BG, again, you’re missing the point. Taxes are high and are one component of the high expenses it takes to live here. Meanwhile opportunities are falling and the Gen-Y you like to rail against in Cali has lower expectations than their parents. We’ve had that discussion before, areas where the up coming generations have lower expectations than the current generation stagnate and decline.
Housing and other expenses attribute greatly to the housing disconnect and the general dissatisfaction with SoCal once people are done with their single years.
There is a continued pressure on the upper middle class that influences out migration of that critical tax and consumer base. As people begin to look elsewhere, they are seeing more opportunity, less government interference, less expenditures and equal quality of life issues.
California, through tax policy, regulation and good fortune is accelerating the income divide between the haves and the have nots with the the middle ground disappearing. We as society in California will not survive the continued drain on quality jobs and lowered quality of life expectations for middle income $50K-$150K people and people starting out from college.
When I say good areas, I mean desirable. IOW, coastal. In LA/OC that’s west of the 405. In OC, almost all SFRs sub-$400K are in neighborhoods that are either bad as in dangerous or have a high concentration of one ethnicity. OC is fairly self segregated. As you move inland, particularly, the IE, I see no reason not to move to Phoenix, SLC, Denver, Texas. You’ve got the same climate and you’re two hours from the beach anyway.
To buy it you need what? A $100K income if doing a 3% FHA loan, PITI will then be about 27% of your gross.
That neighborhood? Not horrible, not great. Renting though, is even more expensive. And that’s now, it was even worse over the last decade.
As for the Escondido house, think about the economic advantage of not having rent, what’s that? $1400-$2200 a month they’re not forking over? That’s if they could live in Escondido. If not rent it. As for fixing, well, rent to repairs is a pretty solid repair schedule. Imagine how poor their life would be if they weren’t left the house.
