Originally Posted by
Levigarrett
I moved to the Bay Area in 2014 after 14 yrs of commuting. I'm leaving in April. I'd rather commute again than stay here. Between the traffic, housing costs and exceedingly high cost of living it's not worth it to me. I can't wait to leave.
I'm single w/ no kids and I'm not willing to pay these taxes for the next 22 yrs of my working life. The Bay Area is crowded, very crowded and extremely expensive. My 2 bedroom apartment 35 minutes north of the city is 3K/month. Houses here start around 800K if they need quite a bit of work. If they're move in ready, you're looking at a million to start. All for the the privilege of giving California 9.3%, 1.25% property taxes (plus 30K "mud bond" if it's new construction) and soul crushing traffic.
You'll need to really love it to justify the cost in my opinion. My auto insurance is more than double what it was in my home state. Sure, it's a nice looking place but if you want to go somewhere cool on the weekend, you'd better pack a lunch because the traffic is simply nasty. Everything is crowded on weekends when the city folk head to the country. I live in southern Sonoma County and on the weekends you'd swear the population has doubled.
Just google "why I'm leaving the Bay Area" and read a bit.
We left 3 years ago after 40+ years of living in the state. Californians don't realize how much they're getting squeezed. I didn't till I left. It's not just the state taxes. In CA, gas is a dollar more a gallon, Home and Auto Insurance is double, car registration is off the chart, food costs more, housing is double the cost for comparable homes in other states, electricity is 5 times more expensive than most states (In CA, I was paying an average of 30 cents / KWHour; in PA, I'm paying 7 cents KWHour). Now add bone crushing traffic that starts 120 miles outside of the bay area at 4 am and continues till 11 am. Net savings from the move is about $3000 / month take home. To put that in perspective, that's a new Maserati every 3 years
.
It's a lovely state; we loved skiing and backpacking in the Sierras, but I can buy a lot of airline tickets for $3000 / month and come visit when I choose.