looking to relocate by early or mid 2011 (Fresno, Temecula: affordable apartments, to rent)

[MrsFaith&Wisdom]

My husband and I are looking to relocate by early or mid 2011. We currently live in southern CA but our area is very expensive. Apartments (decent to nice) in our area are $1250/month to $1600/month. Homes in our area are 1 million to 2 million. We live close to the beach and its beautiful but we are done spending way too much money to live here and goods jobs are hard to find right now in our area too. We are looking for a new place to live. It could be a new county within CA or a whole new state. We are considering several different places and keeping our options open.
Any positive and helpful suggestions would be great.I see a lot of people on here just attacking each other verbally so I am not looking for any rude comments or to get into a debate about anything. Im just here for helpful feedback. If you do have a problem with something I write/ask please feel free to not respond at all.
Here is what my husband and I are looking for in relocating. Im sure we wont find everything we want in one place but hopefully most of these things.
1) good/decent paying jobs available
2) safe area with low crime
3) affordable apartments/homes to rent/buy (we consider an affordable apartment to be
$700/month to $1000/month and an affordable home to be $300,000).
4) good/decent air quality
5) no extreme/drastic weather changes (one day its negative 3 degrees and next week its 105 degrees). Warmer weather preferred so it cost less to heat a pool.
6) safe driving, safe/good drivers, safe freeways/streets
7) privacy when you buy a home (getting more land/space with your home). The homes here barely offer any backyard and there is no space in between homes.
8) good health care, doctors, hospitals
9) being within a 30 minute drive to the city with stores, places to eat, a mall
I will tell you a little about us so you can suggest the best county/state for us to consider. We are both white and in our early 30's. We are both conservative, republicans. We are both church-going Christians. We have no children and are not planning on having
children anytime soon. We are both career minded people. We enjoy hiking, going to the gym. My husband has a Bachelor of Science in information security systems and is looking for a high paying job in which he can use his degree. I currently make $45,000 a year working in
advertising but am looking to work less so I can go to school and get a degree. Considering a medical major but I am not 100% sure yet. I also have lots of management experience from other jobs but currently no degree. My husband and I would like to buy a 3 bedroom house
within the next few years. And we would like to rent a nice apartment in the meantime. We dont want to have to spend hours commuting to work everyday. Maybe 30 to 45 minutes each way to work, tops.
Thanks everyone

[Charles]

Originally Posted by MrsFaith&Wisdom

My husband has a Bachelor of Science in information security systems and is looking for a high paying job in which he can use his degree. I currently make $45,000 a year working in
advertising but am looking to work less so I can go to school and get a degree. Considering a medical major but I am not 100% sure yet. I also have lots of management experience from other jobs but currently no degree. My husband and I would like to buy a 3 bedroom house
within the next few years. And we would like to rent a nice apartment in the meantime. We dont want to have to spend hours commuting to work everyday. Maybe 30 to 45 minutes each way to work, tops.
Thanks everyone

Does your husband have or has he ever had a security clearance? If so, Colorado Springs has several military bases and I would think (but I don't know) his skills would be in big demand. COS is a nice town, house prices in line with incomes, no crime, no traffic, and very sunny. Not as cosmopolitan or diverse as LA but that's something you'd have to factor in. COS also has an excellent City-Data forum.

[MtnSurfer]

When you combine:

1) good/decent paying jobs available
2) safe area with low crime
3) affordable apartments/homes to rent/buy (we consider an affordable apartment to be
$700/month to $1000/month and an affordable home to be $300,000).
4) good/decent air quality
5) no extreme/drastic weather changes

Something has got to give - bottom line. There is no place with all of these things, at least on this planet. So which are you willing to trade out? Where you live now is a perfect example. You have most of what is on your list except, drum roll please, affordable housing. Its simply supply and demand really. Many ppl love CA weather.

So if you truly want affordable housing in a safe area with clean air and good jobs you are talking about another state most likely. And that means compromising weather. You will have more extreme temperature variations, along with too much heat (SouthWest), too much humidity (South), too much cold, snow, ice, etc... for keeping a pool warm year round (UT, CO and MidWest). Then throw in some tornadoes, lighting storms and other interesting differences not to mention a little culture shock in some form or fashion.

Now if all that your area is really missing is affordable housing then its probably more to your liking than most of these other places. And maybe, just maybe it would be worth accepting this flaw and learning how to save and or waiting a while before buying that 3 bdrm home. I am not saying the desire to own a home is bad in and of itself. But just realize that it can become intoxicating to point where everything else takes the backseat. And then once you have it, its not really as important as you may have thought compared to the other things you gave up. See the list.

Second example, for affordable housing in SoCal many ppl move to Temecula/Murrieta area. But then they commute 1+ hours into work every day. So they have the cheaper, larger home now, but at what price? And is it really worth it? Is one's overall quality of life better or worse after such a move? Some would say yes? For others its debatable. Much boils down to individual preferences and tolerances for the less desireable things in life such as longer commutes in LA/OC traffic, questionable neighborhoods, stagnant air which is smoggier than the coast, etc...

Since you are both relatively young you could potentially look for targeted areas in CA near good jobs that you like and start smaller - with a more modest condo, then eventually a home as your income grows. Which areas in CA do you like if you could afford to live there? If you go back to school and getting a better paying job eventually and your husband grows in his field that area may be more attainable or at least somewhere right next door.

Or just try another state and sacrifice a bit on the weather and some other things. Then who knows, maybe it will grow on you. If not you can always return. Nothing wrong with that. Ask yourself what you would hate more, snow and cold or excessive heat and/or humidity? Pick your next poison carefully You will in the end get a bit more than you bargained for. And I am not just talking about a larger house.

Derek

[DMenscha]

Derek hit the ball over the fence with this post!

I'd suggest to the moderators that this be a gateway post to the CA forum. One can't access the forum without reading his post. At the very least make it stick!

Nice Derek!

Can't rep you again w/o hitting the nice button for others.

[Fontucky]

I notice she left out the misbehaving children and no tolerance for gay marriage this time around.

[FresnoFacts]

Originally Posted by Fontucky

I notice she left out the misbehaving children and no tolerance for gay marriage this time around.

I was just thinking the same thing. Is this the second or third screen name.

[MrsFaith&Wisdom]

Thank you very much MtnSurfer. Good advice!
Dont know what Fontucky or FresnoFacts are saying. Are they here to even give feedback about my post? There seem to be a lot of people on here who post random things in response to people's questions.

[MtnSurfer]

Glad to be of some help to you in planning for your families future. My wife and I were in the same boat a number of years back and actually made the move to CO. We eventually came to realize CA was the place for us longer term. Although we did enjoy our journey along the way.

The others are referring to another post which is almost identical to this one which looked like yours under another user name. I wondered the same thing. But that one was hijacted by another new CD user. So even if it was you asking it again I could understand why. This is the post they are referring to: https://www.city-data.com/forum/calif...-relocate.html.

Derek

[Fontucky]

And this one: https://www.city-data.com/forum/san-b...cula-area.html

[Clarks]

I will tell you a little about us so you can suggest the best county/state for us to consider. We are both white and in our early 30's. We are both conservative, republicans. We are both church-going Christians. We have no children and are not planning on having
children anytime soon.

I was going to suggest Utah until the no children thing, gotta have at least 5 by age 30 to be happy in Utah.