hello everyone I need advice about moving I live in California in the bay area near San Francisco and Oakland. I was planning to move to another affordable state to buy a home. I have a daughter she's 2 yrs. I'm presently attending school I should be finish in may 2007. so I was planning or thinking of moving to another state that's affordable to own a home. well the dilemma is that I have live all my life here and I'm afraid of doing such a drastic change but I'm also excited to start a new life some were else. I'm afraid of be in home sick and leave my parents and not knowing anyone. has anyone gone through this changes. but I cant afford to buy a home here I was thinking of moving to seattle Washington because its near ca and it has close enough weather as cal may be a little different but I don't want it to cold, hot or snow. I want to become independent please give any advice and anyone lives in seattle Washington tell me a little about your city and state. thanks everyone one for your help.
If you're looking for affordable home rates, do not move to Seattle, WA. I don't want to scare you, but I just sold my 1400 square foot, 2 bd, 2 ba house for 355K. I listed it for 315K (I bought it 5 years ago for 240K) and got 9 offers in one day. I don't even live in Seattle, or a fashionable part of the "east side" I live in a smaller suburb up north. Seattle is definitely one of the more expensive housing markets and the "housing bubble" does not seem to be about to burst here.
The summers are pretty here, but the winters are nothing but overcast, cold, rain rain rain rain. We are so far north that it starts to get dark around 4:00 pm during the winter, it is depressing.
Don't get me wrong, I love Seattle. But I sure wouldn't move here for cost of living or climate!
Middle America is your best bet for cheap housing--Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and on up to North Dakota, Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri. Rural is cheaper than urban.
To be closer to CA, you might consider Idaho. I understand that Boise has a growing economy.
I definitely keep an eye out for property/real estate articles, and I've read about a lot of areas in Texas that have very affordable prices. I live near DC, so I, too, am thinking of areas that might be cheaper to purchase a home (my search for a 2-bedroom, 1.5-bath condo--basically a high-rise apartment--for less than $250k has been quite unsuccessful).
But yeah, my best suggestion (taking into consideration housing, cost of living, and pay scale) would be Texas. You can find tons of info online about which specific areas are best. You can also check out www.salary.com to see how much money you would have to make in a different area in order to keep the same quality of life you have at your current income level in your current location. sometimes, the cheaper housing is not worth the move since you wouldn't be making enough money in that location for things to balance out, so that's a pretty helpful tool.
I moved from California to Colorado for similar reasons as you. I wanted to buy a place of my own. I really liked the fact that I had a bit more financial freedom when I moved and was able to buy a place of my own.
I am from Southern Oregon, just about an hour across the Oregon/California border and the house prices her are outrageous and good paying jobs are few and far between. Our house prices have gone through the roof since Californians are moving up here thinking the same as you are, and they sold their house down south and think the prices for houses are great up here, and they buy. This is bad because the locals can't afford to buy anything now. When my hubby and I married 5 years ago we bought a home for $100,000 now we can't touch the same house for less than $225,000 and our income is still the same!!!! Sorry to sound grumpy but now that my husband and I finally got approved to buy a house again we are having to spend $100,000 more on the same house as we would have 5 years ago. So my suggestion is to go midwest, Oregon is turning into California and the job suck. You are lucky to find a job that pays more than $10/hour unless you are a doctor, lawyer or realtor. Good luck!! Rent is not cheap either houses start at $1,000 and figure at $10 an hour, doesn't go far.
Hays Kansas is an affordable place to live. Sort of.
Well, you can get a nice 3bdrm, 2000sq ft, ranch style home with many ammenities for $150,000 easily. But thats too expensive too....
Cost of living is reasonable - right now gas is $2.67, city bills run around $40/month, rental property is around $500/month for a 1 or 2bdrm apt (but this is also a college town). The schools are good, there is very little violent crime, the neighborhoods are safe. The wages are decent: for instance if you are an unskilled worker, you can work at NEW for $8/hr + gas bonus or you could work at Enersys for $9+/hr; educated workers make probably between $30,000 - $75,000 per year here, depending what you're educated in. Also there are many small communities in the area within 1/2 an hour drive that are VERY cheap to live in and very nice. I don't live in Hays because it is too expensive for us - but even with commuting to school everyday, it is still cheaper to live out of town as we only pay $275/month for rent (in Hays our house would run $500 - $600/month).
The weather sucks. The summer is hot and windy; winters are usually mild with 1 or 2 big blizzards thrown in.
Hays has a population of around 20,000 (maybe more now, don't know).
You can visit this website: http://www.haysusa.com/
Come on down to Texas where you can get yourself a 3,000-4,000 sq ft house with a huge front and back yard for $80,000 - $300,000 but a $300,000 would be you basic mansion in Texas.
On the part about home sickness...I moved to NH after having spent the first 32 years of my life living around family. It was VERY scary. Especially driving a 14' UHaul with car carrier attached for 2 days with just me and my cat. LOL But I spent 8 years up there. Was very home sick at first, then it was ok. I don't regret the move at all. Now though, I'm living back in WV. However, after all those years away from family, I didn't relish the thought of living in their backyards again, so I moved to another part of the state. Close enough to visit but not to make it an every day thing this time.
I know certain parts of CA like the bay area and socal are so damn expensive. We bought a 2 bed 2 bath condo here in los angeles for 9 hundred thousand, gross cost was over a million but we already made 20% appraisal on that in a year...(more income that our jobs). I have also lived upthere in Palo Alto which is comparable. I think Seattle/Portland are much cheaper than this crazy market here.
Denver, CO is quite affordable and a good neighbourhood. I can understand your security issues esp. since you have to leave your parents alone and have your lil one with you. CO is quite family friendly in that sense. (i dont know if it snows there though). And ofcourse you will make friends and have more stress-free life once you take that first step.
Have you considered Fresno/SB/San Loius Obispo/Bakersfield? some places in the south like San Diego (Carlsbad), Riverside, Palm Spings are also better than others when it comes to prices and the wether in SoCal is juust fantastic. Because really girl, (no offense to anybody) you just cant beat the action and climate of California esp SoCal...
willmakeit - I would've loved to stay in SoCal where i'm originally from but I couldn't afford to buy a place. Carlsbad is very expensive as well as other nearby cities that used to be more affordable 10 years ago or so. I agree Denver is pretty decent. It seems like a good place to raise a family. I lived there for 3 years before moving to the East coast.
My one requirement for moving from California was that I had to be near a city that was a decent size, 1 million or more. Denver fits that but still I found it a bit too small for me.
Hmmm... I just did a quick search on realtor.com and Riverside/Corona, CA seem to be pretty affordable. Boise, ID seems extremely affordable compared to anywhere here and I could see some good 3 bedroom single homes for under 300,000. I suppose Boise is also a very family place. I dont know about weather there.
Goodluck to you and hope you find your dream place soon.
Thanks everyone for your great advice and I have to agree with willmakeit its so expensive that Seattle and Oregon are cheaper than the bay area this how expensive it is a 2 bd and 1 bath home goes for 450 to 500 thousand and thanks for telling me about the cost of living in your states I have family in Houston TX but what about the floods tornadoes etc. how is the weather in your states? in winter and summer. I would like to move were is very metropolitan as the bay area I'm not country girl I'm a city girl. thanks everyone for your great advice and support as always. PS heard that Atlanta GA is a nice place to live. I'm confuse help. the answer about moving to Fresno etc it to hot and very country no thanks i don't have nothing against country living but I a city girl . thank you thank you.
As for the weather out here on East coast (if you're interested at all), it definitely gets cold and snows in the winter. I grew up in CT and went to college in PA, and I know if you don't like snow, you don't want to live in either I then lived in Virginia Beach, and now I live just outside of DC. It still snows, but not as much as further north. Virginia Beach, especially, would only get snow a few times a year--not like in CT where there could be snow on the ground from Halloween past Easter The problem, though, in these places that don't get a lot of snow, is that when it DOES snow, people FREAK out. Maybe that would be normal for someone who isn't used to snow anyway, but where I grew up, if there were 2 feet of snow overnight, they'd just put the chains on the bus tires and everything would be open anyway. Here and in Va Beach, if there's a CHANCE of a couple inches of snow, the whole city practically shuts down, and people drive about 20mph on the highways because they're not used to it.
Oh, and after living in the DC area, one thing I would encourage you to investigate a bit when moving is TRAFFIC. Yes, every city has typical rush-hour traffic and whatnot, but I NEVER expected the absolutely ridiculous traffic I got myself into here by DC And it's not just in rush hour--it's pretty much any day, every day, including weekends and holidays...I actually work 7am-3pm just to try to avoid traffic (and I'm actually going in the opposite direction of the heavier flow of traffic), and even at 3 in the afternoon, I see highways literally backed up for miles. They do have the Metro system (our train/subway system), but it doesn't go anywhere near my job nor my apartment
As for Atlanta, i have heard great things about the housing market and the cost of living (both relatively low), but I have heard more negative things about the job market. From my understanding, if you're young and seeking more of an entry-level type position, it can be a great place to start out, but as for the more experienced/higher-paying jobs, it is not exactly the place to be. I'm actually going back down to Atlanta in October (went last year in June as well) because my boyfriend has family down there--they actually live a little south outside of Atlanta, but his aunt works in Atlanta. She will be retiring in about a year, and when she does, they actually plan to move up here (probably MD, PA, or DE), but that may be just so they are closer to more family...not sure if life in Atlanta has anything to do with it. Oh, and if you think SoCal is too hot, I wouldn't think Atlanta would be your first choice, either. When we were there last June, it was about 100 degrees every day and quite humid, and I've already been warned that it will still be pretty hot in October when we go again (he warns me because he knows I HATE the hot/humid weather ).
need advice thinking of moving
I then lived in Virginia Beach, and now I live just outside of DC. It still snows, but not as much as further north. Virginia Beach, especially, would only get snow a few times a year--not like in CT where there could be snow on the ground from Halloween past Easter 
The problem, though, in these places that don't get a lot of snow, is that when it DOES snow, people FREAK out. Maybe that would be normal for someone who isn't used to snow anyway, but where I grew up, if there were 2 feet of snow overnight, they'd just put the chains on the bus tires and everything would be open anyway. Here and in Va Beach, if there's a CHANCE of a couple inches of snow, the whole city practically shuts down, and people drive about 20mph on the highways because they're not used to it.
And it's not just in rush hour--it's pretty much any day, every day, including weekends and holidays...I actually work 7am-3pm just to try to avoid traffic (and I'm actually going in the opposite direction of the heavier flow of traffic), and even at 3 in the afternoon, I see highways literally backed up for miles. They do have the Metro system (our train/subway system), but it doesn't go anywhere near my job nor my apartment 