Cali ExPats - Where are you living? (Thousand Oaks: luxury, restaurant)

[laysayfair]

Originally Posted by Sonrise

Interesting chart. Other than Oregon and Nevada (or more specifically Portland and Vegas) all of the "high inbound" states are very conservative, i.e traditional family values, low taxes, inexpensive real estate.

Some food for thought.

That's a very good point. I'm glad you pointed it out.
Definitely something to think about.

[djrun]

Originally Posted by Cali-girl

I am in the position of living in 2 states: my native California and recently, southern New Mexico. My husband, who is also a native Californian, also looks forward to when we can return to our beautiful state. Traffic on the freeways is waaaay down due to so many leaving; last time I was on the 118 to the 210 I counted 25 cars on the freeway. The 101 to the 405 is a breeze although still some slowness through the Valley by Topanga & Warner exits. In OC, Jamboree is nothing like it used to be-not too busy at all - even at the McArthur intersection. 101N to Santa Barbara to SLO is like it was 20 years ago.

Interesting perspective -- however I find this hard to believe. I am currently living in Orange County and I can tell you that as of 2008 traffic along any of the major freeway arteries into greater L.A. is still a nightmare. I should also emphasize that traffic in the Valley (118, 210, Topanga Pass) is particularly bad and one should expect a bottleneck there at any given time of the day. You can check online real-time traffic reports to see for yourselves.

Although people are defecting from California, there are still more people coming here than they are leaving, so if you do the math, you can see why freeway traffic is going to get worst before it gets any better

[Soccersupporter]

Originally Posted by djrun

Interesting perspective -- however I find this hard to believe. I am currently living in Orange County and I can tell you that as of 2008 traffic along any of the major freeway arteries into greater L.A. is still a nightmare. I should also emphasize that traffic in the Valley (118, 210, Topanga Pass) is particularly bad and one should expect a bottleneck there at any given time of the day. You can check online real-time traffic reports to see for yourselves.

Although people are defecting from California, there are still more people coming here than they are leaving, so if you do the math, you can see why freeway traffic is going to get worst before it gets any better

We just left Irvine, CA for Keller, TX last November and unless things have changed drastically since we left someone is telling fibs about the traffic.

[crescentia]

I am moving to Chattanooga Tennessee in a month and I currently live in Olympia Washington. I would never move back to California.

[azoria]

Currently in Seattle.

Lived in the Bay Area for a few years and Mendocino county for 10 years. Left California in 1985 and moved to Texas. Broiled alive in Texas for 15 years then bought a farm in Spokane WA. Sold the farm and moved to Moscow, Russia for 5 years. Came back to the US in March and landed in Seattle.

I loved California in the old days but I don't love it any more. I didn't love Texas and I'm not in love with Seattle either.

Where do I love most? Rhodos, Greece. Maybe Crete. My dream is to make enough money buy a little hovel in Greece and stay there forever and ever. Greeks rock.

The Czech Republic is wunderbar too, love Czech. Estonia is a gem of a little country. Once you get out of America there are a whole lot of nicer places to live. Unfortunately, this not a free world an you can't just set up residence in any old place you'd like. Wish I were an EU passport holder. *sigh*

[laysayfair]

Originally Posted by azoria

Currently in Seattle.

Lived in the Bay Area for a few years and Mendocino county for 10 years. Left California in 1985 and moved to Texas. Broiled alive in Texas for 15 years then bought a farm in Spokane WA. Sold the farm and moved to Moscow, Russia for 5 years. Came back to the US in March and landed in Seattle.

I loved California in the old days but I don't love it any more. I didn't love Texas and I'm not in love with Seattle either.

Where do I love most? Rhodos, Greece. Maybe Crete. My dream is to make enough money buy a little hovel in Greece and stay there forever and ever. Greeks rock.

The Czech Republic is wunderbar too, love Czech. Estonia is a gem of a little country. Once you get out of America there are a whole lot of nicer places to live. Unfortunately, this not a free world an you can't just set up residence in any old place you'd like. Wish I were an EU passport holder. *sigh*

Wow! What a fascinating journey. How much are "hovels" in Greece going for these days? Can a U.S. citizen buy one? Why are you back in Seattle? Where are you going next? Don't mind all my questions. I'm just living vicariously...

[Soccersupporter]

Originally Posted by azoria

Currently in Seattle.

Lived in the Bay Area for a few years and Mendocino county for 10 years. Left California in 1985 and moved to Texas. Broiled alive in Texas for 15 years then bought a farm in Spokane WA. Sold the farm and moved to Moscow, Russia for 5 years. Came back to the US in March and landed in Seattle.

I loved California in the old days but I don't love it any more. I didn't love Texas and I'm not in love with Seattle either.

Where do I love most? Rhodos, Greece. Maybe Crete. My dream is to make enough money buy a little hovel in Greece and stay there forever and ever. Greeks rock.

The Czech Republic is wunderbar too, love Czech. Estonia is a gem of a little country. Once you get out of America there are a whole lot of nicer places to live. Unfortunately, this not a free world an you can't just set up residence in any old place you'd like. Wish I were an EU passport holder. *sigh*

Boy I envy you. It must have been wonderful to see the world. I have a close friend that goes over to Europe for 6 weeks every year. He has seen most of Europe, I guess. We have such a narrow view of the world here in the US, extensive travel must be a real eye opener.

[azoria]

Originally Posted by laysayfair

Wow! What a fascinating journey. How much are "hovels" in Greece going for these days? Can a U.S. citizen buy one? Why are you back in Seattle? Where are you going next? Don't mind all my questions. I'm just living vicariously...

I had a few conversations with locals, and a small maybe 2 or 3 room place, in a village in Crete might be had for 40 to 50 thousand Euro. So today that's about 75k US. Crete is less expensive than a lot of other places in Greece. Yeah, we're not talking about any kind of upscale foreigner retirement development, just a little place with a roof and water and electricity.

Americans would howl though. If my gallon-to-liter and Euro-to-dollar conversions are correctish, gas on Greek islands is about $9 per gallon. Everybody has little scooters or rides the bus or walks.

I think we'll be in Seattle for at least 5 years. Might stay forever. Might not. I'd rather not.

It's not so hard to retire overseas. Many countries have special "retirement visas" which allow people who will not be working in the local economy and who have some kind of verifiable dependable income, to live in these countries. Many countries allow foreigners to own property.

[VeronikaW]

We're near Seattle, but we can't wait to get back to CA. 3 more years.

[Alamedan]

From Alameda to Toronto, Ontario to go to Film School... Back to California next year... Toronto is great, but I think I prefer the weather in California :-)