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All my rental property is in Texas. We are leaning toward Henderson, NV but love CA.
CA is pretty and all, but likely you would be better off in NV, at least financially. The problem with CA is not just how nutty the politics have got already, but that the trend is for it to continue. Although, as Yogi Berra said, it's always risky making predictions, especially about the future.
I am a native of California. I have owned apartments in California. When I retired the Navy offered to move us anywhere in the world for free.
We did not return to California.
The taxes are higher there, the Cost-Of-Living is higher there. I have made many trips to visit, the culture has changed a lot since the last time I lived there.
We have much happier in low tax, low COL, rural Maine.
I own a huge house, on 150 acres of dense forest, with 1/4 mile of river frontage. Without leaving my house I see moose, deer, wild turkey, eagle and more. Here I can easily afford to support a family on my pension.
In California, on my pension I would be on the street, or in subsidized housing.
Location: In a rural place where people can't bother me ;)
516 posts, read 429,513 times
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Originally Posted by WorldKlas
We love the Santa Cruz area and my brother lives there. Each time we consider CA, I back off because of the cost of real estate and the taxes. It especially concerns me that income I get for rental properties would be taxed if I lived in CA. But over time I start thinking perhaps I should reconsider. Soooo....if you left a cheaper State and retired to California I'd love to hear your story and how its going.
I'd move to Scottsdale Arizona before I EVER moved to California.
I wouldn't recommend retiring here unless you and your family are liberal democrats. Marginal income tax rates are high in CA and if you buy property here, you will pay significant property taxes due to the home price since you are not grandfathered on Prop 13. Significant future problems exist due to underfunded state pensions as CalPERS and the state teacher unions are doing projections based on a 7.5% yearly return. I plan to move to AZ to retire due to the combination of these issues.
Plus no water, the water system we get from up north was built decades ago and the population keeps going up and up. Over 10,000 in LA county alone, yes the county.
You didn't read my post correctly. I mentioned a new person moving to CA will pay more property tax than a potential neighbor in the same neighborhood with a similar house who may have been living there for 20 years and had the advantage of Prop 13 which limits property tax increases to around 2% per year.
Prop 13 applies to every assessed property in California without exception...
You are only the new person when you are new...
In 20 years you will be the old person paying less than your new neighbor unless the market collapses and 20 years of appreciation is wiped out as it was for many Oakland residents that bought in 2007 and the price dropped 50 to 80% a couple of years later.
Remember Voters can and mostly do approve new assessments over and above.
jgustav was stating what you are stating ... that people MOVING to California will pay a higher property tax rate than those who have been in a like house/neighborhood for 20 years. That is the part of Prop. 13 that is relevant to anyone thinking about moving there (the topic of this thread).
Not always...
In 2005 I sold my first home for 255k... in 2007 it sold again for 350k.
In 2009 it sold foreclosure for 80K and had a few minor improvements from when I sold in 2005... even considered buying it back for a moment.
Prop 13 is based on Fair Market Value at the time of transfer... so if you buy in a down market you will be way ahead as opposed to buying at a market peak...
Lots of people moved and bought property in between 2009 and 2012 which provided 3 full years of bargains.
More specific... friends sold their very nice home of 25 years in Colorado Springs... they had recently retired and he fell shoveling snow and was laid up for months... their kids live in Southern California and they decided to leave to be closer... bought a 1 bedroom Condo in Santa Barbara and love it...
I own a huge house, on 150 acres of dense forest, with 1/4 mile of river frontage. Without leaving my house I see moose, deer, wild turkey, eagle and more.
And living like that would be death to me. Different strokes and all. I will be moving back to California when I retire.
We moved to Northern California for retirement and couldn't be happier. We live in Sonoma County wine country in the small town of Windsor, sandwiched between Healdsburg and Santa Rosa. We've lived on the West Coast for nearly 40 years though, so we're accustomed to a higher than average COL and expensive real estate. We were able to sell our Seattle property for a hefty profit, then purchased a smaller home in cash. With the exception of some additional taxes, our COL is very similar to what we were used to. Some things are actually cheaper here.
Our quality of life is exceptional and we feel it's worth every penny. Our weather is beautiful, much of our food is locally sourced and we have an abundance of cultural and recreational opportunities to keep us busy. We've made friends easily and find the people here to be very open to newcomers.
Utilities are on the high side, but we use them less. We barely turn the heat or air conditioning on and everyone here is very water conscious though our county is not in a severe drought anymore due to substantial rain fall - it's very lush and green right now.
I will say we carefully crafted a detailed budget for ourselves before we took this plunge - very essential for anyone considering a retirement relocation, especially in California.
We used to live in Windsor and loved it. It's a very nice little town. When we moved there home prices were low, but now between the cost of real estate and property taxes you would need an excellent retirement income and initial pile of cash to afford it. If you have all that then I would highly recommend the area.
Sounds like a slice of heaven... in a perfect world it would not be in the middle of nowhere but close enough for city amenities...
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