CONGRATULATIONS renterclint! You’ll be glad you did it (I am glad I did). I too am from SD north county coastal, and it was hard at first to accept that we couldnt afford to live there. We make plenty of cash, had a good amount of savings. Made no sense to me.
I really thought our move would be something to be ‘endured’, until we could get back into the SD housing market. But as time has gone on (been 5+ years now), I realize that life for us is actually much much BETTER here… even on the cold-icy-cars-sliding-around days.