The remarks about people leaving and deciding not to come are so true, and there is a recent thread on this called “Should Young People Leave California.” Still interesting for those of you who are not young anymore!

Bottom line is that if you are well educated and are a doctor, lawyer, engineer etc. you can make it work in San Diego, especially if you are married and your wife/husband have a well paying job, and especially as home prices continue to fall. On the other hand, if like most people you are in a lower paid profession like teaching, social work, policing, fire fighting, many business fields etc. it is going to be difficult, especially if you are young and haven’t bought yet.

What is clearly happening is that these young, middle class, often college educated people who have not yet bought and are not in lucrative careers are leaving. San Diego is going to become a land divided between an upper class and a lower class to serve them with little in between. It’s why Lou Dobbs called his new book The War on the Middle Class.

Thankfully, the escape valve is that there are hundreds of great cities out there where a middle class family can own a great home and live the good life. I plan to move to one of them! My wife and I are late 20s, early 30s, have two children, both college graduates and even have some equity from a previous home but still can’t afford the life we want here.