Can a fifty-something teacher and secretary afford San Diego?

[USDefault]

Originally Posted by kpl1228

I know the $750 a month we currently rent a house for won't get much of a house (if any) in metro SD, but we have heard that teachers make more in SoCal to balance out cost of living/housing increases there.

Eliminate "much of" in your sentence. You will not be able to rent any house for $750 in San Diego, and you'd be very hard pressed to find a crappy sfh at double the rent. For a reasonably acceptable home rental in a reasonable neighborhood (forget the coast), you are likely looking at $1800+ per month, and options begin to open up at $2k and above.

[1AngryTaxPayer]

OP, don't be so taken by surprise with the numbers, we all had to adjust to it. In SD the % of income set aside for housing is something like 40%.

[kpl1228]

Originally Posted by hitman619

Why not move to Arizona and be close to your Mother in Law?

Good question.
This way we're close, but not TOO close!
(a bit complex....)

[malcorub16]

Originally Posted by kpl1228

Good question.
This way we're close, but not TOO close!
(a bit complex....)

haahaaha, no, not complicated at all.

[Fran66]

I don't understand why jobs are not your first concern. If you don't have jobs, the cost of renting doesn't matter.

Secondly, if I had to commute back and forth from work, I'd never live anywhere in Southern CA (along the coast) again. I lived 9 miles from my work. If I left for work an hour early in the mornings, it would take me 15 minutes from my front door to the front door of my work. (I worked almost always 8 a.m. - 5 p.m., Monday thru Friday. I should also mention that I lived only a few blocks from the freeway on ramp/off ramp.) If I left just 30 minutes later, it took 30+ minutes from door to door. It always took 30-45 minutes to get home after work. On Fridays, it could take up to an hour to get home and never less than 45 minutes. Remember -- it was only 9 miles. That was 10 years ago -- I doubt that it's gotten better in the past decade.

A rule of thumb for realtors/property managers (and please don't ask me why, because I'm rather embarrassed to say that I don't exactly know) -- take your annual gross income and divide it by 40, and the result is what you can comfortably afford for rent and average utilities. So, for example, for $2500/mo. rent, you and your wife would have to be grossing $100,000 together.

[loveautumn]

Have you done any research on SD as far as housing or employment? I don't think teaching jobs are very easy to find here...aren't they all unionized? I recall a few years ago, they were laying off teachers. You have a stable situation where you are and probably good benefits ...why would you want to jeopardize this? Don't know your ages but I'm guessing you are middle aged or more? As others have said, SD is very expensive, especially housing and $750 a month is less than what people get renting out a room in their homes/apartments. I think you should stay put and take some vacations here...you could move to PHX which would be somewhat less expensive housing wise but you would still have the job situations to deal with. There are so many young, educated people here to fill jobs, the competition is fierce. You've picked one of the most desirable places in the U.S. to want to move to. Anyway, NM to AZ is probably about the same distance and SD to AZ so I don't understand why you would be really much closer to the mother in law?

[mysticaltyger]

I'll chime in and agree with what everyone else said.

SD is a great place to live if you have a great job or a good pension/investment income. But SD, as in pretty much all of the coastal CA metro areas, most jobs don't pay enough to make up for the higher cost of living, especially the typical middle and slightly above middle income type jobs.

I am looking at SD as a retirement spot in the next 10-12 years. I am a public sector (clerical/admin) worker in the SF Bay Area who can qualify for a pension at 55 but I am also saving aggressively for retirement as well. Hopefully a conservative withdrawal rate from retirement savings will match or exceed my pension (that's the hope, anyway). And my housing expectations are much more modest than yours. I live in a studio apartment now, and I expect to live in a studio or 1BR apt (at most) when I retire.

This is what it takes to live without financial worries in a place like SD.

[loveautumn]

I can't imagine what SD will be like in 10-12 years, it is bad enough now with the population growth and traffic issues. And rents, they are skyrocketing...who knows what they will be like by then. I just retired with a similar financial situation, I'm staying here as long as I can but that might not be too many years more.

[JohnAlt]

Originally Posted by loveautumn

I can't imagine what SD will be like in 10-12 years, it is bad enough now with the population growth and traffic issues. And rents, they are skyrocketing...who knows what they will be like by then. I just retired with a similar financial situation, I'm staying here as long as I can but that might not be too many years more.

It's cyclical, and certainly not hugely different than 10-12 years ago. Rents are a bit higher but the cost to buy is less than 10 years ago.

[TimTheEnchanter]

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. You can't treat "San Diego" as just one entity, you have to break it down into the components of cities and areas. San Diego County has a population 50% greater than the state of New Mexico, there are lots of teaching positions in the county, but how many are open is a different thing. There are some districts growing and building new schools. There are also private schools.

Do some research on the various districts, look at the county Ed site and go from there. Even send out some resumes and make phone calls.

You can find apartments $800-$1,000. So what if it isn't the greatest neighborhood, it will still be livable.

Personally I would move to AZ given their growth. It is a big state. If MIL is in Phoenix, look at Tucson and Flagstaff and vice versa.