Agree that many Boomers, and younger people just starting out, will most likely have to leave CA for retirement, employment, housing, and tax purposes, but many, like myself, and just about everyone I know, plans to stay–because (after checking out most of the world), there’s no other place we want to live.
Yes, other less expensive, and more tax-friendly areas such as AZ (where we also have some rentals) and TX, etc., are booming again, and I think they will continue to attract many who are looking for financial relief.
CA, and San Diego in particular, is a tough place to sustain a high standard of living from the working years all the way through the retirement years.
Even those who are making the “big bucks” here today, may not be able to sustain their lifestyles here for the balance of their lives–should they choose to do so. Overall, it will be interesting to see how this all plays out over the years.[/quote]
Great points as usual flyer. And I totally agree with you on all of these points. I think I’ve mentioned this before but I had about 8 college friends that moved here out of college and none of them live here anymore. Most moved out for employment reasons. (Of course during the bubble years they would rave about how great living in San Diego was and when the real estate market crashed all I’d hear is how SD sucks).
We will definitely be here for the long haul. As flyer mentioned, this is one of the most desirable cities around the world to live in. My family and I travel quite a bit around the world. We own a few properties abroad and my kids were even born abroad. When we decided to settle down and raise our kids we could have moved anywhere but we chose San Diego.
If you can comfortably afford it, there are few places around the world where I truly believe the overall quality of life (especially to raise kids) is better than the NCC area.
No doubt it’s not for everyone. But it will always be a desirable area for people to live. But I’m curious how things will play out as well over the next decade or two.
