Where to live in Cali

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Buckeye71

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A little background we currently live on the east coast but really don’t like winter anymore. Keep kicking the idea of living in Cali and seeing how a lot of you live there was wondering if you could give me some places to look..illy average salary is 250-300 a year and what I struggle with is that enough money to live there? Most houses go for a million or more atleast in a good area. My second question is how is the hunting my boy loves hunting.can you give me the good and bad of California? I spoke with another member here a while back just wanting everyone’s opinion
 
That is enough money to live here. I have a 3000 sqft home 40 min east of LA and it’s about $900k. Southern California doesn’t really have any hunting. Obviously our gun laws are ridiculous so take that into consideration.

Honestly we are looking to leave and go to TX so I wouldn’t recommend living here.
 
I have lived here my whole life. When I retire I will go somewhere else. California sucks and people are inconsiderate assholes, although you can’t beat the weather here. Good luck
 
I grew up in Santa Monica, now in Colorado. I miss West LA for all the things one misses the big city for. Also the beach, I miss surfing!! I feel that Southern California is just too crowded, I am biased however as I am not a huge fan of humans. Go north my man, don't look at anything south of central Ca.
 
NorCal would be a better place for you to look. El Dorado and Placer Counties might be what you’re looking for. I’d stay out of Sacramento County lots of hobostanks.

Are you sure you want to move to CA? Very high taxes, fuel costs, cost of living, etc. Also, if you value your 2A rights, and rights in general, wrong State. Weather is nice and soon they will figure out some type of direct tax on sunshine and rain water. Politics…

The State has changed dramatically in the last ten years and if it wasn’t for certain anchors that keep me here I would have left years ago.
 
I just hate winter anymore and southern states are less union friendly for sure..does all northern Cali get snow?
 
I just hate winter anymore and southern states are less union friendly for sure..does all northern Cali get snow?
In NorCal As you head up into Sierra Mountains and North towards Oregon you’ll get snow. In the valley areas it’s an extremely rare occurrence. It can get cold and windy, but snow is rare.

Also, you could have your power shut off for days by PG&E during wind, heat,snow, and storm events.
 
NorCal would be a better place for you to look. El Dorado and Placer Counties might be what you’re looking for. I’d stay out of Sacramento County lots of hobostanks.

Are you sure you want to move to CA? Very high taxes, fuel costs, cost of living, etc. Also, if you value your 2A rights, and rights in general, wrong State. Weather is nice and soon they will figure out some type of direct tax on sunshine and rain water. Politics…

The State has changed dramatically in the last ten years and if it wasn’t for certain anchors that keep me here I would have left years ago.
I'm going to second these suggestions. "Outside of Sacramento" was going to be one of my suggestions along with Santa Rosa and San Luis Obispo. In my opinion, the Monterey Peninsula has the best weather in the world.

Really though, the ask is overly broad. This place is just too big. What type of community do you want to live in?

I see no reason why anyone would move to So Cal unless they had to for work. 1 in every 100 people in the country lives in the viewshed from my deck and all I see is Orange County. It's a massive city.
 
I live just south of Sacramento. 300/year is plenty to live here. Weather is really nice (moved from Cleveland OH). It gets over 100 during the summer but it always cools down to the 70s overnight. It essentially doesn’t rain the whole summer so no muddy dog prints in the house. It also never dips below freezing so no snow or ice here but I can see it over on the mountains. Plus, we are two hours or less from anything you want to do. Skiing at Tahoe, vineyards (Lodi, Napa, Sonoma, etc), sightseeing at Yosemite, apple orchards near placerville. I don’t hunt (no problem with it, just not my thing) but I’m fairly certain there are good hunting areas both north and east of here.

Edit: If I were moving here with no restrictions on where I lived, I would probably live 20m East or West of Sacramento (wine country vs mountains) instead of 20m south. Also, FWIW, I had no problems bringing my firearms into CA.
 
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Good morning Buckeye71,

I have to agree with everything that’s been stated, the good and the bad. I’ve was born and raised, right smack in the middle of the Communist San Francisco Bay Area my entire life. I love California and absolutely hate it at the same time. What keeps me here is my family, which all live within a 20 mile radius of me. I’m lucky to sill have both parents and they live 4 miles away from me, and have a couple of health issues, which is why I haven’t left. I’m also 21 years into my career and in the the State Retirement System, so I would be a fool to leave now, if I could.

Pros: Beautiful Weather, Wine Country, Beaches, Skiing, Boating, Hiking, etc…

Cons: Overpriced cost of living. The average gallon of gas costs close to $5 🤯. Our Governor, well, we’ll just leave it at that. Im sure others can add to the Pros and Cons list…

Feel free to message me directly.
 
Good morning Buckeye71,

I have to agree with everything that’s been stated, the good and the bad. I’ve was born and raised, right smack in the middle of the Communist San Francisco Bay Area my entire life. I love California and absolutely hate it at the same time. What keeps me here is my family, which all live within a 20 mile radius of me. I’m lucky to sill have both parents and they live 4 miles away from me, and have a couple of health issues, which is why I haven’t left. I’m also 21 years into my career and in the the State Retirement System, so I would be a fool to leave now, if I could.

Pros: Beautiful Weather, Wine Country, Beaches, Skiing, Boating, Hiking, etc…

Cons: Overpriced cost of living. The average gallon of gas costs close to $5 🤯. Our Governor, well, we’ll just leave it at that. Im sure others can add to the Pros and Cons list…

Feel free to message me directly.
I hear you, after my dad passed in 17', I had no one left in SoCal, so wife and I waited till she was 50 and then we both retired out on CalPers. It was a hard thing to do, loved growing up there, a lot of great memories, but its just gotten crazy and its Ground Zero for Democratic inconsistencies, a vaccinate mandate for your kids to go to school, but not the powerful Teachers Union folks or the Prison guards who all contributed greatly to the "save my ass" Newsome campaign. So too much BS and yeah, you can bring your guns into CA, but you have to bring them all in compliance with CA laws, so featureless AR's etc and they have to be registered.
 
Orange County is a hidden gem and a "bubble" within California. Besides all the BS that comes along with California laws and government, Orange County is a hard place to beat. It's expensive, yes, but worth it if you choose the right city. All the outdoor fun is accessible within a couple hours drive: beaches (25 mins), desert (2 hours), mountains with snow (1.5 hours), etc. The weather in SoCal is unbeatable if you like warm weather over cold weather.
 
Hands down it’s San Quentin - 3 hots and a cot
plus it’s safe!
Thas funny, did you know that place has several California Ntl Historic place designations? One is the communal cafeteria, big huge room divided up by several walls. Each wall has these fantastic art murals of California history on them. Yes it was all done by inmates, but outstanding artwork nonetheless. Too bad they sit behind razor wire. I think they tried to get the gas chamber as another, but it was voted down.
 
As long as you aren’t totally wrapped up in left vs right Socal is great! Totally enough money to live on. If you are a gun guy it can be rough. I just feel like the positive far out weigh the negatives. There is so much to do here it’s ridiculous! Also don’t forget Yosemite! We are close to everything! Plus I love going to Mexico. Easy cheap flights from just south of the border. Don’t let politics ruin your life!
 
Man, you are asking the wrong bunch of goobers if you're looking for informed or unbiased opinions on — well — anything.

The most obvious smell is how casually people here throw around the word “communist” while clearly and consistently demonstrating a willful lack of knowledge of what that means by non-ironically objecting to the highly class-based system that underlies many of California's costs and tax policies and is a direct result of California being one of only 27 direct-democracy's in the United States and the most pure (or extreme depending on your point-of-view) direct-democracy in the union.

Most people on this site are working-class, identify as “conservative”, and vote Republican (despite espousing classically Federalist and increasingly Populist points of view which leave many on the fringes of those groups.) In California — and as citizens of the United States — that makes them a frustrated minority of a majority. But unlike at the federal level, their representation has no teeth in a state where the democratic process results in laws that serve the interests of the majority on most easy-to-understand issues, and the upper-class on issues of even minor complexity. So this group here, the active most of whom are defined by fear-based decision making and proudly parade their penchant for hysterics, cannot help but hate California as a concept. It's at once understandable, abhorrent, and tragic.

So my recommendation is to come to FordTremor.com to research tires and tools. Go elsewhere to research reality.
 
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Been living in California for over 60 years now, been all over this state. I left the Mideast before that, moved here with my family as a kid. First thing I noticed when I got here, no humidity! I was actually cold with the temperature around 75 where I first lived near Salinas. It does snow here in areas typically above 1200 feet and normally disappears by the next day at that elevation. (No more snow unless you want it!) California certainly has its good and bad attributes. Depending on whether you are still working and what type of "commuting" you might be doing, there are many choices to be made. Commuting is absolutely horrible, seems to get worse each year. (Not so bad in the northern areas though) Since we moved here in the 60's, I've lived in or near farm land (orchards), city, country areas, and in the city/mountain areas near Tahoe. Of all the places, I prefer the mountains. I like the ocean a short commute away, the desert; a longer commute away, mountain lakes, delta for fishing, Salinas area for hunting, (though I don't hunt anymore) everywhere has a twist on the environment and living conditions. You have snow, dry desert areas, a few natural lakes, many reservoirs which constantly are drawn down due to water drainage, mountains, activities such as backpacking, horse packing, hiking, boating, skiing, endurance runs (famous 100 mile runs in the mountains) One area here does not represent the rest of the state. If I were going to move here now, I'd check out the northern areas first. Much more sparse than the southern coastal areas with reasonable cost of living. Some things to also consider, water conservation is rampant here, fires in the forested areas annually, gas prices insane, intermittent power cuts in extreme windy conditions (easily overcome with a built in backup generator, very common in this area, and has only happened to me twice in two years) and number one down side: the government. But I am embedded here now with family and situated well in the mountain area. I've thought about leaving as well, but as others have stated, I have to weigh the negatives with the positives. For now I stay (and fight) Things could change... Hope this helps.
 
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