Any nice inexpensive cities?

[Curious.In.California]

Originally Posted by Pet79

What are the most affordable cities in California for a couple with no kids? I'm 38 yrs old and my husband is only 42.

Let's say rent for a 1 or 2 bedroom no more than $1,500/month.
We like the outdoors but dont want it to rural.
We are not big party people, more business minded Entrepreneurs.
We are very open minded people.

Just looking at different at different areas for the future. We plan to move out of the midwest in 2 or 3 years.

Looks like you and I are the same age...my hubby and I don't have any kids and we moved to SoCal from Denver 15 years ago. While I do like some things about California, I can honestly say that I was happier in Colorado. Yes, Colorado gets snow but nothing like the mid-west and it was actually quite sunny during the winter.

We moved here because my husband's contract job in Denver was ending and when he was offered a job down here in his home state, it was hard to turn down. His family is here so it made sense to make the move, even though we knew it would be tight (financially).

We came here feeling optimistic, we were looking forward to being near family and enjoying warmer winters. We anticipated having a few rough years at first, having to downsize and adjust to paying more for less space. To make a long story short, it hasn't been fun. This is a very high tax state, cost of living is ridiculous and the added stress just isn't worth it.

While we've had good and bad times here, we are looking for ways to leave the state. We are a two-income family with no kids and I couldn't even imagine doing it with only a $1500 rental budget. Don't forget to factor in rent increases (which go up every year). Crappy apartment living in Bakersfield or Fresno does not seem ideal.

I can totally understand wanting to leave the mid-west (I've never personally lived there myself but my dad worked for Ford Motor Company in Detroit for a little bit and the few times I took a visit, I wasn't impressed...and he even lived in Ann Arbor, which is suppose to be nice). He eventually relocated to Phoenix and he loves it there. So I don't blame you for wanting to leave the mid-west but have you considered other locations other than CA? Maybe Colorado, New Mexico or Tennessee?

There's always going to be a trade-off for something. Coming to CA you'll gain beaches and no snow but it comes at a cost so you'll be adding more stress and losing other things...maybe things you didn't even think about until later. That's what happened to us.

Originally Posted by blam

Secondly how is it actually better to live in Indio over Phoenix and Vegas? Gonna pay California taxes just to barely be inside its border and get none of the weather and employment opportunities? Just to be able to say you live in California?

Good point.

[marcopolo666]

Guymon, Oklahoma is inexpensive to live. But there's a good reason for that.