Quote:
Originally Posted by Zeke
So, to any of you CA expats (Red Beard, etc.), is the magic gone? Does it live only in the minds of us diehard remaining natives (3rd generation here)?
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It was about business. In addition to working in CA, my wife started a business. Every week there was another letter from some agency that we needed to pay this fee or that tax. Texas is very business friendly, and Houston even more so.
Cost of living. Everything was more expensive in San Diego. Having a shirt laundered was $4/shirt. In Houston, $0.99, and you could find $0.79 in you looked.
Real Estate was insane. My townhouse appreciated from $360K to $620K in 2.5 years (Nov 2001 to June 2004). We looked at buying a ~2200 sq ft house. in 2004, to get something "reasonably" close, for $1M, but we could only afford Solana Beach, which was not really close to work (Kearny Mesa) considering freeways. I bought a 3400 sq foot brand new house in a gated community for $305K in Houston.
Weather was great, but that isn't everything. A lateral as far as pay was concerned, plus the real estate bonus let us have a very comfortable lifestyle.
And things have only become crazier on the political side.
And then there is racism. My wife experienced more racism in California than she ever had in Texas.