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.
Jobs pay less than... where? I and my spouse received rather large inceases in our pay when we moved here, even though we're doing the same work as we did in Texas, even after taking into account the state income tax here.
Meanwhile, houses are actually easier to buy here than they are in places where the property taxes actually go up with the value of the house. The sticker prices are higher, sure, but property taxes are considerably lower. If the house I bought here were located in Texas, I'd be paying almost as much in property taxes as I'm paying on my mortgage now. (Obviously, this means the sticker price in Texas would be lower, but that is balanced by the fact that the tax rate would go up sharply over the next few decades, whereas here the future holds nearly free living as soon as I pay the mortgage all the way down in a decade or so.)
I love my old home, but San Diego isn't really more expensive, and it's flat out nicer. It's not just about weather, either, though that's big enough to be worth a sunshine tax. Let's run down the list of things that make San Diego worth it.
1. Prop 13. Ten years until my total monthly housing bill is about half what I paid for a studio apartment in Houston five years ago.
2. Housing prices here are exaggerated. I keep reading about how it's impossible to find someplace livable for under $500k, but I see housing selling for around $300k all the time, and there are plenty more listed for similar prices, all in good areas.
3. The weather adds to your life. Even if you could squeeze a few more dollars out of your job in flyover country, does that add to the quality of your life if you have to spend half of the year indoors because of snow, oppressive heat, or rain? Here, I get to enjoy almost every evening outside. Life is something I live seven days each week instead of just on weekends.
4. The job situation isn't as gloomy as it seems to some. There aren't a lot of giant corporations here, but there are plenty of places that need to hire people, and neither I nor my spouse had trouble finding work that would support out lifestyle even if I dropped down to one income. Yes, with a brand new house and a baby. There's no way jobs that pay $100k elsewhere would pay $50k here, unless "elsewhere" means "San Francisco," where the cost of living is much higher!
5. Some people might not care about this, but everything is so gorgeous here! Flyover country really is desolate compared to an area where everything is green and lush, there are trees and parks everywhere, and good hiking is never more than ten minutes away.
6. The city infrastructure is pretty good. San Diegans seem to love to complain about it, but this just proves that they haven't tried living someplace with poor infrastructure. I love Houston as much as anyone, but the constant construction everywhere turns out not to be enough to keep the roads in shape; I went through tires very quickly when I lived there.
7. Even the highways aren't so bad here. As long as I stay away from where the 805 and the 5 merge during rush hour, I run into hardly any trouble. Away from the interstate, I face almost no problems even if I drive during the worst traffic of the day. My average commute now is about half of what it was before I moved here.
There are a few caveats, of course. Life is easy here in part because I paid my career dues already; I didn't come here searching for entry-level work, and I certainly didn't try to make it here before my education was finished. I do have a smaller house here than I would have elsewhere, though my massive garden mitigates that somewhat. (In Texas, for example, you might have a large yard, but it's easier to grow stuff here.) My home is small-ish but cozy. The main sacrifice involved in living here, for me, is giving up some of my favorite cultural amenities, since the San Diego fine arts scene lags behind what someone can find in most other major cities. This is balanced by the fact that I can enjoy life outside, year round, for free, and I can still see a symphony or opera once in a while.
To sum everything up, life is beautiful here, it's possible to live more instead of spending half of life hiding indoors, and the extra expenses here are exaggerated. Even if the expenses weren't exaggerated, someone with a solid education or career would probably consider it worthwhile. Coming here is hardly a bad decision for people who are properly prepared.
Moving here expecting to support yourself on a Walmart salary isn't the best decision, of course, and rental prices aren't particularly friendly here. To get by here, you have to adapt to the way the economy works, and part of that is noticing that flushing money down the rental toilet is not the greatest strategy, particularly when the housing market and tax structure in California offer amazing rewards to homeowners. Even after adding property taxes, I pay less per month toward my mortgage than I would pay to rent a two-bedroom apartment, and my mortgage payment isn't going to go up.
I guess the main point, then, is that San Diego pretty much forces potential long term residents to buy as house as quickly as possible. If you have your 20% down payment already, then there is no reason not to move here.
To sum everything up, life is beautiful here, it's possible to live more instead of spending half of life hiding indoors, and the extra expenses here are exaggerated. Even if the expenses weren't exaggerated, someone with a solid education or career would probably consider it worthwhile. Coming here is hardly a bad decision for people who are properly prepared.
I'm moving back in several months and when I have to explain the pros and cons of the COL to people here, my response in a nutshell is "you're paying just as much for your life outside your home than inside it". That usually gets the point across.
In my scenario I'm a 30 y/o single guy who won't end up making a ton of money or anything but when I'm in SD I'm willing to compromise for the time being with roommates. I can live with roommates in San Diego for half the price of a 1 bedroom apartment here in Nashville, where the average apartment costs roughly $1200.
It's worth it if you're willing to do what you have to do. In my opinion.
Jobs pay less than... where? I and my spouse received rather large inceases in our pay when we moved here, even though we're doing the same work as we did in Texas, even after taking into account the state income tax here.
Meanwhile, houses are actually easier to buy here than they are in places where the property taxes actually go up with the value of the house. The sticker prices are higher, sure, but property taxes are considerably lower. If the house I bought here were located in Texas, I'd be paying almost as much in property taxes as I'm paying on my mortgage now. (Obviously, this means the sticker price in Texas would be lower, but that is balanced by the fact that the tax rate would go up sharply over the next few decades, whereas here the future holds nearly free living as soon as I pay the mortgage all the way down in a decade or so.)
I love my old home, but San Diego isn't really more expensive, and it's flat out nicer. It's not just about weather, either, though that's big enough to be worth a sunshine tax. Let's run down the list of things that make San Diego worth it.
1. Prop 13. Ten years until my total monthly housing bill is about half what I paid for a studio apartment in Houston five years ago.
2. Housing prices here are exaggerated. I keep reading about how it's impossible to find someplace livable for under $500k, but I see housing selling for around $300k all the time, and there are plenty more listed for similar prices, all in good areas.
3. The weather adds to your life. Even if you could squeeze a few more dollars out of your job in flyover country, does that add to the quality of your life if you have to spend half of the year indoors because of snow, oppressive heat, or rain? Here, I get to enjoy almost every evening outside. Life is something I live seven days each week instead of just on weekends.
4. The job situation isn't as gloomy as it seems to some. There aren't a lot of giant corporations here, but there are plenty of places that need to hire people, and neither I nor my spouse had trouble finding work that would support out lifestyle even if I dropped down to one income. Yes, with a brand new house and a baby. There's no way jobs that pay $100k elsewhere would pay $50k here, unless "elsewhere" means "San Francisco," where the cost of living is much higher!
5. Some people might not care about this, but everything is so gorgeous here! Flyover country really is desolate compared to an area where everything is green and lush, there are trees and parks everywhere, and good hiking is never more than ten minutes away.
6. The city infrastructure is pretty good. San Diegans seem to love to complain about it, but this just proves that they haven't tried living someplace with poor infrastructure. I love Houston as much as anyone, but the constant construction everywhere turns out not to be enough to keep the roads in shape; I went through tires very quickly when I lived there.
7. Even the highways aren't so bad here. As long as I stay away from where the 805 and the 5 merge during rush hour, I run into hardly any trouble. Away from the interstate, I face almost no problems even if I drive during the worst traffic of the day. My average commute now is about half of what it was before I moved here.
There are a few caveats, of course. Life is easy here in part because I paid my career dues already; I didn't come here searching for entry-level work, and I certainly didn't try to make it here before my education was finished. I do have a smaller house here than I would have elsewhere, though my massive garden mitigates that somewhat. (In Texas, for example, you might have a large yard, but it's easier to grow stuff here.) My home is small-ish but cozy. The main sacrifice involved in living here, for me, is giving up some of my favorite cultural amenities, since the San Diego fine arts scene lags behind what someone can find in most other major cities. This is balanced by the fact that I can enjoy life outside, year round, for free, and I can still see a symphony or opera once in a while.
To sum everything up, life is beautiful here, it's possible to live more instead of spending half of life hiding indoors, and the extra expenses here are exaggerated. Even if the expenses weren't exaggerated, someone with a solid education or career would probably consider it worthwhile. Coming here is hardly a bad decision for people who are properly prepared.
Moving here expecting to support yourself on a Walmart salary isn't the best decision, of course, and rental prices aren't particularly friendly here. To get by here, you have to adapt to the way the economy works, and part of that is noticing that flushing money down the rental toilet is not the greatest strategy, particularly when the housing market and tax structure in California offer amazing rewards to homeowners. Even after adding property taxes, I pay less per month toward my mortgage than I would pay to rent a two-bedroom apartment, and my mortgage payment isn't going to go up.
I guess the main point, then, is that San Diego pretty much forces potential long term residents to buy as house as quickly as possible. If you have your 20% down payment already, then there is no reason not to move here.
All extremely good points. If you have already paid your career dues, and have great experience, San Diego can work really well and there are huge advantages to San Diego in general. I also agree 100% about buying...however, I've met many folks who moved to San Diego after college and are on track to be lifetime renters. Those 300k decent places are becoming fewer and fewer these days. Congratulations and it's great to hear SD is working so well for you. I would caution, however, that San Diego is not a good place to move without a job and a plan.
Can someone post a 300k decent place in the 'good areas'. I'm having serious difficulty seeing where that could be.
There are many things to love about SD, but it's always funny when people try and deny things that are true. Nobody would ever dispute that the cost of real estate in SD is high. The only people who pretend that it isn't are either the Mitt Romneys of the world or delusional people who need to believe something because they came here.
There are tons of great homes in great areas for $300K or less anywhere in SD? What dream world is somebody living in?
Location: Miami (prev. NY, Atlanta, SF, OC and San Diego)
7,409 posts, read 6,553,115 times
Reputation: 6685
"San diego doesn't even have the "make it big" it just has the move here for the weather most times."
"The most successful are typically already wealthy or have some sort of highly advantageous public sector arrangement (i.e. retired military double-dipper). Ambitious people avoid San Diego."
.....both valid points. Seems people who have moved here have convinced themselves they've "made it", just because they happen to live in a city where it is sunny 320 days out of the year....and, most with money in this city have either inherited it and/or started out or made it elsewhere prior to relocating here.
I know I had grave doubts about moving here from OC more than 12 years ago....I was fortunate in that I started off my career with a high base salary in SF straight out of business school and then had more than 17 years with my current employer afterwards in OC prior to moving here....my biggest concern, even with a safety cushion, about moving here was what would happen if I ever got laid off?...at least in OC you could always tap into the LA market if you were forced to in the event you could not find a comparable or better paying job in OC....here, your options are far more limited. Luckily, things have worked out and I'm going on 29+ years with the same company (with only 5 more years until retirement), but that is not the norm in today's market.....seems most who seem determined to move out here at a very young age should lower their expected lifetime earnings and plan on retiring at a later age or give serious consideration to postponing such a move until they have made and acquired wealth elsewhere. Some are fine living paycheck to paycheck; to those, I wish you good luck and hope you have rich parents and few siblings.
There are many things to love about SD, but it's always funny when people try and deny things that are true. Nobody would ever dispute that the cost of real estate in SD is high. The only people who pretend that it isn't are either the Mitt Romneys of the world or delusional people who need to believe something because they came here.
There are tons of great homes in great areas for $300K or less anywhere in SD? What dream world is somebody living in?
Thirty seconds with Google turned up multiple houses recently sold for even less than I paid for mine in some nice areas of San Marcos and Escondido. When I was looking for a home, I found plenty of candidates near Clairemont Mesa, Kearny Mesa, and Mira Mesa. There are some in other areas, too, though I wanted to stay close to certain amenities that I enjoy. Having actually seen many of these properties in person (and having bought one of them myself), I'm more likely to believe my eyes and the quite affordable mortgage bill I get each month rather than rumors on the internet. Not all houses here are cheap, but the expensive ones don't matter when you're just looking for a cheap one.
There are many things to love about SD, but it's always funny when people try and deny things that are true. Nobody would ever dispute that the cost of real estate in SD is high. The only people who pretend that it isn't are either the Mitt Romneys of the world or delusional people who need to believe something because they came here.
There are tons of great homes in great areas for $300K or less anywhere in SD? What dream world is somebody living in?
i am really not sure how mitt romney got into this. you get a perfectly good conversation going and someone has to go all political about it to make a point that they don't like that politician, altho it has nothing to do with what's actually being said
Jobs pay less than... where? I and my spouse received rather large inceases in our pay when we moved here, even though we're doing the same work as we did in Texas, even after taking into account the state income tax here.<snip>
I guess the main point, then, is that San Diego pretty much forces potential long term residents to buy as house as quickly as possible. If you have your 20% down payment already, then there is no reason not to move here.
i largely agree with a lot that was said here. i say this all the time, but people tend not to agree. even though i have apparently experienced what they claim to be not true. this is here, as well as in person
Thirty seconds with Google turned up multiple houses recently sold for even less than I paid for mine in some nice areas of San Marcos and Escondido. When I was looking for a home, I found plenty of candidates near Clairemont Mesa, Kearny Mesa, and Mira Mesa. There are some in other areas, too, though I wanted to stay close to certain amenities that I enjoy. Having actually seen many of these properties in person (and having bought one of them myself), I'm more likely to believe my eyes and the quite affordable mortgage bill I get each month rather than rumors on the internet. Not all houses here are cheap, but the expensive ones don't matter when you're just looking for a cheap one.
My 30 seconds on realtor.com did not yield any 300K houses in good areas.
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.
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.
