why California ?

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Feb 19, 2001
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Originally posted by: OdiN
Originally posted by: RaDragon
It's really difficult to explain. I live in the South Bay. We moved from Redondo Beach (renting) to Torrance (bought a home) because we wanted to be close to the beach, but still be able to afford the mortgage. The house is a measley 3-bedroom, 1750 sq. feet and two years ago, it cost us about $360K. I recently heard that it's worth over $500K. Living "close" the beach means that we don't use air conditioning during the summertime (albeit it does get hot! but not as hot as the Valley), we run along the coast, and just really enjoy all-year-round cool weather.

In general, I like the mutli-ethnic culture of Los Angeles County. For me, it's a more laid back and welcoming place than Boston or NYC (of course, I've only lived 6 weeks total in those two other cities)... It's also nice to live close to the beach communities (Manhattan, Hermosa and Redondo Beach) 'cuz of the different stuff that you can do from day to night.

So do you live in the South Bay or do you live in Torrance? Torrance is down in nasty LA. The South Bay is ya know...San Francisco...at least that's what everyone else I know in this state thinks of when you say "South Bay"


South Bay is Silicon Valley. South Bay refers to Milpitas, San Jose, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Los Altos, Los Gatos, Saratoga, Santa Clara... West starts from San Mateo County and Los Altos, Palo Alto, Menlo Park, all the way up to SF. East Bay refers to Fremont, Oakland, Berkeley, Richmond...
 

LongCoolMother

Diamond Member
Sep 4, 2001
5,675
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Originally posted by: DLeRium
Originally posted by: OdiN
Originally posted by: RaDragon
It's really difficult to explain. I live in the South Bay. We moved from Redondo Beach (renting) to Torrance (bought a home) because we wanted to be close to the beach, but still be able to afford the mortgage. The house is a measley 3-bedroom, 1750 sq. feet and two years ago, it cost us about $360K. I recently heard that it's worth over $500K. Living "close" the beach means that we don't use air conditioning during the summertime (albeit it does get hot! but not as hot as the Valley), we run along the coast, and just really enjoy all-year-round cool weather.

In general, I like the mutli-ethnic culture of Los Angeles County. For me, it's a more laid back and welcoming place than Boston or NYC (of course, I've only lived 6 weeks total in those two other cities)... It's also nice to live close to the beach communities (Manhattan, Hermosa and Redondo Beach) 'cuz of the different stuff that you can do from day to night.

So do you live in the South Bay or do you live in Torrance? Torrance is down in nasty LA. The South Bay is ya know...San Francisco...at least that's what everyone else I know in this state thinks of when you say "South Bay"


South Bay is Silicon Valley. South Bay refers to Milpitas, San Jose, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Los Altos, Los Gatos, Saratoga, Santa Clara... West starts from San Mateo County and Los Altos, Palo Alto, Menlo Park, all the way up to SF. East Bay refers to Fremont, Oakland, Berkeley, Richmond...

yea, i live in the south bay. i live on the border between San Jose and Milpitas- on the san jose side. WE call it to 'foothills' here, since we're at the foot of the diablo mountain range. most famous around here is the james lick observatory atop mount hamilton.

south bay, nice place.
 
Feb 19, 2001
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Originally posted by: Eghck
Originally posted by: Rickten
I love all the people in cali saying, oooohh my house has doubled in value in the past three years. You may think your house is worth 1million but nobody is going to buy it for that price UNLESS you are in San Fran or LA area. I would say for San Fran and LA including the surrounding suburbs up to say 60 miles out in all directions there really is no housing bubble. The prices will never drop, they may slow down but they are not coming back down.

Actually, the houses in my neighborhood are going for around 1 million but no one is biting. Hell I don't even think the house Im living in is worth anything near that. Maybe the only thing that will lower housing costs is another recession like we had about a decade ago. Housing prices dropped maybe something like 30%?


Actually 1 million houses are a joke. They're like 3 bedroom places here in Cupertino. Anyone in Palo Alto will tell you real estate is far more crazy than in SF. You really don't understand where the rich neighborhoods are do you? My house is easily worth more than 2.2 million and its a 5 bedroom house sitting on a 1/4 acre lot. Move me to Saratoga or Palo Alto and it would be worth tons more. Go figure. We did buy this place which was a 3 bedroom house for under 400k. By the time we were done building, the house was worth roughly 1 million.

Originally posted by: LongCoolMother

yea, i live in the south bay. i live on the border between San Jose and Milpitas- on the san jose side. WE call it to 'foothills' here, since we're at the foot of the diablo mountain range. most famous around here is the james lick observatory atop mount hamilton.

south bay, nice place.

Ahh. hahaha I live at the other foothills on the western end of the south bay (Cupertino)...
 

geckojohn

Diamond Member
Nov 28, 2000
4,679
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san diego is awesome! i've lived in all parts of CA my entire life and san diego is the nicest so far. Warm, moderate climate and tons of great scenery. san dizzy!
 

shopbruin

Diamond Member
Jul 12, 2000
5,817
0
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haha san jose foothills. my parents live near the ones in evergreen. but anyways.

i can't leave california, barring a huge job offer. i grew up here. my family is here, and most of them in the SF bay area. i grew up in san jose, but i always had a big city nearby (san francisco) and spent time in smaller cities (went to high school in sunnyvale, FHS woot.)

i don't need four seasons. i'm sure they're beautiful, but i've grown up without them. not having them isn't going to kill me. all i know is "hot" "cold" "rain" and "warm." the air does get crisper and cooler in the alleged fall months, inbetween the heat waves, the summers never got excruciatingly hot everyday where i'm from and where i live now, etc.

CA has a lot of idiots that i hate also. i hate how freaking hippie liberal this state is. it drives me absolutely insane sometimes, or that anyone slightly right leaning are seen as right wing nutjobs. but whatever, that's in any state that has a dominant party.

i like not having to deal with tornadoes every year, or hurricanes, or thunderstorms. CA is a huge state - you can go from snowy mountains to the central valley and the land of cows, to the coast and to huge forests.

yes our real estate is insane, but something will give. either i never own a house (sadness...) i make a lot of money (hopefully)... or we inherit (not happening) or the alleged bubble bursts. it's starting to soften but it's still crazy in some areas. avg home price in santa clara county is still around 700 grand. we'll see how things go in a few years, and i'm not going to complain since i'm not in any position to buy a house, no matter what part of the country i live in.

being from the SF bay area, and stuck in the evil that is called los angeles, i still don't think i can leave it. other places are still moderately priced, if you're willing to be stuck in those areas. i'm not, and i don't want to compromise, so i deal with it.

los angeles and SF does not equal all of california. there are tons of nice people, and the ca bashing is incessant. one cannot define all of a state by it's two largest centers. it's the entire big city life here - just don't hurt each other. you won't get the friendliness of the south, but we'll go great lengths to avoid you.

main point i guess? living in ca is a double edged sword. it has it's good, and it's bad. i just deal with it.
 

BSEagle1

Senior member
Oct 28, 2002
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I live in California, and I have to say it freakin' sucks here. :)

Too many cities. Everything is WAAAAAAY too expensive. The schools suck. The people are rude. It's a celebrity state.

I can't wait till we move to middle-of-the-mountains Northern Idaho...and I most certainly can't wait till some absolute retard pays 500k+ for this house :p

Oh yeah, and the weather sucks. I wish it weren't so sunny. Though we get a very nice amount of cold weather and rain here in Northern California...I lived in SoCal for awhile. 10x worse. Though atleast there our neighbors were pleasant...despite this area being rather rural, our neighbors here are some of the rudest bottom-of-the-barrel scum I've ever met even though we keep to ourselves and mind our own business.

I don't see how the social life is worth it, either, since so many people are either stupid, rude, snobby, or all three...then there's the off chance, if you live in the right place, you might run into someone famous. God I hate celebrities, they're the biggest pest here aside from the yuppies.

Can't wait to leave.
 
Feb 19, 2001
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You're just BSing right? Schools may suck overall, but we have some of the TOP high schools here and the TOP universities. Bay Area schools in Cupertino, Saratoga, Palo Alto and West San Jose lead the way. YOu know which schools I'm talking about (Monta Vista, Lynbrook, Palo Alto, Gunn, Saratoga, Los Gatos), and look at the univerisities in this state... Cal, UCLA, Stanfurd, Caltech, U$C, the rest of the UC system (arguably the best state school system in the nation), etc....
 

Syringer

Lifer
Aug 2, 2001
19,333
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Originally posted by: DLeRium
Originally posted by: OdiN
Originally posted by: RaDragon
It's really difficult to explain. I live in the South Bay. We moved from Redondo Beach (renting) to Torrance (bought a home) because we wanted to be close to the beach, but still be able to afford the mortgage. The house is a measley 3-bedroom, 1750 sq. feet and two years ago, it cost us about $360K. I recently heard that it's worth over $500K. Living "close" the beach means that we don't use air conditioning during the summertime (albeit it does get hot! but not as hot as the Valley), we run along the coast, and just really enjoy all-year-round cool weather.

In general, I like the mutli-ethnic culture of Los Angeles County. For me, it's a more laid back and welcoming place than Boston or NYC (of course, I've only lived 6 weeks total in those two other cities)... It's also nice to live close to the beach communities (Manhattan, Hermosa and Redondo Beach) 'cuz of the different stuff that you can do from day to night.

So do you live in the South Bay or do you live in Torrance? Torrance is down in nasty LA. The South Bay is ya know...San Francisco...at least that's what everyone else I know in this state thinks of when you say "South Bay"


South Bay is Silicon Valley. South Bay refers to Milpitas, San Jose, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Los Altos, Los Gatos, Saratoga, Santa Clara... West starts from San Mateo County and Los Altos, Palo Alto, Menlo Park, all the way up to SF. East Bay refers to Fremont, Oakland, Berkeley, Richmond...

Believe it or not, Los Angeles has a South Bay too, which consists of Torrance and other cities.
 

BSEagle1

Senior member
Oct 28, 2002
619
0
0
Originally posted by: DLeRium
You're just BSing right? Schools may suck overall, but we have some of the TOP high schools here and the TOP universities. Bay Area schools in Cupertino, Saratoga, Palo Alto and West San Jose lead the way. YOu know which schools I'm talking about (Monta Vista, Lynbrook, Palo Alto, Gunn, Saratoga, Los Gatos), and look at the univerisities in this state... Cal, UCLA, Stanfurd, Caltech, U$C, the rest of the UC system (arguably the best state school system in the nation), etc....


Well, I'm going to be a firefighter and won't be going to college since I'm getting my training through an academy in Texas...so I haven't bothered looking into the universities or any of that. Maybe they're good, maybe not...I'm not going so I don't know.

As for the highschools...I've been to a few in different parts of the state. I still learned more once I went over to homeschool, and learned it faster. And I can't say I've met many people in highschool who I would consider 'bright', but then again I have a pretty low opinion of a lot of the people of my generation/age group anyway. Heck, I have a buddy who's a tech at UCLA and teaches an art class on the side at a community college...even he says the homeschoolers he gets are brighter than those who attended public high schools.

Maybe I'm just cynical ;)
 

Captante

Lifer
Oct 20, 2003
30,353
10,876
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Although I've never lived in California, I'd love to live up in the Sierra near Lake Tahoe for some of the best skiing I've ever seen in my life... Kirkwood rules!

As for the quality of the people, theres jerks & nice people everywhere that I've lived and California is no different, if you look around you'll find decent folks, IME they are actually the majority.
 

DanTMWTMP

Lifer
Oct 7, 2001
15,908
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I love California. I've been up and down the state. I love the people here, the weather, and there's never a moment where there's nothing to do (as long as you have a car lol :p).


It's diverse, sunny, and you can go snowboarding, have a bonfire at the beach nice weather, then hit the bars/clubs all within 24 hours.

The freeways are free, there's many place to go to that's all nearby, it's not humid, and not too hot (along the mountains/coasts. Valley is hot during summer). Good food, diverse food.

Comicon, AX, E3, NAIAS conventions.
all the cool gov't, defense, and tech jobs are centered here.

Computer parts are cheaper. MWAVE is driving distance away :p (right next to my folk's house haha)

Yes living costs is higher, but i'll gladly pay the price to live here for the weather and all the cool things. It's not just about the house. It's what you can do here.
 

0roo0roo

No Lifer
Sep 21, 2002
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Originally posted by: her209
Why California? Because if California seceded from the US, we'd still kick ass economically.

yup. from what i remember UC alone generates more patents than india and china combined:Q almost 3 billion peeps pwned!
 

DanTMWTMP

Lifer
Oct 7, 2001
15,908
19
81
Originally posted by: DLeRium
You're just BSing right? Schools may suck overall, but we have some of the TOP high schools here and the TOP universities. Bay Area schools in Cupertino, Saratoga, Palo Alto and West San Jose lead the way. YOu know which schools I'm talking about (Monta Vista, Lynbrook, Palo Alto, Gunn, Saratoga, Los Gatos), and look at the univerisities in this state... Cal, UCLA, Stanfurd, Caltech, U$C, the rest of the UC system (arguably the best state school system in the nation), etc....

roflmao @ U$C hahahahahaha. Took me awhile to wonder why you put $ instead of S. At first I thought "what USC is a banned word?"

:eek:
 

imported_hscorpio

Golden Member
Sep 1, 2004
1,617
0
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Originally posted by: OdiN
Originally posted by: RaDragon
It's really difficult to explain. I live in the South Bay. We moved from Redondo Beach (renting) to Torrance (bought a home) because we wanted to be close to the beach, but still be able to afford the mortgage. The house is a measley 3-bedroom, 1750 sq. feet and two years ago, it cost us about $360K. I recently heard that it's worth over $500K. Living "close" the beach means that we don't use air conditioning during the summertime (albeit it does get hot! but not as hot as the Valley), we run along the coast, and just really enjoy all-year-round cool weather.

In general, I like the mutli-ethnic culture of Los Angeles County. For me, it's a more laid back and welcoming place than Boston or NYC (of course, I've only lived 6 weeks total in those two other cities)... It's also nice to live close to the beach communities (Manhattan, Hermosa and Redondo Beach) 'cuz of the different stuff that you can do from day to night.

So do you live in the South Bay or do you live in Torrance? Torrance is down in nasty LA. The South Bay is ya know...San Francisco...at least that's what everyone else I know in this state thinks of when you say "South Bay"


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The South Bay is the south region of the San Francisco Bay that is roughly synonymous with Silicon Valley or the Santa Clara Valley. It can also refer to the beach cities at the south end of Santa Monica Bay in Los Angeles County.
 

hjo3

Diamond Member
May 22, 2003
7,354
4
0
Originally posted by: mugs
It makes me wonder why people are so reluctant to move out of California and so willing to live IN California.
Reluctant? Come to Washington; all anyone complains about are how the damn Californians keep moving up here. :p
 

Red Dawn

Elite Member
Jun 4, 2001
57,529
3
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Originally posted by: Anubis
Originally posted by: Eghck
What Klin said. I mentioned once before, where else can you go Snowboarding, and Surfing in one day in tolerable weather conditions.
California pretty much offers everything you want.

you want a state full of assholes?
Having lived in both MA and Ca I can honestly say that per capita Ca doesn't have a have higher percentage of assholes than MA. The drivers in Ca are much more polite than those in MA, especially the Boston Area which are the worse I have ever seen in the US.
 

0roo0roo

No Lifer
Sep 21, 2002
64,795
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Originally posted by: hjo3
Originally posted by: mugs
It makes me wonder why people are so reluctant to move out of California and so willing to live IN California.
Reluctant? Come to Washington; all anyone complains about are how the damn Californians keep moving up here. :p


well what do u expect from the rejects;)
 

Skunkwourk

Diamond Member
Dec 9, 2004
4,662
1
81
Originally posted by: DLeRium
Originally posted by: Eghck
Originally posted by: Rickten
I love all the people in cali saying, oooohh my house has doubled in value in the past three years. You may think your house is worth 1million but nobody is going to buy it for that price UNLESS you are in San Fran or LA area. I would say for San Fran and LA including the surrounding suburbs up to say 60 miles out in all directions there really is no housing bubble. The prices will never drop, they may slow down but they are not coming back down.

Actually, the houses in my neighborhood are going for around 1 million but no one is biting. Hell I don't even think the house Im living in is worth anything near that. Maybe the only thing that will lower housing costs is another recession like we had about a decade ago. Housing prices dropped maybe something like 30%?


Actually 1 million houses are a joke. They're like 3 bedroom places here in Cupertino. Anyone in Palo Alto will tell you real estate is far more crazy than in SF. You really don't understand where the rich neighborhoods are do you? My house is easily worth more than 2.2 million and its a 5 bedroom house sitting on a 1/4 acre lot. Move me to Saratoga or Palo Alto and it would be worth tons more. Go figure. We did buy this place which was a 3 bedroom house for under 400k. By the time we were done building, the house was worth roughly 1 million.

Originally posted by: LongCoolMother

yea, i live in the south bay. i live on the border between San Jose and Milpitas- on the san jose side. WE call it to 'foothills' here, since we're at the foot of the diablo mountain range. most famous around here is the james lick observatory atop mount hamilton.

south bay, nice place.

Ahh. hahaha I live at the other foothills on the western end of the south bay (Cupertino)...


Im no expert in real estate, and I am aware that there are neighborhoods worth way more than mine. I was just pointing out personally that I felt my own area isn't even worth what it's currently valued at and that Im not exactly happy about it. Incidently, I've heard that Saratoga is a pretty rich area and also has a pretty good high school. Knew someone who played on their football team a few years back.

About the school system, I think you're right about UCs being some of the best public universities in the nation.


 

0roo0roo

No Lifer
Sep 21, 2002
64,795
84
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yup, rich area, good school. it is how it is. and in fact the good school tends to drive the prices up even higher. couple of my parents friends downgraded to a smaller house to afford a better school district.
 

PingSpike

Lifer
Feb 25, 2004
21,758
603
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California sucks because there are to damn many people. And there's to damn many people because there's so much good stuff there like you guys have mentioned. But to many people screw everything up.
 

ColdFusion718

Diamond Member
Mar 4, 2000
3,496
9
81
I'll have to say it's because of the mild weather. However, if I find a job in another state, I'm moving the hell out of here. I'm sick of the damn traffic and snotty people here. I'd live in a nice southern state, but then again I'm asian and I'm not how tolerant those people are of my people.
 

ParStyles

Member
Aug 28, 2001
79
1
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Guess we shouldn't look out and see Mount Shasta which stands over 14k ft. So, yes . . we have hills and mountains.