southern california vs. northern va for raising family

[nyc2020]

Originally Posted by Curbed Enthusiasm

I've lived in both, and I think both are great places to raise a family. Certainly people in Socal are far more friendlier and outgoing than people in Nova, though that's not to say that people are cold and heartless in Nova. People are just quieter and more reserved with strangers. Housing is a huge difference. Nova is expensive, but there are still good places where you can get a home in the $300K range, which is all but non-existent in Socal unless you head out to Riverside or beyond. Sure you can easily drop $1M on a house in Nova like you can in Socal, but my point is that there are more options to chose from at different price ranges. Traffic and commutes in Nova are horrendous. I strongly urge you to pass up a bigger yard and more square footage for a smaller home that is close to your work or to public transportation unless you like spending hours and hours each day in your car. Traffic in Nova is awful and the highways don't nearly have the capacity of Socal (some of the freeways here are only 2 lanes wide!). Personally I think that DC area traffic is worse than Socal because there are fewer options to get from point A to point B but let's face it, it's awful in both.

Good points about Northern VA which has been my home for the past 25 yrs. Those 300k homes....I simply am not willing to move out there since my current and future jobs are likely to be located inside the beltway. I'm fine paying more for the type of home i want in a more ideal location, partially due to home values proving to hold better here.

[nyc2020]

Originally Posted by Cheektowaga_Chester

What do "better" and "ideal" mean?

Basically, if all other factors are held constant (my level of attention to them and ability to raise the young, financial situation, work schedule, etc), will the kids turn out any differently being raised in southern california's environment and culture. As in, compared to where i am now, are people more liberal/conservative, more/less materialistic, more/less tolerant of ethnic and religious diversity, condescending, how strongly is higher education emphasized, are people more/less independent, etc. If the answer is there is no clear difference, then i could live with that.

[mrsltd]

Originally Posted by nyc2020

Basically, if all other factors are held constant (my level of attention to them and ability to raise the young, financial situation, work schedule, etc), will the kids turn out any differently being raised in southern california's environment and culture. As in, compared to where i am now, are people more liberal/conservative, more/less materialistic, more/less tolerant of ethnic and religious diversity, condescending, how strongly is higher education emphasized, are people more/less independent, etc. If the answer is there is no clear difference, then i could live with that.

Sorry for being unhelpful, but how would anybody know?

Children are raised in both places. Many of us on this forum were raised here.

Again, parenting is the most important thing here.