Moving back to California?

During the $$$ bust in 2008 there was an exodus from CA - Texas being one of the primary landing zones due to its tech growth and job availability. Over the next few years a notable number of those individuals moved back to CA citing the "cultural differences" were not acceptable. I still visit family in OKC and its a great time for a week or two each year. Living there would be a nightmare for me.

About a year ago I heard piece on KPBS about people moving into CA. They said if you are young and early into your career and no big stash of $$$ it is probably not a good long-term plan. If you want to come for a year or two and enjoy the good life, go for it. On the other hand, if you have an established career and can find a good-paying job in CA, maybe a little equity in your home, go for it knowing all the caveats of high cost of living, housing, etc.

Personally, as a man in his 60's, I would say if you are not happy, pack up and leave ASAP. It will all work out.

 

We travel a lot in the US and have experienced much attitude about CA. Half the time it is "wow, everyone wants to live in San Diego" and the other half is a scoff at the thought. When I ask those with a negative perception where they lived in CA and why don't they like it, they visited LA once or have never been here. That's when I have to explain that CA is the third largest state in the country and has 39 million people. We are the ranked 9th in world countries economy. Visiting in LA or watching TV does not paint a picture of living in Shasta county or the east Sierras. Once a native Californian was poking fun at all the cowboys in OK and I assured her there are more cowboys in CA than OK! Maybe true or not, you get the picture.

 

We live in Vista, CA (7 miles inland, north San Diego, CO._ in a 1200sq ft home built in 1954. 3bed/2bath/detached single garage (all SMALL), on a bit over 1/4 acre. A friend lives 50 miles north in Temecula, inland 26mi as the crow flies/45mi drive . 2,800sq ft, 4bed/3bath/2livingareas built ~2007, small lot, everything big and new.

The value of both homes have been assessed at ~465k. Location, location, location.

 

Yup I agree 100%. It has to do a lot with location. My wife and I are looking forward to moving back, when the opportunity comes.

 

No problem

 

Ok........... I don’t like California. I’ve spent tons of time out there for work and I’ve gone out there on tons of road trips. Reasons that I don’t like California........ Politics in Cali drive me insane, but no mention of anything specific due to being asked to keep politics off this post. Taxes, the taxes in California I think are absolutely insane , along with the other costs of living. Do I have a great household income ?? Yes, my household income causes me to be in the 35% federal tax bracket. You brought up LA. I was in LA twice , just last year alone. Crazy crazy traffic that makes going anywhere about pointless, unless you like sitting in traffic. Yes, I realize that LA is like using NYC to speak for its entire state, which isn’t fair at all. Travel..... Living out west makes any road trip to most of the US population a extremely long trip. 2 thirds of the US population lives out east , away from the west coast. Do I enjoy visiting California?? Yes, I like heading out west to off road and camp some times. I like visiting Florida too, but I wouldn’t live there either. I have lived in MA, OK, TX, NE, and TN. I have traveled for work the majority of my adult life as well, and there are pros and cons to every state I guess. Some I like and some I’d rather pull my ears off than have to even drive through. Back to money...... In my personal opinion if a person can make “X” in yearly income regardless of where they live , why on earth would someone want to live in a state with ungodly high taxes and living expenses? I enjoy having surplus cash every month to enjoy life with. To each their own, to each their own.

 

You say this like it's a bad thing. I enjoy road trips. The longer the better. See more and more to do along the way I suppose. But I agree with your views on living in CA

 

Agreed every state has pros and cons. Perhaps the most defining characteristic of CA is that it outperforms most countries in terms of productivity as mentioned above. If you are willing to pay the price to play you can find a good lifestyle and good people and opportunity. Of course you can go to the bad parts of bad cities and find some the worst the world has to offer. One of its strengths is that you can find some of just about anything in CA, including many specialized people and a large nearby customer base. Live hard and play hard, whether it be the mtns, Los Angeles, or Louisiana. Property tax definitely adds up, but in the many cities here I think you get what you pay for. Also I'm finding the wintertime weather helps stay in shape over the years.

If I had to live in many parts of Los Angeles I'd probably leave California too. Fortunately LA has not taken over the state yet.

Aside from the large tourist piers and downtown shoreline, many of the neighborhood beaches are still very local as the tourists don't find them.

 

I live in the Socal High Desert near the North slope of the San Bernardino and San Gabriel mtns and really like it up here

 

Del taco is something I don’t have to do without here in Georgia. I’ll trade you for an In and Out . The closest one is in Texas. Yes I checked .

 

Del Taco has Street Tacos Platos that are actually pretty good. Seasoned chicken with onion, cilantro and avocado. Simple and tasty. Rice and beans - straightforward, nothing bad or outstanding but decent. I haven't had anything else on their menu though. I remember going as a kid and getting something like a sloppy joe - I think the seasoned ground beef on a bun.

 

No.









Love me a double double.

 

That's how I feel about WA. You have so many different things to do in a single region. We have the pacific ocean, a temperate rain forest, 2 mountain ranges, ski resorts, high desert, sand dunes, lakes, large rivers, big cities and a booming tech and aerospace industry. You don't have to travel far to do lots of different things. Housing near the greater Seattle area is close to so-cal prices now but we don't have income tax, just a higher sales tax. But if you buy anything expensive you can always do a trip down to Oregon...literally the only reason why the city of Vancouver exists lol.

 

Haha my best friend lives in Renton and sends stuff to my house all the time to skirt the tax. He comes down once a month an I go up every other month.

 

Maybe stick it out another year or two while trying to stack as much cash as you can in order to have a nice nest egg or down payment for moving back to Cali. At the end of the day, I'd rather be poor and living where I'm happy, than rich living someplace I don't wanna be.

 

CA, especially SoCal is the worst place ever to be poor. Unless you’re talking homeless poor then yeah, not sure why not all the hobos migrate there. Never too hot, never too cold.

 

Yeah this may be a bit extreme but I’ve had family member bring me a double double from the In and Out across from Lax to Hartsfield Jackson in Atlanta . They separated each ingredient at In and Out for me which is really cool that they would after hearing the story . 4hrs and 15 minutes later( good tailwind lol) I had my double double ..

 

My story is similar, minus the wanting to move back. Born and raised in Orange County, with a brief stint in Corona. I had always wanted to go somewhere else, but never had the motivation. Summer of 2014 traffic is what finally did it for me. I found a job here in FtW, sold almost everything, and moved out here with my ex(gf at the time, obvi). Dude, it's rad out here. I'm sorry to hear you're bailing out, but you gotta do what's best for you.

 

Hey I was born and raised in Orange County as well. What part are you from?

Don't get me wrong, DFW is an awesome place. I think what has finally made me decide to return is not having any family around to enjoy my time with.

 

Bounced all over; Orange, Santa Ana, Anaheim, Fullerton, and Westminster. The family thing was a part of the decision to move here- my Mom and stepdad moved out here in like, 2008. When I worked in SX/MX, we always had a really good time here in TX, so I knew what I was coming into. What part of Ft Worth are you in? I'm over on the west side, about a block from Benbrook.