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Why is it that whenever people talk about California, they can only relate it to either Las Angeles or San Francisco? California is a whole lot more than that. In fact, there are huge areas with low population, lower costs, little traffic, no smog, etc.
I suppose it's like people that consider New York City to be the only place in New York.
In my post I was referring to the home I owned in the VERY rural sierra foothills. The half-plex I was referring to was in the Sacramento metro suburbs. I am not talking about LA or San Fran. I've never lived in either of those two places.
In my post I was referring to the home I owned in the VERY rural sierra foothills. The half-plex I was referring to was in the Sacramento metro suburbs. I am not talking about LA or San Fran. I've never lived in either of those two places.
When my parents retired they moved to Bootjack [just outside of Mariposa], that is not a bad place if you don't mind drought.
Even out in the country in CA, the property taxes are still much higher than many other states. Prop 13 is only a benefit if you have owned your home for a long time. If you are moving to CA, or going to buy a different home there, you're going to pay whatever the going property tax is. The price of utilities is high if you are paying PG&E, or another investor owned utility. Gasoline is high throughout the state, due to extra gas taxes and the higher cost of special gasoline required by the state. Sales tax is high. In our rural county it was 9.25%. Annual auto registration taxes are high, and biennial smog tests are required at owner's expense to register. There are numerous fees added for things like fire protection (gee, I thought that was supposed to be part of my property tax), Mello-Roos taxes for development, ridiculous building permits that include costs like "traffic impact fees" (often an additional $20k), they've even talked of water districts taxing people who have their own wells (which they already paid to have drilled, and pay for the electricity to operate). Our sewer district (El Dorado County) was kicking around the idea of taxing people who had their own septic tanks, in order to replace the aging public sewer system that those with septic systems never use. I'm still scratching my head over that one. If I have to help pay for their sewer, why don't they pay to have my tank pumped?? The city/suburb that our rental property was in passed a law that any landlord must take out a business license, pay annual license fees to the city, have an annual inspection of the property by the city inspectors (at the homeowner's expense), and then make any needed repairs, and pay for a re-inspection. They didn't even give landlords a list of what they would be inspecting for, so there was no way to ensure that you would pass on the first inspection.
These are just a few of the hidden costs of living in CA, on top of the over-inflated home prices and crazy rents in most areas within commuting distance of a medium to large city. There are reasons why long term residents are fleeing the state.
Last edited by TheShadow; 07-22-2018 at 11:29 AM..
Even out in the country in CA, the property taxes are still much higher than many other states. Prop 13 is only a benefit if you have owned your home for a long time. If you are moving to CA, or going to buy a different home there, you're going to pay whatever the going property tax is. The price of utilities is high if you are paying PG&E, or another investor owned utility. Gasoline is high throughout the state, due to extra gas taxes and the higher cost of special gasoline required by the state. Sales tax is high. In our rural county it was 9.25%. Annual auto registration taxes are high, and biennial smog tests are required at owner's expense to register. There are numerous fees added for things like fire protection (gee, I thought that was supposed to be part of my property tax), Mello-Roos taxes for development, ridiculous building permits that include costs like "traffic impact fees" (often an additional $20k), they've even talked of water districts taxing people who have their own wells (which they already paid to have drilled, and pay for the electricity to operate). Our sewer district (El Dorado County) was kicking around the idea of taxing people who had their own septic tanks, in order to replace the aging public sewer system that those with septic systems never use.
These are just a few of the hidden costs of living in CA, on top of the over-inflated home prices and crazy rents in most areas within commuting distance of a medium to large city. There are reasons why long term residents are fleeing the state.
Prop 13 benefits everyone who buys a home in California, 1% plus local assessments is a bargain but the real benefit comes in when you are retired and you know that your property tax will be in the future. PG&E is high but where we live we have SMUD which is 30% cheaper than PG&E and even if we had PG&E our utility bills would still be cheaper then what we paid in Reno where we had to spend a small fortune to keep the house warm during the winter. Our tax rate in Sac County is 7.75% and we don't have Mello-Roos..usually only tract homes built within the past 20 years or so have Mello-Roos.
You can nitpick taxes and fees everywhere in the US, but bottom line is somehow the government has to be funded. In some states property tax goes up every year, in other states they tax food. There is no 'tax free' nirvana that you can escape to. And it appears that only low income residents are fleeing California in significant numbers and they are being replaced by people with more money
Plenty of middle-income and retirees leaving too. At 6 figures, I don't consider us to be low income, but in retirement we can afford a much nicer home in a much nicer neighborhood out of state than we could in CA, and have a lot left over. So we did that 5 years ago, and are loving our new state.
We sold our CA rental this March (975 sq ft, 2bed/1bath half-plex, on 1/12 of an acre lot) in 1 weekend for $220k ($20k over asking price) in as-is condition. We had 16 offers. That amount would buy a 3-4 bed 2 bath brick home, 2400-3000sq ft, on an acre lot here, and the property taxes would still be barely half of that little half-plex in CA ($870/yr vs $1418/yr).
I think the sale price and speed of the sale in CA shows what competition there is for lower priced homes in CA. And this was in the Sacramento metro area, not LA or the bay area. In those markets it would have brought much more.
So yes, you can retire in CA if you want to spend twice as much on a home, and twice as much in property tax, and a myriad of other taxes and fees, in order to live in a smoggy, traffic-choked, over-regulated, drought-riddled fire hazard. But the weather is nice....except for when it's 104.
Last edited by TheShadow; 07-22-2018 at 12:35 PM..
So yes, you can retire in CA if you want to spend twice as much on a home, and twice as much in property tax, and a myriad of other taxes and fees, in order to live in a smoggy, traffic-choked, over-regulated, drought-riddled fire hazard. But the weather is nice....except for when it's 104.
Plenty of middle-income and retirees leaving too. At 6 figures, I don't consider us to be low income, but in retirement we can afford a much nicer home in a much nicer neighborhood out of state than we could in CA, and have a lot left over. So we did that 5 years ago, and are loving our new state.
We sold our CA rental this March (975 sq ft, 2bed/1bath half-plex, on 1/12 of an acre lot) in 1 weekend for $220k ($20k over asking price) in as-is condition. We had 16 offers. That amount would buy a 3-4 bed 2 bath brick home, 2400-3000sq ft, on an acre lot here, and the property taxes would still be barely half of that little half-plex in CA ($870/yr vs $1418/yr).
I think the sale price and speed of the sale in CA shows what competition there is for lower priced homes in CA. And this was in the Sacramento metro area, not LA or the bay area. In those markets it would have brought much more.
So yes, you can retire in CA if you want to spend twice as much on a home, and twice as much in property tax, and a myriad of other taxes and fees, in order to live in a smoggy, traffic-choked, over-regulated, drought-riddled fire hazard. But the weather is nice....except for when it's 104.
You are really being overly dramatic about how awful California is. We moved here from Nevada 4 years ago we bought a beautiful 1450 sq ft house on 1/4 acre for $300,000. Our utility bill is around $70 a month vs over $300 in Nevada. We are close to shopping, tons of restaurants and great medical care, and we're close enough to the bay area that we can visit our kids and grandkids any time we want. And the good news is, we live in California, not Tennessee. We could have afforded a 3000 sq ft house, but why? There's only so much room that a retired couple requires and I sure didn't want to spend my time cleaning a big house that we only used three or four rooms in.
I suppose I'm dramatic because after 50 years in CA, I saw what it was (beautiful, and reasonably priced, pleasant, and very friendly) and watched it become what it is today. I loved my state, and I still love the beauty of the natural areas, simply incomparable. But sometimes it just gets too much for me to see the little towns and the open spaces of my childhood, and young adulthood get paved over and turned into yet more strip malls and traffic jams. Don't get me wrong millions of people happily live there, and pay what is necessary, especially the new people (like 2sleepy) who never saw how great it once was.
I lived the last few years (20) in rural CA before I left, and I'm no farther from great shopping and restaurants now, in TN, than I was then. I have great medical care through the University Tennessee medical system. Everyone requires a different amount of space, and over time we still might downsize. Leaving CA in retirement simply allows me to continue the lifestyle I had at 50% of the cost, which allowed us to retire in our early-mid fifties. If I still lived there, I might be one of the folks here still worrying/asking if I have enough to retire.
I'm not suggesting everybody move to TN! That would just make us another CA or FL, choked with newcomers. Nor am I suggesting it's a place that everyone would enjoy. Simply that there are choices to make in retirement and choosing to live in an expensive state like CA comes with a lot of costs and compromises, many that are not "widely advertised". To each their own, but as a 50 year CA resident, I know of what I speak.
The question was "can I afford to retire to CA?". It just depends on the compromises one wants to make.
For all my friends here,I have had stroke.I am home from the hospital and recovering positively, but still paralyze on half body. i will try to get back from time to time with updates, as my lovely wife can assist me
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