Should a midwest midclass fam move to SJ to SAVE money?! :) (San Jose: apartment, to rent)

[benandgrace]

This is probably a stupid question but I'll ask it anyway. My wife will be going back to school sometime to finish an RN course. I make only around 20,000 a year as a courier for a medical lab. We have a child not yet two and one on the way. We currently live in a small city near Springfield IL. We're considering either a move soon to a bigger house in this city or a later (5 yrs or so) move near SJ. I know hardly anything about SJ but below is the breakdown as I see it.

I'll leave my earnings out of the equation since I'm guessing I would probably earn the same in SJ as I do here. My wife would earn probably 48-50k as an RN here. That amount w/ 2,500 subtracted for taxes + insurance on a paid off house 4 bdrm 3000 sq house would be 47.5 or 45.5.

In safe community w/ great schools near SJ (where my wife would earn the most as an RN), Cupertino, for example, would cost 12,000 per month for a one bdrm apt. Subtract that cost from the 75k my wife would earn= 63k. That's a potential savings of 15-20k per year, no relatives within 6 hours, much less room for living, much worse air quality and traffic, much better weather, better schools, and a lot more amenities in comparison with the Springfield IL area.


Any opinions and/or advice would be appreciated.

[sonarrat]

Occupancy laws won't let you rent a one-bedroom apartment with two children (and your neighbors would hate you), you would need a two-bedroom at least, ideally three so that the new baby has a private place to sleep. Realistically you're looking at around $2000-2500 a month for a three-bedroom townhouse or house.

On the other hand, RN's are in high demand here, so your estimate might hold for an entry-level position, but I doubt it. The US Labor Bureau said that the average wage for an RN in San Jose was $95,580 in 2007. With your experience as a medical courier, in theory you could work for Marken.

[maaci]

Just to be realistic. I would say that you would not be saving money by moving to San Jose from Springfield, IL. California is not exactly the place to move to save money. Nurses are in demand all over the country. You may want to look at other areas in the Midwest or South.

[benandgrace]

maaci, other places in the midwest and south are going to pay my wife the same or less, so we wouldn't benifit from that. If we moved somewhere else where buying a house is more expensive, we'd have to rent. According to what I've checked out online about RN wages, San Jose is the only place it would benifit us to rent. So I guess it's either rent in San Jose or stay where we're at, because getting trapped under a lot of interest (even though interest rates are down now) is not what we want to do.

[sonarrat]

Those interest payments on your mortgage are tax deductible, and as long as you don't do cash-out refis, you'll also experience that moment where the payments stop for good. You will never get that as a renter.

Down the line, you'll also have to deal with school systems. Cupertino, Palo Alto and some parts of San Jose have very good schools, but all of them are having to deal with unconscionable cutbacks as a result of our Legislators' bullheadedness and our Governator's spendiness. The Midwest places a much healthier emphasis on education.

[benandgrace]

Sonarrat, in the future my wife and I might be desperate to the point of having to move. That is, if a boss follows through with unjustly witholding a raise. If that's the case, trying to beat the system (occupancy laws, how strict are they?) might have to be an option. Besides, the two children would sleep in bed with my wife and I no matter how many bedrooms we had, at least until the the oldest one is about five. If it will be possible to find a 2 bdrm apt for around 1500 somewhere like cupertino then we would consider it. We have to somehow keep the rent low for awhile if we're going to benefit financially from the move and get ahead a little in life. Though it would probably take forever to buy a house around SJ, renting long-term would still allow us to save more than we could living anywhere else.

I'm a little unclear on what you stated about earnings for RN's in SJ. I'm guessing you meant RN's don't usually start at 75k but they can make up to 95k in a fairly short time. That 95k average should be the same or higher by the time we move. Thanks for the tip about Marken. I'm going to do some research and see what I come up with.

[benandgrace]

Sonarrat, I read on this forum that houses within good school districts around SJ sell for around 800k, so I don't think that would work for us unless it was a few decades from now or more, even with the tax info you mentioned considered.

It's disappointing to hear about the future of school systems in CA. All I know is, currently greatschools.net has the schools in my city rated across the board at 6 and 9's and 10's for Cupertino.

[sonarrat]

Cupertino is kind of funny, it's an area that has experienced an explosive growth in Asian population due to aggressive marketing to the growing class of wealthy folks in Hong Kong and China. So there is a very high-performing student base, and also a lot of pressure. The perception is often that the white kids are the dumb kids. All of the high-performing school districts experience that to a greater or lesser degree; Cupertino is at the extreme.

When I brought up the benefits of homeownership, I was not thinking of doing so in San Jose. I was thinking more of where you are now. Are there no excellent schools nearby you?

[benandgrace]

sonarrat, thanks for the warning about Cupertino schools. I'm white and my wife is Filippino, so our babies are a mix. Finding a population w/ plenty of the two would be great. Judging from what you stated earlier and what you just stated about the high performing kids, I'm guessing achievement in CA depends mostly on the students rather than the curriculum and technology.

Chatham is a town of 8,500 at the edge of Springfield and is supposed to have some great schools, for this area anyway (?). I know most of them score a 10 at greatschools.net. A 4 bdrm house can be bought there for around 140k and RN's start at 59-60k, which I think is good in comparison to the low cost of housing. Unfortunately, I wouldn't have a job there. There is already a courier employed in Springfield with the company I work for. I would consider getting some prerequisit classes to apply toward a physical therapy assistant course but there aren't any colleges in this area that offer that course.

[benandgrace]

Sonarrat, I just checked with Marken courier service. Unfortunately, they only have offices (where couriers are employed) in San Fran and LA. Nothing in SJ.