A decent living with our income possible? (Sacramento, Davis: to rent, how much)

[Pogo]

My husband is looking at very likely chance of transferring to Woodland. If we should decide to take this job, we would mostly likely be interested in living in either Davis or Dixon. We have two kids, 4 and 1 year old.

However, we will have for now only around $70.000 income a year and according to Sperlings cost of living comparsion we would need to make about $115.000 over there to afford the same life style. We now live in Colorado and actually also have the chance of a position in the other corner of the state, which of course would not be such a huge difference in living cost.

What is your take on it? We would not want to buy, rather rent a house..at least 2 bedrooms...we don't mind living somewhat rural, that's why Dixon is on our list too.

Would we really have to struggle over there with our income?

[NewToCA]

That is a bit difficult to answer when we don't know what you consider an acceptable lifestyle.

Those income comparison tables have limited value, I've found them to be a bit inaccurate for our lifestyle as we have made multiple moves around the country.

What do you currently pay in rent? The best way to begin that type of analysis is to see how much housing would cost you in a new location vs what you pay today. After housing, I doubt you'll see a huge cost disadvantage if moving to California.

[Pogo]

Thank you for your response. Well, here we do own a 1300 square foot house (3bed,2bath) and we pay roughly around $1500 on that monthly.

We do live a voluntarily frugal lifestyle I have to say, and I am hoping this would actually help us, if we should move there. We don't need much entertainment other than what we can find for free in nature. We eat pretty healthy, so I frequent farmer's markets or Whole Foods here. So this is another cost factor for us...organic food. We don't eat a lot of meat however, so it kinda keeps the balance money wise.

We are not members of any clubs or gyms, so in general I would say, we live a very low key life, but nonetheless we would like of course to live in a decent house in a nice neighborhood.

I might add though, that eventually we are planning on buying a house with acreage in a more rural setting, so we have to consider that we also need to be able to save some good money.

[nmnita]

Dixon would be a much more likely choice for you. Can you live on $70,000, yes, will you have a lot of spendable income, absolutely no, but it is workable.

Good luck,

Nita

[Pogo]

Thx, Nita. Well, it looks like not the smartest thing to do financially. If we spend it or not, we do would like to have some money left to do the occasional weekend camping trip and save money for a new down payment.

[Majin]

$70k is near poverty level.

[Pogo]

Ok, no CA for us then. Rather take the job in Colorado and put a good chunk of our income into a savings account AND live not anywhere near the poverty line

[GLS]

Originally Posted by Pogo

Ok, no CA for us then. Rather take the job in Colorado and put a good chunk of our income into a savings account AND live not anywhere near the poverty line

I hope you are not making a final decision based upon one or two posts on this thread. Did you visit and talk to the locals? Is winter weather and hobbies a major consideration, schools, etc, etc.?

On 70K, I certainly wouldn't recommend Davis, but Woodland is a nice semi-rural town and with the economy down you could pick up a cheap rental. Also, the outskirts of Sacramento toward Woodland are filled with people needing to rent out their home. I don't have enough data to recommend CA over CO, but don't let one post about $70K being "near the poverty level" discourage you. Good luck.

[Pogo]

GLS, thanks for your input. Well, my husband is right now down there with the manager, getting shown around the company yard in Woodland. He actually knows 2 people that live in this exact area and will ask them for their experiences tonight. He will be back tomorrow and we only have a couple of days to make a decision, that's the problem.

[CityGirl72]

You can live on 70K around here - not in Davis because it's very expensive but there are affordable areas at 70K a year.

I would say it's easily doable in Woodland.