How???

[jerryjg]

Bakersfield? Riverside? Modesto? Sacramento-no, not Sacramnto.Phoenix i guess.

 

[hannaugh]

Are you trying to guess where he lives?  If so, you're way off. 

Sounds like Orange or Irvine to me. 

 

[exalted]

Are you guessing where Dangerous or Line6 lives?

Either way, you're right...it's not Sacramento. Sacramento is a cowtown...but an expensive one.  :tard:

 

[hannaugh]

Bakersfield is a few hours north of LA. Riverside is east of LA and a relatively cheap area to in which to live because it only has one freeway to get into OC, and that freeway is notoriously horrific traffic-wise, not to mention Riverside is usually 10 degrees hotter during the summer than OC and LA... and there are a lot of slummy areas in Riverside.  My fiance lives in the nice part of Riverside right now, and the commute to visit him sucks.  I think Modesto is about an 8 hour drive from LA, and Sacramento is a 9 hour drive from LA.  And Phoenix is um... not in California. 

But I don't even know what you're trying to guess. 

North OC is rich, South OC is uber-rich, LA is not as rich except for the obvious places like Hollywood Hills and Beverly Hills.  San Diego is hard core rich.  There are some lower priced (though, by lower priced, I mean they're only $850 per month for a crappy 1 bedroom apt) areas like Pomona and Chino Hills... but they're cheaper for a reason.  Especially Pomona, which everyone refers to as "the armpit of So Cal".  Then there are the ghetto areas like Santa Ana, Compton, and Bellflower, which are cheap because you have to dodge bullets to get to your apartment.  Long Beach is a weird area because there are gazillion dollar houses on one street, then 2 blocks away there will be a ghetto area with a random brand new Starbucks or Pinkberry in the middle of the beat up old dive bars and adult video stores. 

Anyways, that is my take on various So Cal locations. 

 

[Wana_make_a_guitar]

Heh, you pay by the fortnight?  That's so... quaint.  Anyway.

Real estate prices are nice around here.  I rent a house (bungalow, more like) with a great location for $750.

No, They pay every week, but they just take turns in paying it.

 

[exalted]

No, They pay every week, but they just take turns in paying it.

Yeah, paying by anything other than the month sounds weird to Americans. Week, bi-weekly...it's all crazy talk. 

Sacramento is a 9 hour drive from LA.

You must drive like an old lady! It's not even 400 miles.  :laughing7:

 

[Wana_make_a_guitar]

Yeah, paying by anything other than the month sounds weird to Americans. Week, bi-weekly...it's all crazy talk. 

Thats because they pay by they month don't they?

 

[exalted]

Yep! Never seen anything else....except when I was looking at rentals in Australia.

 

[line6man]

If you guys were trying to guess where i lived:

I live in San Pedro CA.
On the one side, you have all the gangs and bullshite that i can't stand, but i am in a neighborhood that is borderline-ing towards Palos Verdes.
The Donald Trump National Golf Course is 2 or 3 miles away.

 

[Soylent]

Dangerous lives in the cheap place to live.. TEXAS!  I believe he's in the area of good ol' greenville.. about 60ish miles from dallas.

 

[m4rk0]

I always wanted to live in So Cal / San Diego area, but I guess that is not really realistic. I always thought that the salaries would be 3, 4 times higher, in line with the cost of living. but I recently found out that that is not really the case.
Well, Texas will do for now. I bought a house a couple of years ago, similar to Doug's. unfortunately houses in the metroplex are more expensive than in Greenville, but still a steal compared to Holland, Ireland or California.
Plus I don't have to deal with earthquakes and tsunami's here, just the odd tornado every now and then

 

[hannaugh]

Sacramento is a 9 hour drive from LA.

You must drive like an old lady! It's not even 400 miles.   :laughing7:
[/quote]

I've only driven there on vacation, which means we take the 1, and it takes like 3 hours longer if you go that route because it is curvy and the speed limit is a lot lower so that you don't fall off the cliffs into the ocean.  So yeah, it's shorter if you go on the 5, but I've never done that.  My original point though: Sacramento is not in So Cal. 

 

[Orpheo]

My fiance and I are trying to rent an apartment, and it's really hard!  Our work schedules are sporadic, so we don't make a set amount every month.  Last month was really bad for me because I work at a school where we had state testing and spring break last month, which knocked my hours/paycheck way down, so that doesn't look good to the landlord.  Plus I make some in cash at a different job (so no paystub to show), and then I don't know what my hours are going to be at the comic book store... So I don't know if we'll be able to qualify. 

They want us to make 3X the amount of the rent per month.  Not only do we have to have 3 months rent in the bank, we have to make $3K per month to qualify, and that's for a cheap crappy apartment.  In my opinion, there is something seriously wrong with a place where you have to make over $35K a year just to have a hole in the wall apartment.  This is why almost everyone I know who is in my age range who lives here is still living with their parents or living off their parents (because some of them have parents that pay their rent from afar).  How would anyone be able to go to school and support themselves without parental help?  My friend Jessica was working one full time job and 2 or 3 part time jobs when she lived here, and she couldn't even afford a place to live on her own.  Plus she failed a bunch of classes and got like 20 hours of sleep per week and ended up moving to Arizona because she couldn't get an apartment here when her mom kicked her out. 

Actually, now that I think of it, I know lots of people in their 40s who live with their elderly parents or live in guest houses for cheap because they are doing some sort of service for whoever the rich person is who owns the place because they can't afford their own place. 

Let this be a lesson:  unless you make a lot of money, don't move to So Cal.  We live like rats here. 

the thing that struck me most, is that you get payed by the hour, even during times like springbreak... here, a school teacher gets the same amount of money, every month of the year. in January, there's no vacation or other break, so it might feel 'less', but in august and july, a teacher'd get the same amount as in january, despite it being summer break...

and here, we also have a special thing from the city government, which checks wether or not its too much what the land lord wants you to pay. so, if its too much, this comity can make sure, you can pay less. its not a recommendation, its manditory.

 

[Orpheo]

ps: what is So Cal?!?!


and a house like this costs 2 million dollars here:

 

[Wana_make_a_guitar]

ps: what is So Cal?!?!


and a house like this costs 2 million dollars here:

Southern California?

 

[dbw]

Yeah SoCal is Southern California.

 

[hannaugh]

My fiance and I are trying to rent an apartment, and it's really hard!  Our work schedules are sporadic, so we don't make a set amount every month.  Last month was really bad for me because I work at a school where we had state testing and spring break last month, which knocked my hours/paycheck way down, so that doesn't look good to the landlord.  Plus I make some in cash at a different job (so no paystub to show), and then I don't know what my hours are going to be at the comic book store... So I don't know if we'll be able to qualify. 

They want us to make 3X the amount of the rent per month.  Not only do we have to have 3 months rent in the bank, we have to make $3K per month to qualify, and that's for a cheap crappy apartment.  In my opinion, there is something seriously wrong with a place where you have to make over $35K a year just to have a hole in the wall apartment.  This is why almost everyone I know who is in my age range who lives here is still living with their parents or living off their parents (because some of them have parents that pay their rent from afar).  How would anyone be able to go to school and support themselves without parental help?  My friend Jessica was working one full time job and 2 or 3 part time jobs when she lived here, and she couldn't even afford a place to live on her own.  Plus she failed a bunch of classes and got like 20 hours of sleep per week and ended up moving to Arizona because she couldn't get an apartment here when her mom kicked her out. 

Actually, now that I think of it, I know lots of people in their 40s who live with their elderly parents or live in guest houses for cheap because they are doing some sort of service for whoever the rich person is who owns the place because they can't afford their own place. 

Let this be a lesson:  unless you make a lot of money, don't move to So Cal.  We live like rats here. 

the thing that struck me most, is that you get payed by the hour, even during times like springbreak... here, a school teacher gets the same amount of money, every month of the year. in January, there's no vacation or other break, so it might feel 'less', but in august and july, a teacher'd get the same amount as in january, despite it being summer break...

and here, we also have a special thing from the city government, which checks wether or not its too much what the land lord wants you to pay. so, if its too much, this comity can make sure, you can pay less. its not a recommendation, its manditory.

Yeah, I teach part time art classes at a private school, so I don't qualify for benefits.  I'm not sure what the other teachers get, but I get hourly wages and no paid time off whatsoever. 

My grandfather's house (the house I'm living in at the moment) is a small ranch style 2 bedroom with a large lot attached to the back.  Before the housing market tanked, it was estimated being worth a million bucks.  Now it's more like 7 or 800,000.  The neighbor's house is on a large lot with a pool, and it has more bedrooms, but it's not a mansion by any stretch of the imagination, and they were asking a $1,100,000 or something like that when they tried to sell it last year. 

I get so frustrated with older people (usually boomers) who live here insinuate or point blank tell me that my generation is "lazy and needs to move out" because they think that doing that is as easy as it was back in the 70s when they first did it.  My mom had an apartment in So Cal for like $125 a month when she was in college.  She worked part time, went to school, and had no trouble paying the rent.  Here I'm working 3 jobs, my fiance has a job, and we can't even qualify for an apartment.  Later on my mom moved up north and ended up renting a house for $175 or some crazy thing like that.  And it seems like all the people who try to tell me that crap drive beamers and have cushy jobs with benefits, and bought their houses back when prices were sane because they lucked out and got established before everything went to hell. 

Anyways... we're going to get his dad to co-sign so we can get the apartment we want.  Then in a year or two, we're getting out of this god forsaken state. 

 

[Nando Vallart]

and a house like this costs 2 million dollars here:

Here in Brazil in a crappy city it's about US$500,000, perhaps 250,000, but on the cities everybody wants to live and/or beach it can reach 5 or more million dollars... two million for this house in amsterdam is worthing

 

[hannaugh]

UPDATE: We got approved and we're signing the lease today, then I'm moving in ASAP!!! 

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

On a related note, I have a coworker that moved here from California.  He did it solely for a house.  "If you don't already own a house in California, you never will unless it is willed to you," he said.