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SO CAL is/was home for me. I lived there for 48 years...I saw it change from endless Orange Groves to endless Suburban Tract Houses. I saw it change form one car on the 57 to an endless snake of cars 60 miles long. CA has changed and not for the better in my opinion. But it still is one he11 of a place to live.

I left and moved one step over the line from CA , to Las Vegas. I had visited this place on and off for 48 years. Summers here are brutal, winters colder with crisp in the air, and talk about a corrupt State including its government. Las vegas is truly a Dirt Bagger Town. However that said the desert scenery is realy quiet beautiful. The place is BOOMING with new developments literally springing up over night. Drive by some vacant land and the next time you go by there will be anothe 200 houses there filled with families. Drive down the Beltway and count the cars with CA license plates as well as from every other state in the union. This place is changing and the old ways are dieing, all be it hard.

You might say LV is LAs newest suburb..just a little further east thats all. The Gun Laws here are very tolerant, taxes are lower, and there are 1.4 M people to deal with instead of the 20M in So CAl. If I want to go visit SO CAL its an easy 3.25 hour drive. Naw all in all LV ain't that bad of a place to be...your outa the mess that CA has turned into...and RE prices are begining to rival those in SO CAL...315K is the median price home here in the valley...vs 337K for Ontario/Riverside. I'm of the opinion that LV RE one day in the not to disatant futher will be MORE expensive than much of SO CAL. Simply because it won't have the problems CA has burdened itself with, and land is limited. After all which city of 1.4M has as many world class amenites as LV.

Finally, if you asked me where the absolute best place to live is...and where I would go if I had a bit more dinero..I would say Santa Barbara, CA. or its environs. It is the American Rivera...the climate the Geography, the amenities and its one step away from a Major City..LA...

Other places I would check out are...Tucson, Prescott, Col Springs, Alberquere, Reno and Squim WA.