Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
We moved to Sacramento (Rancho Cordova) eight years ago (after a detour through NC). However, we are from Houston, most recently having lived in Clear Lake. I grew up in Oak Forest. My wife grew up in Sharpstown. We lived in Texas for 45 years (primarily in Houston and the surrounding area).
We don't ever see ourselves moving back to Texas. Quite frankly, California turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to us and our children. My wife works for the state and has benefits that we never dreamed of having in our lifetime. Every year, we like living here more and more. Of course, it gets hot and humid in Texas and hot in Sacramento too. At least it does cool down at night here.
We took a trip back to Texas to see family in May and did some grocery shopping at Randall's in Galveston. I was really surprised to see how high the prices were on grocery items--about comparable to shopping at Raley's here. Gas was cheaper of course and housing is cheaper although property taxes are unbelievably high in Texas compared to California. We don't make enough money for the CA state income tax to be an issue for us.
I quite frankly don't understand the knocking of CA by so many people especially people in Texas. Maybe they have never actually visited the state or maybe the listen too much to talk radio. If you don't like the politics in CA, just do what we do--ignore them. Day to day living is great here, at least for us. If it wasn't, we would have been be outta here by now.
Oh no, its not just listening to talk radio trust me. Its actual experiences that validate peoples opinions on California also. Ever think theres a reason the radio shows bring up CA? Ever think it was maybe in their experiences too? The only thing I can think of why you're lucky moving to CA from TX is if Texas floods with Californians so much that the state of Cali empties and if you're that strong and willful will also stay here and whatever happens to you happens. These wildfires are not pretty and people like to call me a cynical guy on here and yes I am, but I believe a lot more also than what I type here too. I have a million things to say lately it seems. I am originally an East Coaster so I seen first hand what big government can do, its just more crazy here and theres less water! CA is hands down the most INSANE state I've ever seen and I wasn't even in L.A or SF.. what does that tell you?
You will call me crazy but MA is easier driving than CA. Its just when you get to Boston its hellish like some of the big city traffic here or a portion of the Northeast part of the state has high traffic volumes, but a lot of the state otherwise, no. New Hampshire was easy as cake to get around in. In fact I like it there for less govt and less traffic reasons, highly down to earth populace and reasonable COL and was going to make that my home if I could stay in New England. Theres three locations right now in the USA I consider livable.. these are them:
Southwest FL
New Hampshire
Knoxville/Lexington KY area
I'm from Chicago originally and I can't figure out why people from Mass always think everyone wants to hear them complain. No one cares. Stop being being self centered and obnoxious. Get over yourself.
We moved to Sacramento (Rancho Cordova) eight years ago (after a detour through NC). However, we are from Houston, most recently having lived in Clear Lake. I grew up in Oak Forest. My wife grew up in Sharpstown. We lived in Texas for 45 years (primarily in Houston and the surrounding area).
We don't ever see ourselves moving back to Texas. Quite frankly, California turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to us and our children. My wife works for the state and has benefits that we never dreamed of having in our lifetime. Every year, we like living here more and more. Of course, it gets hot and humid in Texas and hot in Sacramento too. At least it does cool down at night here.
We took a trip back to Texas to see family in May and did some grocery shopping at Randall's in Galveston. I was really surprised to see how high the prices were on grocery items--about comparable to shopping at Raley's here. Gas was cheaper of course and housing is cheaper although property taxes are unbelievably high in Texas compared to California. We don't make enough money for the CA state income tax to be an issue for us.
I quite frankly don't understand the knocking of CA by so many people especially people in Texas. Maybe they have never actually visited the state or maybe the listen too much to talk radio. If you don't like the politics in CA, just do what we do--ignore them. Day to day living is great here, at least for us. If it wasn't, we would have been be outta here by now.
It's funny that you mention North Carolina. That is one other area we are considering moving to, but it's very tough to transfer there in my company as the office is small and it's a coveted location. The positives would be nice scenery and cheaper cost of living, but I'm sure it's still humid and I'd really like to go West again, not East.
As for the grocery prices, Randall's is a dying store, so they always have the highest prices. You know the only place to shop in Texas is at HEB! The funny thing about Randall's is that it is owned by Safeway, so some of the stores have a similar lay out. I get home one day and my wife is crying and when I ask her why, she says, "I just got back from Randall's and it looks exactly like our Safeway in California. I felt like I was back there." As for the cost of housing and gas, those are the only two things we noticed in California that were more expensive. We went out there thinking everything would be more expensive, but housing and gas were really all there was, everything else was comparable.
As for the politics, I think California gets a little heavy handed with regulations and "feel good" laws, but it is what it is and we'll accept that if we make it back.
One of the things to think about with respect to taxes in California is that California has prop 13 and Texas doesn't. What that means is that the longer you live in California your property tax burden becomes a smaller share of your income as property taxes in California fail to keep up with inflation. I agree that initially California seems like a really high tax state and in some respects it is. But the longer you live here the less that is the case. So if you think you want to live in Sacramento, long term then the sooner you make that decision the better off you will be. My neighbor bought his house in 1972 for 16,000 dollars, its worth about $650-700K today but his assessed basis for property tax purposes is about $100K dollars today because of prop 13. For him, California is a low cost tax state.
Good information. I didn't know that. Thank you for the reply.
As for the politics, I think California gets a little heavy handed with regulations and "feel good" laws, but it is what it is and we'll accept that if we make it back.
I would say that even more than that, because it's California, everything that Davis or Berkeley or any other municipality does that is apparently out of real problems gets picked up and reported or spun by outlets trying to have a laugh. From my read, there are few categories of laws that gets picked up and mocked nationally:
1) Ones that are just ineffectual, feel-good legislation that doesn't really affect anyone; it just sounds kind of silly
2) Ones that affect relatively few of us, like what happens in Berkeley or Davis
3) Ones that do affect larger groups of people but that have a legitimate concern to deal with, though we can argue about whether it's worth the sacrifice. We have really strict laws about vehicles, open burning, playing frisbee on the beach etc, because the air pollution in many parts of the state is really bad. We just banned plastic bags, which is an inconvenience, but they do have legitimate negative aspects. Gun control laws.
It's really only this latter category that people may have some complaint about California and that's certainly their right. Many of these are the result of having so many people trying so dang close together, so people should understand that before living here.
I do find it unfortunate that people who want to make a political point have been successful in defining "freedom" so narrowly, such that absence of restrictions on personal actions is considered freedom, with little regard to their effect on others (the air they breathe, the water they drink). This perspective also generally ignores freedoms that many "small government" states willingly restrict, like marijuana use, alternative lifestyles, and (very broadly) woman's reproductive freedoms.
Good point about Lyft or Uber--and if the OP has a Zipcar membership there are multiple downtown Zipcar locations, allowing an easier field trip to McClellan AFB and the Aerospace Museum.
Oh no, its not just listening to talk radio trust me. Its actual experiences that validate peoples opinions on California also. Ever think theres a reason the radio shows bring up CA? Ever think it was maybe in their experiences too? The only thing I can think of why you're lucky moving to CA from TX is if Texas floods with Californians so much that the state of Cali empties and if you're that strong and willful will also stay here and whatever happens to you happens. These wildfires are not pretty and people like to call me a cynical guy on here and yes I am, but I believe a lot more also than what I type here too. I have a million things to say lately it seems. I am originally an East Coaster so I seen first hand what big government can do, its just more crazy here and theres less water! CA is hands down the most INSANE state I've ever seen and I wasn't even in L.A or SF.. what does that tell you?
You will call me crazy but MA is easier driving than CA. Its just when you get to Boston its hellish like some of the big city traffic here or a portion of the Northeast part of the state has high traffic volumes, but a lot of the state otherwise, no. New Hampshire was easy as cake to get around in. In fact I like it there for less govt and less traffic reasons, highly down to earth populace and reasonable COL and was going to make that my home if I could stay in New England. Theres three locations right now in the USA I consider livable.. these are them:
Southwest FL
New Hampshire
Knoxville/Lexington KY area
I'm sorry, I just haven't had the experiences you mention. I strongly disagree that CA is an "insane state". I live here. My neighbors are not insane. The people I work with are not insane. The people my wife works with are not insane. The elected officials are not insane. You can disagree with them or criticise them without calling them insane. That's exactly the kind of dialogue you hear on talk radio and is exactly what I'm talking about.
I grew up in Texas at a time when there was no such thing as "open carry" in restaurants and grocery stores. I think that is INSANE.
It's funny that you mention North Carolina. That is one other area we are considering moving to, but it's very tough to transfer there in my company as the office is small and it's a coveted location. The positives would be nice scenery and cheaper cost of living, but I'm sure it's still humid and I'd really like to go West again, not East.
As for the grocery prices, Randall's is a dying store, so they always have the highest prices. You know the only place to shop in Texas is at HEB! The funny thing about Randall's is that it is owned by Safeway, so some of the stores have a similar lay out. I get home one day and my wife is crying and when I ask her why, she says, "I just got back from Randall's and it looks exactly like our Safeway in California. I felt like I was back there." As for the cost of housing and gas, those are the only two things we noticed in California that were more expensive. We went out there thinking everything would be more expensive, but housing and gas were really all there was, everything else was comparable.
As for the politics, I think California gets a little heavy handed with regulations and "feel good" laws, but it is what it is and we'll accept that if we make it back.
Raleigh has a lot of people from the northeast in it now. NC would be a state we would have to think about if we moved after retirement (I have family there too) but there is tremendous dissatisfaction across the board with how the government is being run. The Republicans did an outstanding job of gerrymandering the districts and quickly changed how the state is governed. Time will tell how that pans out.
I don't think the difference between Texas and CA for grocery prices is that great even at other stores. I didn't like HEB when we were there (I think it's like shopping at Safeway here), but that's a matter of personal preference. We bought our house here at the bottom of the market (foreclosure direct from a bank) and I'm not sure we could afford the same house in Texas now.
My family and I relocated to the bay area for work for a few years, but we returned to Texas last year. It was nice, but I wouldn't want to live there again as it's way too expensive. However, I did make a few trips to Sacramento and literally loved the area. We're a suburb kind of family, so the areas out 50 and 80 really stood out. I think I just loved the area due to the weather, the proximity to the mountains and bay area, the outdoor activities and the cheaper (at least in CA) cost of living. Honestly, I haven't stopped thinking about moving to Sacramento since we left California. Although we have more disposable income here in Texas, my wife and I (and our son too) feel that we were all much happier in California. It pains me as a Texan to say that. I'm in Houston now and although there are nice places around town, my wife and I find ourselves hating it a little more each day. Anyhow, housing prices scare us and just the general cost of living in California scares us, but I would very seriously consider a move back. I do have an office that I can transfer to in Sacramento at some point, so that's a start. One of the drawbacks though is leaving family who are getting older and get to see the kids more often being so close. I'm not sure if I am asking anything in particular in this post, but if anyone has any advice, please feel free to share.
After the thousands of posts by Californians asking people in the Texas forum where they should buy when they move there, yours is like a raindrop in the CA drought. Sacramento needs you. Our largest industry, the government, needs more tax payers to support the good life.
Sacramento needs you. Our largest industry, the government, needs more tax payers to support the good life.
Do you know why it's the largest industry? It's the capital of one of the largest economies in the world. There's this whole thing in the developed world where taxes support government functions. Many government functions take place in or near the designated capital of said economy. Yes, we all want Sac's economy to be more diversified, but it turns out there's still work for the government to do.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I'm in Houston now and although there are nice places around town, my wife and I find ourselves hating it a little more each day. Anyhow, housing prices scare us and just the general cost of living in California scares us, but I would very seriously consider a move back. I do have an office that I can transfer to in Sacramento at some point, so that's a start. One of the drawbacks though is leaving family who are getting older and get to see the kids more often being so close. I'm not sure if I am asking anything in particular in this post, but if anyone has any advice, please feel free to share.
