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California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

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Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#131

Post by arethuza »

shawndumas wrote: post #44
sideband wrote: post #33

There's some sort of Stockholm syndrome prevalent among too many Bay Area residents that compels them to accept the lower quality of life. I lived there for several years until recently, and it was a surreal experience to hear others discuss the sacrifices they were making just to have a roof over their family's head, to provide a half-decent education for their children. And these were well-payed folks at the brand-…

Having lived in Long Island, NY and Boca Raton, FL I gotta say... I don't think I could leave the Bay Area. The weather, the geological features, the schools, the meetups, the job opportunities... all factors. But the biggest is that the people are truly interested in intellectual matters in a way that was not extant in the other places I've lived. My son is a programmer and nobody had a clue what he was talking abou…

What geological features of the Bay Area do you regard as a plus point?

NB Not being snarky - I live in Edinburgh which is overflowing with geological features [hence arguably being the birthplace of geology as a science] and I love that factor but the main geological feature of the Bay Area would appear to be a major disadvantage rather than a feature?

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#132

Post by bthallplz »

oinksoft wrote: post #81
bbarn wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just like half the statements here, this could be changed to "People from the bay area", "People from LA", etc. California has a lot of great people and beauty but when you equate the whole state with the two big cities, of course it paints a negative picture. The entire central coast I met more awesome people than I have living in Chicago for 20 years.

Echoing what you said, I've never met nicer people or made friends more easily than when I lived in Sacramento.

Sacramento and its surrounding region is filled with a lot of latent demand for people who care about things (let alone think about things) and want to do things, which there aren't a lot of --- probably because it's a government-oriented region, which might lead to a tendency to be reactive instead of proactive.

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#133

Post by overcast »

grimmdude wrote: post #123
overcast wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can make a ton of money elsewhere, relative to cost of living. If you were to move to SF, to have the SAME living standards, you'd need to making multiples more than that.

I mean, if you're talking about keeping the SAME living standards moving from somewhere cheaper to SF then that would apply to any major city really. Just depends on your priorities I guess and what you like.

Well, we're discussing standard of living, so that's the priority right now.

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#134

Post by iofj »

eweise wrote: post #90
chrisseaton wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doing away with pensions? Huh? How would that work? What would everyone do when they got too old to work? Do you think people should just build up a savings account? Without an annuity what would they do if they live longer than they planned and run out of savings?

You mean what would all the government workers do when they get too old to work? I don't know but I don't get a pension so why should I pay for theirs?

Given that interest rates are 0.25% and inflation (non-core, the one you'll be paying) is >3% ... what is your alternative ?

A pension is the only chance you have of a decent life when you get old. There is nothing else.

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#135

Post by oldmanjay »

sideband wrote: post #33

There's some sort of Stockholm syndrome prevalent among too many Bay Area residents that compels them to accept the lower quality of life. I lived there for several years until recently, and it was a surreal experience to hear others discuss the sacrifices they were making just to have a roof over their family's head, to provide a half-decent education for their children. And these were well-payed folks at the brand-…

It's extremely unlikely that you are the keeper of the emotional state of millions of people who aren't you. There is tremendous arrogance in asserting that people who don't outwardly share your opinion are pathological, when your source is at best a few 10s of acquaintances.

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#136

Post by sliverstorm »

iamjdg wrote: post #72

These people who sold their Bay Area homes and moved somewhere else to pay cash for a house seem to gloss over the fact that they were able to do this because they struggled in the Bay Area for so many years and became real estate wealthy. They won't see this kind of real estate wealth growth in their new communities.

That's kind of the point, you can get more for less struggle elsewhere. They are giving up the wealth growth.

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#137

Post by jonathankoren »

yequalsx wrote: post #62
shiftpgdn wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do government pensions even exist anymore? There is absolutely no reason for them and they need to go. The government can pay a reasonable salary if they wanted skilled workers.

For me the question is why don't all workers have pensions? As I understand it most 401(k) plans have high expense ratios, rely on people actively participating and generally leave workers with an underfunded retirement. I prefer a system much like the French. Leaving it up to an individual to plan 40 years into the future does not seem like a sensible social policy.

Pensions used to be common until the 1980s. I found this report from the St Louis Fed talking about the transition. https://www.stlouisfed.org/publications/central-banker/summe...

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#138

Post by jmharvey »

arethuza wrote: post #131
shawndumas wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having lived in Long Island, NY and Boca Raton, FL I gotta say... I don't think I could leave the Bay Area. The weather, the geological features, the schools, the meetups, the job opportunities... all factors. But the biggest is that the people are truly interested in intellectual matters in a way that was not extant in the other places I've lived. My son is a programmer and nobody had a clue what he was talking abou…

What geological features of the Bay Area do you regard as a plus point? NB Not being snarky - I live in Edinburgh which is overflowing with geological features [hence arguably being the birthplace of geology as a science] and I love that factor but the main geological feature of the Bay Area would appear to be a major disadvantage rather than a feature?

I assume you're thinking about the earthquake risk. We haven't had a major quake here in a generation, and people have short memories. The San Andreas fault exists day-to-day as a pretty chain of lakes.

I'd also count being in a place where the mountains meet the ocean as a plus, as well as the golden gate (the waterway, not the bridge, though the bridge ain't half bad, either). And a few hours away you've got Big Sur and Yosemite.

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#139

Post by Decade »

wbsun wrote: post #35

People are considering killing Prop 13, which will make more residents leave.

In my personal fantasy, killing Proposition 13 would be done in a progressive manner. Grandma who has paid off her house in Westwood Park and is now a paper millionaire would still keep her 1975 property tax level, but Disneyland would be taxed at currently prevailing rates.

http://www.ocregister.com/taxdollars/strong-477502-ownership... http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2015/jun/29/convers...

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#140

Post by jrnichols »

abduhl wrote: post #7
overcast wrote: post #2

It's unfortunate, California is such a beautiful place. But it's turning into somewhere to visit, and not live. See you soon Sierra's!

I move around and travel a lot for work - I've lived in 4 states in the last 2 years (CO, WA, CA, TX) - and one of the universal things across all the midwest and west coast that I've found is that while most people like the weather/scenery in California EVERYONE hates people from California, except for the people in California. I've heard the saying "California would be great if it wasn't for the people" in literall…

I moved out of California to Texas a few years ago, and part of the reason (besides housing prices) was that I too was sick of Californians. The idea used to be "California leads, the nation follows" but politically, that's changed, and I frequently hear about how sick of Californians everyone else is. Tired of people from CA moving to their areas and trying to change it politically. I can see their point.
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