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Waidesworld

Waidesworld

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Jul 8, 2002
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How bad is taxation and cost of living over in CA. I am thinking about the San Fran area but I am aware that the Boston prices where I live are high as it is, so I am used to that. Comparisons on factors such as job market, other costs, if anyone has input...thanks

drawn to design, designed to draw
 
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Property taxes and utility costs will be lower than in Boston. Housing prices should be comparable to Boston's; you can readily find costs through Realty checks on the web.

 
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I remember hearing about someone paying $1 million for a two-bedroom in Silicon Valley around 2000. Different time, different place, but in general, I think you'll find that cost of living is more (slightly) in San Fran than Boston. But if the pay of a new San Fran job makes the COL increase manageable, then why not if it makes you happy.
 
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On HGTV all day on Sunday they have shows like "National Open House" and "My House is Worth What?" and they show houses in various markets. Both Boston and San Francisco are frequently shown. Averages don't mean much, and any house is really worth what someone is willing to pay, but similar properties in the two markets seem to have similar prices, I don't recall a huge disconnect between the two.

I don't know about taxes and utilities in the two markets. Wouldn't you expect them to be similar in the People's State of California and the Democratic Republic of Massachusetts?

David
 
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I realize that there is much CA bashing on these fora, but I would move to the SF area in a moment, given a suitable opportunity.[yinyang]
Good luck in your decision!

"Good to know you got shoes to wear when you find the floor." - [small]Robert Hunter[/small]
 
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Property tax is pegged at about 1.5% of assessed value, adjusted for inflation, which is reset unpon ownership transfer. Outside of "tight" housing areas, there are plenty of houses under $800K in the Bay Area, and the state in general. Top tax bracket is, I think, 11% or so, and sales tax is 8.75%.

"San Francisco area" is a bit nebulous, since that potentially encompasses everything from Mill Valley/Sausalito down to Silicon Valley, and eastward across the Bay. There are new houses that sell for about $1M for ~2500 sqft, but there are other new ones that sell for substantially less, as well as older ones that sell for even less.

One thing you should be aware of is that most of the coastal parts of the Bay Area are notorious for fog and overcast, so if you need lots of sunlight, you'll need to choose your home site carefully. Pacifica, Daly City, and Outer Sunset in San Francisco are all areas where overcast and fog prevail, even on days where 5 or 10 miles inland it's 80°F.

TTFN

FAQ731-376
 
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Google for "Cost of Living Calculator" There are several, just pick the ones that do a comparison place to place.

There is some variability of the results given, so check several. I typically toss the high and low. You will also notice many seem to work off of the same calculations, so there may be "many" with the same numbers.

"in CA ejication sistum" wow, I totally misread that the first time through.
 
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SF would be a fantastic place to live, if it weren't for the risk that someday the "big one" is likely going to wipe it from the map. Very cold summers, but being from Boston, you might well enjoy that.
 
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It something we are jostling with at present and having been in CA a number of times, I always liked it. We do have connections back in Ireland, which may be a deterrent of sorts and the education system can always be bolstered by teaching the kid extra at home. But my query was more along the lines of taxation in the state. It seems CA is more or less bankrupt, but is this translating into higher income taxes and other "I need you money schemes" down the road?

I have done some of the Googling of the areas but I was looking for first hand info as well. Too much information isn't always a bad thing especially in a global forum such as this one.

drawn to design, designed to draw
 
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The cold summer thing is true. While not actually "cold" to us mid-westerners, don't expect 80's (F) to be the norm. Last time I was there in May of 2008, it did get incredibly hot for a few days, but the norm is something like the 60's for July.
 
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My impression of Pacifica is that it's REALLY foggy there; every time I visit family in the city, I see the fog rolling over the Coastal Range just before sunset. While picturesque, it's damp and cold.

My parents got snookered into buying a house in Sunset, which is western SF, south of the park. I have no data, but growing up there, it seemed to be overcast in that part of SF about 300 days a year.

The radio stations I listened to were all located downtown or north of the park, or east of Twin Peaks; the DJ would say something like, "It's sunny afternoon in SF," I'd look out my bedroom window and see nothing but overcast.

But, there's no other place like it; there's a hole-in-the-wall restaurant (Dragon City) on Taraval and 21st Ave where you can feed a family of 8 for about $80 with awesome dishes and still have lots of food to take home.

TTFN

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Waide, what the (lack of) State Government will do about the budget crisis is anyones guess. They put sales tax up a little but I think that is/was temporary and have lost track. They play around with car taxes off and on and all other types of things. One thing that seems to happen in some areas is that 'building permits' and the like have become more a source of revenue than a means of ensureing the public safety.

My wife works for the school board, which is technically a county job but is partly funded through state and federal dollars, her job has gone from being incredibly secure to highly in doubt back to moderately secure in just the last 2 rounds of budget debates. She works with folks of various different state & county agencies and they have nearly all seen cuts of one kind or another be it furloughs, pay cut, beneffit cuts, staffing cuts, office closures... and plans change with the weather.

Unless you have good reason to think the employment you'd have here is reasonable secure (I know, secure employment is a bit of an oxymoron) I probably wouldn't bother.

Posting guidelines faq731-376 (probably not aimed specifically at you)
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I don't know that I would focus so much on the financial woes of the state, bad as they are. California, in the parlance of the stock market, has a high "beta" meaning that its ups and downs tend to be more exaggerated than those of other states. But, that's because so much its economy is on the leading edge, and the leading edge is what usually suffers in a downturn.

This is still a state with a high level of innovation and entrepeneurshiip, so yes, there will be other states are potentially more "secure" but security will come at the cost of lack of challenges and lack of opportunities.

TTFN

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