Aside from property prices, property taxes and gas, is California that much more expensive than other states ? (San Jose: real estate, rentals)

[aslowdodge]

Originally Posted by BGS91762

Totally not true. I’ve lived in the western part of the IE for 33 years. Most evenings in the summer including those in August, the last few weeks are the exception, cool off nicely in the evenings with the winds off the coast. That totally is not the case in GA where I travel often for week. Miserable weather from late April through September. The days and nights are hot and humid. Yuck!!

So you make a claim about the weather in Georgia but you never have lived there. I live in Georgia and your post about how horrible the weather simply isn’t accurate. I lived in the Bay Area all my life and the generalizations we made about the inland empire were not good, especially the weather there. So to say you live there and then say how bad the weather is in Georgia is pretty funny.
Fall and spring aren’t much different in the Atlanta area than the Bay Area which has a much better reputation for weather than inland empire. The winter here is colder, but not as bad as you say it is. I pretty much wear a t shirt and a sweatshirt most of the time, the same when I lived in the Bay Area.
The big difference is summer where the humidity can be rather high. But maybe people here aren’t as soft as you when it comes to weather. I see people out walking, running, playing tennis, riding bikes. More so than I saw in California. A lot of older people out walking too. While I will admit summer is more harsh here, it seems like people just get used to it and still go outdoors.
I was just talking to a fellow gym member who was showing me his pictures of the 80 mile bike rides he does in the miserable weather . Guy is over 50 and has no issues with the weather.
Even I as a former Californian was out in the yard hacking away at bushes and survived the weather.
Your post reminds me of when another well know poster here on cd claimed Georgia had horrible frigid winter storms and deadly heat and humidity.

[BGS91762]

Originally Posted by aslowdodge

So you make a claim about the weather in Georgia but you never have lived there. I live in Georgia and your post about how horrible the weather simply isn’t accurate. I lived in the Bay Area all my life and the generalizations we made about the inland empire were not good, especially the weather there. So to say you live there and then say how bad the weather is in Georgia is pretty funny.
Fall and spring aren’t much different in the Atlanta area than the Bay Area which has a much better reputation for weather than inland empire. The winter here is colder, but not as bad as you say it is. I pretty much wear a t shirt and a sweatshirt most of the time, the same when I lived in the Bay Area.
The big difference is summer where the humidity can be rather high. But maybe people here aren’t as soft as you when it comes to weather. I see people out walking, running, playing tennis, riding bikes. More so than I saw in California. A lot of older people out walking too. While I will admit summer is more harsh here, it seems like people just get used to it and still go outdoors.
I was just talking to a fellow gym member who was showing me his pictures of the 80 mile bike rides he does in the miserable weather . Guy is over 50 and has no issues with the weather.
Even I as a former Californian was out in the yard hacking away at bushes and survived the weather.
Your post reminds me of when another well know poster here on cd claimed Georgia had horrible frigid winter storms and deadly heat and humidity.

All I can say each time I travel to GA in the summer, I am so happy to step off the plane in So Cal. The air always seems so refreshing compared to the humid weather of GA. I’m glad you like it there, by you could not pay enough to move there.

[aslowdodge]

Originally Posted by BGS91762

All I can say each time I travel to GA in the summer, I am so happy to step off the plane in So Cal. The air always seems so refreshing compared to the humid weather of GA. I’m glad you like it there, by you could not pay enough to move there.

I get that, you travel to Georgia when the weather is it’s worse. It’s like if I traveled to California and hit the hot spells like just recently and also when I went there last year I would be surmising “what’s so great about the weather here, it’s hot as h***” you only have a sample of 25% of the weather but haven’t experienced the other 75% which really isn’t a fair assessment of overall weather.
I do like it here, but I will say overall in the coastal areas of California the weather overall is better. How much better in dollars I can’t say. It’s different for everyone.
I know that in exchange for those three months of not so nice weather I get

A 5000 sq foot house in a nice safe neighborhood with top ranked schools. In California I couldn’t even buy a small house for the same price much less one in a nice neighborhood with good schools.

The money saved gets me a Ferrari, two Lexus, and a truck. California I would have to drop the Ferrari and one Lexus.

In California I would have an extra 3 grand to travel for vacations per year. Here in Georgia I have about 22k.
When I moved here I had hoped to have enough money to go live elsewhere when it got hot in the summer.
I have the money to go live for three months almost anywhere but haven’t done it since the summer wasn’t as bad as I thought.

So for me, that is what it took money wise for me to live here in Georgia. The housing upgrade, cars, travel options was what I exchanged for the three months of better summer weather.

Now I completely understand when someone is well established in California. It doesn’t always make sense to move elsewhere, especially when friends and family are all there.

[roadwarrior101]

Originally Posted by aslowdodge

The money saved gets me a Ferrari, two Lexus, and a truck. California I would have to drop the Ferrari and one Lexus.

Did you have to take a salary cut or were you able to keep your California salary while working remotely?

[citizensadvocate]

Originally Posted by roadwarrior101

Did you have to take a salary cut or were you able to keep your California salary while working remotely?

The real question is if there is a salary cut how much the salary cut is compared to cost of living in the new place? If one makes $100,000 in LA or the Bay Area but gets paid $75,000 in another state such as Georgia or Tennessee how much disposable income is left over after paying for cost of living in all places after all the taxes, fees, loans, mortgages, bills are paid?

[emotiioo]

Why is it difficult to believe that your money might go further outside of California? There are all sorts of cost of living calculators where you can plug in numbers and see what shakes out.

It truly doesn't matter if you are making a 20% more salary if everything costs 35% more than somewhere else. I think people just get attahed to a number..."i make 100k" is a big one...reaching that 6th digit has a psychological impact. But it really isn't 100k if you give away a third of it in taxes. You really have to compare apples to apples when talking about salary in a specific place. It is possible to be paid less and live better/take home more. But don't take my word for it. There's lots of tools from all kinds of very legitimate sources that bears this out.

[janellen]

Originally Posted by aslowdodge

I get that, you travel to Georgia when the weather is it’s worse. It’s like if I traveled to California and hit the hot spells like just recently and also when I went there last year I would be surmising “what’s so great about the weather here, it’s hot as h***” you only have a sample of 25% of the weather but haven’t experienced the other 75% which really isn’t a fair assessment of overall weather.
I do like it here, but I will say overall in the coastal areas of California the weather overall is better. How much better in dollars I can’t say. It’s different for everyone.
I know that in exchange for those three months of not so nice weather I get

A 5000 sq foot house in a nice safe neighborhood with top ranked schools. In California I couldn’t even buy a small house for the same price much less one in a nice neighborhood with good schools.

The money saved gets me a Ferrari, two Lexus, and a truck. California I would have to drop the Ferrari and one Lexus.

In California I would have an extra 3 grand to travel for vacations per year. Here in Georgia I have about 22k.
When I moved here I had hoped to have enough money to go live elsewhere when it got hot in the summer.
I have the money to go live for three months almost anywhere but haven’t done it since the summer wasn’t as bad as I thought.

So for me, that is what it took money wise for me to live here in Georgia. The housing upgrade, cars, travel options was what I exchanged for the three months of better summer weather.

Now I completely understand when someone is well established in California. It doesn’t always make sense to move elsewhere, especially when friends and family are all there.

So it's hot there for three months huh? Hey that's no hill for a climber. I'm an inland California resident and I turned on my ac at the start of May and it will run pretty much continually until mid October. We've had 42 days of 100+ here so far this summer. Let's face it, unless you live pretty close to the ocean, California is hotter'n hell in the summer. Even just up the road from me in the Sierras, they've been having quite a few 90+ days, and that's at around 6,000ft. With the exception of the coast and maybe parts of the mountains, California weather kind of sucks. It's not only hot in the summer, but it can get foggy/overcast cold in the winter. Spring and Fall are super nice, and spring start toward the end of February here.

[roadwarrior101]

Originally Posted by citizensadvocate

The real question is if there is a salary cut how much the salary cut is compared to cost of living in the new place? If one makes $100,000 in LA or the Bay Area but gets paid $75,000 in another state such as Georgia or Tennessee how much disposable income is left over after paying for cost of living in all places after all the taxes, fees, loans, mortgages, bills are paid?

People generally don't choose moving to LA or the Bay Area due to the cost arbitrage (see other thread). On the other hand, there are times when their incomes more than make up for any cost of living adjustments.

[Huckleberry3911948]

If looking for a cheap place to live this not it
In 1980 that was true

[BeccaJune75]

I find that grocery prices are also much higher