Doobieous, kabbes, may I? I lived in the SF Bay Area from 1996-2000 and before that I lived in London. Both places are extremely expensive - city centre and suburbs alike - and there’s no point getting into a pissing contest over it. I do think it’s somewhat easier for a person on a moderate income to live in London because the less well-off outlying regions are better catered to WRT public transport. However, I’d also suspect the average salary at pretty much all levels of the professional ladder would be higher in the Bay Area than in London. Bottom line is nobody’s going to move to either region to save money.
Personally I always thought California would be a lovely place if it weren’t for all those Californians in it (that’s a joke, Kyla :D)
Here’s one Californian you don’t have to worry about - although we could have a bigger house and yard somewhere else, I like it just fine here. S.F. is a very cooky place, and we don’t want ot trade it for anything.
I love the country, and there’s plenty of that in Cali too. As a matter of fact, this state offers an incredible mix of big city, beach, mountains, forrest, desert, and anything else you can think of for environment. I can’t say I enjoy the traffic on the freeways, but hey, I guess lots of people see what I see here. I think the population is a bit high in the city and the valley (Silicon Valley), but that’s just the natural flow.
As far as people complaining about Californians moving to their state - that’s their right. If they complain enough I guess you don’t want to be there anyway, and you’ll find a friendlier place.
There may be a very serious problem with power if our politicians don’t get their act together - if we can’t supply electricity for the current population, then you guys in neighboring states will see a real increase of Californians moving next door - businesses first, and people to follow. You better start giving us a break on those rates (per kilowatt) or we’ll really invade!!
You wanna talk real estate prices? My folks own a modest, three bedroom ranch-style tract house in Marin County. It’s not even a well-built house. The original construction looked like it had been done by meth-crazed baboons. My dad remodeled and retrofitted the whole place: raising the ceiling a good five feet, tearing out the shit-brown carpets and putting in some good hardwood, replacing the cheap sheetrock walls with stucco, among other things.
Last year, the house next door to them, which has not had any major work done on it since it was built in 1950-something, sold for $1.25 million.
When my parents die (God forbid) I’m going to sell that house and fuckin’ BUY London.
Move to Fresno, I bought a house here $49,700 not the greatest neighborhood but its home. My house in San Jose or Los Angeles areas would sell for about the 185K you quoted. The San Joaquin Valley is a very resonably priced place to live.
I grew up on the coast and yes, the weather is great. What alot of people ** don’t** seem to get is that California is not 20 miles wide, get 50-60 miles inland and its no tropical paradise. Fresno has runs of 10+ days over 110 degrees sometimes along with winters that do dip below freezing. 30 miles east of us your into the sierra nevada mountain range, plenty of snow and such there.
I will admit we dont have to dig our cars out of the snow but oh man, last year we had snow on the ground for 3 days, you wanna see car accidents? We are not used to driving in snow.
For all of you who think that weather in California is la la la happy happy joy joy all the time, I dare you to relocate to Truckee for a year. See how much fun you have living in a place where it snows seven months out of twelve.
Well, I never said I’m from Truckee. I’ve only been there once (and yes, it was snowing). Just remarking that non-Californians have a funny idea of what weather is actually like in the majority of the state. Sure, it’s usually sunny and warm in Southern California, but it snows tons in the mountains (do a web search on the location of the 1960 Winter Olympics), and it’s chilly and foggy year-round along most of the coastline of the entire state. Where I live, the Pacific is freezing cold, and only a maniac would want to go sunbathing on the beach - even on a nice day where I live (20 miles inland), it’s usually cold, windy, and foggy at the water.
