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@bearfan and @Cornfed Hick what do you think, Texas or California?? My youngest graduates in 4 years and I'm making plans to move to either Austin or San Diego. Both look like they have good IT jobs available. CA looks warmer but more expensive. Just looking for opinions on the pros and cons.
 
Wästed The Great said:
@bearfan and @Cornfed Hick what do you think, Texas or California?? My youngest graduates in 4 years and I'm making plans to move to either Austin or San Diego. Both look like they have good IT jobs available. CA looks warmer but more expensive. Just looking for opinions on the pros and cons.
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I have lived and worked in Dallas and San Diego (went to college in San Diego as well) ... there is no doubt it is a great place to live. I will put the caveat that if you can afford to live semi-near the ocean. As you get inland, the weather advantage starts to go away (hot in the summer) and as you mentioned it is expensive as hell for everything from taxes, to gas, to housing, car registration, and on and on and on. From experience, if you are not near the beach, you will not end up going there too often. It is a royal pain getting there, parking, cleaning out your car from piles of sand. On the plus, you are close to Disneyland, Hollywood, LA, etc

Austin is cool, I have not lived there, but go there fairly often. Great music scene, a nice new shed to go see Maiden at, really good food, some cool German towns near by, and plenty of outdoor stuff (Lake Travis, river rafting near New Braunsfels), and you are close to San Antonio. The downside is the heat during the summer.

It really comes down to "is the better weather and the beaches in San Diego worth what will end up being the insane costs". For me, I prefer the lower costs in Texas and go on 2 or 3 really nice trips a year with the money I save living here.
 
Call me nuts, but I heard so many bad things about Southern California that I wouldn't want to live there. When I think of it, I mostly think of extreme heat and dryness, major brushfires, constant earthquake risks, high pollution and massive social inequality resulting in extreme crime. It sounds like hell on earth to me.
 
It really depends where you are ... it is very mixed. You can go from million dollar houses to gang infested areas real quick. Which is why I mentioned you pretty much need to be near the ocean if you want to avoid a lot of the crap (though Ocean and Pacific Beaches have a fair amount of beach scum hanging around) and the heat.

My Dad still lives there, he is in a pretty nice spot (quiet and old neighborhood) and he gets a breeze from the ocean .. .but if he were 2 miles east, it would be a shit hole and no breeze. There is a town nearby called El Cajon, which has all the smog blow into it and it is trapped by a mountain to the east ... talk about a miserable place to live .. you have to drive through a thick layer of haze to get to it ... hot as hell during the summer.

A lot of Californians have been moving to Rosarita Mexico, to be on the beach and actually have a shorter commute into downtown from where they could afford to live in the US .. but I understand that is getting pretty expensive too.
 
Phew. The airline Norwegian Air Shuttle will not go on strike. Good for me as my return flight after Fortarock is with them. I wouldn't like to spend more time in Schiphol Airport than strictly necessary.
 
Thanks for all the input!! That's what I wanted to know. Some of it I had already thought but I haven't experienced either place.
 
Wästed The Great said:
Thanks for all the input!! That's what I wanted to know. Some of it I had already thought but I haven't experienced either place.
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I'd go visit each ... but spend half time doing vacation-y stuff while you are there and the other half driving around neighborhoods in your price range and drive to the IT centric areas to/from there during rush hour. Though San Diego does have a nice light rail system going for it, which might help on some of the costs if you can live semi-near a station.
 
bearfan said:
I'd go visit each ... but spend half time doing vacation-y stuff while you are there and the other half driving around neighborhoods in your price range and drive to the IT centric areas to/from there during rush hour. Though San Diego does have a nice light rail system going for it, which might help on some of the costs if you can live semi-near a station.
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Yeah, I think I'm going to spend the next couple of years doing that, scoping the areas out, doing some visiting to see what I see. I'm considering not even owning a car if I'm in CA, because I'll just use my bike and public transportation.

California is some place I've just always wanted to go to -- regardless of all the cons. But, recently, I've been talking to some people that lived in TX and it sounds good too. Tech jobs seem good in both locations, so I think that works out ok for me. And, luckily, I won't need anything other than a smaller one-bedroom apt to live in.

Its all 'long-term' planning at this point, but I kind of want to stay where ever I go for at least 5 years, so I wanna choose wisely.
 
Wästed The Great said:
Yeah, I think I'm going to spend the next couple of years doing that, scoping the areas out, doing some visiting to see what I see. I'm considering not even owning a car if I'm in CA, because I'll just use my bike and public transportation.

California is some place I've just always wanted to go to -- regardless of all the cons. But, recently, I've been talking to some people that lived in TX and it sounds good too. Tech jobs seem good in both locations, so I think that works out ok for me. And, luckily, I won't need anything other than a smaller one-bedroom apt to live in.

Its all 'long-term' planning at this point, but I kind of want to stay where ever I go for at least 5 years, so I wanna choose wisely.
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Not owning a car in CA is tough .. even in a place that has a solid transportation system. It might work if you both lived and worked close to a light rail station, but if you have to depend on buses, you are going to be spending a boatload of time on/waiting for buses. Don't you have a motorcycle? I'd keep that at least.

I understand what you are doing ... we are a few years out from no more kids in the house. Planning on downsizing (probably here) and getting remote jobs so we can spend about 4-6 months of the year elsewhere (pick a city and "live" there for a month kind of deal). That is where TX is of an advantage, we can buy a nice house (1500-ish sq feet) in a nice area for under $100K still or a nice Condo for $70K ish (which is what I want to do .. no yard work!)
 
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