California lifestyle?
 

Hey everyone. My wife and I are considering relocating from OK/TX to California for multiple reasons, but largely due to weather. We are considering LA, Palm Springs and the central coast area. I thought I'd ask for some advice on here as there seems to be a lot of guys from California on the board, and obviously we have some common interests. We don't have kids and aren't tied down. We really enjoy weekend traveling, good food/wine/beer, live music, great drives, and nearby tracks for either DE's or a membership. If you have any recommendations on why you love or don't love your spot in California, I would appreciate it. Thanks!

amazing weather, scenery, food quality, driving roads, outdoor activities, and meeting people from all over the world as your neighbors are all massive positives.. it's like a different country compared to the rest of the USA. However, Norcal and socal offer very different environments, with socal being very crowded and warm, and norcal being a lot less car-friendly, more about nature and tech. it's pay to play by a factor of 10x or 100x in some comparisons with certain areas around the US. also, don't confuse the coast with anything more than 20 miles inland. California the coast is about 20 miles thick, and is a super desirable compressed sliver of land... the inland towns of california are a wasteland which you absolutely don't want to set foot in. The central coast, SLO area is about as beautiful parts of the world as you could hope to see, but very quiet. SoCal is very car friendly but crowded. Norcal probably has more low-key hidden wealth and car collections, but everyone pretends they only drive a Prius. I'm here for the startup and tech environment, love every second of it.. either my company sells for many many millions or in a few years I'm out and will move to Seattle or Portland. Everyone should experience california, not everyone should necessarily spend their life here.

The weather in Cali is second to now imho (although it wont stop bloody raining right now in Norcal!!) Generally weather in Socal slightly better in that there's less rain there from a driving / riding pov. Socal does seem to be a lot of concrete though and if you live closer to the coast in the built up areas you have to travel to find the good roads. Norcal is definitely greener and more space. What it also has is options - I've got 4/5 Porsche dealers within a 40 min drive of me for e.g. It is a great lifestyle if you can afford it and there is a different vibe between Nor and Socal so you should make sure you feel that before deciding. Inland - like Palm Springs it gets HOT in the summer but it is a dry heat at least. Both Norcal and Socal have ample tracks to play on but I'd tip my hat to Norcal with Sonoma, Thunderhill and Laguna Seca.
There is no better state in the USA for weather to repeat but just fyi once I retire I'll be heading out - probably towards Colorado. I've just got fed up with the politics, the entitlement, the exorbitant taxes and the traffic.

I am a Texas native who lived in NorCal for 20 years. Both place are awesome and the quotes below are excellent. Some comments to their quotes below.

This is very true. Assuming you are in tech, there is nothing like living in/near SF and Silicon Valley -- at least once in your life. Yeah, everything is more expensive and a hassle but the vibrancy of being "in tech" is like nothing else. I would also say the following -- the air quality in NorCal is just excellent. There is a freshness to the air (I lived on the Peninsula) that cannot be described -- only felt. Now that I have moved back to Texas, I definitely miss that air quality. LOL.

The "Car Guys" in NorCal are awesome. It is a little harder to find great places to drive but the tracks are better "up North" and okay to get to (1-2 hours). The local PCA chapters in NorCal are all terrific -- very active.

Great comments here also (taxes, politics (the homeless problem in SF is simply astonishing...and no easy fix ever).

I actually really do like Palm Springs. If you are into driving the hell out of your cars, there are just a lot fewer people in Palm Springs than in NorCal and (especially) SoCal. Was visiting some friends there recently and I *LOVED* the super long stretches of surface roads between lights and light traffic. GREAT for really enjoying a GT car. Since moving back to Texas, I am finding that since everyone also moved back here it is harder and harder to find good stretches of road to really let our cars run.

The tracks in Texas are also NOT Laguna Seca or Thunderhill (my fave). But those are very unique places and very special tracks. Those tracks would be harder to reach from SoCal and the SoCal tracks are "meh" -- at least to me.

My two picks would be (1) Palm Springs (SoCal) or (2) Sonoma Valley (pick any small town). The big cities (SF to North, LA to South ... doh) are really fun 2 night weekend getaways. We just flew out to LA last weekend "just because". I actually love visiting LA but am glad not to live there.

If you choose Palm Springs, you can always AirBNB a house for August somewhere in the mountains (Northern Utah, etc) to get out of the heat. If you choose Sonoma, you can live there year round.

With AirBNB and other rental sites, another idea is to sign up to a 3-6 month lease in BOTH places and just test them out -- see which ones "feel" like you and your wife's speed.

Just some thoughts. Good luck.

I've just spent 18 months travelling to Pasadena each week. Being close to Angeles Crest and not far from the canyons above Malibu has been magic, The weather is a delight, mountains as a backdrop and a 45 minutes from the beach, not bad. Food choices remain amazing. I don't pay taxes here but I'm guessing the only penalty are taxes and homeless people - there are lots!

IMO, San Diego County still has that sleepy beach town feel, for as much as a big city can....AND, I believe it's the most affordable. The further north you go, through SF, it becomes exponentially more expensive. AND, we do have the best weather, compared to NorCal. Within SD County, there are a lot of nice areas, but I feel North County is the best, between Del Mar and Carlsbad, the beaches have less riff raff, cleaner, etc. Rancho Santa Fe has one of the best cars & coffee spots, with a healthy contingent of Porsche folks, you would love it.
Yes, Good Luck!

In your position, if you like to walk everywhere, restaurants, wine, hiking, cycling, nearly perfect weather Santa Monica, in my humble opinion is the place to be. Coming to California to move inland requires a Plan B for summer, in my opinion; the coast, during summertime can be 15 or so degrees cooler than other inland areas. Canyons are just 10/15 min away on a weekend early morning.

I hope you don't pay much attention to local politics since that could divert one from the enjoyment. If SM is what you decide for, just PM for restaurants, wine, drive recommendations

San Diego is a great city. Its not as crowded as LA/OC.

My wife and I relocated from Chicago as well :)

I second pretty much everything vf430 just said. We live in West LA and absolutely love it and while there is a premium to live here, we think it's well worth it. Not to get into a real estate debate but I had a major issue with buying a home in the suburbs of Chicago simply because I felt prices are very inflated by a market that is sure to take a down turn at some point. At the end of the day, the land is what appreciates and the house itself is a depreciating asset. I found it crazy to pay 500k-1M for a single family home in the west suburbs that was surrounded by open farm fields just waiting to be developed... There is no lack of inventory when it comes to land and the home prices there don't reflect that.

Here in West LA I'm paying 3-4x that amount but I'm likely to not lose my investment and actually earn a decent return in the long run. I would say that's the biggest thing about being out here. You have to be prepared for 3-4x housing costs (probably even higher if you are coming from OK/TX) for the most desirable areas, higher taxes, more expensive restaurants... everything just costs more.

Only you and your wife can determine if it's worth it to you guys. Personally, I would recommend getting an airbnb for a month or two in an area you are interested in and just try it out. CA (especially LA) can be a bit of a culture shock and some people love it and others just plain hate it. Feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions about relocating to CA.

P.S. Oh traffic is bad but Chicago traffic was worse. I work from home so I don't drive unless its for fun so I don't ever really see rush hour traffic :)

first, just ignore the politics if you are from Texas :) great weather, but Palm Springs could get nasty hot, South OC is clean and beautiful , West La is cool but San Diego has the best weather. I do not recommend central California.

I’m not going to go into the high expenses/taxes/regulations part of living in CA as its so well covered elsewhere, except to say that you may want to wait until after April 15th to get a better selection of higher end housing as the tax refugees will be accelerating their exodus. The market has already been softening for the past year:https://www.zillow.com/research/majo...cooling-23228/