Learn me...California

Alright as much as I hate the idea of moving back to high population areas it looks like I will have to. I keep having job opportunities come up that would be perfect for me however they are in Cali. I have only ever been down to Cali one time and I was very young.

I know my gun hobby would be in particular put to a halt down there. I also know their laws in regards to cars and mods are much more strict than they are here.

In particular I would be working in the Mountain View area. Any one here from down around that area? I know due to the industry it could be a fairly expensive area to live. My question is how expensive? What is there to do around there that could be easy day trips? I basically will need to sell the idea to the wife that it will be a good thing for our growing family.

In reply to rebelgtp:

To get a good idea on housing costs in the Bay Area, check out Craig's List. Prices will vary a lot depending on the specific neighborhood, and how much time you're willing to put into your commute. As long as you're flexible you'll be able to find somewhere to call home. I'm sure a few of us on here can point you toward more specifics if you give us some things on your 'must have' list. Eg., renting or buying, garage or off street parking, pets, children, maximum time spent commuting..

In terms of things to do in the area, I can't imagine an area with a wider variety of things to do.

For day trips:

If you head south you have Monterey and Carmel, as well as Pebble Beach and Laguna Seca. Big Sur has some great hiking and camping, and that stretch of Highway 1 is one of the greatest cruising roads in the world.

Just around the corner from Mt. View you get Santa Cruz, a great beach town and some decent hippy culture. There are a bunch of places to check out the Red Woods, or ocean life. That stretch of coast has some great little towns to explore, and Skyline and Hwy. 9 are a local meca for all things with engines in them.

San Jose can be fun on it's own, but is often eclipsed by San Francisco.. and with good reason. S.F. is a great place to visit (although I wouldn't want to live there).

If you head north you have Muir Woods, Berkeley, Napa, the Mendocino coast...

For weekend trips you can add in the Sierra Nevadas, Yosemite, a few great rivers, trips south to LA, pretty cheap weekend packages to Las Vegas or Reno...

The high cost of housing is also at least partly offset by very low heat and AC bills. I shocked my family when I told them how much I was paying for an apartment when I first moved out here from New England .. and then I asked them how much their rent plus heating bill was for a single month, and it turned out I was paying less...

A friend of mine just had to move to the Bay Area for work and I was looking down there, too. Figure $2k-$3k for an apartment to a small house (~1000 sq ft on a beach towel sized lot). Traffic is horrible, being able to use BART et al is a big bonus.

I have no insight into the Bay Area, except that I just did a big move for family reasons. (bigger salary = wife ability to stay home a few more years and have a 3rd kid)....

It's not an easy decision.. Sacrificing short term for long term gain is a very hard thing to do. Best of luck.

I also believe it is worth it.... Because all experiences are additive.

I would like to keep my commute under an hour. A garage would be a must so that I could work on things. We do have dogs and we have a baby on the way (due in Oct). More than likely we would just look for a place to rent at first. Then maybe look for a place to buy after we see how we like it down there and get our place here sold.

Basically all of the rigs we have now would be sold except the Charger. Then get the wife a new baby hauler rig. Then I may find me a "toy" of some sort once we get settled.

My cousin works for Google and lives in Mountain View. Has several older Saabs, his own shop that he rents with some friends and builds and races In ChumpCar and LeMons with a Saab or a Miata.

Honestly, I don't think there would be a problem with gun ownership or owning older cars as long as they pass their emissions testing (which is a visual inspection along with a tailpipe test).

LA doesn't equal all of Cali, many parts, especially northern Cali, is very nice and I think it could be right up your alley.

In reply to turboswede:

Sounds good to me. Actually one of the companies I am applying at is Google. I found a couple positions that I am well qualified for and so I am going for it. There are a few others down there with similar jobs.

I am talking to the wife an she is getting to like the idea. She likes the idea of an adventure but freaking about the upcoming baby and a move.

That area is very nice, and has good access to a lot of areas. Your primary concern should be housing. Can you afford it. Will you like what you can afford. Where can you afford. There really isn't anywhere that I can think of around there that is cheaper that will not be worse (e.g. small, bad area).

Consider the San Mateo bridge. It drops you right into that area and gives access to the Hayward / Fremont areas, which MIGHT be a bit cheaper.

Don't worry about the cars. If you have newer cars, follow the rules. If you like older cars, stay with pre-76 if you want to mess with them. (80's cars are a pain)

rebelgtp wrote: I also know their laws in regards to cars and mods are much more strict than they are here.

As someone who lived there for 6 years and owned a ton of cars there, I hereby call this (IMO) a big myth.

Every state I've lived in since (TX and PA) you are required to do a CA-type emissions test every year... not every two years like in CA. In TX and PA you also have to do a yearly safety inspection. In TX, that meant you could fail if they didn't think your windshield wipers were up to the task. In PA, that means you can technically fail if you have a single ball joint with a little play or if you have a rust hole larger than a quarter. I've been failed in PA for so much BS I don't even know where to start.

CA has a bureaucratic but relatively efficient DMV. I never had trouble getting things done in a timely fashion as long as I followed the flowchart. Here in PA? Not so much. The DOT is spread out with one central office and a whole bunch of independent title/messenger services who all have a very small amount of training on the basics, but rarely encounter anything other than registration renewal or title transfers.

Having grown up in PA and ONT, and having lived in CA, TX, NOLA, and IN, I will take CA any day when it comes to car stuff. A sniffer every two years and no safety inspection? Yes please. One of our most lucrative segments of our business at the shop was late-model engine swaps... I don't mean putting an LS1 in a 71 Chevelle, I mean... someone has 96 Camaro with a stock LT1 in the garage and a hot LT1 under the hood. They brought it to us every two years, we'd drop in the stock LT1 so they could go get it smogged, then they'd bring it back and we'd swap it out for the hot one.

In reply to curtis73:

Where I live there are literally no checks, no tests, no inspections. Pay for your new tags every two years and that is it. The whole thing can be done online or through the mail.

Most of the points have already been covered, but I'll reiterate a few of them.

Northern California is a very very different beast from Southern California. I am a NorCal boy, and driving through SoCal drove me nuts. Traffic through the bay area at rush hour peak is easier than traffic through LA 2 hours off peak.

Housing prices will be the toughest thing to deal with. There are some limitations on what you can do legally with cars and guns, but the gun and car culture is still very strong there.

The good: almost literally anything activity, hobby, or interest you may want to engage in you are within an easy radius to make a day or weekend trip and enjoy some of the best in the world. Surfing, skiing, hiking, rafting, climbing... whatever outdoors stuff you want. Some of the best wine, beer, and food in the world. Motorsports? Infineon, Laguna Seca, and Thunderhill are within a couple hours.

Just don't plan to go swimming in the ocean. It's berkeleying cold.

I've only spent a little time in the Bay area. The only reason I wouldn't want to live there is the sheer number of people and that it in the state of California. The weather, scenery, number of things to do are all pluses. So, if I am reading this correctly, you saw an open position advertised at Google, you are thinking about applying for it, and making plans to move to the area? I'm thinking that Google gets 20,000+ applicants for every open position. Not the greatest of odds - I wouldn't move to the area based on an open position or two. I would move to the area based on a real no kidding accepted job offer.

Northern CA == awesome
Southern CA == awesome

Except for the cost and the traffic I can't think of a single reason not to live there. If I was picking I'd be well north of the Bay area out near the coast. I'm not though... because apparently the rest of my family likes to freeze their asses off for 8 months out of the year.

Not much to add here. I lived in Sunnyvale briefly, the city right next door. Mountain view is expensive....I like the Fremont suggestion earlier if you are buying. Mountain view is kind of an anonymous city with not too much that stands out. Not much to do there... so you will find yourself going to San Francisco quite a bit. Big Indian population, so excellent Indian restaurants. Good mountain biking locally. Nice quiet town.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Northern CA == awesome Southern CA == awesome Except for the cost and the traffic I can't think of a single reason not to live there. If I was picking I'd be well north of the Bay area out near the coast. I'm not though... because apparently the rest of my family likes to freeze their asses off for 8 months out of the year.

I lived on the coast well north of the Bay Area (Fort Bragg/Mendocino). Wonderful place to visit, boring as hell to live in. I could not run away fast enough towards someplace where there is actually civilization and people in my age group (30's-40's) without kids or drug habits.

The Santa Rosa/Novato area is great though. Maybe that's what you're thinking of as "well north".

I absolutely would not live in the North Bay then commute to work in the South Bay, or vice versa. That would suck.

If you have the money and time and money to get your pilot's license, my dad used to aero-commute from the suburbs east of Sacramento and fly into Palo Alto airport to do consulting work in that area.

In reply to rebelgtp:

Not all of Cali requires smog, just the areas near major population centers. Just like in Oregon.

In reply to T.J.:

That is just one of the companies and yeah we wouldn't move with out a solid offer. My sister and her husband just moved down to the general area as well so we would have someone near. In their town they are considered a "power couple". Basically most of the opprotunities for the area I am looking at are down in that area right now. We are both due for a change and there just aren't any opprotunities in this town especially anything where I can use my degree.

If I got an offer more than likely I would go down and be there for a bit before we even sold the place here or even put it on the market. Heck I am putting stuff in at portland and seattle areas as well but I know them.

Some friends moved to the Bay area last year. They are still coming to grips with housing costs compared to the Northeast (she's from Long Island - not exactly cheap). A 1600 sqr ft town house a few doors down from where they are renting recently went on the market for $998K. A Sold sign was on within a week.

My company recently opened an office in SoCal (Irvine) and Partner there is based out of our NJ office so I've talked to him a couple of times. Having spent a number of months out there, He (a life long PA guy) has noticed the general culture in CA seems different; more focused on personal well being and health compared to a more "stuff" focus that we in the Northeast tend to have. Maybe due to our long winters spent mostly indoors... Anyway, he said it's common for folks out there to spend a lot on their homes and schooling, and less so personal belongings.

In reply to Ian F:

Yeah I heard about crazy housing prices down there. Heck a place that size where I live would be like $120k and have a big yard and shop.

But then also the average household income here is only $30k a year.

Best advice I can suggest: Look somewhere else. I wouldn't move back to the PRC for anything.

Beer Baron wrote: If you have the money and time and money to get your pilot's license, my dad used to aero-commute from the suburbs east of Sacramento and fly into Palo Alto airport to do consulting work in that area.

Interesting. My sisters husband and one of their neighbors commutes to Palo Alto from Swansboro (near Placerville).

As a note on traffic: LA has more all over, but for bad areas, the Bay Area is not much better if at all. Even years ago, the 80 north of the bay bridge was a bit of hell, stay away anytime near commute time (which is similar to the 405 in LA). The Bay Area has a huge potential advantage though of at least having BART as an option. Sadly, that won't help the OP, since BART never made it past South San Fransisco.

rebelgtp wrote: But then also the average household income here is only $30k a year.

That's the thing - when he started hiring to fill the new office, he was expecting much higher salary requirements than here in the PA/NJ area. They are a little higher, but not by a lot. A 1600 ft townhouse around here would be in the $100-200K range, depending on location.

Well as mentioned this is just one possible location. Basically we have decided that it will be best for us to move back to "civilization" to give us a few more options. The town we are currently living in is just starting to die basically, businesses are closing left and right and it is getting harder and harder to get a decent job that actually pays enough to pay the bills and live on.

I am thinking that we want to stay on the west coast, while Cali would not be my first choice there are quite a few jobs down there.

NW AR is a very nice place to live. SHUSSSHHHH there are jobs here in IT and IT related fields. Businesses and people are not moving into the PRC. There are lots of places that have jobs that are not within a communist concentration camp. Look around.