Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > California > San Diego
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Thread summary:

Information on moving to San Diego, housing and rental prices, property taxes, air noise, traffic and commute, pollution, overcrowding, clean water, long lines, beach homes, vacation home

Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 09-30-2007, 06:15 PM
 
104 posts, read 416,525 times
Reputation: 86

Advertisements

I have enjoyed this thread, thanks from a Kentucky forum reader. I've never been to California.
Maybe some of you older folks ought to read this.

Western Kentucky $250,00.00 in most towns will buy you a 2700 sq.ft. brick home. $500,000 will buy you a mansion, anywhere.
Average size yard is probably 1/4 acre.
1 to 1000 acres, you choose, land is abundant. Mowing is a way of life.
Health care, virtually every town has a hospital. Most places over 10,000 population have a very good hospital.
Colleges, they are everywhere thanks to the community college system.
Traffic? People complain if it takes 10 minutes to get across town.
Four lanes connect almost every city to every other city
gas 2.50 per gallon. people are complaining
Crime? Some, but in most places you can walk in your neighborhood anytime day or night. Many people still leave their doors unlocked.
Standing in line?????
Jobs? Yes, but you have to look pretty hard sometimes.
Weather ? Usually start thinking about snow in December, by March forget it; maybe once every 20 years. Four distinct seasons. It is very green here.
Hunting, fishing, boating, golf, hiking, bicycling, plenty of room on the highways to ride motorcycles, even flying small planes is no problem.
We don't have the ocean and/or twelve months of warm weather. Allergies can be a problem, and it does get humid. If you like the fast pace you might get a little (very) bored. No agenda, just surfing the net on a Sunday evening. God Bless.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 10-01-2007, 09:51 PM
 
Location: Portland, OR
67 posts, read 159,099 times
Reputation: 77
Exclamation Screwing the new guy on the block

Quote:
Originally Posted by seashell View Post
TAXES
*If you buy, as a newcomer, you will pay premium taxes. Most people who have been here for years use special tax breaks such as "family trusts", so their tax rate may be $600 a year while yours will be $10,000 a year for the identical property next door. Do your homework.
The punishing taxes on newcomers are, indeed, what made me crazy when we lived in California ten years ago. My neighbors had made small fortunes in real-estate appreciation, but they paid a few hundred dollars a year in taxes. Because I arrived later, I was paying $6,000 a year in taxes on the smallest house I've ever lived in.

We all had the same school system, police, water system, and other municipal services. Why the heck was I paying ten times as much for them?

Mike
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-02-2007, 12:26 AM
 
Location: Tijuana Exurbs
4,531 posts, read 12,369,672 times
Reputation: 6274
Proposition 13.

To look at it from the opposite perspective, why should someone pay taxes on the unrealized appreciation of his property? Given that it's unrealized, the one being taxed may not have the means to make tax payments that could be rising by 20%/year during a real estate boom. And how objective is an assessment anyway? At least a sales price is a real number determined by a willing seller and a willing buyer.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-02-2007, 06:45 AM
 
Location: Portland, OR
67 posts, read 159,099 times
Reputation: 77
Quote:
Originally Posted by kettlepot View Post
Proposition 13.

To look at it from the opposite perspective, why should someone pay taxes on the unrealized appreciation of his property? Given that it's unrealized, the one being taxed may not have the means to make tax payments that could be rising by 20%/year during a real estate boom. And how objective is an assessment anyway? At least a sales price is a real number determined by a willing seller and a willing buyer.
Why? If the tax is stated to be on the value of the property, I think it should be on the value of the property. Assessments are not always precise, but they are far more representative of market value than using the price of the last sale. Folks in CA talk constantly about real-estate values because the appreciation is real. That is, in great part, why Californians can sell modest real estate there, move elsewhere, and buy much better houses.

I am not against all entitlements (e.g., Social Security, Medicare, help for the disabled), but I think an entitlement for those who already have profited the most is a twisted fiscal policy.

To prevent people being taxed out of their property, it seems reasonable that taxes on highly appreciated property should be deferrable in part until the property is sold.

But that's just my opinion. Millions of Californians (Prop 13) and Massachusetts residents (Prop 2-1/2) think otherwise.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-05-2007, 06:39 PM
 
847 posts, read 2,122,760 times
Reputation: 1163
Quote:
Originally Posted by seashell View Post
Five years ago, a job brought me to San Diego. On the day I moved here, July 5, 2002, the headline on the paper was: Home Median Price Soars to All-time high: $212k". That home now would cost a person about $640k. AND it's five years older...


Thanks for reading. I hope you each do your research.
My wife and I also got to San Diego in 2002 so she could get a reciprocity for her nursing. Yes, it's very easy to get excited to be in the glamor of Southern California in the beginning. We did. But with instinct, or gut feeling and a modicum of keeping tabs, I found something is not all that right in the long run in San Diego and Southern California in general.

To be honest, we gradually agreed the quality of life we had in Houston was quite better for the price and availability (and Houston still has better restaurants, available discount bookstores and museums; there's more to H-town than just cheap housing).

Even before reading this, I could always feel something was not right about the beaches, whether in Imperial Beach, Pacific Beach or others. Stay out! I don't know if it's because I was raised in Florida for a spell.

This article or post is the most informative I've ever read on San Diego. We enjoyed our time in Southern California but this was an eye opener!

Thank you, seashell.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-05-2007, 06:47 PM
 
847 posts, read 2,122,760 times
Reputation: 1163
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sanddawgg View Post
Bloom, it was in Paradise Hills.
My wife and I lived there or nearby. Just along those 'hoods off of Plaza Blvd bordering National City and hitherto with folks who lived off of Woodman. It certainly is not gentrified but fortunately I never saw or experienced violent crime in our two or three years there. I know it happens in that area so sometimes we just are fortunate.

I have mostly good memories of that part of San Diego.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-05-2007, 07:31 PM
 
100 posts, read 563,383 times
Reputation: 57
Quote:
Originally Posted by worldlyman View Post
Even before reading this, I could always feel something was not right about the beaches, whether in Imperial Beach, Pacific Beach or others. Stay out! I don't know if it's because I was raised in Florida for a spell.
I would agree about Imperial Beach but thats just because it borders Mexico and isn't a desirable area to live, P.B., Mission Beach and Ocean Beach are not in "rich" neighborhoods so they are diverse places, I don't know what you mean that they are "not right", if you mean that they don't have a tropical feel (California isn't tropical, there aren't palm trees on most of the beaches, I think its funny when people come here here thinking it will be just like Florida or Hawaii) and that there is a mix of people then you are right but if you go north to La Jolla and other beaches there are a lot of nice beaches, you can find whatever it is you are looking for in a beach, if you just don't like the beaches in California then why move here in the first place?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-05-2007, 08:37 PM
 
78 posts, read 263,118 times
Reputation: 57
Default I can't believe this!

Worldlyman,
did I understand you correctly? Houston's quality of life better than San Diego's? hahahhahahahahhahaha!!! You mean, maybe after 9pm when temperatures drops below 95 degrees, when you can't breathe thanks to humidy and smog? Besides the crazy monster truck drivers, mosquitos and can you say BORING place! How about those Mac-mansions and one foot away there is a trailer with somebody selling firewood? Can you say Thirld World city? Oh maybe you liked the beaches of Galveston better than San Diego's? hahahhahahahah!!!
Sir, obviously your "better lifestyle" consists of enjoying your huge and overtaxed house in Houston , or granted, great restaurants; basically the indoors since outside it's hot,humid and smoggy like hell on Earth!
There is a reason why San Diego is so expensive, have you thought about that?
Anyway, I will be out of Houston very soon, I am counting the days and yes, it probably will be San Diego.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-08-2007, 03:29 PM
 
Location: San Diego
50 posts, read 145,656 times
Reputation: 22
Quote:
Originally Posted by seashell View Post
Nearly all the water here is imported from two sources that are tapped out. You will be drinking recycled sewer water.
You are drinking recycled sewer water. Most of what you drink has at one time gone through the intestional tracts of many creatures, and then purified by natural processes. The only difference is, in the future, the natural processes may be replaced with artificial ones, like what the astronauts in space do today.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-13-2007, 03:17 AM
 
847 posts, read 2,122,760 times
Reputation: 1163
Quote:
Originally Posted by CAtransplant View Post
Worldlyman,
did I understand you correctly? Houston's quality of life better than San Diego's? hahahhahahahahhahaha!!! You mean, maybe after 9pm when temperatures drops below 95 degrees, when you can't breathe thanks to humidy and smog? Besides the crazy monster truck drivers, mosquitos and can you say BORING place! How about those Mac-mansions and one foot away there is a trailer with somebody selling firewood? Can you say Thirld World city? Oh maybe you liked the beaches of Galveston better than San Diego's? hahahhahahahah!!!
Sir, obviously your "better lifestyle" consists of enjoying your huge and overtaxed house in Houston , or granted, great restaurants; basically the indoors since outside it's hot,humid and smoggy like hell on Earth!
There is a reason why San Diego is so expensive, have you thought about that?
Anyway, I will be out of Houston very soon, I am counting the days and yes, it probably will be San Diego.
What immature drivel this is, like there aren't any "hot hell on Earth" areas in California, as if temperature is the baseline for quality of life.

My wife and I worked somewhat decent professions out there (nurse and lab tech) but we COULD NEVER GET AHEAD in SoCal!

Ooo. San Diego is so great. Live in roach palaces that rent for over a thousand...or live in many different homes with oddball roommates forever. Yeah, my wife and I have "thought" about the contrast.

In Houston we have the capability of living in better integration, have better housing...and yes with BETTER FOOD AND CULTURE.

Houston's weather is not so bad outside of June-Sept, the late fall to winter to early spring 70s-80s (occasional 40s) temps are good enough for me. So what if there's humidity...I didn't have dry skin problems in Houston and I look ten-15 years younger than many people my age who live in drier climates.

Go live in El Cajon, Paradise Valley, Escondido or Temecula and think that's really any better temperature-wise than what's in Houston. And gamble if you have AC just outside the coastal areas in SoCal. Really. Try having TVs and computers on in a typical San Diego house without AC and see what it feels like waiting for nighttime to cool the inside out!

So enjoy your "reasons why San Diego is expensive."

Galveston offers a much more eccentric vibe than the plastic SoCal constructs. I actually missed Galveston's myriad dimensions while living in San Diego.

Compared to Houston, living in San Diego IS the oncoming domestic Third World unless you can afford those near million dollar "nice" homes.

San Diego is boring once you've gotten tired of the tourist traps.

Last edited by worldlyman; 10-13-2007 at 03:28 AM..
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram

Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > California > San Diego

All times are GMT -6. The time now is 03:53 PM.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top