Would you leave Orange County if you could? (San Diego, Anaheim: apartment, buyer)

[LuvSouthOC]

Beachside, do you live Capo Beach in Dana Point? Great place.

[BeachSide15]

Yes, I live in Capistrano Beach. I love it here. I think it's the best beach city in So Cal!

[tcmtcm]

Originally Posted by ocGuy714

I guess my point is, I'd rather live somewhere, where the incomes matches/in line with home prices and where people buy homes to live in and not as an investment. This way you have a stable economy and your neighbors actually care about the neighborhood.

I just wanted to say that I too was once dying to get out of SO. CA....now 17 years later, I'm dying to get back. I've lived in places like you describe, but good weather is NOT overrated. I am counting the seasons until I get back to So. CA.

The grass everywhere else, is less green than you think.

[k374]

Originally Posted by tcmtcm

I just wanted to say that I too was once dying to get out of SO. CA....now 17 years later, I'm dying to get back. I've lived in places like you describe, but good weather is NOT overrated. I am counting the seasons until I get back to So. CA.

The grass everywhere else, is less green than you think.

Yes, good weather is definitely not overrated but there are places elsewhere that have fairly reasonable weather - Atlanta is one such place, it's hot and humid for 3 months June through August but apart from that the weather is quite nice.

There is a cost vs value equation here... one would definitely pay a premium for something but if the premium is something ridiculous then it does not make sense. For instance you would pay perhaps 20k more to buy an entry level Mercedes over a Toyota but would you pay $100k more? Perhaps not, that is just crazy. That is the situation in Southern CA. The national median is $180k, the median in OC is $600k, that's almost 3.5 times as much which just doesn't make any rational sense as the median income countywide vs national median is very similar. The commodity (i.e. good weather) is not worth that much by any standard.

[tcmtcm]

It's worth it by my standard. I hate living by the weather. Atlanta has its humidity that causes people to hide inside for part of the year too.

Putting off doing anything that involves the yard and being outside for 7 months out of the year means I get to do the things I love to do only about 1/3 of the year. The fact that I have to drive 3 hours to get anywhere cultural is another factor. For some people, those things are inconsequential...but not me.

[seain dublin]

Originally Posted by k374

Yes, good weather is definitely not overrated but there are places elsewhere that have fairly reasonable weather - Atlanta is one such place, it's hot and humid for 3 months June through August but apart from that the weather is quite nice.

There is a cost vs value equation here... one would definitely pay a premium for something but if the premium is something ridiculous then it does not make sense. For instance you would pay perhaps 20k more to buy an entry level Mercedes over a Toyota but would you pay $100k more? Perhaps not, that is just crazy. That is the situation in Southern CA. The national median is $180k, the median in OC is $600k, that's almost 3.5 times as much which just doesn't make any rational sense as the median income countywide vs national median is very similar. The commodity (i.e. good weather) is not worth that much by any standard.

It's more than 3 months. Right now it is in the high 80s with high humidity in Atlanta, so it feels like the 90s.

Georgia is a nice state, but let's not downplay the weather. It's hot and sticky for more than 3 months. Better than FL though.

And there is no comparison to the weather in Southern CA and southern states. Having lived in both when you walk out to the mailbox(and you need to look in the mailbox to see if any bugs/spiders have crawled in) and start sweating because the air is so thick vs. living some place where even though it might be 90 degrees but it cools down nicely at night and quickly(vs 83 degrees with 90% humidity at 1am), than IMO having better weather is worth it. Unless you can sit in your house all day for months on end and most people have to work.

It's like when on the FL boards you see posts saying "oh the hot months are July and August", when the weather is already getting hot and sticky in March.

[tcmtcm]

Originally Posted by seain dublin

It's more than 3 months. Right now it is in the high 80s with high humidity in Atlanta, so it feels like the 90s.

Georgia is a nice state, but let's not downplay the weather. It's hot and sticky for more than 3 months. Better than FL though.

And there is no comparison to the weather in Southern CA and southern states. Having lived in both when you walk out to the mailbox(and you need to look in the mailbox to see if any bugs/spiders have crawled in) and start sweating because the air is so thick vs. living some place where even though it might be 90 degrees but it cools down nicely at night and quickly(vs 83 degrees with 90% humidity at 1am), than IMO having better weather is worth it. Unless you can sit in your house all day for months on end and most people have to work.

It's like when on the FL boards you see posts saying "oh the hot months are July and August", when the weather is already getting hot and sticky in March.

Exactly. I lived 31 years in So. CA, and now have lived on the Gulf Coast AND in the upper Midwest. These places have their charm, but the weather doesn't cut it for me. And speaking of Atlanta - it gets damned cold there. Wasn't it just 2 winters ago that the city shut down from an ice storm? If I have to chose, I'll take 3 feet of snow all winter over the random ice storm...I can say that because I've lived them both! But given the chance to escape unsavory weather altogether, I'll do it.

[payutenyodagimas]

Originally Posted by seain dublin

It's more than 3 months. Right now it is in the high 80s with high humidity in Atlanta, so it feels like the 90s.

Georgia is a nice state, but let's not downplay the weather. It's hot and sticky for more than 3 months. Better than FL though.

And there is no comparison to the weather in Southern CA and southern states. Having lived in both when you walk out to the mailbox(and you need to look in the mailbox to see if any bugs/spiders have crawled in) and start sweating because the air is so thick vs. living some place where even though it might be 90 degrees but it cools down nicely at night and quickly(vs 83 degrees with 90% humidity at 1am), than IMO having better weather is worth it. Unless you can sit in your house all day for months on end and most people have to work.

It's like when on the FL boards you see posts saying "oh the hot months are July and August", when the weather is already getting hot and sticky in March.

there is some benefit to hot and humid weather too..you don't need to force yourself to perspire if you live in a hot and humid place and this helps a lot in maintaining your weight.. just take a little walk under the sun and presto it is the equivalent of a 3 mile run already

[KaraG]

Yes, I would leave, in fact, I already did. I go back to OC about 4 times a year (was in Laguna Beach last week) and I enjoy most of it, but I'm glad to leave the traffic and claustrophobic neighborhoods behind. We also moved to the southeast and I don't mind the humidity, it's great for my dry skin and I love being out in warm evenings without needing a jacket. And it's green! No drought over here.

My children are in their 20's/30's and they are leaving CA one by one. They just can't afford to stay. Most of their friends are gone already. I expect my last two to leave this summer. With kids, they just don't want to spend so much of their money on housing and I don't blame them. We live in a big beautiful country and there's many great places to live.

[dexter14]

Mild weather in the summer USED to be a selling point for OC, but that was years ago before this current drought that has brought desert-like conditions and of course, global warming. Look at the weather for last September here in Anaheim, the previous few years have been very similar. Hot, muggy months, felt more similar to Texas out here last few years most of the summer. Even just the look of OC is changing. What used to be a pretty place with nice weather has turned brown in many places and is starting to more resemble a desert with hot, dry air most the summer. It will just get worse as water cuts turn more lawns and cityscapes brown. Unless you are living within a few miles of the ocean, the weather is really a moot point these days.