When looking at the cost of living comparisons you need to dig into the numbers because the main thing by far is housing, and if you can control or otherwise “fix” that you can turn a VHCOL area into a quite cheap area.
In fact, California is cheaper on some things like food, depending on what you buy, because so much of it comes from the Central Valley.
Normally I’d say buying in California might be a bit risky because it has had some serious housing pullbacks in the past - but California also has non-recourse purchase (but not refinance) mortgages.
So you could buy with very little down and if the entire market goes to heck you could walk away. It would have effects on credit but it is a decent safety net.
But to counter that much of Californian is under a rental inversion where you can rent for way way below the mortgage payment.
In fact, California is cheaper on some things like food, depending on what you buy, because so much of it comes from the Central Valley.
Normally I’d say buying in California might be a bit risky because it has had some serious housing pullbacks in the past - but California also has non-recourse purchase (but not refinance) mortgages.
So you could buy with very little down and if the entire market goes to heck you could walk away. It would have effects on credit but it is a decent safety net.
But to counter that much of Californian is under a rental inversion where you can rent for way way below the mortgage payment.
Statistics: Posted by bombcar — Sat Jul 06, 2024 6:55 am — Replies 47 — Views 2536