Living Outside of CA? Considering the possibilities…

I’ve lived in California my entire life.  I was born in San Jose, raised in Morgan Hill, went to school in Davis, and work now in Campbell.  My grandparents live in Pebble Beach and the other in Lancaster.  My entire family has been here for a long, long time.  At present, the only family member not living in California is my sister, who just recently moved to New Hampshire. This is my home.

Living in California also has other advantages.  There’s never a lack of things to do.  You can go skiing in the morning and surfing in the afternoon.  There’s plenty of awesome mountain biking and/or hiking within 20 minutes of my house.  There are lakes, rivers, and the ocean…mountains, deserts, and valleys.  The weather is typically phenomenal year round.  Why in the world would I want to live anywhere else?

In short, I don’t.  Not right now, anyways.  I don’t have any desire to leave my family and friends, nor do I care to leave an area of the world that agrees with my lifestyle so much (so many activities, so many things to do, and the weather to allow for it year round). 

However, that doesn’t mean California is perfect.  Why would I even consider leaving?  Well, California is a pretty messed up state overall.  The state of California is suffering through a fiscal nightmare.  Simply, the state has more expenses than it does revenue.  Politicians love to raise taxes to help solve this, but voters have continually voted down higher tax proposals that have made it to the ballot.  Despite this, California is still leading the nation in a number of tax categories: income taxes (2nd), corporate taxes (8th), and sales tax (13th), to name a few.  All total, the full tax load ranks 6th in the nation.  Even with these high taxes in place, the state’s budget has still ballooned – outpacing revenues by a large margin.  You can blame our ridiculous proposition system for that…where voters decide to spend money, even without a way to pay for the projects they vote into the budget.  That leaves no room for actually fixing this without radical change…which is desperately needed in the state.

On top of the high taxes, there is the high overall cost of living.  Rents are ridiculously high, housing prices are obscene, gas prices are high, food prices are a little higher…its absurd.  You need to basically be paid double to live here what you need to be paid most other places in this country.

So, yeah, despite all of California’s built in advantages based on location and climate, California is a tough place to live.  I don’t plan on leaving any time soon…but if I did, there’s a few places I’d be ok moving to.  Let’s take a look!

1.  Hanalei, Kauai, Hawaii – This one is obvious.  It wouldn’t solve the cost of living issue…as a matter of fact, it would be worse.  And the job market is awful out there.  But it’s, quite simply, my favorite place in the entire world.  I love the tropical weather.  I love the things to do there.  If I could make it work, I’d move out there in a heartbeat.  The one worry would be island fever…but I think I’d find a way to manage.

2.  Bend, Oregon – The main drawback to living in Bend is the winter weather.  There’s some snow.  It gets cold, too…the average high temp from November through march is under 50…with it being in the upper 30s in December and January.  Freaking cold!  But the summers are legit…and there’s loads to do in the area.  Bend is a gateway for hiking, mountain biking, camping, rafting, skiing, and golf.  It’s also a very pretty area.  I love Oregon.  I could see myself being happy there…once I got used to the winters.

3.  Chicago, Illinois – I’ve had the opportunity to visit Chicago a few times now, and I’ve loved it every time I’ve been there.  There is just so much to do there.  Between the museums and the sports teams and the bars and the parks…I’d never be lacking for things to do.  Now, living in a big city would make it harder for me to find mountain biking and hiking and such outdoor activities…especially in the Midwest.  But it would definitely not be a boring place to live.  Once again, a major drawback is the weather.  Chicago’s weather is brutal.  Cold and snowy in the winter, very often windy, hot and humid in the summer.  It just does not sound fun at all!  But would the bustling population and high number of things to do outweigh the weather?  Not sure.  I’d probably get pretty irritated never having a string of nice days together.

4.  Knoxville, Tennessee – OK, the Knoxville area has grown on me the more time I’ve spent out there for work.  The rolling green hills, the decent weather in the spring, summer, and fall…there’s plenty of things to do there…boating on the river, hiking in the Appalachians, plus all the University of Tennessee sports teams…could be fun!  Definitely would be a different place to live…although its kind of not really near anything major.

Those are the only four places I’ve been outside of California that I know I’d be ok living in.  Places friends have lived that they enjoy that I’d be willing to check out include Charleston, South Carolina, Austin, Texas, and San Antonio, Texas.  Definitely have to check those places out.  Either way, I don’t see myself leaving California any time soon…but its always fun to speculate!