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I finally left LA after 14 wonderful years in Redondo Beach. I was in NorCal for 7 years before that so it was 21 years in the golden state.
I would say that for most of those years, I would have never considered leaving LA. I just loved it so much. I loved the weather, living near the beach, riding my bike 2 blocks to get to the beach path and riding up to SM and the Palisades, etc.
But in the end I left for 2 reasons.
1) I work in the tech industry and although I never had trouble finding a job, it was tough finding a really good job. Most companies were either in entertainment, random internet startups, etc. There are a few big companies (yahoo, google, amazon) but the work that they were doing was just not as interesting as their home bases.
2) Housing was just too expensive. I lived in a townhouse that cost me $1m and it had basically no yard, a shared driveway, and "only" 2400 sq ft. It was considered pretty big in LA standards but for most of the US, it isn't really that big.
I got a call last year from a recruiter who asked if I was interested in relocating to Seattle and I said "No, I don't think I'd want to leave LA." But when he told me that I would be increasing my salary by 50% while paying no state income tax (10%) and my money would go much further towards a home and school for my kid, I felt that I owed it to my family to consider it.
Of course I know that it rains a lot and it gets cold so the weather is nowhere near as nice as Southern California.
But I've been up here in Seattle now for 8 months and you know what? I love it up here. I'm allowed to say that now since I've been through my first winter where it rained a lot. I purposely waited 8 months to write this post because early on it could easily be dismissed as "well, you haven't seen winter yet."
Every morning I wake up to fresh air. I think I forgot what fresh air was after being in smog LA for so long. I really thought I would miss LA but I went back a few times after moving here and I really couldn't wait to get back to Seattle for the fresh air.
I see green everywhere. There are lush tress and forests all around me. Even driving down the freeways (I drive on the 405 and 5 just like I did in LA) but there are tall trees everywhere. It just looks nice.
My son's school is great. The Redondo Beach Unified School District was decent but class sizes were around 30 and budgets were always a constraint. The Lake Washington school district here is nice and seems to be funded well. At least in his class, the facilities are much nicer and his class size is only around 22 students. He also takes the school bus to school (which we didn't have in Redondo Beach).
I am renting a $1m house. It's right along the lake (although not lakefront). I am about 10 steps away from the community dock that takes me onto the lake. In Redondo, I was about 2-3 blocks away but here I am right across the street. The house is 4200 sq feet with 4 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms, a library, a media room, a workout room, etc. My master bedroom is larger than the entire upper floor of my old house (that included the master bedroom, dining room, kitchen, and living room). I have a 3 car garage and a circular driveway that fits another 7 cars.
And my job? My compensation is 50% more than what I made in LA. My take home pay is 60%+ more than what I took home in LA due to taxes. Competition for my work is high so with this on my resume, I am in a much better position going forward if I were ever going to consider moving to another company around here or going to the bay area.
All in all, I think I made the right move by leaving LA. I am sad to have left my friends but I think this really is the best move for myself and my family. We just get a quality of life that is higher than what we had in LA.
My commute to work is 30 minutes. In LA, I worked at 6 different jobs over the 14 years that I was there and other than 1 company, every single one of those jobs had a 45-70 minute commute depending on traffic. It was very common for me to spend 1 hour commuting each way on regular traffic days.
In LA it was fun to say that I can go skiing in the morning and surfing in the afternoon. I never actually did that but here, the closest ski resort is 45 minutes away. I went kayaking yesterday afternoon.
In any case, I am glad that I was open to relocation and I am glad that I made this move.
Glad you found a better fit for your family. California is a lot of fun when you don't have kids but it really is a lousy place to raise kids unless you're a zillionaire. I dunno if it's prop 13 or what but schools in CA are so much worse compared to the wealth of their district than in other states.
I finally left LA after 14 wonderful years in Redondo Beach. I was in NorCal for 7 years before that so it was 21 years in the golden state.
I would say that for most of those years, I would have never considered leaving LA. I just loved it so much. I loved the weather, living near the beach, riding my bike 2 blocks to get to the beach path and riding up to SM and the Palisades, etc.
But in the end I left for 2 reasons.
1) I work in the tech industry and although I never had trouble finding a job, it was tough finding a really good job. Most companies were either in entertainment, random internet startups, etc. There are a few big companies (yahoo, google, amazon) but the work that they were doing was just not as interesting as their home bases.
2) Housing was just too expensive. I lived in a townhouse that cost me $1m and it had basically no yard, a shared driveway, and "only" 2400 sq ft. It was considered pretty big in LA standards but for most of the US, it isn't really that big.
I got a call last year from a recruiter who asked if I was interested in relocating to Seattle and I said "No, I don't think I'd want to leave LA." But when he told me that I would be increasing my salary by 50% while paying no state income tax (10%) and my money would go much further towards a home and school for my kid, I felt that I owed it to my family to consider it.
Of course I know that it rains a lot and it gets cold so the weather is nowhere near as nice as Southern California.
But I've been up here in Seattle now for 8 months and you know what? I love it up here. I'm allowed to say that now since I've been through my first winter where it rained a lot. I purposely waited 8 months to write this post because early on it could easily be dismissed as "well, you haven't seen winter yet."
Every morning I wake up to fresh air. I think I forgot what fresh air was after being in smog LA for so long. I really thought I would miss LA but I went back a few times after moving here and I really couldn't wait to get back to Seattle for the fresh air.
I see green everywhere. There are lush tress and forests all around me. Even driving down the freeways (I drive on the 405 and 5 just like I did in LA) but there are tall trees everywhere. It just looks nice.
My son's school is great. The Redondo Beach Unified School District was decent but class sizes were around 30 and budgets were always a constraint. The Lake Washington school district here is nice and seems to be funded well. At least in his class, the facilities are much nicer and his class size is only around 22 students. He also takes the school bus to school (which we didn't have in Redondo Beach).
I am renting a $1m house. It's right along the lake (although not lakefront). I am about 10 steps away from the community dock that takes me onto the lake. In Redondo, I was about 2-3 blocks away but here I am right across the street. The house is 4200 sq feet with 4 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms, a library, a media room, a workout room, etc. My master bedroom is larger than the entire upper floor of my old house (that included the master bedroom, dining room, kitchen, and living room). I have a 3 car garage and a circular driveway that fits another 7 cars.
And my job? My compensation is 50% more than what I made in LA. My take home pay is 60%+ more than what I took home in LA due to taxes. Competition for my work is high so with this on my resume, I am in a much better position going forward if I were ever going to consider moving to another company around here or going to the bay area.
All in all, I think I made the right move by leaving LA. I am sad to have left my friends but I think this really is the best move for myself and my family. We just get a quality of life that is higher than what we had in LA.
My commute to work is 30 minutes. In LA, I worked at 6 different jobs over the 14 years that I was there and other than 1 company, every single one of those jobs had a 45-70 minute commute depending on traffic. It was very common for me to spend 1 hour commuting each way on regular traffic days.
In LA it was fun to say that I can go skiing in the morning and surfing in the afternoon. I never actually did that but here, the closest ski resort is 45 minutes away. I went kayaking yesterday afternoon.
In any case, I am glad that I was open to relocation and I am glad that I made this move.
Nice to hear your perspective as a former Socal-ite. To be honest, I think about leaving the NW every winter and have just decided that I need long periods of time somewhere warmer and sunnier to break up the winter. Then summer comes and I wonder why I ever thought of leaving.
We really have a great deal overall in Seattle with gorgeous scenery, wonderful city, lower crime, good schools and about the best income versus cost of living of anywhere. Still, if my wealth increased another $2M, I'd probably move to SD.
Thanks for your post and congrats to you on making the move. My brother and his family also live in Seattle (near UW) and left California 15 years ago. They left for some of the same reasons you did and never looked back. They raised their children in Seattle and have gotten accustomed to the cooler weather and the Pacific Northwest lifestyle.
Glad you found a place for you and your family . This is an example of a situation where la doesn't always pay the highest salaries versus some other places .
You mention some good points too about schools.
Even if someone buys in a nice expensive part of la the public schools can be pretty bad.
Who can afford private school on top of a huge mortgage ?
This is setting us up for a situation where we will only have rich families and poor families and no middle class ones . I think we are pretty much already there In many ways.
Also important to note traffic and commute times , which does directly affect quality of life .
I guess it just depends on what you are looking for and what you think you need. I'm divorced, middle aged with no kids. I have no desire to have a huge house anywhere. I don't need it. I'd rather be in a place where the weather is nice pretty much year round and I'm not stuck indoors, in any size house. Since I have depression issues, I couldn't like somewhere that was cloudy and rainy most of the time as it would drive me insane. Since I don't have kids, schools aren't important to me. I make enough money here to live comfortably and travel a bit. Like I said - it depends on what's important to the individual.
Last edited by Spikett; 03-25-2013 at 09:24 AM..
Reason: added something
Oh, please note that I am in no way saying that my situation applies to everyone or that WA is always going to be a better place than CA, etc. In fact, it's probably quite the contrary. I'm only saying that in my situation, I felt that the move was worth it and better for me. It is in no way a "one size fits all."
I lived near the beach in SoCal because I really felt that it was worth it to pay the premium of living near the beach. I probably could have purchased a real home (not townhouse) in a decent school district if I was willing to move further east...say Cerritos, Fullerton, etc. But I just felt that if I lived out there, it wouldn't really be worth the premium to live in LA. I guess for me it was sort of "beach cities or bust."
Salaries for tech are definitely higher in Seattle.
As far as moving back to CA within 2 years? Maybe. We'll see...but I think I will still be satisfied with the move overall as opposed to regretting it. At worst, I will have saved up some money and moved back in a better situation than I was in previous to the move. If anything, I predict that I might move back in 4 years...it's just the way that my new company has set up incentives (stock), etc. But I don't know...I like it up here.
I will say that one thing that is a little disappointing is that I'm a bit of a school (University) snob and I'm not satisfied with any school up here. That basically means that I'll probably be sending my son out of state for college when he gets to that age (assuming he's smart enough to get in). In CA, I would have been happy with him going to Stanfurd, Cal Tech, or Berkeley. Sadly, there are no schools of such caliber up here (that comment pisses off a lot of UW folks up here).
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