I miss Home. (San Jose, Long Beach, Irvine: relocating, smog, vacation)

[klpeake]

I have lived in the South Bay my whole life. Tomarrow is my birthday and I'll be 39 We bought our house in Campbell 12 years ago for $350 and it is now worth about $1.2mil. I can't believe that! But we have also been running our own business for the last 15 years and are sick and tired of the CA government and all of their fees & taxes. We cannot afford to hire another employee to help out because wages are just too high. The schools keeps getting budget cuts (even though the state is collecting tons of extra money in property taxes on all of these million dollar homes!)
Gas prices are higher here than most of the country, food prices are higher, traffic is a nightmare, many immigrants don't bother to learn english because there are such large communities of people that speak their own language that they don't feel they have to. Trying to "get out of town" for a nice weekend gets you stuck in traffic on 580 and getting back into town ends you up in the same.

So we have decided to move to WA. I'm not sure that I can deal with the weather, but I've done so much research on the area that I can say with confidence that that will be probably the only detrimental thing aboug moving there.

KLPeake

[intercell369]

Sylvia, I know what your talking about, But just work on doing what you can to come back home, if that is what you want. I too am from San Jose. I'm here in Orange County,California. And although its nice here. I do miss the rain, and just Northern California in general. So even though it's going to be a year or so. I'm making plans, and saving money to go back. Because to be honest, O.C. is getting just as expensive as up where we are from. In 1998 it was cheaper to live here, but not anymore. Good luck to you, and I hope you make it back to our fair city of San Jose.

[fastfilm]

This is an interesting thread, because the original poster's remarks were so plaintively heartfelt.

I hope most people here realize "you can't go home again" if they are seeking the locales of their youth. California is probably the mokst changed state in all of the U.S., and what someone might be returning to may not be recognizable anymore.

[klpeake]

Originally Posted by In search of Eden

The east coast is out. And the Pacific Northwest (OR & WA) gets too much precipitation and too few sunny days.

Maybe you aren't aware that the Cascade Mountains divide WA & OR into two completely different weather zones. The Eastern side is very dry and sunny and the western side is very wet & cloudy. Have you checked out places in WA like Walla Walla, Clarkston, Yakima, Wenachee, Kennewick, Richland? You will find dry sunny weather, no state income tax and friendly people.


Karol

[texasdreamin]

I've lived in San Jose for 26 years and looking to move to Texas, as soon as I can retire. San Jose is beautiful and if you remember, those foot hills are topped by no other...BUT, this is not where I want to live anymore. The people are rude, you don't know your neighbors, it has become so expensive that the most possible reason for this being the "safest big city" in the US...is because the criminals can't afford to live here, so they go off to other affordable cities.

When I bought my home, I was in a wonderful part of South San Jose. Just on the edge of Coyote Valley. Now, it is all built up, traffic is crazy, prices of everything is crazy. I just got an estimate to put Hardiplank siding on half of my tiny house...$11,000. Can't wait to get to Texas where I can have a nice home on a few acres. Just waiting to retire.

When people move out of California, it is very difficult to move back in, unless you have an income over $100K. Good luck.

PS...Our population is now over 934,000. When I moved here, it was about half of that. Though I do make enough to live here comfortably...I'm ready to go.

OH...I forgot to tell you. Remember IBM on Cottle Road? It is now Hitachi and they are tearing down part of it to make way for apartment complexes. They are tearing down building 28 now. The overgrowth here is crazy. They are squeezing new construction in any space that is available.

[Roma]

I love this thread. I too miss California. We retired 2 years ago and moved to Texas to live on a lake. I so wish we tried to find a lake in California to live on. I thought like alot of you that "lets sell our home and with the profit buy a home in another state where it is cheaper". Well there is a reason why it is cheaper. It is not the same. There is something about the people or the attitude or something about Californians that makes it like no other place. You can not beat the weather in California either. I came to California in 1976 from Ohio, I was 11 years old then but I feel like I am a native Californian. I feel now like I am an immigrant from another country where I am. It is soooo different and the weather is awful that we do not even go outside or on our boat in the summer. Someone asked about bugs and boy are there bugs. We can not open our windows like I did in California everday to let the fresh air in. We have never opened our windows here. You can't, if you do bugs will get in around the screens or just stick on the screens, it is discusting. We will be moving back to Ca. someday, hopefully someday soon. I hope the prices will go down in the next 2 to five years there so we can get back in. Another thing is alot of people in these states that Californians are moving to, do not like Californians. I was shocked by this because Ca. is so open to new commers from other states and other countries. It is sad we do not get the same type of welcome when we move to these states. Sorry my post is so long. Just be warned if you are thinking about moving out of Ca., we were warned but did not listen, now we regret it.

[texasdreamin]

That's what I did. I tried to find a lake in Cali. Prices were obnoxious. Had to search all the way down to the smelly Salton Sea...only to find that the investors are already there...in the desert mind you, and the land prices are extravagant. Gave up.

I was deployed to Louisiana for disaster assessment (Katrina and Rita), last year. Some areas had me deep in the boonies, as well as New Orleans. All those wonderful bug noises in the country. When I was in the boonies, all of these wonderful memories and feelings came flooding back from my childhood of visiting my grandmother in the "country". I have always loved the country. Anyway, from that deployment, my thoughts have been to buy myself some land in the country. I can't get there fast enough. My children are in S Cal and that was the ONLY thing that had me looking for retirement property in Cali. I was trying to stay close to them, within an hour. When my search took me all the way to the Salton Sea, the lightbulb went on. I questioned why I would pay that extravagant fee to live in the desert...in the boonies, hours away from my kids...so, I decided to move to Texas. It is a 3+ hour flight from my kids and a 12 hour drive. I will have a huge home and acres for the grandkids to explore.

Someone posted that you have to be ready for a change in lifestyle. That is so true...and that is where I am at. I am ready for the seclusion and the serenity. I can buy land by the hills and have my palm trees, too. Enough to LOOK like I'm in Cali.The summers will be hot...but no hotter than where my kids live, in S Cal. This summer got up to 111 degrees where they live. The winters in Texas are mild like our winters. They have plenty of lakes to visit. I will be visiting Cali several times per year...and then back to my peaceful place. Miss it??? I don' think so. I can visit Cali anytime I want, to get my fill.

Roma, may I ask where in Texas you moved to? As for bugs, try spraying your screens with Home Defense to keep the bugs off. I intend to have a screened porch so I can sit out at night and listen to all of those wonderful country noises, while I read.

The reason Texans do not like us is this: We take our huge home selling profits and buy up their land and build big houses (for which I will be guilty), which causes their cost of living to go up. Then their boom begins...just like here. They don't make a lot of money there. Pretty soon, they are priced out of the market. Also, they do not like the California attitudes we bring. They have a different, slower lifestyle. As you know, in Cali, you can live next door to someone, for years, and not even know their first name. When you walk down the street, if you greet someone in passing, like I did, when I moved to Cali, they look at you like you are crazy. You have to admit, we have less couteousness. You never hear us saying "yes m'amm" to our elders...we call everybody by their first names, whether they are our elders or not. I am originally from Indiana, so I understand country, though not as deep. Californians ARE different. Compared to Texans...it is like night and day. Our lifestyle is at a much faster pace. If you are going to relocate out of California, just make sure you are truly ready to change your lifestyle and some views of how you see things.

I'm not the type to "go" much. When I get through with my work week, I love to come home and shed that week and just stay within my walls. I'm a homebody. I love to putter around my house, do crafts, read, watch movies...and just go out when necessary. When I get to Texas. I won't be missing much.

Wishing you all the very best.

[Meomi]

I was born in sj and left in the eighties. I know you can never go home again, the memories are good, it was very safe there then, I think I miss that the most....Good luck to all on the board.

[brcav]

I live in San Jose, and I've lived here for most of my life. The weather is excellent, and there is a lot of diversity. However, the cost of living is through the roof, and you won't get what you pay for. There are homes that are 1200 square feet selling for almost $650,000 in run down neighborhoods. If you are a younger person like myself, this is a terrible place to start. I am a college student, and I'm about to graduate. I also live on my own which is unlike many people my age. Many people in thier 20's still live at home because the job they work doesn't pay enough to cover the rents here. I would hate to leave, but the salaries for jobs here are stagnant. Additionally, many of the tech jobs are being outsouced, or foreign workers with H1B visas are highered at lower pay. When I left the military in 2000, tech workers were 'gods'. Now, it's not uncommon to meet people with BS degrees in computer science working at department stores and security jobs.

[rgrowley]

well it seems to me that most folks here have a mindset to leave something rather than arriving to something. My wife and I are leaving San Jose for what is pulling us away rather than being pushed.

We live in Willow Glen of San Jose and even in this boutique neighborhood we find litter, snobbishness, noisey, and bearing lots of traffic and smog.

Snobs in Willow Glen? Our observation comes from a street festival where a booth was selling T-shirts with only one sentence of "I live in zip code 95125" which sent my wife and I giggling for thier insecurity.

Litter? Every week I use a 5 gallon bucket and litter pickers to clean my front yard of San Jose litter. The cellophane cigarette wrappers are most prevelent during school season for middle school and elementary school across the street from us. Factor that into the daily cleaning of junk food wrappers.

Noisey and lots of traffic? Yes and especially so with the neighboring Cambrian neighborhood that has many harley riding folks who gun their low motercycle gears at 1am to 2am after the bars close. The smog is fenced in by the mountains (hills) that surround San Jose.

Earthquakes in San Jose are not a problem because we have low rising buildings.
My next post outlines what is pulling us from San Jose.