[quote=kicksavedave]I feel you Cardiff, I too am preparing to head out of San Diego, in my case for the 2nd time in 3 years. I left for Colorado in 2007. Came back for a job promotion in Sept 2008, but that job went sour real quick as the economy tanked. I thought I missed California, but it turns out I was happier in Colorado. We had better connections with friends there, a much better and cheaper house(owned, not rented), generally great weather, tons of things to do, and enough culture and food to keep us happy. San Diego has weather and the ocean but we don’t use the ocean, so really all it has is weather.
But for us the decision comes down to this. For our income we can buy around $500-$600K. Here in California we can buy a tiny run down dump with no yard in a crummy part of town. In Colorado we can have anything we want – 5 acres in the hills, a brand new hip loft in the heart of town, a mcmansion in suburbia. We want land and privacy, and we can’t have that here unless we move to Valley Center, which doesn’t work for commute purposes. That, and the connections we made out there were much stronger, better overall quality of relationships out there. We’re also considering the DC area, where I’m from and still have family there, but the real estate difference from here to there is minimal so that is a tough decision.[/quote]
kicksavedave, you must have purchased your Colorado home many years ago. My mom lived in Colorado so I have visited there more than 100 times between 1980 and 1999. I considered moving there as well at one time, but Denver’s best neighborhoods (the only ones I would be interested in living in) were WAY out of my price range for a (circa 1933) 1200-1500 sf bungalow. Sure, there are several counties surrounding Denver County with cheaper RE, but the only counties I would consider a good investment would be Denver, Boulder and parts of Arapahoe. Many suburban areas surrounding Denver ARE NOT a good RE investment in my book, due to a variety of factors.
In addition, I skied the Rockies for at least a week at a time for 22 years straight, mostly Steamboat and Beaver Creek. Real estate in the Rockies has SKYROCKETED in recent years. The prices for a one-bedroom condo near or in major ski areas are BREATHTAKING. Real estate wise, I believe you can get far more “bang for your buck” in S. Lake Tahoe, CA and Mammoth Lakes, CA (much less inventory than S. Lake Tahoe) than Colorado.
I don’t agree that you can’t buy a decent property for your family in SD County for less that $500K, especially now. I feel Colorado prices are on par with (or higher than) San Diego County, unless you purchase in the (grasshopper-infested) plains or a ghetto “suburb.”
Cardiffbaseball, I wish you the best in FL. I drove to Key West in August 1983 and stayed the night in an Orlando campground, where I was completely eaten up by mosquitoes, even through all the repellent I was wearing. I was a miserable walking “pink stiff” Calamine bottle the rest of my FL vacation. The fleas were so bad in the Keys that when we dumped our freshly-caught lobster in a pot of boiling water we couldn’t even see each other’s faces 18″ apart! The blowing rain was so bad on the bridges driving back, I thought we were trapped and our car would fall in the ocean. Back in SD, we were faced with a BIG car wash JOB!!
You can always install a purple-light rotating “bug incinerator” outside your screen door and listen to it crackle in the evenings for entertainment. Not for me – LOL!
