Honestly, is California really worth it anymore? (Los Angeles, San Jose: real estate market, apartment)

[Mr5150]

Originally Posted by shadowmoses

Hello all, let me explain my question. See, I was born in Monterey county but my parents moved me to Missouri when I was only 1 and I was raised in both Missouri and Northwest Arkansas. Growing up I always dreamed of moving back because I saw the pictures of my mothers life in California growing up in the 60's and 70's and the place looked like a very decent middle class place to live. Definitely the sweet life.

However, most all of my family has moved away and they tell me that if i'm wise i'll go to Arizona or elsewhere instead. I currently live in New Mexico and I still have some desire to move back to California, but i'm also not a fan of super high taxes, the nanny state, or high crime. So....are they right?

Are you referring to LA or the Bay Area? Or CA as a whole? I live in CA and we have low crime and the COL here is affordable. Taxes are not bad, unless you make over a million $$$. We doing fine and our state tax bill was $500. OTOH the Fed tax bill was about $7000! For the record New Mexico has one of the highest crime rates, as a whole, in the nation.

Property taxes are more reasonable than a lot of states. In Texas Our son was paying more in prop taxes on his house than we on a house that was 2/3 the cost of ours

But don’t move here, unless you want to be a movie star and hang out at a SoCal beach next to a palm tree.

[Axxlrod]

CA is an excellent place to live. If you can afford to live within 5 miles of the ocean.

Otherwise, not worth it.

[Mr5150]

Originally Posted by Axxlrod

CA is an excellent place to live. If you can afford to live within 5 miles of the ocean.

Otherwise, not worth it.

Ironically, the unaffordable places to live ARE within five miles of the ocean. Sounds like you’ve never been to the Sierra, Yosemite or the Redwoods. The rest of the State is way less expensive

[BeauCharles]

Originally Posted by Axxlrod

CA is an excellent place to live. If you can afford to live within 5 miles of the ocean.

Otherwise, not worth it.

A blanket statement like that is totally wrong, sorry.

[self-made]

Honestly, is California really worth it anymore?
No!

[Moddedintegra56]

Originally Posted by Axxlrod

CA is an excellent place to live. If you can afford to live within 5 miles of the ocean.

Otherwise, not worth it.

its not all about the ocean. ive lived in close proximity to the ocean and rarely went.

as someone said, blanket statement that is false

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by Mr5150

Are you referring to LA or the Bay Area? Or CA as a whole? I live in CA and we have low crime and the COL here is affordable. Taxes are not bad, unless you make over a million $$$. We doing fine and our state tax bill was $500. OTOH the Fed tax bill was about $7000! For the record New Mexico has one of the highest crime rates, as a whole, in the nation.

Property taxes are more reasonable than a lot of states. In Texas Our son was paying more in prop taxes on his house than we on a house that was 2/3 the cost of ours

But don’t move here, unless you want to be a movie star and hang out at a SoCal beach next to a palm tree.

This is exactly why stats mean nothing: you are not considering things like: Texas has high property taxes but no income tax. That make it a wash. Ca does have very high taxes and very high things like car registration. NM and TX have very low fees. You talk about crime rates? Well yes they are high in NM but not in every part of the state. If depends on where one lives. Some parts of CA have very high crimes rates. I am not knocking any of these places, just pointing out, charts make litter difference. It is known fact the COL in CA is among the highest in the country.

[Ruth4Truth]

We know nothing of your affordability situation, so we can't really respond without more information. Did you have any specific area in CA in mind? Is it the ocean that captures your imagination? Most locations near ocean are pricey. Fine, if you can afford it.

I'm a born-and-raised Californian living in NM. I do miss having bodies of water around, and I miss having forests of big, tall evergreens around. But in other ways, I feel at home. Still, I do hope to be able to move back to the coast at some point. IDK about "is it worth it" questions; to me, CA is home, so, if I can make it happen, it'll be "worth it". I can't really relate to it in terms of "worth". Monterey County is beautiful btw. There's a couple on this forum, who was able to move to the county for retirement. They found a corner of the county that was affordable. It's not near the beach, but close enough for an easy drive. They've very happy where they are. You could look around for lower-cost pockets that also are lower in crime.

[OC4life]

Originally Posted by V8 Vega

My house has been paid for a long time and I still hate the goverment in California. Think how much better Calif. could be with at least 2 parties.

And yet you still make the choice every single day to live here.

[Tulemutt]

Originally Posted by V8 Vega

My house has been paid for a long time and I still hate the goverment in California. Think how much better Calif. could be with at least 2 parties.

Think how much better this forum would be without your incessant, tape-loop kvetching.