What he HELL does everyone do in OC to make money? (Sacramento: bank owned, real estate)
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My wife and I lived 3 years in Colorado Springs. We sold our home on Powers right before the market tanked. I really like the Springs. Great place to raise a family. Was very affordable. But eastern Springs is very cookie cutter.
Like around Stetson Hills? The whole Powers corridor has really expanded; there's a Powers bridge over Woodmen now and two new hospitals. If you go north toward's Briargate there are some custom neighborhoods close to Powers/Highway 83.
I dunno because in the 20+ years that my husband and I lived there we struggled with that sort of thing. We never owned our own home and ended up moving elsewhere. I think you basically need to start right out of high school, get a good degree in a good field while struggling to make ends meet. OC is a tough place to live unless you know someone who can help you or have the stability of successful parents with lots of money.
it's sickening how wealthy people are here compared to the rest of the country. I mean what the hell does everyone do around here to justify this wealth and standard of living? Is everyone a doctor, lawyer, business owner, super professional?
My parents live in probably the fourth most expensive area in Huntington Beach. I'm assuming the harbor, The Bluffs, and the stuff on PCH is more expensive.
Their neighbors are a combination of high salary professionals(lawyers, doctors, CEO's, etc), business owners, and retirees. When they first moved in, there were some high salary blue collar workers(Longshoremen, Firemen, etc), but I assume all of those were on Option Arm Loans because all sold and moved out.
The retirees are all people who were dual income and I assume frugal and saved. Capitalizing on their equity in the real estate market upswing in their prior homes, they were able to easily afford this place when sales started at $670-900K.
BTW, I'll note that most of these people are not flashy at all. Most of the people who own the largest houses are Chinese and do tend to drive very expensive cars, mostly Benz. I believe most, if not all, own their own business.
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Originally Posted by SoCalCroozer
I've never seen so many BMW's, Mercedes, Maseratis, Ferraris, Bentleys etc. The funny thing is this state is bankrupt. LMAO! It's quite ironic. There are many things I love about Southern California and south Orange County is a very nice place to live. But there are WAY too many out of touch wealthy snobs out here.
No doubt there are some really wealthy people in Laguna/Newport. If you hang in that area, I guess you can get the notion that EVERYONE is super wealthy, but thats just not the case. Its a very small area and has a combination of business owners, entertainment people, sports stars(remember even a bench player thats a veteran in baseball makes at minimum around a million dollars, and there are ~25 players on the Angels plus tons of retired players), and self made people.
I don't know if I'd describe people as out of touch. The wealthiest people I know are:
-A relative who lives in a very nice area and still works every day even though he is in his 60's and doesn't have too(he owns his own business),
-My parents who by no means had a wealthy upbringing or living..their parents were all blue collar through and through...both grew up in very modest areas and I grew up in an area that people now describe as "bad". They worked hard and saved their whole lives...my dad as an engineer, my mom in a blue collar job. And so they live a nice standard of living now and were able to send me and my brother to college. They live in basically my moms dream house and are very happy to be a block from the beach.
-My brother and his wife. Purely hard work. Both went to college and had good jobs(sale & electrical engineer) and would have a combined income around $200-250K if they stayed on that path. Instead they started a business and make well in excess of that. For a number of years they worked 100-120 hour work weeks each...literally all non sleeping hours...and now they've toned it down to about 35 hours each since they had kids. They are probably like the people you are talking about being out of touch..they are out of touch, mostly because their life has taken on a different context. I can't say I would enjoy that lifestyle, but I am not going to begrudge someone else because they choose to live it.
It's that show-off culture of Southern California and especially that of O.C. that really shines, as a counter example take: Atherton, Los Altos Hills, and Woodside some of the most expensive areas in the Bay Area exceeding home values of Newport and Laguna and median income over 300k... you'll see very few Maserati's and Ferrari's, and even some old trucks, Honda's and Toyota's parked outside their huge plots of land.
The rich people in Atherton shop at the same Target, Marshalls, and take their kids to the same Chuck E Cheese right next to little Mexico in Redwood City, you would never see an O.C. Newport Coast resident doing that, they would act far too good for that.
It's that show-off culture of Southern California and especially that of O.C. that really shines, as a counter example take: Atherton, Los Altos Hills, and Woodside some of the most expensive areas in the Bay Area exceeding home values of Newport and Laguna and median income over 300k... you'll see very few Maserati's and Ferrari's, and even some old trucks, Honda's and Toyota's parked outside their huge plots of land.
The rich people in Atherton shop at the same Target, Marshalls, and take their kids to the same Chuck E Cheese right next to little Mexico in Redwood City, you would never see an O.C. Newport Coast resident doing that, they would act far too good for that.
So the Bay area is better on a typical Engineer's salary (no I don't drive a train) then say Orange County or Southern Cal. general? BTW I like your tag line, lol so many damn lawyers here it's insane!
So the Bay area is better on a typical Engineer's salary (no I don't drive a train) then say Orange County or Southern Cal. general? BTW I like your tag line, lol so many damn lawyers here it's insane!
I wouldn't say that at all, Engineers are middle class in California everywhere. You won't be rich making 120-130k a year in either OC or the Bay, but two Engineers pulling that in will live comfortably.
I wouldn't say that at all, Engineers are middle class in California everywhere. You won't be rich making 120-130k a year in either OC or the Bay, but two Engineers pulling that in will live comfortably.
On a whole though, where is it better for work? Salary is one thing but important to me is other opportunities something which exists very little here in South Florida you pretty much find a job and that's it, not much else in the way of options or if you get hit by cutbacks nothing to fall back on.
I'm not becoming rich living here either nor do I expect to ever become rich working for someone else anywhere. I don't even feel secure enough to buy a house now that prices are down here. I don't even have that on my list of have to haves.
Like the OP stated, I see plenty of similar tales here. I'm not looking to keep up with the Jones nor do I care if someone lives in a Mansion or drives a Ferrari. I see plenty of that here and I have become immune to it.
Depends on what kind of engineer you are. If you're doing basic software stuff, probably the bay area. If you're into manufacturing, defense, etc then so cal.
This is all a recent phenomenon with the astronomical rise in home values over the last decade due of course to the "liar loans" and rampant mortgage fraud. It's leverage and when you can get a loan you can buy anything, people were extracting equity and spending it like it was going out of style, of course now the government claims they are poor "victims".
Unemployment in OC is very high right now and incomes are sharply down, I would guess even more than those median numbers.
The last decade was nothing but a huge ponzi scheme that is now unraveling so I would not base my judgements regarding true wealth on that. The government is trying it's best to reflate the bubble but my opinion is that those efforts will eventually fail. Housing prices have another 40% to fall, if history is any guage we know that a downcycle always overcorrects from the trendline by 10-15%.
When that happens OC will be in the sewer and all the arrogant, pretentious imbeciels will get what the richly deserve.
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OC is a tough place to live unless you know someone who can help you or have the stability of successful parents with lots of money
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