Love SoCal, Can't Afford a House Here, where to folks go? (Los Angeles: 2014, renting)
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Thanks for sharing. That's cool how you've lived in different states and countries. So your list for loving CA is the following:
1. Weather
2. Things to Do
3. Diversity
All good points. I need to visit the Bay Area. My wife and I were going to go last year, but she got pregnant and decided to wait. Do you have any good recommendations?
I'm not one to tell you how to spend your hard earned money. Somehow I missed the part where I told you personally how to spend it. Maybe you can point that part out.
I also don't see the army of posters telling you that you are wrong to be happy living there. I see people pointing out good points and bad points of ca. Are you so insecure that you take those that bring up bad points as a personal attack on your choice to live in California? Even when those points are legitimate?
Then again why are you so worried what posters you don't know think?
As to your last paragraph.
1. yes. Millionaire x2. Except for the 5 days I work in a year, I'm retired. Most of that net worth accumulated in the last 3 years after moving. I can afford to not work in Atlanta and lead an upper middle class life in a 5200 sq ft house I bought, in California not so much. Couldn't have even bought a starter home.
How much is it costing to own your house there? Or are you renting?
2. While I don't live in California now, I still visit friends and family in California. So I have an interest in California. If we're going to talk about residence in California I've been away for 3 years and I'm pretty sure I've lived in California 20 to 30 years longer than you have. So I have more California experience than you. Why does your post have any more value than mine?
As I said I was once a proud Californian like you who thought it was the best place on earth and nothing could touch it for any price.
Then I started running hypothetical scenarios for financial reasons and realized I could have 90 percent of what California offered to me as far as amenities but could have financial freedom if I moved.
Sure I miss the weather, but it's not that bad here.
For me it was:
A. great weather and have to work to make ends meet in California
or
B. get 90 percent of that with okay weather and not have to work again and be financially secure.
With the money I save on a lower col and a free schedule because I no longer have to work a job, I can fly to California and enjoy it anytime I want and as often as I want. The best of both worlds.
Given those choices can you honesty say you'd stay in California?
If I can butt into your exchange, for me the answer to your last sentence/question would be yes. Even if you can fly to CA supposedly every time you want to, that will never equate to it being every day. So, realistically, let's say someone like you could afford to fly to CA once a month and pay for a hotel, restaurants, rental car, etc. And, let's say you stay in CA for maybe 1 week out of four. And really, how likely is that? But, let's say you do.
So, for 3 weeks out of every month, you wake up to horrible weather - either because it's sleet, or snow, or really hot and humid. You go out to get into your car to go shopping and it's covered in snow, locks are frozen, or it's 150 degrees inside it, and you become a pile of sweat while you wait for the air conditioning to kick in. Then, you hope to park in shade where you're going, then when you come out of wherever you went, where you hope there is air conditioning, you sweat while you go to get back into your car that is, again, probably over 100 degrees minimum inside. And you again, crank the air conditioning, while you are sweating up a storm and your hair and make-up (if you're female) is running down your face, and your sweat is running from your arm pits, and your clothes are sticking to you.
Then, you say, wow, it's been 3 weeks, yay, I get to go to CA. Now, you get to get to the airport 2 hours before your flight, possibly endure being scanned by security, hope your flight isn't delayed or that they haven't lost your bags. You get to CA and wait for your bags, deal with finding transportation, probably end up in traffic to your hotel, etc.
Then, after your ideal vacation in CA, you go back to the airport and do it all over again.
Depends on what you want to consider, but for me health care, amenities to shopping and services, safe place to live, nice people.
Really the only thing I couldn't match that matters to me is weather and you have to decide how much weather is worth.
Everything I did in daily life in the San Francisco Bay Area I do in marietta, a suburb of Atlanta.
Somewhere on cd there is a post where someone was trying to decide whether they should buy a house in California. Based on that I ran the amount the person would pay in piti in California versus the same house here in Atlanta. I know because I looked at the prices of a 5200 sq ft house in Dublin, California.
I then took the difference in piti for both and then invested it in the market each month and ran it through a calculator online based on what the market averaged historically . If you can find it I posted my results there.
Btw my house was 460k here. A similar house in Dublin was about 1.6 million, you can look up the payments if you buy that 1.6 million dollar home. The payment difference is substantial. Off the top of my head it was maybe 8k a month difference.
Yes if you made enough to afford that payment in Dublin close to 10k a month and Also made income that allowed you to invest the difference in the 2 homes every month (another 8k) and have enough income to live on added on top of that you could have that money . But how many people are making 350 or more per year?
Also add in taxes. I didn't factor in if the mortgage deduction limit would affect you in California. Here it is well below the 750k. In California some people will pay more in taxes on that.
And yes, I'm not concerned for myself about the col there because I decided to move. But I have friends that struggle to make it there and I do care for the welfare of my friends.
I have to butt in here, again. I lived in Nashville for 5 years, and regularly visited friends in Atlanta. The traffic is absolutely horrendous. And so is the weather for 99% of the year. You're either dealing with sleet and thunderstorms or heat and humidity.
Nobody needs to live in an enormous home. If you need one so bad it's worth dealing with the traffic and weather in Atlanta, that's your choice. But, it's not a supposedly obviously better choice.
If you need an enormous home, and you're ready to deal with Atlanta's notoriously horrible traffic, and the bad weather, that's your choice. But, it's hardly an obviously better one than buying something smaller in CA, because your property tax value can change at any time based on the assessed value in GA- which can change at any time. In CA, your assessed value is always the purchase price for as long as you own it, and you can pass that on to your heirs.
I'm just saying, you're welcome to prefer GA, but I think you're wrong to say it's obvious that your decision is better to move to GA for a bigger house with some idea that you can always fly back to CA to enjoy better weather, and that your decision is better based on taxes, too, because I think you will be blind-sided by a tax bill one day, that says your great deal has increased in value, and in GA they get to tax you on the new assessed value at any time.
To me, that's a lot to pay for a bigger house. And the thing is, in CA, you don't need as big of a house, because you can use the outdoors as part of your living space. Here, people spend time outdoors. Your back yard is part of your living space - that you don't have to pay taxes on.
Glad you're happy. Just own the fact that you're paying a great price NOT to be in CA, just to have a bigger house you probably wouldn't need here.
OP, since you're 55, if you qualify income-wise, there are a lot of affordable 55+ places in CA. And depending on the area, you can actually make quite a bit of money and still qualify. Might be worth checking into.
If I can butt into your exchange, for me the answer to your last sentence/question would be yes. Even if you can fly to CA supposedly every time you want to, that will never equate to it being every day. So, realistically, let's say someone like you could afford to fly to CA once a month and pay for a hotel, restaurants, rental car, etc. And, let's say you stay in CA for maybe 1 week out of four. And really, how likely is that? But, let's say you do.
So, for 3 weeks out of every month, you wake up to horrible weather - either because it's sleet, or snow, or really hot and humid. You go out to get into your car to go shopping and it's covered in snow, locks are frozen, or it's 150 degrees inside it, and you become a pile of sweat while you wait for the air conditioning to kick in. Then, you hope to park in shade where you're going, then when you come out of wherever you went, where you hope there is air conditioning, you sweat while you go to get back into your car that is, again, probably over 100 degrees minimum inside. And you again, crank the air conditioning, while you are sweating up a storm and your hair and make-up (if you're female) is running down your face, and your sweat is running from your arm pits, and your clothes are sticking to you.
Then, you say, wow, it's been 3 weeks, yay, I get to go to CA. Now, you get to get to the airport 2 hours before your flight, possibly endure being scanned by security, hope your flight isn't delayed or that they haven't lost your bags. You get to CA and wait for your bags, deal with finding transportation, probably end up in traffic to your hotel, etc.
Then, after your ideal vacation in CA, you go back to the airport and do it all over again.
Wow, sounds so ideal.
I've been sweating my make up off for the whole month of July in so cal. Luckily I have a/c but my dad and some friends don't even have that here and it's been hot!!! And humid!!! Quit acting like the weathers perfect here. There's been no rain for months every thing is brown and dead outside. Right now it's 8:30pm I have the a/c at 80 and it's been blasting all day and night. And I don't think it snows much in Atlanta
I've been sweating my make up off for the whole month of July in so cal. Luckily I have a/c but my dad and some friends don't even have that here and it's been hot!!! And humid!!! Quit acting like the weathers perfect here. There's been no rain for months every thing is brown and dead outside. Right now it's 8:30pm I have the a/c at 80 and it's been blasting all day and night. And I don't think it snows much in Atlanta
Lol You think this is hot? Try living in the desert or in the South with their awful humidity. Just came back from a trip to Seaworld San Diego and the high was 76. Weather was absolutely beautiful.
Also, keep in mind that there are some heatwaves going on right now in SO CAL and other parts of the West. It's going to be 117 in Phoenix on Tuesday so stop feeling sorry for yourself!
Lol You think this is hot? Try living in the desert or in the South with their awful humidity. Just came back from a trip to Seaworld San Diego and the high was 76. Weather was absolutely beautiful.
Also, keep in mind that there are some heatwaves going on right now in SO CAL and other parts of the West. It's going to be 117 in Phoenix on Tuesday so stop feeling sorry for yourself!
It was 110 here 2 weeks ago. Next week its hovering around a 100 every bloody day. I'm not feeling sorry for myself it just bugs me when people say the weathers perfect here your state sucks.
It was 110 here a week ago. Next week its hovering around a 100 every day. I'm not feeling sorry for myself it just bugs me when people say the weathers perfect here your state sucks.
Yes, OC had one of the worst heat waves in their history last week. It's not indicative of the average temperature.
Also, I just checked the weather in OC for next week and I'm seeing high 90's, not in the 100's. It's hot, but not desert hot. You coastal people have it good, even if it gets hot once in a while. It's funny that you're complaining about the heat, considering you are moving to Arizona! LOL
PS No More Snow wasn't saying the weather was perfect, but that it was better than most places. Are you really going to disagree with her?
I never wanted a 6 bedroom, 5,200 square foot house! We are happy with our small home less than a mile from the beach and in a very walkable area. Different people want different things. Many of us that love living near the beach in SoCal can do with less because what we gain in coastal living is well worth it to us.
...and that's fine. But the larger point is even very basic housing is very unaffordable here in CA. The majority of people aren't making a trade off between a 5200 Sqare foot house in an Atlanta suburb vs. a cute smaller house in beachside La Jolla. Like our OP, they're feeling lucky if they can afford a mediocre 1BR condo anywhere in a CA coastal metro area (and I don't mean beach towns). Even the cheaper areas like Bakersfield and Fresno are still on the expensive side compared to comparable metro areas in other states.
Last edited by mysticaltyger; 07-21-2018 at 11:17 PM..
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