Living in SoCal hurts!

[Russell]

The area we live in the house prices are ridiculously high. We're talking $500k+ for a 1000sq-ft town house. Single family homes start at $700k.

So we've been renting a 2 bed apartment at $1700/mo ouch! - I know. We're near the end of our lease term and we just got a letter from the apt company notifying us that our rent will go up $100 more if we decided to continue for another one yr lease or $2k/mo if we decided to go rent to rent.

Four yrs ago I was paying $900 per mo for a single bedroom, so now the rent has doubled. That's about $1000 per month (or $11k) that I could be saving!! To make matters worse my pay has stayed the same in the last 4 yrs.

We can't afford a $3500/mo mortgage and paying almost $2k per month in rent hurts. We've considered other areas but they're not much cheaper. Maybe about $300 per month cheaper but we really like where we live for several reasons so we'll have to continue paying overinflated housing costs.

One day I'm going to move out of CA

[DivaJen]

Re: Living in SoCal hurts!

It's the same thing where I live. When Dh and I bought our home in 1997, we felt like we had stretched ourselves as far as we could. Our income today is not much more than it was then, but there is absolutely no way we could afford to buy our house today. I honestly don't know how people are doing it. I feel for you.

[Ima saver]

Re: Living in SoCal hurts!

I am so sorry to hear that. I don't know how young people make it anymore. We just sold a small house (1100 square ft) for $189,000 and I felt bad that people had to pay so much for a small new house. It did help that it had a great mountain view. Thank goodness it is cheaper to live in the South. I could not make it in California.

[PRICEPLUS]

Re: Living in SoCal hurts!

Prices are getting ridiculous in many places. People eventually will opt out of Califiornia if the prices keep getting more and more ridiculous!

[sweeps]

Re: Living in SoCal hurts!

People eventually will opt out of Califiornia if the prices keep getting more and more ridiculous!

Or when the "Big One" hits. 13:

[cercis]

Re: Living in SoCal hurts!

Move to South Texas. I bought a large, lovely 1800sqft home for less than $90k (and it was significantly higher than it would have been one year ago).

Salaries aren't great, but probably not that bad, relatively. If we can get a few large companies to move here, salaries might go up (which will, of course, eventually drive up housing prices). The weather is generally comparable (except it does get pretty darn hot in the summer).

[PRICEPLUS]

Re: Living in SoCal hurts!

Geez! I forgot about the "Big One"! What about all the fires and the mudslides?

[Russell]

Re: Living in SoCal hurts!

Yeah that's what people are saying here that we need a big shaker. Fires and mudslides just don't scare people as much as the earthquakes do...

Cercis, I've thought about moving many times but there's always something that makes CA seem perfect for our situation. I have thought about Austin, Portland, Vegas, Phoenix, Charlotte, Raliegh and even upstate NY...but things like the weather, bigger job market, cultural diversity (lack of it) compared to CA to hold me back.

[cercis]

Re: Living in SoCal hurts!

Yeah, not much diversity here. It's something like 80% hispanic. Houston, though is supposed to be pretty good, it's 50% hispanic and the rest is divided about the same as the greater US.

It does get hella hot, but you do adapt to that, I swear. Austin is fairly liberal (if you like that) and a really cool town.

But, I imagine if I lived in SoCal, I'd have a hard time moving. It wasn't difficult to move from OKC (now Tulsa was a different story).

[Russell]

Re: Living in SoCal hurts!

Hey now I lived in Norman, OK for 6 months when I went to OU - OKC seemed like heaven

"It's something like 80% hispanic."

really ? wow, I thought it'd be 80% whites and the rest would be hispanics, asians and others...what parts are considered South TX ?

[cercis]

Re: Living in SoCal hurts!

Rio Grande Valley - Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr and Willacy County (I think I left one out). Spanish is a predominant language (to the point where to work at walmart or fast food you need to speak spanish).

The problem is, it's 18% white or so and 2% "other" (black, asian, indian). So you're left with 2 races - not much diversity. It's fun though, because for the first time in my life I'm a minority. I'm raising my white male children with a unique experience, this is one of the only places in the US where I can do that. Plus, if I need vanilla, I can go across the border and get it for pennies on the dollar.

Norman and OKC are flat, dirty and windy. Not as windy as Stillwater (where I went to school), but windy. And did I say flat. Flat, flat, flat. And no dogwoods (I don't have that here either) and azaleas look like crap. I'm a south east Oklahoma girl, and failing that, give me Tulsa.

[Russell]

Re: Living in SoCal hurts!

Yeah you're absolutely right about Norman being totally flat, don't recall it being dirty or windy but that was back in 1995 so my memory is a bit fuzzy. We used to drive out to Dallas Fortworth once in a while to see the tall buildings (the Gallaria mall was there too if I remember correctly).

I also remember the $300/mo rent for my 1 bd apartment and paying about $0.89 per gallon for gas I think.

[cercis]

Re: Living in SoCal hurts!

1995 is when I graduated from OSU.

When I lived in OKC, I could hang clothes on the line and they'd be dry in 20 minutes flat. And not be stiff at all. The ones that stayed on the line, that is (yeah, more than once I had to chase after flying clothes).

Now Stillwater? I was once walking past the library in my now DH's leather coat, which was not buttoned. The wind caught that coat and lifted me up and moved me about 5 feet. Now, I'm not a big person, but at 5'8" and 130lbs, I wasn't small.

I could have issues with the "dirty". I found the attitudes to be bad and so it turned me off the whole city. Norman is much prettier than OKC, btw.

[abowers]

Re: Living in SoCal hurts!

I have a friend who's living in SanDiego, (was in ROTC, there now for Navy). So luckily the Navy is paying for his rent anyway, but it's expensive!

Also pricey here in Princeton NJ. We are paying $830 for a small 1BR, and it's grad student apartments, so that's subsidized. Small townhouses here start in the $200,000's... houses here are out of the question. Property values have been going up over the past several years, and people say the housing bubble with burst soon, which I hope.

One of my coworkers bought her 2br condo in a more affordable town a couple towns over for $140 about 5 years ago, and she'll be selling it for $270k this spring. I think this is all due to people moving out of NYC (45 miles away) -- both families and big companies.

[Russell]

Re: Living in SoCal hurts!

Amanda, my wife's from Roch so we briefly considered irondequoit, pittsford, brighton, penfield but even she doesn't want to go back because of the weather.