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Hey everyone. Looking for some advice. I'm sure there are hundreds of post on this subject but I have a few specific questions that I couldn't find an answer on.
So for the questions.
First of all has anyone been in a similar situation. I feel like the change to Southern California would be exactly what we need but I'm nervous about using climate as a main reason to move our entire lives across the country. And like I said Michigan summers are what keeps us here so I fear we will miss that.
Also housing. Will we ever be able to purchase a decent house ( 3-4 bedroom decent size nice neighborhood) considering out wages. I'd love to live in San Clemente or close by. I've spent lots of time there and love that area. But also would be open to other areas close to the ocean and with a "community feel". We will be making at least 40k( to be used as down payment plus savings) on the house we Sell in michigan and We're not opposed living in an apartment for a few years to increase our savings.
Also meeting people. We have lots of friend and family here and we love meeting up with people to hag out grab drinks or do stuff on the weekend. I know thats in most places eventually you meet a core of people that you can have this relationship with. Is that pretty common with California?
Hope someone out there has had some similar experience and might have some advice. Everything I've experienced in California I've loved so for. As I'm sure your all aware it's a huge decision and I just want to make sure we make the right one and look at all the positive and negatives. Hope everything is doing great in California! Hopefully we will see you soon!
I've lived in So Cal all my life, so I can't add to the relocation part of your question, but I think I can help in a couple areas...
Housing - I have friends who make a combined income similar to what you would be making if you stayed on the low end of the starting salary and your fiance keeps her same pay. They are looking to buy in Aliso Viejo this year with a max price of around $600K. You can find a decent 3-4 bedroom in a nice neighborhood within that budget, but your down payment is pretty low. You can get a loan with a lower down payment, however, it would be tough to compete with 20% down conventional loan and cash buyers, especially in today's market. It might not be a bad idea to rent and save up. It'll give you time to familiarize yourself with South OC and figure out where you want to plant your roots.
I don't think it would hurt to ask for a cost of living increase. You already seem like you're not expecting it, so it won't be a huge disappointment if they say no.
Meeting people - I've made and kept a lot of friends from previous places of employment. I've met people through friends, co-workers, and through just going out and being social. Meetup.com is also a good place to find people with similar interests.
The weather here is great and I realize how much I can sometimes take it for granted when I visit other parts of the country. As long as it's not the only reason, and you'd be just as happy/content with your job in Irvine as you would be with your job in Michigan, I'd say it's worth a shot. Best of luck...
It just depends on what your priorities are. For us, we were tired of spending a majority of our life indoors between the freezing winters, humid summers, and very few days annually that allow you to be outdoors comfortably. Depressing. We felt old.
Sure, living out here means some compromises and sacrifices. My vote is to take the plunge and don't look back.
The only thing I'll warn you against is do not underestimate the cost of moving here. Between moving yourself or hiring movers, transporting cars, deposit and first months rent on a new place, hotels/gas/flights to move out here, deposits and setup fees for utilities - adds up quick.
We did that move many years ago. Living in California was my dream since early high school. There was never any question that is where i would live forever. WE moved to Newport Beach within a few weeks of college graduation.
Some of our friends followed us. Our friends moved back after 4-5 years. We moved back after 18 years, but I still reside in OC for parts of the year.
Making friends is easy and fast, however the first people you meed may not turn out to be the best friend options. The aggressively friendly people are frequently people who seek you out because you do not yet know what they are like. There are exceptions of course. There are tons of wonderful people. People are more openly friendly than in Michigan and less uptight. However people are also very transient friendships tend to be shallow and temporary. some people move on as soon as they meet someone more socially or financially beneficial to befriend. With over three million people, there are thousands of exceptions. Every kind of people can be found in OC. There is a prevailing "type" but it is not anything more than a highly visible majority.
We loved living in OC and still love OC. It has its warts however and some of them become more significant as you and your family situation change.
Being away from your family is tougher than you initially think. "Heck, it is just a four hour flight." However it is a month of planning, clearing your schedule, finding an affordable flight at times that work, making arrangements for pets, preparing to be away from work and other obligations, arranging a car and a visiting schedule, etc etc. At first everyone came to visit often, Once they had been out two or three times, we got visits less than once a year from each of them. When you have kids, it becomes a major ordeal for you to get back and the same is true for your friends and family. We almost always made it back for a few days or weeks once a year - almost always. Now things like Skype and Facebook make it easier I suspect.
When you have kids it gets even harder. Friends may fill in babysitting or take your kids to a park once in a while. However very very few are going to sit through the torture of a two hour middle school band and choir concert just so your kid will feel supported. Very close friends may come to the first baseball game, soccer game, or academic awards ceremony (not many). None will go to every baseball or soccer game or play or concert, only Grandpa and Grandma are going to do that. You have a company dinner to attend and your sitter fails to show, not many friends are going to allow you to drop your kids off with five minutes notice for the evening (at lest not more than once or twice). That kind of commitment takes family.
The family support issue for us was the straw. The moral atmosphere, lack of space (no forests streams lakes to play in), the beehive, traffic, and hyper competitiveness all were bugging us a little. However when we went through a family album and our kids could not identify grandma from aunt Susan, it was time for a change. Do you really want your kids to grow up not knowing their grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc? We thought it would not be that big a deal. We woudl see them occasionally and we had lots of close friends - it was a big deal, very big, at least to us it was.
Pre-kids it was incredibly wonderful. Even in the beginning of our family. My wife missed the change of seasons. I did not. At least not much. There is so much to do you will be amazed. Dozens or maybe hundreds of awesome day trip or weekend adventures within range. Every kind of restaurant imaginable. Beaches, mountains, Catalina island, bit parks and national forests. . . . Palm trees and even flocks of wild parrots pass through occasionally. NO MOSQUITOES!!
What you are most likely to miss is trees (forests), rivers streams and lakes that actually have water in them. Natural open space. Driving in excess of 15 - 30 MPH. Going somewhere without waiting in line. The constant craziness of endless activity, the stress of always being late and rushed, and the excessive competitiveness can grind on you after a while.
Almost everything is more expensive, but not by a ton (other than housing). However if you get caught up in the materialism/hedonism thing, you will be poor forever. You do not need a new car, phone or brand name clothing to have a good life in OC. It is not necessary to live in a trendy community in South OC to stay alive. You do not need to eat out with your new friends every week and buy them drinks. It is very easy to get caught up in that whole thing without realizing it, even if you are not the kind of people who get caught up in that kind of thing. We got sucked into it for a time, and we are pretty down to earth people (at lest we were before we got sucked into that lifestyle and after we realized how stupid it was).
We thought we would never be able to afford a house. We were pretty certain of it. However there was a crash (many years ago) and we scrambled and borrowed from relatives, cashed in life insurance, got a big tax return by chance, scrimped for a couple of years and managed to get a house eventually. You just have to be patient. It took 8 years for the market to shift and us to save enough to buy a house, and I was making quite a bit more than your combined income for a part of that time. Wait until the market is down. Do not buy now. The market cycles. It will cycle down again, but it could be ten years. If you buy in a down cycle, you will build equity surprisingly fast. The down cycles do not go all the way back down. We bought our house for $175,000 in 1996. We sold it for $757,000 in 2005. It sold again about a year or two ago for just under $500,000. Whomever bought it could probably sell it now at a $50,000 - $100,000 profit and climbing.
For me living in So Cal was pure magic every single day. Palm trees were so cool and exotic. Perfect weather, nice people. it was dandy. After 15 or 16 years, palm trees started looking like telephone poles with green hats, not so exotic. The heat and dry was annoying and the moral and social atmosphere was less than ideal for raising children. I certainly did not hate it by any means, but some of the magic wore off. My priorities changed.
My wife never liked the weather too constant and unchanging and too dry and hot for her. He asthma was terrible during Santa Ana winds. The constant beehive of activity and competitive pressure and posturing was overwhelming to her. She was pretty happy to leave, except for leaving a lot of good friends (however it is easy to stay in touch these days). . I was miserable about leaving in my right hand and excited in my left hand.
My advice is to go for it. You can always come back. However if you have kids, I suggest you think long and hard about where you want to raise them. I do not regret living in OC when were were young and had loads of spendable income, but I do regret depriving our parents of the joy of their grandchildren as babies and denying our kids the closeness and support of growing up with grandparents, uncles, aunts cousins a big part of their lives.
Our friends who moved back moved back for pretty much the same reasons. They just did it a lot sooner.
You income should be fine for a couple for now if you live reasonably. If you want to buy a nice house and settle, you will probably have to hope it increases. Depends on how many kids you have.
San Clemente is very cool. It is also pretty pricy. It is pretty secluded as well. It takes a long time to get much of anywhere from there. One thing about life in OC - live close to work. We lived at the beach for a while and it was awesome (Balboa Village), but when I moved to within a mile of our office, it was even more awesome than living at the beach. Last thing you want to do is spend mots of your free time sitting in a car getting ever more ticked off.
Last edited by Coldjensens; 05-06-2013 at 02:27 PM..
If you start out by renting something you can see if you like OC and decide if you think you can make it here. What is great is almost every day is a great day weather wise. Obviously, life will be different. Maybe you will learn to live in a few less square feet, but you'll be able to go outside every day!
I second this. Rent first. You need time to see what city/neighborhood you really connect with. I thought I wanted to be one place, but after living here a while, I saw places I had dismissed in an entirely different light once I really got to know the area. And now that we're going through the life change of the last one graduating, we're ending up buying in an entirely different area than I ever imagined that totally suits us where we're at now.
So don't feel you have to commit to someplace right away. Start by finding a place convenient for your job commute, so that you don't have that stress to worry about. Then explore. You'll find that every city here has its own personality, and two cities right next to one another can have a completely different vibe. After a while you'll know enough about what it's like to live here to settle a little more permanently, either by buying or finding a long-term rental (like we did).
Will we ever be able to purchase a decent house ( 3-4 bedroom decent size nice neighborhood) considering out wages.
We will be making at least 40k( to be used as down payment plus savings)
would she be able to request a cost of living increase from her current company?
How much house can you afford to buy?
Yes, she can request a cost of living increase from her current company.
Hey everyone. Looking for some advice. I'm sure there are hundreds of post on this subject but I have a few specific questions that I couldn't find an answer on.
So for the questions.
First of all has anyone been in a similar situation. I feel like the change to Southern California would be exactly what we need but I'm nervous about using climate as a main reason to move our entire lives across the country. And like I said Michigan summers are what keeps us here so I fear we will miss that.
Also housing. Will we ever be able to purchase a decent house ( 3-4 bedroom decent size nice neighborhood) considering out wages. I'd love to live in San Clemente or close by. I've spent lots of time there and love that area. But also would be open to other areas close to the ocean and with a "community feel". We will be making at least 40k( to be used as down payment plus savings) on the house we Sell in michigan and We're not opposed living in an apartment for a few years to increase our savings.
Also meeting people. We have lots of friend and family here and we love meeting up with people to hag out grab drinks or do stuff on the weekend. I know thats in most places eventually you meet a core of people that you can have this relationship with. Is that pretty common with California?
Hope someone out there has had some similar experience and might have some advice. Everything I've experienced in California I've loved so for. As I'm sure your all aware it's a huge decision and I just want to make sure we make the right one and look at all the positive and negatives. Hope everything is doing great in California! Hopefully we will see you soon!
-Steve
You will notice several posts on housing and prices, but only Coldjensen posted about the other major issues you need to consider. I grew up in OC and loved it, moved away a few years ago due to many of the reasons listed by him. Great place when you are young but .... expensive, hectic, fast paced, crowded and only gonna get worse.
Lots to do, yes, beautiful weather, yes (for most but not my wife) but housing and other costs come to dominate quite quickly.
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