Most things in California is bad, but ...

[Mr Nice]

Originally Posted By: dja4260
I live in Chicago. My house is 1840 sq ft on what's considered a double chicago lot. My taxes are $6700. This doesn't include water/trash.

My parents house about 3 miles away outside of Chicago, similar in size, taxes were $12,000.

I cannot wait to get out of this state.


Didn't you mention moving to South Carolina last year and looking for a job...
Or am I mistaking you for another BITOG member ?

 

[Jarlaxle]

Originally Posted By: CKN
Originally Posted By: Jarlaxle
The only problem with Utah is November. And December. And January. And February. And March. And probably parts of October and April.



The thing is those months are really not a problem when you don't have to go to work in the morning......


Yeah, they are...unless you are OK with just not leaving the house for almost five months.

If I can't ride, it's a problem!

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: yeti

none of this matters.
when the big one hits, beach front property will be Nevada and Arizona.
nick will set up a stand on the "new" beach, and sell his instrument panel cookies.
all of those that pick on cali. will have to find another state to slam.


Consider that a 800k home is 600k land and 200k construction, earth quake is not that big of a deal.... Now if your neighborhood school district got redrawn from a 10/10 to a 4/10, then you have a mighty big problem.

There is a reason why CA home is expensive, especially in tech area like San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Irvine, etc. The jobs pay higher than the rest of the nation and plentiful, and a lot of people (maybe not you personally) got rich on IPO and mergers, or recruited from all over the world to work on the latest and greatest project at a premium. It is hard for home prices in good school districts to go low, even during the 2008 big crash these homes do not drop much in value.

 

[CKN]

Originally Posted By: Jarlaxle
Originally Posted By: CKN
Originally Posted By: Jarlaxle
The only problem with Utah is November. And December. And January. And February. And March. And probably parts of October and April.



The thing is those months are really not a problem when you don't have to go to work in the morning......


Yeah, they are...unless you are OK with just not leaving the house for almost five months.

If I can't ride, it's a problem!


Gee....your talking as if there are not any decent days in the 5 month span......simply not true. You have winter in New England...you should know that.

 

[01rangerxl]

Originally Posted By: aquariuscsm
Originally Posted By: surfstar
Who cares how "cheap" property tax is when the housing itself is so overpriced!!!

This is "low-end" housing here: $515k 1/1 637 sq ft https://www.redfin.com/CA/Santa-Barbara/872-Highland-Dr-93109/unit-4/home/21597802

I'll pay 10% property tax on a $150k house - no problem!


Here's what $500k gets you here. Almost 4000 sq ft lakefront home. Scroll through the pics,it's really beautiful. Wish I could afford it

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/15132-Wild-Duck-Way-Roanoke-TX-76262/2097792772_zpid/


Looks like they really packed them in...

Still a good $ per sq ft comparison.

 

[xxch4osxx]

Originally Posted By: 01rangerxl
Originally Posted By: aquariuscsm
Originally Posted By: surfstar
Who cares how "cheap" property tax is when the housing itself is so overpriced!!!

This is "low-end" housing here: $515k 1/1 637 sq ft https://www.redfin.com/CA/Santa-Barbara/872-Highland-Dr-93109/unit-4/home/21597802

I'll pay 10% property tax on a $150k house - no problem!


Here's what $500k gets you here. Almost 4000 sq ft lakefront home. Scroll through the pics,it's really beautiful. Wish I could afford it

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/15132-Wild-Duck-Way-Roanoke-TX-76262/2097792772_zpid/


Looks like they really packed them in...

Still a good $ per sq ft comparison.
Oh lovely, take a bath and your neighbors can look right in at you.

 

[Jarlaxle]

Originally Posted By: CKN
Originally Posted By: Jarlaxle
Originally Posted By: CKN
Originally Posted By: Jarlaxle
The only problem with Utah is November. And December. And January. And February. And March. And probably parts of October and April.



The thing is those months are really not a problem when you don't have to go to work in the morning......


Yeah, they are...unless you are OK with just not leaving the house for almost five months.

If I can't ride, it's a problem!


Gee....your talking as if there are not any decent days in the 5 month span......simply not true. You have winter in New England...you should know that.


No, there really aren't! It is cold for about 5 months. (Note that a nice day must be over 50 degrees.)

 

[CKN]

Jarlaxle

I can see your agenda. Consequently, this is the end of any meaningful dialog..........

 

[splinter]

California has some truly great places to live, work and play. And retire.

If you and yours can swing it.

 

[CKN]

Originally Posted By: splinter
California has some truly great places to live, work and play. And retire.

If you and yours can swing it.


The freeways have the least amount of traffic between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Except Saturdays when many freeways are gridlocked all day. So if you wish to go anywhere and "play" you have 4 hours to do so. You need between $500,000.00 and $750,000.00 to live in a nice place.\

Upside- THE WEATHER.

AM I WRONG HERE?

 

[JustinH]

Everybody can look at something from the outside and it seems "expensive".

I have found that expenses of houses, etc are generally tied to the wages in the area for employers.

My wife and I both work professional jobs, and we have a house in North Austin. Our house is cheap because it is worth under $300k.

We could move to central California and have the same life and have a nice house.

I'm not saying that you can work an entry level job and get a house in Southern California, but in most situations a married couple working professional jobs can do it.

 

[CKN]

Originally Posted By: JustinH
Everybody can look at something from the outside and it seems "expensive".

I have found that expenses of houses, etc are generally tied to the wages in the area for employers.

My wife and I both work professional jobs, and we have a house in North Austin. Our house is cheap because it is worth under $300k.

We could move to central California and have the same life and have a nice house.

I'm not saying that you can work an entry level job and get a house in Southern California, but in most situations a married couple working professional jobs can do it.


Yes-and that is why the middle class is disappearing in California. I have a son and his wife who have two decent jobs-he is a Manager for a air compressor manufacturer and she is a NEW school teacher. They make $140,000.00 between the two of them. They have a decent ($400,000.00) house in an OK area-not a great area.

Believe me-The "California Dream" got on the bus and left the state.......

 

[splinter]

Originally Posted By: CKN
...You need between $500,000.00 and $750,000.00 to live in a nice place.

Yeah it's often far more than that to stretch out in a decent 'hood.

 

[aquariuscsm]

Originally Posted By: 01rangerxl
Still a good $ per sq ft comparison.


Yep,and that's actually a little high per sq ft here. If you shop around,you can get something really nice for $80-something per sq ft. You can get alot of bang for your buck in DFW.

 

[HTSS_TR]

Originally Posted By: CKN
Originally Posted By: splinter
California has some truly great places to live, work and play. And retire.

If you and yours can swing it.

The freeways have the least amount of traffic between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Except Saturdays when many freeways are gridlocked all day. So if you wish to go anywhere and "play" you have 4 hours to do so. You need between $500,000.00 and $750,000.00 to live in a nice place.

Upside- THE WEATHER.

AM I WRONG HERE?

Weekday from 10AM to 2PM and weeknight from 10PM to 5AM are fairly light traffic.

More like $750,000 and up to live in a nice place.

 

[Mr Nice]

The average person in California CAN'T afford a $750,000 house.

Silly to talk about expensive housing if only affluent people can buy it.

 

[surfstar]

I don't know anyone who has bought a home locally, independently. They all had large down payment help from family.
We're a professional couple and can afford those overpriced condos (down-payment would require raiding some retirement funds though, which sucks), but don't want to. Why spend so much of your income on housing, if you don't have to? We're saving for an early retirement instead. A kid would 'force' us to move out of our 1br and buy a condo, though. Until then, we wait and save.

We could move to somewhere with an hour commute, adding 2 hrs or 20-25% to my work day - and it would be 'affordable', but soul-sucking. I ride my bike currently. I don't mind driving, but adding 10 hrs a week to your work schedule, unpaid - no thanks.


I've been to Utah a few times and it was in those "off" months that someone was complaining about. Nov, Feb, Mar, Apr - all great. Great skiiing and rock climbing. Too hot at other times for that.

 

[Mr Nice]

That reminds me of my brother's coworker in the Navy that rode a motorcycle 100 miles to work everyday because buying a house in San Diego was impossible.

The guy was at the end of Navy career and his wife wanted to stay in California. So they bought an 'affordable' house and guy did 1000 miles per week on motorcycle.

Not the best scenario for living the American Dream and owning a house.

 

[HTSS_TR]

Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
More like $750,000 and up to live in a nice place.

Originally Posted By: Mr Nice
The average person in California CAN'T afford a $750,000 house.

Silly to talk about expensive housing if only affluent people can buy it.

Nice places in California are beach cities like Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, La Jolla Beaches ... or exclusive areas such as Palo Alto, Cupertino ... in No Cal, Bel-lair in So Cal.

Even housing in cities 5-10 miles away from the beach can be expensive, if you search Zillow.com for zip code 92603(city of Irvine) you will find very few small house(2 bedroom around 1500 sq ft) below $750k, most houses are above $1M.

Average California family earn less than $100k a year, no way they can afford to live in cities close to the beach. They are mostly live 20-30 miles or more away, the area called Inland Empire is much lower, you can buy a single family detached house for around $120-150/ sq-ft compares with $400-500/sq-ft(or more) in beach cities.

 

[Mr Nice]

You say average family is earning less than $100K in California ?

Then thats the last state they should living in considering housing, taxes, cost of living...etc. I'm not poopoo-ing California, but its not LaLa Land as some portray it to be.