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I completely agree... however, the ladder in California is missing all the bottom rungs, and doesn't really start until the middle. Now I guess you could try to shimmy up either side to reach that middle rung, but it's much easier to find a new ladder.
You can get a studio condo around the corner from my house for 159k. Not the biggest place or the nicest area, but it's something. You can get a decent 1BR condo conversion in a rapidly gentrifying SD neighborhood for 230k. Save up some money, start small, and make it happen. It can be done.
Well I have to say there are great things about California but not so great things. I was borned and raised in the Bay area of California. Are problem was that we would never could afford housing. We moved to Northern California and East Central area too. We could never afford housing in Northern area and it would have been a struggle to buy a house in Central area. Due to my husband being in the Construction field for 25 years wages are hard to come by due to illegal aliens and farmer in the Central area made Construction pay so low. That is would be hard to buy a home with that income. My husband and have born and raised by the beach. We wanted to move to affordable housing by the beach. We ended up at Oak Island, NC. Absolutely beautiful place to be for half the price of housing compare to California. My kids are so happy here. The beach is not crowded and a great place raise your kids. It is like being on vacation living on this Island. But we found with in the year this is the 2nd State with the most immigrates and wages are low here as well. My husband has to travel to get a great paying job. Now he is in Missouri and we are going to be moving there because he is able to get a good paying job and housing is much cheaper there. I can't wait to move because we missed our Husband dearly. We would never have moved from NC if the wages weren't so low. Although the Elementary school is great but I heard Middle and High School is not so great. They are changing a lot of teacher and staff around and hopefully that will make a better school.Who knows! Just thought you guys wanted here from my experience.
Also I have a question for everyone on the board that moved out of California? Are you not happy because you aren't making new friends. I know the weather will never be like California but you got to make the best of it. You have to give you new place a chance and it will grow on you. You gusy made this choice as a family and if you not happy because of the weather. You really didn't due your homework. For example the person who moved Seattle- everyone knows it rains all the time and is foggy. If you lived by beach had fog and hated it then you shouldn't have moved there. Huh?
You can get a studio condo around the corner from my house for 159k. Not the biggest place or the nicest area, but it's something. You can get a decent 1BR condo conversion in a rapidly gentrifying SD neighborhood for 230k. Save up some money, start small, and make it happen. It can be done.
Well, I thank you for your input, but a studio condo really wouldn't be practical since we have two kids, two dogs, and a cat. I suppose we could get rid of the dogs, but it wouldn't be so easy with the kids.
Well I have to say there are great things about California but not so great things. I was borned and raised in the Bay area of California. Are problem was that we would never could afford housing. We moved to Northern California and East Central area too. We could never afford housing in Northern area and it would have been a struggle to buy a house in Central area. Due to my husband being in the Construction field for 25 years wages are hard to come by due to illegal aliens and farmer in the Central area made Construction pay so low. That is would be hard to buy a home with that income. My husband and have born and raised by the beach. We wanted to move to affordable housing by the beach. We ended up at Oak Island, NC. Absolutely beautiful place to be for half the price of housing compare to California. My kids are so happy here. The beach is not crowded and a great place raise your kids. It is like being on vacation living on this Island. But we found with in the year this is the 2nd State with the most immigrates and wages are low here as well. My husband has to travel to get a great paying job. Now he is in Missouri and we are going to be moving there because he is able to get a good paying job and housing is much cheaper there. I can't wait to move because we missed our Husband dearly. We would never have moved from NC if the wages weren't so low. Although the Elementary school is great but I heard Middle and High School is not so great. They are changing a lot of teacher and staff around and hopefully that will make a better school.Who knows! Just thought you guys wanted here from my experience.
Also I have a question for everyone on the board that moved out of California? Are you not happy because you aren't making new friends. I know the weather will never be like California but you got to make the best of it. You have to give you new place a chance and it will grow on you. You gusy made this choice as a family and if you not happy because of the weather. You really didn't due your homework. For example the person who moved Seattle- everyone knows it rains all the time and is foggy. If you lived by beach had fog and hated it then you shouldn't have moved there. Huh?
Hated the fog in Calif. dont mind the heat of NC and have made plenty of new friends and could not be happier))) Sorry it did not work out here for you ,good luck in Missouri!!!!
Also I have a question for everyone on the board that moved out of California? Are you not happy because you aren't making new friends. I know the weather will never be like California but you got to make the best of it. You have to give you new place a chance and it will grow on you. You gusy made this choice as a family and if you not happy because of the weather. You really didn't due your homework. For example the person who moved Seattle- everyone knows it rains all the time and is foggy. If you lived by beach had fog and hated it then you shouldn't have moved there. Huh?
I moved out of California in my adult life not once but twice. The first time I was fed that crap about cheap houses. It never occured to me that I could better myself and make 10x the money right here. Anyway, after 3 years in Vegas I found zero culture and it was extremely difficult to find intelligent friends. Conversations generally revolved around booze, drugs, gambling and hookers. I looked, believe me. I found one measly coffee house with tumbleweeds blowing through it (figuratively) Moving back to L.A. was wonderful. It was like coming out of a cave after being a prisoner. I'd been driving home every weekend anyway. I left again 3 years later for several reasons...none had a thing to do with not liking it here in L.A. After almost 4 years in Hawaii, I returned for some of the same reasons I left Vegas and some additional ones, specifically being bored to death and depressed. Hawaii is also basically a third world nation. I wrote a huge list a while back of the things I missed about L.A. I made tons of money there, that was one good thing. I also still own a beach house there. A good thing I did out there was perfecting my craft.
I've learned my lesson. I'm home for good. I'm pushing 40 and ready to put down roots for good where it all started. I've spent more time here than anywhere else and no other place feels like home. I've never been anywhere with friendlier people. In L.A. I can strike up a conversation with a stranger and go to lunch with them. I've tried it other places, nada. The life, energy and culture combination is something I've never experienced anywhere. I have daily moneymaking opportunities shoved in my face. L.A. is a goldmine. I found out (at least for me) that the cheap house argument was a bunch of ****. My spiritual revelation was that I should live where I want. Later I'll swing by a museum, maybe go see some comedy and then a coffee house with some music. I'll walk Hollywood Blvd on my daily 5+ mile walk (in my quest to be thin again). A couple days ago I saw George Clooney and Andy Garcia. I always like seeing celebs ~
My biggest lesson was: life is too short to be somewhere you don't want to live. I tell this to people who want to come to L.A. as well as those who want to leave it. Live is too short to do things you don't want to do period.
Well, I thank you for your input, but a studio condo really wouldn't be practical since we have two kids, two dogs, and a cat. I suppose we could get rid of the dogs, but it wouldn't be so easy with the kids.
My only point is that the place to have started was in the studio condo. Ideally the property you own coincides with your stage in life - i.e. when you are just starting out and single, you own a meager condo, so when you are older, with wife & kids, you already have the equity (or alternatively saved a big downpayment) to move into the starter home. When the kids are older, and your income has risen, you can sell the starter and buy that 'dream home'.
If you don't have the benefit of equity or cash, you have to start making concessions - renting, buying a house far from work or in a not-so-great area, buying a townhome, or having the wife go back to work. Those aren't easy decisions, but that is the reality, as unfortunate as it may be.
Personally if I was in a situation where I felt it was impossible for me to own a home without some radical change outside of my control, I would pack my bags and move on. CA is great, but a self-satisfied person can be happy in any location. As Sorcerer mentioned above - life's too short to be in a place where you are unhappy.
I keep hearing that homes in the Bay Area are impossible to afford... so this morning I decided to check and see what is available in my city by the bay.
Realtor.com lists 130 two bedroom homes under 300K in Oakland... the geographic center of the Bay Area. Oakland is only minutes to SF by Bart or Bus, has 3 major league sports franchises, a nationally accredited museum, parks. zoo, children's Fairy Land, very culturally diverse, Institutions for higher educations, wide variety of restaurants and a nearly ideal climate based on the number of heating and cooling days per year.
We all have choices... and it has never been easier to research prospective areas due to the Internet... maybe that's the problem... people today are bombarded by choices that are parents never had to make?
I actually get this reaction from a lot of people... even coworkers. The last time I had some friends from work over, a few were even hesitant because of my Oakland address.
Anyway, people are always pleasantly surprised when they visit and the most common reaction I get is that they never would have believed Oakland has nice neighborhoods! I always get a smile when I tell them not to go spreading that around... we don't want the secret to get out!!
Oakland has been good to me. I bought my first home while attending school and only working a part-time job back in the 80's. Oakland allows me to live in the Bay Area and do it affordably.
I would recommend it to anyone if schools are not an issue. The number of under performing schools is the number one reasons that young families move. Oakland has public schools on both ends of the spectrum... from the bottom of the bottom to the top of the top... unfortunately most are on the bottom end.
Almost across the board, the top schools have a lot of parent involvement and the poor performing schools have almost no parent involvement...
Here is a little factoid... the city of Piedmont is completely, 360 degrees surrounded by Oakland and it has some of the best Public Schools and highest home prices in the country... I say, why pay Piedmont prices when you can live down the block for a fraction of the cost?
The other reasons I'm considering leaving the state (in no particular order).
1. Pollution
2. Crime and Gang Activity
3. Education (I have kids)
4. Rude people
5. Did I say pollution?
I live in the Northern Sacramento Valley, and after a good heavy rainstorm, with lots of wind, we'll have maybe two days of completely clear skies, then the haze sets in. I live at the base of the Cascade/Sierra transition zone, and when it's clear I can see the Coast Range with no problem. Two days later it's barely visible, and after a week you'd no longer know it's even there. I never had allergies at all growing up, but now I suffer from them horribly throughout the year.
I'm also getting sick and tired of gangs and crime, even though I live in a fairly 'safe' city. Every year it gets worse and worse, because there's a definite line between the "have's" and the "have not's" in this State, and it continues to grow.
California is also filled with rude people. I'm lucky enough to live in a town where you can still get a smile and a hello occassionally, but that is becoming more and more rare as people flood into my town from SoCal and the Bay Area. I've lived in the same neighborhood for 9 years and know two of my neighbors. It's terrible... and I consider myself a pretty friendly guy, not scary in the least.
Anyway, I think that about sums it up.
I live in Sacramento and am a transplanted SoCal guy and native. My wife is a native of this area. These are all the reasons we're leaving as soon as I retire, not to mention the ridiculous prices of housing and the California attitude. Thankfully, our children are all adults so schools aren't a factor for us. We want to maximize our retirement incomes in a place where people are friendly, the pace is slower, it looks like America and sounds that way too.
Thankfully, we've both lived in a number of other states in our lives and have a first-hand perspective.
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