It defines rich as 125k. That definitely isn't rich in california. It also says there's a net migration outwards and that the middle class and poor are fleeing.
> It defines rich as 125k. That definitely isn't rich in california. It also says there's a net migration outwards and that the middle class and poor are fleeing.
In addition to that, another way of interpreting the numbers is that jobs in California continue to pay well.
There is obviously a difference between California being so great that all the people who make a lot of money want to live there and California being so expensive that companies can only attract people to move there by paying a lot of money.
meh, if you don't have kids, $125K is plenty to live in a so so part of sunnyvale or mountain view (which is totally safe, just your apartment will be built in the '60s to working class standards, which isn't as bad as it sounds; the weather here means that having flimsy and poorly-insulated housing isn't as big of a deal as it would be otherwise.)
I mean, you won't be buying right now, but you will be able to save money; if we have another big drop in housing prices, you will be all set: otherwise, you will just have to move when you retire. (which actually is pretty sad, 'cause those social connections are really important. but just saying, if you have $125K/yr, two people can live here comfortably.)
If it's really important that you have a lot of room, you aren't going to like it here. Really, I think that's the big difference.
My own impression is that as a sysadmin without a degree, I get like 2x here what i would other places, and yeah, housing is more than 2x, but... housing is a kinda small part of my budget. I save a lot more working here, and have access to a lot more luxuries that don't involve personal space.
Honestly, if you wanted to get me to move? Probably the best thing you could promise me is a job with an office... or even just the sort of large cubicle my job role rated in the mid to late aughts. I mean, my job pays really well, the food is good and people are nice to me, and I really appreciate it, but it seems like every year my desk shrinks. I think the parking spot they reserve for the car I don't use is allocated more space than the desk where I sit all day.
Most adults do have kids, though. It's unreasonable to expect that one will not have kids, seeing how we're all here because our parents were in a position to have kids. So I chose to live elsewhere instead.
I support your ability to choose but so much of the commentary here is to the effect of “nobody should live in CA, living in CA is impossible, nobody wants to live in CA in fact everybody is leaving!” I’ve even seen a post say it’s negligent to consider raising kids in CA or the Bay Area. We’ve lived in the Bay Area 18 years, we have a kid and a house and save money, it took us 15 years to get to this point, if you want to just show up and have it all then maybe choose slewhere but crapping in living in CA or the Bay Area is getting tired
