[SeaDweller]

CA gets a bad rap......I moved from southern CA (Palos Verdes), where granted, the houses are expensive, to Florida, where the houses are cheaper, but not as cheap as they used to be!

There's also some things that folks just don't realize. Property taxes in CA are straightforward; a percentage (1.04% ?) of your property value. In Florida (as least in my area), they're highly discriminatory. You can have a $200K house on the water and pay $12K/year in taxes, yet you can have a $1M home in another area, and pay $3K/year in taxes. They punish the folks that they assume have the money.

Also, my power/gas bill in CA never exceeded $70/month combined. In the summer, my power/gas bill can easily exceed $300/month!!! Finally, homeowners insurance is assinine in Florida, at least 5 times what I was paying in CA. Auto insurance ain't cheap either.......

To put all this in perspective, my house in FL (when I move here 3 years ago) was $200K less than my house in CA, yet my monthly outlay was the same!!!

The bummer about CA is that I'm a boater, and boating in CA costs a fortune!!!