How can people afford to live in California?

greg · Post by **greg** » Tue May 16, 2006 7:44 pm

Last week we came back from our trip to Japan. We were greeted with 100 degree Phoenix heat and the reality that we live in stupid Phoenix, AZ. We were talking about other places we could live, and Torrance, CA is my wife's first choice because it has such a large Japanese population. Just looking at realestate.com, it's difficult to find a decent house with 3 bedrooms that's under $500,000. We'd be paying mortgage payments of over $3,000 per month. How can poor people even afford to be poor with an environment like that? Are wages three times higher as compared to where I live?

We live in a beautiful, small 3 bedroom/2 bath home in North Phoenix, just under 1,200 square feet. Our house is $217,000, but I estimate that this exact same house would cost at least $600,000 in California. How can people live with such a high cost of living? We may as well just live in Japan for that matter.

UnscathedFlyingObject · Tue May 16, 2006 7:52 pm

Real state prices in NYC are pretty eye popping too. One of my friend's parents bought a house here and it cost 'em $600,000 or something like that. To make matters worse, the house was in sh*t state so they had to spend a ton more remodeling and fixing. And we're talking about your run-off-the-mill Brooklyn neighborhood. Most places in Manhattan are easily double or more that price.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Tue May 16, 2006 8:24 pm

Hawaii sucks balls. Liveable houses START at $500k, and those are usually 3 bedroom, and need a LOT of work done on them. To move in and not do work, you're looking around a mil. If we move like my wife seems to think we are, we are (uh... I am actaully) going to pay more rent here than in Tokyo.

JBC · Post by **JBC** » Tue May 16, 2006 8:37 pm

I live in Phoenix, too - but i was probably going to move to Hollywood in a couple of years. lol

thesuperkillerxxx · Post by **thesuperkillerxxx** » Tue May 16, 2006 8:44 pm

Move to Arkansas!!!!

I payed 76,500 form my 3 bedroom 2 bath hovel

ahnslaught · Post by **ahnslaught** » Tue May 16, 2006 11:24 pm

I remember like 4 years back when I was in college in the middle of Iowa, I saw a flyer outside a real estate agency that was advertising a small home for $25K. My car was worth that much at the same time!

bigbadboaz · Post by **bigbadboaz** » Wed May 17, 2006 12:15 am

Haha, we rent, dude. We rent.

Seriously, do you really dislike AZ, or are you just in return shock? Me being in CA and understanding exactly the dilemma you bring up, I've thought about heading into AZ eventually when I am ready to buy a home. I hear lots of good things about the state... ?

Post by **Dave_K.** » Wed May 17, 2006 1:11 am

Get a high paying tech job (Electrical Engineer or Software Engineer) and move to Silicon Valley. Plenty of Asians here (although mostly Vietnamese and Philipino).

icycalm · Post by **icycalm** » Wed May 17, 2006 1:24 am

I get a bit depressed reading this thread. It reminds I am 28 and should get a real job, start saving up, and stop buying all the game-related crap that comes out. I wish I was 17 again.

bigbadboaz · Post by **bigbadboaz** » Wed May 17, 2006 1:39 am

Hey man, I'm in about the same place and I go through the same feelings, but hey - you need to do what's right for you. If those things aren't right for you in the moment, don't stress over it. You can't make yourself want what just isn't in you.

And I need to believe what I preach, but 28 IS NOT OLD! There's plenty of time for you yet!

rolins · Post by **rolins** » Wed May 17, 2006 2:17 am

Why not move to Las Vegas. The houses there are much cheaper than CA. My parents sold their run-down house in California for $450k and used the money to buy a newly built model home in Las Vegas for $350k. It has two bathroms, 5 bedrooms, AC, and a gigantic kitchen. The $50k they had left over was used to pay off all their debts. These days they're spending their retirement kicking back in their house watching cable tv, and love going a the Rio casino for their all-you-can eat seafood buffet.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Wed May 17, 2006 3:01 am

icycalm wrote:I get a bit depressed reading this thread. It reminds I am 28 and should get a real job, start saving up, and stop buying all the game-related crap that comes out. I wish I was 17 again.

Once you start, you can't go back, so enjoy the time you have now. You seem to have the right idea... you've spent extended periods of time in various countries. Trust me, it's hard as shit to do once you get a career, and almost impossible w/ a wife.

Pixel_Outlaw · Post by **Pixel_Outlaw** » Wed May 17, 2006 5:03 am

By becoming drug lords.

greg · Post by **greg** » Wed May 17, 2006 6:22 am

bigbadboaz wrote:Seriously, do you really dislike AZ, or are you just in return shock?

A bit of both. I grew up here and have lived here all my life, except for two years in Japan. My wife hates Phoenix because it's so hot (especially because she has to ride the bus) and because there isn't much of a Japanese population here. It's considerably more than other places, just because of the size of the Phoenix valley, but she'd feel more comfortable where people don't stare at her. Here, if you're not caucasian or Mexican, people look at you. I know a lot of this is because she's adorably cute, but she'd rather be where she fits in better. She loved San Francisco because of its international feel, but that place is way out of the question. And moving to some place like Arkansas would be a total step backward, SK. No way in hell would I ever live there. Atlanta _maybe_, but I'd never leave the city for fear of being accused as a race traitor and lynched or something. I hate rednecks. We have rednecks to an extent in Phoenix, but at least they don't wave around the Confederate flag and crap like that. They just think that all Asians eat fortune cookies and are from China or something.

I just want to escape this stupid heat. It's over 100 degrees already. I hate stupid cactus and these pathetic excuses for trees and those dumb thorny bushes that puncture my bicycle tires. I miss seasons, but that's why most people like it here because there are no seasons. I guess it's just another case of the grass being greener on the other side of the fence.

I'm 30 and I still don't have a real "career" per se. I'm just getting paid quite a bit these days. My wife makes good tips as a sushi waitress too, so we can afford a comfortable lifestyle, take occasional vacations and buy neat crap without feeling too guilty about it. Sometimes I wonder if I'd be able to make as much if I were to switch jobs. My job is basically manipulating spreadsheets and tracking server inventories. That makes me a "business systems analyst" which is another term for a fill-in-the-blank type job. I tried going for a degree in computer science, but I burned out. I didn't know what to do with my life, so I majored in business. (Yeah, I know. Just like so many other business majors.) There's no way I could get a high paying tech job. I just turned 30 a couple of months ago and I guess I had figured that I'd have an actual career by this point in my life. So don't feel too bad, Icycalm.

JBC · Post by **JBC** » Wed May 17, 2006 6:59 am

Hey, just out of curiosity... why is San Fran out of the question?

bigbadboaz · Post by **bigbadboaz** » Wed May 17, 2006 7:09 am

Heh, circuit, I'm guessing it's 'cause San Fran is the most expensive out of the entire damn state.

Thanks for the input, Greg. I haven't spent too much time in AZ but figured the heat would be an issue. I wouldn't be too happy with that, either. Perhaps I should consider other long-term plans.

It's funny how you expect to be in a certain place by a certain time, but it never quite works out, isn't it? I'm sure a lot of us are in the same boat, being of the shmup-appreciating age. Heck, I used to think of 30-ish as so old, but no matter how much time passes, I still feel like a kid inside. It becomes encouraging as you realize aging doesn't necessarily change your outlook... would be nice to get where I thought I'd be at some point, though.

IlMrm · Post by **IlMrm** » Wed May 17, 2006 8:14 am

Here, it's at least 500,000 for a house in the ghetto parts.

Vexorg · Post by **Vexorg** » Wed May 17, 2006 8:23 am

Employers have to be willing to pay people enough money for people to live in the area if they want to keep skilled people. I know that the cost of living around here is already quite high, and continuing to increase (I will most likely need to deal with a 15% rent increase on my apartment in August, although my expenses are low enough that it will not have too much impact on me.) With house prices continuing to increase as well (my parents' house has nearly tripled in value in the 11 years they've lived there) I know at this point that I need to make it a priority to buy some sort of property as soon as possible, or I might find the cost of doing so prohibitive. It's getting to the point where $400k is cheap for a three-bedroom home here.

In spite of all that, I don't have any reason to panic about this. I feel that I'm in reasonably sound financial shape right now, and salaries for the field I'm working in generally are sufficient to cover expenses. I just need to keep myself out of debt (my car may be a piece of junk, but at least it's a reliable piece of junk) and make sure that I'm putting money into savings on a regular basis. I don't think I'm quite where I expected to be at this point either, but at least I can see that it is possible to get there...

MOSQUITO FIGHTER · Post by **MOSQUITO FIGHTER** » Wed May 17, 2006 10:57 am

I don’t like living in Arkansas myself. The economy here seems to be really bad. I’m about to lose my job. Fifth place I’ve worked at that went out of business. And if I remember correctly it’s the second poorest state in the US. Sure everything costs less but we make less money also. Or I do anyway. I guess if you’re into hunting and the outdoors it would be interesting. Seems like most of the people here are old people in retirement. Little Rock is ok. I’d rather live there, more things to do, places to work, people to meet. Eureka Springs is ok it’s like a little miniature San Francisco we have here (Hills, neat looking buildings, hippies, artists, etc). Nice laid back town. Don’t have any Asian communities here that I know of.

I have friend who used to live in California. Said Modesto was the least expensive area to live at. And it’s also the hometown of George Lucas, which is pretty cool. Don’t know if that helps but it might be something worth checking into.

FRO · Post by **FRO** » Wed May 17, 2006 1:58 pm

Move to rural Nebraska. Seriously. My wife & I just applied for a house loan on a 3-bedroom 1-bath house that is selling for $36,000. I'm not joking - the cost of living here is pretty low. Taxes are a bit high, but cost of living (other than gasoline, which is high everywhere) is low.

Ord · Post by **Ord** » Wed May 17, 2006 3:39 pm

The wife and I just got our first flat here in Edinburgh and it's was expensive. £118,000 ($222,000) for a 1 bedroom flat with a boxroom (which will house my cabs, pc etc).
The house prices are crazy in Scotland and they say that they will increase up to 50% within the next 5 years. It's nuts.

Eps · Post by **Eps** » Wed May 17, 2006 5:05 pm

Thank fuck I'm moving to northern FL -- it might have its faults, but the property prices seem to be the kind that give me, as a British guy, a pleasant surprise -- not a heart attack, as some of the prices from places I almost ended up (HI, CA) in this thread did!

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Wed May 17, 2006 7:13 pm

but she'd rather be where she fits in better.

Hawaii, dude. Where you will stick out like a sore thumb (assuming you're white).

Vexorg · Post by **Vexorg** » Wed May 17, 2006 8:09 pm

Eps wrote:Thank fuck I'm moving to northern FL -- it might have its faults, but the property prices seem to be the kind that give me, as a British guy, a pleasant surprise -- not a heart attack, as some of the prices from places I almost ended up (HI, CA) in this thread did!

I was in Florida for a couple of days last year (I was down there to board a cruise ship) and I was surprised to see that in a lot of ways, even south Florida (Miami/Fort Lauderdale area) seemed to be cheaper than around here. Even so, I think I would be hesitant to live somewhere that experiences hurricanes on a regular basis.

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Wed May 17, 2006 8:23 pm

Vexorg wrote:I was in Florida for a couple of days last year (I was down there to board a cruise ship) and I was surprised to see that in a lot of ways, even south Florida (Miami/Fort Lauderdale area) seemed to be cheaper than around here. Even so, I think I would be hesitant to live somewhere that experiences hurricanes on a regular basis.

That's probably at least part of the reason for the lower prices and such, truth be told...a lot of people I knew from around here have moved to North Carolina in the past decade or so, another hurrican hot spot which is apparently a lot cheaper to live in than around here (not like that's saying a whole lot, but still).

ryosnk · Post by **ryosnk** » Wed May 17, 2006 8:56 pm

Interesting topic since me and my wife (of two years) have saved some money to buy a property. I'm hestitant to jump the gun since prices in Chicago are high ($550,000) for a small family - two bedroom home and everyone around me is telling me to wait for the bubble to burst.

I have fear that since my wife is also interested in having a child as early as next year (we are both 28 ) and me wanting to go back to school. That it will be hard and stressful on paying the bills and mortgage.

So would buying a condo ($250,00 for a two bedroom in a nice area) be a wise investment since I will probably sell the property once I finish school (three years - going part-time) and if everything goes we will have our second child and need a bigger home?

DC906270 · Post by **DC906270** » Wed May 17, 2006 9:04 pm

^ you@ll sell your second child?

ryosnk · Post by **ryosnk** » Wed May 17, 2006 10:00 pm

Eps · Post by **Eps** » Wed May 17, 2006 10:40 pm

Vexorg wrote:I was in Florida for a couple of days last year (I was down there to board a cruise ship) and I was surprised to see that in a lot of ways, even south Florida (Miami/Fort Lauderdale area) seemed to be cheaper than around here. Even so, I think I would be hesitant to live somewhere that experiences hurricanes on a regular basis.

Yup, it's definitely a factor. Fortunately, where I'm going to be (about halfway between the panhandle and Jacksonville) is somewhere that tends to escape such 'interesting' weather, for the most part. Tends to be the south of the state that gets battered, from what I can make out.

TalkingOctopus · Post by **TalkingOctopus** » Thu May 18, 2006 12:06 am

How can people afford to live in California?

Lie, cheat and steal. Oops. Wrong coast. That's how people afford to live in DC.

I'm moving to Seattle in the next few months and it also seems very expensive -- not much better than SF at all. I spent a summer in Sunnyvale CA. My apartment rent was the same as Seattle's and only slightly higher then my rent in Michigan.