Life in So. Cal. ...Diego/Carlsbad & others

I live in Huntington bch. just North of S.D. and jobs are easy to come by. but rent and morgage are $$$$$$$$$$$$. But good area, and if So.cal is what you want than this would be the place. It is by definition So. Cal. 909ers are for the most part, WEIRD! So stay away from Riverside!!!!!!

 

Chopper
Here's alittle insight on my recent move.
I spent a few years out here in Diego when my parents were in the Navy. Circa 73-76
Well I had the bug from that point. Surfing, cars and the weather.
Well I was carried off to foreign lands. East coast and the gulf coast.
I then joined the navy to get the heck out of Virginia and settled in Florida.
Not a bad place but it was no SOCAL.
I met this really sweet babe from SOCAL. Ramona to be exact.
She and I flew out to see the inlaws a time or two.
Each time we really loved it here. I loved the weather and the car scene. Down in FLA...it was rust and more rust. Bugs and humidity. We kept throwing the idea around and ran into not being able to afford it.
Well our last trip I said the hell with it. Let's do it.
I looked for a transfer and it turns out they needed people. The whole cost of living was to high for many.
Hmm let's see here. The average medium of wages for Jacksonville was 42K...out in San Diego it was 47k.
We even looked at these 500k plus houses and said no WAY.
Well one of our friends had moved out here back a few years ago. She just piled some clothes in a backpack..jumped on her motorcycle and drove out to Encinitas. she found an apartment and she is making it.
Heck if she can do it ....WE can.
So we took care of eliminating debt. We had my job lined up and the wife lined up one also.
We talked with friend that was an realtor and she found us a nice house. There are ways of affording these houses out here. There are a ton of people doing it.
The key here. The market is now a buyers market. Prices are down. If you need the hook up on a realtor..let me know.
The job market from what I can see is doing quite well. it might be a little slow..but here the horizon is the limit.
If you have your house sold and are selling some of your cars....you will obviously have some money down and no debt.
You can do this.
I live in Ramona. A nice little cow town as they call it.
Places like Poway, Oceanside and Encinitas are still very affordable.
AFA gas,food, etc.
I moved out here...gas is the same as j-ville. food is the same. Clothing is the same. My house insurance was less on a house twice the cost of my previous. Hmmm could that have been becasue I lived in a hurricane state..yeah I think so.
Our electric bill is 1/4 of what it was. We might have run the a/c here once! There in J-ville the humidity is so bad that you had to run it all the time. My drive time is cut in half. The drive into work is a blast.
Just my thoughts...don't sell the bike. This is awesome riding weather. I rode into work the other day and it was 44 deg's. It sure didn't feel that bad. That afternoon it was 68 sunshine and blue sky's and just as beautiful as the day before.

 

Santee, Alpine, Ramona, Rainbow, Poway and Julian.

Barona just redid the drag strip. Right across the road is a offroad course for motocross and fourwheelers.

 

Pete,
Thank you, exactly what I am looking for!!! The wife is here reading all this, she is SO afraid that we will be down there and STUCK, and F'ed!!!! I no longer have family down there so we are just packing up and going...IF we go, 3 kids have moved out and we still have 3 with us, I need to sell 4/5 of my cars well probablr 7/8, and that seems to be my BIGGEST dilimma right now... which ones????5 impalas, 2 VW's,<---those will go!!! 58&74 chevy, a monte, a cutlass, a blazer, 89 t-bird 49&30 chevy and a 23-T, I WILL KEEP the chopper !!!!! You get the picture, I could care less about anything in the house, so selling the house, and some of those rides, I should walk away with about 50/60 grand to go down there with???? maybe less???? next is jobs, we are watching the tribune, and craigs list... Thanks, KEN

 

California is not what it was just a few years ago but as far as cars go, it is still the best place to be.

I would recommend going for a week or more, and actually driving in the traffic (high and low traffic times). See if you think you will be able to deal with it day in, day out. It can really get to some people, especially if you have to drive a lot.

Don't buy, the housing market is just starting its fall from being very over inflated. Wait a year or so, then buy.

 

Yeah, what he said... don't but at the top of the market, especially with interest rates high.

 

You know they bust about the interest rates being high. What is high.
We bought ours it was at 6%...compared to my last rate that was a improvement. The rates have dropped since that.
Chopper...the traffic situation...it all depends on where you work and how you get there. I commute 27 each way. If I am on the Hammer...I am home in 30 minutes. In the cage maybe 40 minutes.
One website we looked at was www.zipreality.com sign on there and start looking at homes and the areas. They even give a satelite view of the address.

 

It's hard to beat SoCal. There's so much to do. Every weekend I grab one of my sons and go for a drive. I never know where i'm going,just get in and go,see which direction moves me at the time. Last weekend,we just drove to Solvang,got a couple pretzels,people watched,then came home. San Diego is another great drive. If you can swing it,I highly recomend it. I don't make six figures,and I can afford a house in O.C. But then my house has gone up 500K. Probably couldn't buy it today. There's many affordable houses in Santee,El Cahon. You've just got to shop around. Never look at anything bigger than you need. I have friends who have bought big houses,than their kids move out and they have this huge house that's empty,unnecessary. I have a small house,1800sq,ft. 3br's. Even if you end up in an apartment,don't over do it. Why pay for unused space.

 

Traffic is getting to me here, I live in Hollywood, 10-15 years ago we used to say, within 20 minutes you can be anywhere in the city, now it's more like 1 hour and 20 minutes.
You can still find some deals If you are willing to move into a fixer-upper even thou the yuppies have figured that one out too.
The housing market might go down a bit, but don't kidd your self there is a lot of people with money here it will never be affordable again.
On a lighter note, I'm sitting outside with my laptop, getting ready to water my palm trees, thats just priceless.

 

I live in south Orange County, wouldnt live anywhere else, Southern California is the place. You can cruise all year long,not much bad weather, and if we get any it doesnt last long. Aside from housing prices, everything else is about the same. Some outlying areas are still very affordable. And lots of cool cars abound.........!!

 

You can say alot of things about Southern California and that's because we have about everything here. A few hours drive can have you skiing in the mountains, riding your dirt bike in the desert, surfing in the Pacific and last week I saw Nicole Kidman at the local coffee place. There are as many drawbacks as there are advantages. I sold a house in Oakland and the amount of $ I had to spend here would get me a shithole in Compton. But, as somebody else pointed out, you can rent a waaay better place than you can afford to buy. I live in a great neighborhood and pay less rent per month than my neighbors pay in property taxes. When I moved here, my wife had a job lined-up and I didn't and it took a long time to get a decent job that didn't involve a two hour commute. The best advice I can give you is have a job offer and find a place to live that isn't too far away from that job; otherwise you will never see your family or feel like working on your projects!
I have lived in LA and San Diego and would give this advice for both cities.

 

I agree,Dreadman. A shitty day in SoCal,is still better than a good day in Seatle. Excuse me while I go water my roses.(HA HA)

 

Woops I made a mistake in an earlier reply...the unemployment rate is 3.5%. There are help wanted signs everywhere and not just "entry level" jobs either.

 

I'm also thinking of moving to S.D.. My gal is in the NAVY, I'm an A.F reservists, close to finishing school.. She wants to get married and wants me to make the move to killa kali... I love TEXAS so much and the car scene is getting better every year, summer is rough really rough, I have family in O.C, so I'm looking at the pro's and con's of living in so, cal....
Good post by the way...

 

Originally Posted by Dreadman: On a lighter note, I'm sitting outside with my laptop, getting ready to water my palm trees, thats just priceless

Yeah, lets see, I slept in later than usuall this morning, extra beer, baby was sick, and watched a late movie, so I wake up, put on some clothes to go out to the garage, and wait...NO Fuckin' way there is snow on the ground and it is sticking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Man I can't believe it!!! even back east the temp. is still in the 50's!!!! On another site right now putting together a resume! Never done that before....I'll be baaaack...Ken

 

I'm spending today rattle canning my Valiant. Move down here quick, I need some help sanding HAHA!!.

- Joe

 

Well I would rather be sanding than shoveling snow!!! This absolutely sucks!!!!!!
When I move down, or even earlier, I will get ahold of you!!!

 

I grew up in So Cal & moved around alot until my mid 20's & moved back in 1996. it's great here, but it is really getting crowded & they are building more residences anywhere they can fit them in. it's not all roses, but no place is. The traffic is horrible during rush hour pretty much from Ocenside to Ventura it's gridlock. There is also alot of things going down with the illegal immigration causing some issues and dividing people & the police are really cracking down on harleys, loud exhaust & altered suspensions.

 

Just F-IN' great!!! My chopper has two long home-made 4" megaphone pipes for exhaust, and the rake is a huge 57 degrees!!! 50 in the neck with 7 in the trees, it is 10' 3" long!!!!

 

Location Location location. Socal is socal. If you want to buy in socal you will pay a pretty penny. If you don't someone else will. There is still affordable housing here though. Off course the builders are still building. Prices did soften and come down a bit but that was due to interest rates going up a bit. If you or anyone else wants a run down send me a message. I'm one of them A-holes in the real estate business lol

 

ah the old want to move back to soCal...i grew up just outside the gaslamp quarter in downtown San Diego: Golden Hill for the locals. I love that area, watched it grow from a shit hole to a real hopping area, my parents bought thier house there in '76, a nice 2 story victorian...and it was only 40k.

My main problem with soCal is that the cost of living is equivalent to that of the northern half of the state, yet the wages are apprx 15- 20% less for the same jobs.

Traffic stinks anywhere in California, but no matter what anyone says it doesn't hold a candle to New York/ New Jersey...

The weather is damn near guarenteed to be great 360 odd days a year. If you are near the coast it will be around 75 and there is this nice marine layer that moves in at night to cool everything down.

The east counties are just plain hot and misserable be it Alpine, Lakeside, El Cajon...the farther east the hot, dryer, etc.

I miss soCal, but i would rather visit it and live hear in Napa.

 

I lived in San Diego for 35 years and watched it go from a wonderful place to live to being so congested that you could hardly move. The last job I held there was 15 miles from home and the afternoon drive took a full freaking hour! The Home Depot was only a mile from the house and we had to wait through FIVE traffic lights to get there! Could take as long as twenty minutes.
Yes, the weather is great and the car scene is the best but the price in quality of life just became too high and we left last spring. Best decision we ever made. East TN is like SoCal was 20-30 years ago and the weather isn't all that bad. (Yesterday it was almost 70 degrees and we were out in the roadster) I have a comparably sized house here to what we left. It's on a half acre and it was one third of what our SoCal house cost and property taxes for the year are less than one month's house payment was back there. People here are friendly and the pace is much slower.
We lived in Santee for 15 years, had no real room on the property for cars and had to keep everything out of sight, in the garage. We will never go back.

 

You know the pigs only pull you if you are showing your ass. My 65 mustang will set off car alarms at idle. I have had cops pull up to me and give me thumbs up even with FLA tags.
So don't fret on that one. Just drive it with respect aorund town and then whale on it in the countrysides.
In a nutshell...SOCAL isn't for everyone. I have lived in my share of states. FLA, VA, HA, Ill, LA, TX, CO, SC, OK and Ca. By far CA is my favorite. With CO , TX and OK running a close second.
Do you homework. Good luck with the move.

 

i've lived here my entire 36 yr life (except a couple years up in venice)...currently living in university heights (a "transitional neighborhood) - from my perspective san diego is a great place to live excepting the cost, jackasses, traffic, seriously corrupt local government, bad streets (no joke, still can't figure this one out).

all in all, i stay for the mexican food and the 5% of residents and friends that are genuinely great.

...and the cops don't pull you over around here unless they intend to shoot you.

 

what do you do for a living? That might also play a role in what part of SoCal you move to.
check---http://caljobs.ca.gov

or Monster too.

 

HaHa.. that's pretty true. I have loud pipes, expired tags, I'm too low and I speed where ever I go. No tickets, not even pulled over.
(of course, now I'll get 3!)

- Joe

 

I forgot about how corrupt and shiesty the politcs are down there...making the NYC look clean. I forgot about how many people are under investigation and or going to jail.

Simply put, San Diego has the best mexican food in the world!

 

Yeah I've been watching the classifieds on the computer lots, and been on that monster site too! Everyone wants a Resume, even for $10.00 warehouse work?!?!? so been trying to put one together!
Did Warehouse work for 7 years, then supervised the rod shop at a rebuild shop for 6 years, now punching a button on a CNC.