Want California weather, but outside of CA (San Diego, San Jose: low income, renting)

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by silverkris

Over 90% of Australia's population live in the metropolitan areas/cities like Sydney, Melbourne, so most people don't live in the outback, far from it.

Um, yes, I know that. I'm not dumb. But Perth is still in a very isolated location in the same way Honolulu is.

[quote=silverkris;28740656]COL in Australia is high in general as they tend to pay more for a lot of goods because it's a small market (e.g. for motor vehicles), and Aussies don't get paid as much in terms of wages, but health care and education are very reasonable by US standards (unlike Americans, Aussies tend not to go broke/get in debt for those two major expenditures[quote=silverkris;28740656]

Yes, that's what I've heard, also. It seems to be the story with most developed countries...cheaper in some ways but more expensive in others. Despite rip off health care costs, America usually comes out cheaper than most.

[JohnSoCal]

Originally Posted by mydogstinks

LOL, I wish.

The only thing CA has going for it right now is the weather. For some people, that's enough. For us, it's not. I'll miss the weather, I'll miss the state (or rather, the state as it once was and what it could be) but I won't miss the crime, the govt corruption, the liberal intolerance, and the cost of living. It's a give and take--I'll take more purchasing power and an earlier retirement over weather every day.

Good luck, OP in your decision.

Where do you live in CA that you are escaping the crime? The fact is that most of California has a lower crime rate than most states. San Jose and San Diego are 2 of the safest large cities in the country. There are many smaller cities in California with very low crime rates. Where I live is one of the safest cities in the US as are Mission Viejo, Pleasanton, etc. etc. There are some high crime areas like the Central Valley, Salinas, Stockton, Compton, etc. but they are in the minority.

We are retired and live very comfortably in a very nice area of California. By the way, I am a conservative.

[JohnSoCal]

Originally Posted by mysticaltyger

Yes, I think SJ has the best weather in the Bay, too (actually MV and Fremont for their slightly cooler summers...but still not a huge difference).

SD weather isn't as sunny as SJ...but you are not far from Palm Springs if you want more sun

We live half way between San Diego and Palm Springs. We lived in San Diego and visit Palm Springs every month for 3 days. Our weather is between them both. We get more sun than San Diego but not the brutal heat of Palm Springs in the summer.

[JohnSoCal]

Originally Posted by Ceece

Do you oen real estate in CA?

Do you own your own small business in CA?

I'm only asking becasue you seem to be blathering on about talking point that mean nothing to the lives of most people except to get them all riled up. Take you idea about sky high real estate and taxes, TX has sky high property taxes so I'm wondering how you reconcile that in your head. That's just one of many things that make me question your validity as newbie poster.

My advice is to move to Texas though, that's always my advice to folks with your complaints.

I have to agree with you. I am a conservative but would never consider living anywhere outside of California. I have lived in both Northern and Southern California, Oregon, Washington state, Arizona, Florida, Mexico, Canada, and Venezuela.

I am retired and have no intentions of leaving California. We did check moving to Wichita Falls TX 4 years ago as our son and family lived there. We wanted to be closer to the grand kids. It would have cost us more to live there for buying a comparable home. The cost of the home is about the same but the property tax would be $4,000-5,000 more which is much higher than what we pay in CA state income tax. The sales tax is also higher. Food is a little cheaper but the property tax eliminates all of that. It all became academic because our son and family moved to Monterey CA a couple years ago.

I understand that not everybody prefers California and it is a good thing as there are too many people already but if you don't like it then move. I have no sympathy for people that just whine and complain about it.

[JohnSoCal]

Originally Posted by bowneline

You simply won't find anyplace in the US that combines moderate winter and summer temperatures. Florida and Texas have the moderate winters, but mostly scorching summers. You can find lots of higher elevation places in the West, or along the west coast, that have moderate summers, but you get cold and dreary winters.

Your closest might be higher (but not too high) elevations in the Southwest (3000-5000 feet), at least as it compares to San Jose.

Looking at El Paso, TX (3,700 feet), or Albuquerque, NM (5,300 feet), we see that they are in the same ballpark as San Jose (high/low in Fahrenheit, according to Wikipedia):

January
San Jose:59/41
El Paso: 58/32
Albuquerque: 48/25

April
San Jose:74/48
El Paso: 79/50
Albuquerque: 70/44

July
San Jose: 84/62
El Paso: 95/70
Albuquerque: 91/65

October
San Jose: 75/52
El Paso: 78/51
Albuquerque: 70/45

They are both hotter than San Jose in the summer, and cooler in the winter, but they are closer to San Jose than most other areas of the Country, I think. They also probably have similar amounts of sun and precipitation, I'm guessing.

Florida and Texas also have high humidity which is miserable.

[JohnSoCal]

Originally Posted by sonarrat

The ocean line around Florida results in violent weather. Destructive weather. And insects the size of our neighborhood cats which could probably eat them.

I lived in SE Florida ( Fort Lauderdale area ) for 8 years. Actually there are not a lot of insects along the coast. They get pretty bad when you go inland a few miles.

[JohnSoCal]

Originally Posted by mysticaltyger

The problem with SD is the wages are lower. Some people in the SD forums say the wages/cost of living ratio is actually worse than the Bay Area.

The official COL vs Salaries has them almost identical. The following I copied from a web site that compares the cost of living and income for cities all over the world. I can't post the link because it is against the rules.

"Local Purchasing Power in San Jose, CA is 0.85% lower than in San Diego, CA"

Local purchasing power compares the COL vs Income. This shows that San Jose is slightly worse than San Diego.

Having lived and worked in both areas, I found this was not true for high tech professionals. My local purchasing power was far better in San Jose. Apparently this is not true across the board for all workers.

[OrangeSunset]

I hear Arizona and New Mexico at the higher elevations have similar weather patterns as California. Winters will always be colder but not by much though. Check out East Mountains in New Mexico or Flagstaff in Arizona. You need to look for dry weather and there are not a lot of places that have dry weather in the US. If you like the weather of Lake Tahoe (Sierras) try Colorado. California is a huge state and there are many variations in temperature. Good luck! In any case, stay away from the East coast and anything along the Gulf of Mexico. It is buggy and humid!

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by JohnSoCal

We live half way between San Diego and Palm Springs. We lived in San Diego and visit Palm Springs every month for 3 days. Our weather is between them both. We get more sun than San Diego but not the brutal heat of Palm Springs in the summer.

Sounds good to me

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by JohnSoCal

Florida and Texas also have high humidity which is miserable.

Most of Texas, but not all. El Paso is in west Texas and is a desert climate with low humidity...it's actually not a bad climate, overall. I hear that despite being a border town, it also has pretty low crime. I don't think I'd want to live there, but I suspect it's one of those places that is nicer than most people would assume.