Job Offer in St. Louis (Should I take it?) (Ladue: transplants, apartment)

[JorgeZepeda]

Hello everyone...

I am a 34 year old profession engineer currently living in San Diego CA. I have been here 1 year having recently moved here from Waco Texas. I am originally from Los Angeles but moved to Waco for work when the CA economy became bad and I was laid off...

Being here in San Diego for 1 year I have found life extremely expensive and dont feel like I am able to buy a home or make any major investment or even save money as a result of the cost of living. I dont live a lavish lifestyle and dont have a lot of bills.
The weather here is beautiful and there is always something to do.. unfortunately I find that this is a welfare state and I am being over taxed...

I was recently offered a job in St. Louis which pays more than my current position in San Diego... I am cosidering it..

Can someone please tell me if a move from San Diego to St. Louis would afford me the savings I require to make a positive life change? Save money.. while maintain quality of life? Please keep in mind I am from CA not Texas... So I am used to the coastline and social diversity of CA.

Its a hard choice and I dont want to move somewhere I will regret... I'd like to find a home where I can raise a family and not live paycheck to paycheck... and not be bored out of my mind.

[billiken]

This is definitely a place where most people with white collar jobs live a comfortable life. I'd argue that if someone has a white collar job and IS living paycheck to paycheck, its by choice and not necessity. There's also a lot going on and I'm pretty much never bored. A lot of the reason I moved back to STL from the mountain west was for the high quality of life.

Know that MO does have some lakes with water activities, but it won't be like living on the west coast. Some areas are more liberal and diverse than others.

[DinsdalePirahna]

I did the move from OC to the Greater St. Louis Area.

Yes, you will be able to by a nice home and be able to save and invest.

if you could tolerate Waco, you will probably be OK in Saint Louis.

There is enough to do in Saint Louis where you wont get bored.
You wont get the the the cultural diversity or scenery that you find in CA.
if you like good Mexican food you will find some passable joints
if you like pizza, forget it. (I'm a NYer, and I never thought that I would miss California pizza)


I bought a house in Lake Saint Louis, because I enjoy water sports and being outdoors.
after two years of living in Missouri, I had enough and decided to move back to OC.
Bought a condo near the beach (which has already gained 150K in value withing two years)

[marigolds6]

I'm an Escondido native living in St Louis now.

St Louis and San Diego are about politically equal. San Diego is ultimately more conservative than St Louis itself, whereas St Louis is a more liberal area embedded in a conservative region.

If you could survive in San Diego, you will be fairly well off in St Louis with a higher salary. St Louis will seem much smaller because it is smaller in area and population (even when looking at the metro region), but you will also find plenty of large city amenities here.

Zoo doesn't compare to San Diego, but it is still amazing and free. No beaches, but true four seasons (which I actually really like). You will get used to the severe weather and maybe even find it interesting. The food culture is different, and realistically better than San Diego's even if San Diego is specifically better for beer, seafood, and Mexican food.
The beach is the one thing I miss the most. One thing I appreciate here that was not available at all in San Diego is the small feel. You can be actively involved and even influential in anything you have a strong interest in. Though there is some parochialism, transplants can easily take an active role in any cause or activity.

Oh, and the professional sports are better all around. Quality of the teams, the games, the fans, the game experience. Padres fans and SDSU basketball fans are great (yes, I am omitting Chargers fans) and PetCo is a fabulous park, but overall it does not compare to the sports experience here. Very easy to become a lifelong fan of the St Louis teams very quickly.

[JorgeZepeda]

Wow! This response if much different then what I experienced with my move to Waco... I was expecting to hear that I wouldnt like it... from what I've heard I may be ok!

I do like good food, and oddly enough in Waco I couldnt find much good Mexican food... But the BBQ was awesome... So I'm sure in STL I'll find a ton of good food.

How is the diversity there? I'm a Mexican American (34) and my family is simiarly hispanic...

I've heard there is gambling there... How is that?

In SD I have noticed that a 3-4 bedroom home in Eastlake or North Park will run me $400k plus... some dont even have a garage... Whats the housing market like there in STL? Will an engineer be able to afford a house and not require roommates for the next 20 years?

Is there a state tax?

[billiken]

There are state income taxes. 6% if you're over $9k/yr (most people are...). An extra 1% if you live in the city of St Louis.

Property taxes are generally pretty low. 1% of property values seemed about average where we were looking.

Housing prices depend on where you want to live. I just bought a pretty large 3 bedroom/2.5 bath house with garage in the low $200s (in the City of STL). You can find larger 4 bedroom homes in the newer developing suburbs in the mid 200s. If you're hoping to be in the nicest long established suburbs in the area, a 4 bedroom home would likely run 400k plus. Lets just say many of the people I graduated with could afford to buy their own starter single family house in their mid 20s.

The hispanic population is relatively small here.

[JorgeZepeda]

Well I am looking for a starter house. I looked here in San Diego and even a HUD home was $395k in a bad part of town...

So from what I gather financially this is a good move...

Quality of life I feel like I am hearing both good and bad...
Which isnt bad...

Is the weather there so bad where I wont want to be outside?

[jribe]

Hi Jorge,
I'm actually from Northern California- moved out here for a promotion about three years ago (life-long california resident). To give you a better perspective, can you give an idea of what your salary range is in SD; versus the offer here in STL? Also, are you bringing family with you (if kids- ages/activities)? Schools are a big deciding factor here for many folks and that can drastically increase the cost of a house. There's an area here called Ladue that is just as expensive (if not more) than san diego and many parts of CA for that matter (there are quite a few of these places around actually which i find amusing).

Now the weather is a different story. If you were ok with the weather in Texas and didn't hate it- you'll be (most likely) fine in STL. Except we get do get snow and it gets pretty cold Nov-Mar - especially compared to nearly perfect SD weather!

As far as being bored- that depends on what you like to do.. We really miss being a short drive from the beach or the mountains. My husband and i after being here three years would like to move back to the west coast- we just happen to have good jobs here and a house (darn) so we're stuck for the moment.

As far as COL here- it's going to depend on what area of the STL metro you want to live in; if you want a house or a condo; if you care about school districts; how big of a house/lot; now groceries/utilities and such for us were about the same. Gas was about $1/gallon cheaper (not sure about now). As far as renting goes- we found it much more expensive to rent here in a nice area than it was in CA. We had a 1700 sqft 3bd/2ba house w/2 car garage in an excellent area in NorCal for $1,400 and we moved here and our 1bd/1ba apartment was $1450 -not including parking. We ran into the same situation looking for house rentals in areas such as brentwood, webster groves, kirkwood - it was cheaper for us to buy in those areas versus what folks wanted for rent.

let me know if you have any other questions

good luck with you decision!

Originally Posted by JorgeZepeda

Hello everyone...

I am a 34 year old profession engineer currently living in San Diego CA. I have been here 1 year having recently moved here from Waco Texas. I am originally from Los Angeles but moved to Waco for work when the CA economy became bad and I was laid off...

Being here in San Diego for 1 year I have found life extremely expensive and dont feel like I am able to buy a home or make any major investment or even save money as a result of the cost of living. I dont live a lavish lifestyle and dont have a lot of bills.
The weather here is beautiful and there is always something to do.. unfortunately I find that this is a welfare state and I am being over taxed...

I was recently offered a job in St. Louis which pays more than my current position in San Diego... I am cosidering it..

Can someone please tell me if a move from San Diego to St. Louis would afford me the savings I require to make a positive life change? Save money.. while maintain quality of life? Please keep in mind I am from CA not Texas... So I am used to the coastline and social diversity of CA.

Its a hard choice and I dont want to move somewhere I will regret... I'd like to find a home where I can raise a family and not live paycheck to paycheck... and not be bored out of my mind.

[topospace]

Originally Posted by JorgeZepeda

Well I am looking for a starter house. I looked here in San Diego and even a HUD home was $395k in a bad part of town...

So from what I gather financially this is a good move...

Quality of life I feel like I am hearing both good and bad...
Which isnt bad...

Is the weather there so bad where I wont want to be outside?

Financially, St. Louis will always be a better option than any desirable place in Southern California. There is a reason why it is cheap to live there. Think about why places like St. Louis are so much cheaper than the more "desirable" places in the USA. That will go a long way in answering your questions.

Yes, the weather there is horrible. Many locals will try and tell you different, but you find an amazing number of people that were born in St. Louis and have never lived or even traveled anywhere else. That is one of the oddest things I found about St. Louis. Destin, Florida seems to be an exotic travel destination to most who live in St. Louis.

Back to the weather. There are really two or three months total of enjoyable weather there. The summers are miserable. It is hot and very humid. The winters are not brutally cold compared to places farther north and in the mountains. What gets you is the cloudiness. Almost every day in the winter has low-hanging, dark, and gray clouds. It is just depressing. Spring is nice when it's not raining. The best time is fall. That's one of the very few things I miss about the Midwest.

If you're an outdoors (not the urban hipster definition - walking from your loft to the coffee shop) person, you'll probably hate it there.

[Caesarstl]

Originally Posted by topospace

Financially, St. Louis will always be a better option than any desirable place in Southern California. There is a reason why it is cheap to live there. Think about why places like St. Louis are so much cheaper than the more "desirable" places in the USA. That will go a long way in answering your questions.

Yes, the weather there is horrible. Many locals will try and tell you different, but you find an amazing number of people that were born in St. Louis and have never lived or even traveled anywhere else. That is one of the oddest things I found about St. Louis. Destin, Florida seems to be an exotic travel destination to most who live in St. Louis.

Back to the weather. There are really two or three months total of enjoyable weather there. The summers are miserable. It is hot and very humid. The winters are not brutally cold compared to places farther north and in the mountains. What gets you is the cloudiness. Almost every day in the winter has low-hanging, dark, and gray clouds. It is just depressing. Spring is nice when it's not raining. The best time is fall. That's one of the very few things I miss about the Midwest.

If you're an outdoors (not the urban hipster definition - walking from your loft to the coffee shop) person, you'll probably hate it there.

How old are you? I'm honestly curious.

Edit: Nvm, I just looked at your post history... wow...