How do most Southern California refugees get a fresh start in a new State? (Los Angeles: real estate market)

[Dingler]

I have a number of friends who would love to get out of Southern CA and a new start in a place with a lower standard of living and quality of life. How to do that is a problem. They have so many ties to the community like jobs, furniture and homes.

Tell us your story. How did you finally escape from Southern California and what was the straw the broke the camels back that convinced you to finally make the move? How did you find a place to live? How did you decide where to move? How much did the move cost you? Details, please.

[morefromcali]

Hi Dingler,

I'm not sure exactly what you want to know, but here is our story. My husband grew up in Pittsburgh, but his entire family moved to Los Angeles when they were older kids. He has always wanted to go back, but because I was born here (in fact I'm 5th generation California) and both of our entire families were here I couldn't see leaving. However, a few of things happened to finally change my mind. First, we sold our condo and then couldn't get back in to the real estate market even though we had made a decent amount, in a neighborhood with decent schools. So we decided to rent in a neighborhood with a great school, but unfortuantely "great" was only ok for a gifted kid because of this crazy open court curriculum. Then, last summer I spent literally hours getting my kids to their respective summer programs and I snapped. So, we rented a short-term furnished apartment (called a coorporate rental) in Pittsburgh in a neighborhood with some of the best schools in the country in a state with a strong gifted mandate and tried it out for a month. We fell in love with the community and bought a house and are moving this summer. Hope that helps!

[midnightbirdgirl]

My husbands company is paying for the move, took us years to get it, but that is how we are doing it.
MBG

[James T]

[junkman18]

We looked around on the internet and found a place we really liked and bought a piece of land several years ago and last year we sold out house in California and now we live in northern part of Arkansas in the Ozarks and just loev it, and we are building a house on a lake....

We would never want to move back to California, other then for a good laugh.... The house we are building in 3 times as big and half the price of what we sold ours for... we love it here!