Considering relocating to CA: Good idea? (homes, buying, public schools)

[VRE332]

let's figure out why you don't have a social life? Maybe you need to move to another community. I mean, why the heck move way out there.

[Caladium]

Originally Posted by VRE332

let's figure out why you don't have a social life?

Along the same line, what if you make this move and then find out it's just as hard to make friends in California?

[Natthapol]

I was thinking about the same thing (we were just like you but we didn't have kid yet) but in the end I decided to stay here.. You will pay more income tax (possibly like 5% more) and $550K doesn't go that far in desirable areas like Cupertino, Mountain View and etc.. Right now, you can probably buy a decent place in San Jose though, the real estate price has came down quite a bit.

I like the Bay area a lot, there is so much to do outdoors, you will have endless things to do on the weekend -- Yosemite, Napa Valley, Lake Tahoe, San Fran, Point Reyes, Monterey peninsula and etc.
But I think I prefer the city/neighborhood in NOVA more than south bay neighborhood though.

[scorpio516]

$550k will get you a hole in the wall 1000 sf 2 bedroom SFH in decent parts of the south bay (milpitas, freemont). It won't get you a place on the south end of the pennisula, nor in a nice part of San Jose, or Sunnyvale, or Cupertino.
It will get a decent place in Tracy, Pleasanton, or Livermore and a long, long commute to San Jose or SF. Really, it takes 2 hours to get from Milpitas to downtown San Jose or Palo Alto during rush hour, and thats less than 15 miles.

[yamota]

Although I have to admit, they bay area is just so beautiful, I wouldn't mind retiring there one day. Ah, dare to dream!

[vauser]

Very valid points. I have no answers, to be honest. That's the scary part. It is more of a "I want a change, and I am hoping things will work out just fine" type of feeling. Very subjective, and not a very rational decision, clearly.

Originally Posted by claremarie

You both have well-paying jobs here, and a house that presumably has at least held its value since you bought it. Your son is in a private school where he presumably has some friends and is preparing for the rigors of high school. You want to move to California, a state that has been shedding upper-income professionals in droves because of confiscatory tax rates. You don't have jobs there, you don't have a real sense of the actual costs of living there, and you probably haven't done much research on whether there is a suitable private school that both has space for your son and is located within a reasonable commute of your as-yet nonexistent jobs and the house that you can't buy until you get those jobs.

Does this not give you pause?

[vauser]

Looked hard for communities with Rosslyn being one of them. But, the good ones are all so much more expensive and at best, we can rent them (even after paying twice what we pay for our current mortgage).

Originally Posted by VRE332

let's figure out why you don't have a social life? Maybe you need to move to another community. I mean, why the heck move way out there.

[vauser]

Exactly the question that my wife threw at me. "Unknown angel"?

Originally Posted by Caladium

Along the same line, what if you make this move and then find out it's just as hard to make friends in California?

[vauser]

OMG. I know a little bit about 101 but that's about it. Is the commute in the bay area worse than 66/495??

I mean, if I were to live in Sunnyvale and find a job either in Foster City or Berkeley or Palo Alto, what's the honest commute times we are talking about (I don't trust what the maps say)?

Originally Posted by scorpio516

$550k will get you a hole in the wall 1000 sf 2 bedroom SFH in decent parts of the south bay (milpitas, freemont). It won't get you a place on the south end of the pennisula, nor in a nice part of San Jose, or Sunnyvale, or Cupertino.
It will get a decent place in Tracy, Pleasanton, or Livermore and a long, long commute to San Jose or SF. Really, it takes 2 hours to get from Milpitas to downtown San Jose or Palo Alto during rush hour, and thats less than 15 miles.

[globalburgh]

Originally Posted by vauser

Looked hard for communities with Rosslyn being one of them. But, the good ones are all so much more expensive and at best, we can rent them (even after paying twice what we pay for our current mortgage).

You'll find out that the same is true in the Bay Area. My experience is that it is even worse than the DC metro. I think you can find the same high quality sense of community in more inexpensive markets. The equity you have built up here will go much further in a place such as Dallas.