Looking for West Coast COL Info

[ellipses84]

As you may know, my life has been completely turned upside down the past few weeks due to a natural disaster. Not wanting to go through it a 3rd time, we are using this as a sign to move back to the west coast.

If you live near San Diego, Newport Beach, LA, SF, Oakland, San Jose, Seattle, Phoenix, or Las Vegas, I'd love to hear what current COL is for housing and daycare, if salaries align with COL, what commute times are like, and any other info that would be helpful to know.

We would be ok in a 2-3 bedroom, 2 bath apartment, townhome or SFH in an area with decent public schools. We need infant/toddler care and school before/after care, ideally at the same place. I can transfer offices (typically downtown) and DH is looking for a job (typically suburban) so we need somewhere to live close to one or the other, or in the middle, with 30-45 minute commutes.

You can PM me if you don't want to share details about where you live, but knowing specific neighborhood names would be helpful to me. Please tag other GBCNers who live in these cities.

[namasteak]

farmvillelover miso jigsy should be able to help with some info

[TR]

jenny1980 is near Seattle I believe. And I think killercupcake is in Las Vegas. But I might be remembering the wrong poster.

[orangello]

I live in Seattle on the NE side. Neighborhoods around here are Laurelhurst, Mapleleaf, Ravenna, Wedgwood. All very safe, family friendly, near Lake WA and the Burke Gilman trail. Housing like you're describing will be between $2-3k/mo, depending on where you are. Very easy access to downtown from here (if you avoid the freeways), but traffic generally sucks across the entire city. Weather isn't usually as bad as people think, summers are amazeballs, and there's tons of outdoorsy stuff to do. Also - WA state has no income tax.

That said - last winter very nearly did me in with all the rain, I don't find it particularly diverse up here, and I find groceries to be on the more expensive side. I do love SeaTac if you travel at all, and there's good local wine if you're into that sort of thing.

Good luck!

[agnes]

I'm near Newport Beach. Is there a specific reason this is on your list? It's pretty expensive overall and there isn't a typical downtown area. Are you open to surrounding cities?

[gogadgetgo]

I live in Los Angeles. Glendale and burbank both have good school districts with plenty of business in their respective towns with close proximity to downtown. Lots of options to rent, probably $2500-3000 for a 2 bedroom. If you want more details, please feel free to PM me

[formerlyak]

I'm in the South Bay Area of LA. Love it. Our school district has before/after care on all the elementary campuses and from what I've seen in here, our preschool rates are good compared to others. I pay $1140 for full day 7 am - 6 pm M-F for my 3 year old. The K-12 schools are highly rated. We can walk to the beach.

Property in my city is all over the map. Tiny homes with no property for $1 million to section 8 housing, so most can find something that fits their needs.

Commute to downtown LA is about an hour of you don't pay for the toll lane.

PM me if you want more specifics about my city.

[konapoppy]

I live in the Bay Area suburbs and it is seriously expensive.The commute times are ridiculous and child care costs are out of control.

Most housing for what you are looking for would be at least 3k/month in areas with good schools, infant care is $1500 - $2500/month, and commute times to SJ or SF is at least an hour each way (I live in a suburb with a lot of jobs, but many families have one parent who does that commute daily or occassionally). I have friends who do after school care, but I don't know the pricing. Feel free to PM me if you have more questions.

Essentially, moving here with a family if you don't have family here or a tech job is really challenging.

[sofamonkey]

Ditto what connie0000 said. We are south of Seattle, in White center. The home median is $489,000 near us now. That's about $130,000 more than when we bought 10 years ago. I grew up here, my family is all here (Kent, Renton, issaquah, northgate, etc) so we likely wouldn't move away. And it's so beautiful here, and there is so much you you drive to in 45 minutes to explore or hike. But it isn't cheap at all, even in the outskirts.

[luv2rn4fun]

We live in south OC. We paid $685k for a 4bd, 3 bath, 2000 sq ft home with an ok backyard. Excellent schools, great community. Traffic isn't the best but not the worst (like the 91 freeway). My DH works locally now but he is only making what he was in the IE; however, he was likely being paid on the higher end at his old job. Really commute is all based on going with or against traffic and whether or not your hours are slightly flexible. We love it here though...we moved from the IE (lived in OC most of my life but we had moved to the IE because it's much cheaper and I SAH) a year ago and I think we will be here for a long time (might move when we retire but not planning to before then). DH also has a lot of job opportunity here whereas he didn't have as much in our old city (he also had a decent commute there and now has a 9 min commute...he's against traffic).

[ellipses84]

Sept 16, 2017 16:13:00 GMT -5 agnes said:

I'm near Newport Beach. Is there a specific reason this is on your list? It's pretty expensive overall and there isn't a typical downtown area. Are you open to surrounding cities?

I could transfer there. Between UC Irvine and the 55. It would be great for DH's career. For a lot of places, I think we'd definitely live in a surrounding city and I would commute in. I could probably manage an hour commute if DH had a short commute and was close to the kids in case of an emergency pickup situation. He's networking and doesn't have a job offer yet, but I want to be prepared in case he gets one to make sure our salaries would be enough to have a halfway decent life. We moved to our last city and we thought COL would be lower, but if we compare monthly, we were spending nearly the same as when we lived on the west coast (in a couple of cities on my list, but I know COL has gone up in some of them).

[vicky]

I live in San Diego. There is a housing crisis at the moment. There's not enough affordable housing, especially if you're a renter.

However, if you go up to north county or east county it is a bit more reasonable.

I don't have children so I don't know anything about childcare, sorry.

[ny96]

I'm on the eastside of LA. Housing here runs between 3500-5000 for a 2 bedroom. We pay $1400 for full-time preschool and will be paying $1450 soon for infant daycare

[InBetweenDays]

We live in Seattle. We're in Ballard which is one of the NW neighborhoods of the city (about 5 miles outside downtown). The city is growing rapidly, and Ballard is seeing a TON of redevelopment and upzoning (SFH to townhomes). Given we only have bus service (light rail won't be here until like 2030) traffic has gotten worse. But we LOVE Seattle and we love Ballard. I've lived in Seattle for 22 years, in Ballard for 17 years. Ballard is its own little town - tons of great restaurants, bars, a movie theater, amazing farmer's market, on the water, etc. The winters here can get long, but we're big skiers and rain in the city *usually* means snow in the mountains. And for us the summers, the proximity to the water, proximity to the mountains, etc. all make it worth it.

A 2 BR apartment in our neighborhood would probably be about $2500-$3500 per month. They say the median home value is $625,000, but right now there are only 7 homes listed under $700K (28 homes >$700K).

[agnes]

Sept 16, 2017 17:04:20 GMT -5 ellipses84 said:

Sept 16, 2017 16:13:00 GMT -5 agnes said:

I'm near Newport Beach. Is there a specific reason this is on your list? It's pretty expensive overall and there isn't a typical downtown area. Are you open to surrounding cities?

I could transfer there. Between UC Irvine and the 55. It would be great for DH's career. For a lot of places, I think we'd definitely live in a surrounding city and I would commute in. I could probably manage an hour commute if DH had a short commute and was close to the kids in case of an emergency pickup situation. He's networking and doesn't have a job offer yet, but I want to be prepared in case he gets one to make sure our salaries would be enough to have a halfway decent life. We moved to our last city and we thought COL would be lower, but if we compare monthly, we were spending nearly the same as when we lived on the west coast (in a couple of cities on my list, but I know COL has gone up in some of them).

That opens up a lot of options for you ranging from cute old towns, to stereotypical suburbia, to urban type areas in various price points.  Costa Mesa and Irvine could be really close and good options for you too.  As well as other surrounding cities, but these two border that between the 55 and UCI.

For commute comparison, H works in Costa Mesa (borders Newport) and we live in Tustin.  His commute is about 20 minutes to half an hour in the morning straight down the 55 about 10 miles away.  And nearly doubles on the way home.  The home prices in our area are starting to rise drastically right now.  A 2 bedroom 1.5 bath town house in our community is going for 420k right now when last year it would have been almost 100k less.  And we live in the less "desirable" area.  aka older, more character, more diversity.  

We lived in westside Costa Mesa for a few years, so I know more of the neighborhoods.  The house prices have skyrocketed with a lot of new developments in industrial/residential neighborhoods.  I liked that we lived up in the bluffs next to a nature preserve and could walk up the riverbed a few miles to the beach.  Eastside Costa Mesa has more of a Newport Beach feel with out the beach access.  Mesa Verde is the country club neighborhood.  And then there's the South Coast/Metro area which has South Coast plaza and borders Santa Ana.  Lots of stuff in this area. 

I haven't lived in Irvine, but it's nice, clean, and quiet.  

If you have questions in more specific areas, let me know.  

[alleinesein]

I'm in the greater San Diego area; contrary to what people think the city does exist north of I-8.

COL in San Diego is high but there are still places in the city/county that are 'affordable'. The biggest key to living and working out here is that you want to either live close to work (which will be $$$) or have an opposite commute to work (my mom commutes to Riverside County for work and the northbound commute in the morning is a breeze since all the traffic is headed south). North County Inland communities will be cheaper than living near downtown and you will get more house for your $$.

Rents are a bit high- 1 bedroom apartments average around $1600 a month. If you need 2-3 bedrooms look at renting a house and budget at least $2400 a month for it. The closer you get to downtown or the ocean the higher the price. You can find cheaper places near downtown San Diego but you might have to deal with street parking. Parking can be a challenge in some parts of the city.

I've lived in Mira Mesa, Rancho Bernardo and Escondido (in a weird little pocket of unincorporated county right between the Escondido and San Diego city limits). I've worked in Carlsbad (I also house sit in cbad) and Solana Beach. I prefer inland North County to coastal north county; the 5 can be a bitch to drive and at least we have the carpool lane on the 15.

Schools are all over the place. Good test scores do not tell the entire story so look at other factors. San Diego Unified has some great magnet schools. Some districts are overrated and have good PR departments (Poway unified is one of them; they send their difficult students to my school district b/c they aren't equipped to deal with them).

No kids so I have no idea what child care runs nowadays. My friends who do have kids usually have family take care of them during the day.

Commute times can vary based on where you live and work. My current commute is for school and it is 29 miles. I drive from Escondido to Linda Vista/University of San Diego. In the morning it takes me about an hour b/c I hit the tail end of rush hour and in the evening (for now; will change in October) it takes me 30 minutes. Once my night class ends it will probably take me an hour to get home in the evening since I will be hitting rush hour at peak time. When I worked in Carlsbad it would take me 30 minutes to get to work when I started at 7 am and 45-60 minutes if I started at 8 am and my commute home was always 45-60 minutes no matter what time I left work.

Look at where your office would be located and then consider what your H does and where he might be working. Certain industries are clustered in different parts of the county. The main areas are going to be the golden triangle (University city, Sorrento Valley, La Jolla, Carmel Valley- it is where Qualcomm is located). Carlsbad near Palomar Airport, Rancho Bernardo (Sony plus a few others). Mira Mesa (it flows into the golden triangle area), downtown.

[jenny1980]

We're in the Ballard (NW Seattle) neighborhood. We have a four bedroom, two bath house built in 1942 (the fourth bedroom and second bath are downstairs in the finished basement). It's cute but not at all fancy (tiny kitchen, no "master suite", etc.) and on a fairly busy street. We paid $500k in 2012 and it's worth around $800k now.

Daycare for infants at a center will run over $2,000 month as will young toddler care. Before and after school care is ridiculously pricey.

We both grew up here and love it (and love our 'hood in particular) but you definitely pay for it.

Having no income tax is awesome but we have high (10%) sales tax and everything from groceries to activities to dining out is $$$ here.

[killercupcake]

I live in Vegas.

COL is pretty low and very reasonable. Daycare costs I cannot answer.

Commutes depend on which side of the city you live and where you're going. Taking the 95 is kind of a nightmare right now because they're doing a ton of construction at the spaghetti bowl, but it's only horrible during rush hour, and even then, relative to other places, it's not bad. You can get from one end of town to another in about 30 minutes. The strip is central, so maybe 15 minutes from everywhere.

I think salary aligns to cost of living pretty well out here. We have no state income tax and low property taxes. You can probably get a 4 bed, 3 bath house with a pool for around 3-400k depending on neighborhood.

[7costanza]

I live north of Seattle, about 15 miles from downtown, and commute in. Without preschool drop off or pickup my commute via car and bus is 45-60 minutes. Daycare is cheaper outside the city, so infant care would run you ~$1200 to ~$1500 in my area, and toddler slightly cheaper. You could expect to pay about $550,000 for an average house here, but that drops if you go one or two towns north.

[miso]

It would be much easier if you told us your financial parameters, so people can just say yay or nay re whether their areas meet your needs.

[insominac]

Beverly Hills and Santa Monica (good school districts in LA county) will run you around $3000+ for a two bedroom apt.

You could maybe get a condo in one of those places for under a million, but all SFHs in those areas will start at a million. For a 2bed 1 bath 950 sq ft house built 60 years ago.

[ellipses84]

Sept 16, 2017 20:07:34 GMT -5 kooshball said:

Seattle is awesome but expensive.

Maybe Portland?

Portland is not an option for us, due to lack of job opportunities. It seems strange, I know, when we are considering all the other places.

Neither of us are that keen on the Bay Area. SoCal and Seattle top my list, but the COL scares me a little. DH likes the idea of Vegas or Phoenix, which isn't technically west coast but closer to it than we are now, which is one of my requirements.

[ellipses84]

Also, I doubt we'll buy any type of home anytime soon.

[ellipses84]

Sept 16, 2017 21:04:50 GMT -5 miso said:

It would be much easier if you told us your financial parameters, so people can just say yay or nay re whether their areas meet your needs.

I'll get a pay increase based on COL but DH's salary could vary greatly depending on job offer and we can't live on mine alone. We are just trying to get a better idea of COL and commutes so we know what cities to focus on. Once he has a job offer I'll definitely ask more questions about specific areas and share financial info.

[sugarbear]

I live a few miles north of Seattle in a neighborhood called Greenwood. Our 2/2 house would likely list for $750k and sell for more. It's ridiculous. But as my H says, you know why Seattle is expensive? Because it's worth it!

[sherbanator]

I'm brand new to the south bay of LA. Rent for us to 4300. for a 3 bed 2 bath townhouse.

Childcare is 1000 a month but that's great considering I have full time weekend childcare. I paid more in Denver.

So far it's been worth the price of admission. Great schools, great neighbors/people, great weather, happy kid.

[audry80]

I live in Oakland. The commute to SF is super easy, I can take BART, ferry, bus or carpool and get there in 30 mins in the morning. We bought a tiny 900 sq foot house in the 800k range but it's in a very shitty school district. We don't have kids so it didn't matter to us. We love Oakland and moved from living in SF. If you consider Oakalnd, PM me!

[open24hours]

The median home price in the greater San Jose area is over $1 million. There is a house in a neighboring city that sold for $700k+ over asking.

[jigsy]

I live in LA...since I don't have kids, I cannot speak to childcare or schools. I would guess my neighborhood is probably not the best for schools, but that is based on nothing. lol.

I know LA is a HCOL, but I have found it to not be that unreasonable. I mean, I don't get paid a great deal, but I am able to afford a pretty decent lifestyle for myself. I have a 30 minute commute and live alone. I do look forward to the day I have a partner because yay double income! I have found that in my field (insurance) I do get paid a little more, probably because the COL and the job market demands it. I interviewed for a job that would have been a slight promotion for me in Utah, yet the pay, which was at the high end for the area, was 15K less than I am making in LA.

But, I will say "LA" is HUGE and rent and schools vary greatly. If your office is in Woodland Hills, the answers you get will be a lot different than if you are looking at Santa Monica or DTLA.

[kaycee]

We moved from San Jose because of cost of living. Our friends just moved to Morgan Hill because it is cheaper. They now pay $5,500 a month for their house and $2,700 for daycare. The commute to work is about 1.5 hours each way.