What's keeping you in California?

Roc Doc

2A SNBI
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May 20, 2020
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580
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Way out West.
Honest question.

I was born there and lived my first 33 years between Santa Maria, Visalia and Sacramento. But I left because the cost of housing was getting farther and farther away, and I didn't have the opportunities that I saw in Las Vegas. I loved being on the rivers and lakes from March to November, and at the ski resorts in winter. Loved the American River bike trail, brew pubs and all the music festivals, but that was when Orange County was staunchly conservative, Hollywood wasn't anywhere near as political as is is now, and before Silicon Valley jacked the prices for the whole rest of the state. When I left, I thought I'd be back some day, but the direction that state has gone in the last 30 years leads me to believe it's gone past the tipping point and that there will just be another Newsom/Brown/Davis/etc., from here on out.

Why do you stay?
What is the final straw that would make you look to another state or country?
 
Very little

I have a few hundred more hours to vest my retirement and might stay on with this job until it's over(Feb-March or so) if I can handle it.

The camp fire was the last straw, this year removed any sliver of doubt about leaving.
 
Why do you stay?
What is the final straw that would make you look to another state or country?

with all the crazy happening this year i set a firm line on the second question, when they come to take guns, im 100% moving

for the first question, its the normal job, house, friends, vacation spots, fear of dissapointment, weather ( 60* is cold :laughing:)

i do envy those who uproot everything and leave
 
Lazy:homer:... plus owning a house outright takes some budget concerns out of the equation:flipoff2: Living in BFE also isolates me from dealing with some of the stupid people in urban centers.
 
I know there's a lot of land in CA, but there's just too many damn people in the cities and now in the countryside. When I was a kid there were under 20 million, and by the time I left there were 30 mil, but now there's 40 mil and that's even with a net loss from 2015-2017. This from the Sac Bee 11/2019;

Texas, Arizona, Nevada and Oregon apparently looked pretty good to a lot of Californians last year.

About 691,000 people left California to live in other states in 2018, new census estimates indicate. At the same time, roughly 501,000 people came to California from other states, creating a net loss of about 190,000 residents in 2018.

From 2015 to 2017, California saw a net loss of between 129,000 and 143,000 residents to domestic migration each year, according to census estimates. (The state’s population continues to grow — though relatively slowly — due to migration from abroad and births.)


California has lost more people to other states than it has gained for much of the last two decades, census figures show. The trend last peaked between 2004 and 2006, around the height of the housing boom.
Today’s top headlines



A 2017 Bee analysis found that people leaving California tended to be relatively poor, and many lacked college degrees. Higher up the income spectrum, slightly more people were coming than going.

California saw the biggest net loss of residents to Texas, Arizona, Nevada and Oregon, according to the census estimates, which are drawn from its annual American Community Survey. It gained residents from much of the northeast United States, along with parts of the upper Midwest.
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Lazy:homer:... plus owning a house outright takes some budget concerns out of the equation:flipoff2: Living in BFE also isolates me from dealing with some of the stupid people in urban centers.

Didn't I see somewhere they were trying to repeal or modify Prop 13?
 
Stuck here until I finish with school, I've worked around and in ag my whole life, going somewhere that doesn't have crops everywhere is a bit scary for me.
I do fear being completely lost without my current business network.
 
Honest question.
Why do you stay?
What is the final straw that would make you look to another state or country?

immediate family. my parents live about 5 miles away, the inlaws 2 hours. all of my siblings live within 2 hours.

jobs - i would have to find a job to keeps all our cost of living ratios inline with what they are now. thats the sticking point of us right now. i dont have a degree, so without an in somewhere i dont pass the paper shuffle. wife is a teacher and makes good money, but is kinda miserable. we could survive on my income but couldnt afford insurance (~25%).

to move somewhere else i need to be able to shoot a gun off my back porch and room for a pump track.
 
It's a beautiful state with tons to offer as far as natural beauty and places to go. Also the variety of different foods is absolutely amazing. Up until just recently all of the family has been in SoCal and Sharon wouldn't leave because being close to family is extremely important to her. That's changing now that most want to leave California because it's impossible for them to realistically afford a house here anymore. I'm completely disgusted with the politics here, and have been for quite some time, so I've been prodding Sharon about moving. We're seriously looking at Idaho and if that doesn't work we're looking at the Flagstaff, Az. area, probably around Williams or Parks. Also, the tax situation here is becoming unbearable and I don't see that improving at all.
 
Family, good job, home paid for, recreation near by. Also pre coronavirus none of the California bs really effected me. That combined with not knowing any different makes it hard to want to leave.
 
33 years between Santa Maria, Visalia and Sacramento.


Nothing personal, but those 3 wouldn't keep me here either. :flipoff2:


Why do you stay?
What is the final straw that would make you look to another state or country?


Money. Pussy. Weather. In that order.

I'm not sure what it would take to get me to look elsewhere. I was born here, less than 50 miles from the ocean. And although I've moved a lot from San Diego (south) to as far as Sequim, Wa (north) I've spent my entire life less than 50 miles from the ocean. I'm spoiled. I love beaches and love fresh water bodies / rivers even more.

Nth largest economy in the world. :smokin:

Avocados. :flipoff2:
 
Nothing personal, but those 3 wouldn't keep me here either. :flipoff2:





Money. Pussy. Weather. In that order.

I'm not sure what it would take to get me to look elsewhere. I was born here, less than 50 miles from the ocean. And although I've moved a lot from San Diego (south) to as far as Sequim, Wa (north) I've spent my entire life less than 50 miles from the ocean. I'm spoiled. I love beaches and love fresh water bodies / rivers even more.

Nth largest economy in the world. :smokin:

Avocados. :flipoff2:

The first two were pretty bad, but I had a hell of a good time in Sac.

You lived in Squim? You know it's like a hipster boom town these days?
 
The first two were pretty bad, but I had a hell of a good time in Sac.

You lived in Squim? You know it's like a hipster boom town these days?

It was on its way already. It was 93 that I lived on the Olympic peninsula, but it was also somewhat brief. I have family in Wa, Or, and the rest are all here. If there's one thing NOT keeping me here, it's family. :laughing:


I despise Sacramento, wholly. Visalia? Yikes. Santa Maria is a dump...
 
Nothing.... moved a few wks ago. I grew up in the bay area, moved away for school and moved back for a large job market. Wife and I both had great jobs that payed well, good vacation, tons of family close by. It was always just enough that we could do what we want. We always talked about leaving anyways, and all this covid bs was the straw that broke the camels back.
Moved onto a few acres, tons more outdoors way closer, river less than a mile away, more rain (good thing), etc....
 
Didn't I see somewhere they were trying to repeal or modify Prop 13?

Yes... they are trying Prop 15 which goes after business/commercial properties. If it passes, it may be my signal to get the hell out of the failed experiment :/

But my house is on the lower scale without a chance of drastic swings so I should be good to go ;)
 
I despise Sacramento, wholly. Visalia? Yikes. Santa Maria is a dump...

My sister still lives in Visalia with here loser boyfriend and 100k other losers. I couldn't get out of there fast enough. Too many people in SoCal and that includes San Diego. I suppose if you lived next to Mojo Nixon and didn't have to ever go anywhere, those 70* days and 60* nights would be good.
 
Yes... they are trying Prop 15 which goes after business/commercial properties. If it passes, it may be my signal to get the hell out of the failed experiment :/

But my house is on the lower scale without a chance of drastic swings so I should be good to go ;)

My other sister has a house in Diamond Bar that they bought in 93 or so for $275k, and it's worth a grip of money now, and she was going to sell it and buy something in Pasadena, (don't ask), but the taxes would be more than what they are paying for mortgage/insurance/taxes on the DB house.
 
The first two were pretty bad, but I had a hell of a good time in Sac.

You lived in Squim? You know it's like a hipster boom town these days?
Wife’s uncle lives there. Been there for family reunions a few times. Last rental house we stayed at the owner offered to sell it to us. It was a nice place. I could live there.
 
Wife’s uncle lives there. Been there for family reunions a few times. Last rental house we stayed at the owner offered to sell it to us. It was a nice place. I could live there.

Dad was from Port Angeles. It's amazing how different the weather is between PA and Sequim, like 10 less inches of rain per year, and only 15 miles apart.
 
I've been all over the country.

I keep finding my way back here.

It's mostly the food:laughing:

But I love the mountains.

The kids are all grown up now and I made sure they got to stay in the same school all the way through.

My new job has opened some doors though and I/we can live anywhere now.

We're currently working on the house and at the point we are done it'll ne time to make a choice.

I could probably stay here till I die.

Unless someone comes to take something that they didn't buy.
 
IMG_20200325_184044.jpg
 
Dad was from Port Angeles. It's amazing how different the weather is between PA and Sequim, like 10 less inches of rain per year, and only 15 miles apart.


The owner of the "log home" I lived in, was from PA. He claimed the house (split level) was constructed from a single tree. I don't doubt it, since there were zero moulding accoutrements adorning it. :smokin:
 
My other sister has a house in Diamond Bar that they bought in 93 or so for $275k, and it's worth a grip of money now, and she was going to sell it and buy something in Pasadena, (don't ask), but the taxes would be more than what they are paying for mortgage/insurance/taxes on the DB house.

If your sister was old enough, she could carry that low prop value forward for purposes of prop taxes... part of Prop 13. I forget the age. My dad did that on a house bought in 79 a few years ago :eek:

Unfortunately, I see Prop 13 getting "Propped" out by idiot voters who are getting misinformed on how widespread the use of Prop 13 is.
 
If your sister was old enough, she could carry that low prop value forward for purposes of prop taxes... part of Prop 13. I forget the age. My dad did that on a house bought in 79 a few years ago :eek:

Unfortunately, I see Prop 13 getting "Propped" out by idiot voters who are getting misinformed on how widespread the use of Prop 13 is.

My landlord in Sac was one of the Prop 13 framers. He was an asshole, but did good work on that along with Jarvis and Gann.
 
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