by IceCool

can i ask what state that is as I'm also in the IT sector.

State is Virginia.
There are IT jobs but not as many compared to the jobs in Dallas,SFO,LA,NewJersey,New york and Washington/Fairfax/Alexandria area.