Thanks for the input on things to consider. We did look at the tax implications of moving there since property taxes are quite notorious in some areas. The house we have under contract will have about $6000 a year in property tax (for a house @292k) which isn’t a ton higher in actual costs then the ~$4500 I pay in property taxes currently (house here is about 450k) although it is a much higher percentage. There is no state tax so I’ll be saving about $6k a year between state income tax and SDI.

Utilities are higher but most home also have two ACs so you can zone it out. The current owners sent their utility bills for the last year and they average out to about $200 a month between electric and gas which is also about on par with what I’m currently paying here. I’d speculate that utilities there are higher on average because the average house there is larger.

We don’t eat out much and most people we know here eat out everyday for lunch and a lot of days for dinner but that doesn’t sway our choices.

Prices there have seen some fairly large increases since the bottom of the housing downturn but they are developing a lot of areas which should mitigate any housing shortages in the area. Even if there was a large correction in the housing prices there we could absorb it much better then if the same were to happen here because the actual prices there are so much lower. Of course the inverse of that will be that the home we buy there won’t appreciate nearly as much as a house here but we are perfectly fine with that since we aren’t too keen on the idea of using our primary residence as a nest egg/investment.