I was born and raised in and around Los Angeles. I left the Los Angeles basin in the latter years of the 1980's moving first to the Temecula Valley and then finally to the Coachella Valley near Palm Springs.
In 2006 I started the process of leaving the State of California completely and quite frankly if I had the option of never going back it is the way it would be.
Sadly, the attraction of California and it's beaches, palm trees, diversity and scenic wonders creates far more illusion than real value. It may be a nice place to visit, but it is now virtually impossible to live there with any form of financial security.
Here are some Zip Codes that apply to the City of Los Angeles. The first, 90042 applies to a suburb called Highland Park. It lies about 13miles to the northeast of the downtown business area. The area is now virtually a "Barrio" with horrific street gang problems, heavy drug problems, and incredible days of smog as well as traffic congestion.
Other zip codes in this area include 90032, 90065, 90041 and 90039. Go to Realtor.com and look at the housing prices and rental prices in these zip codes and thy are not great areas. They are however reasonable commutes (or as reasonable as any Los Angeles Commute can be).
I spent time as a professional musician in that fair City. At rush hour it can take 2 hours to go the fastest route which is avoiding freeways and taking surface streets to go from The Pasadena, Highland Park border to Sunset Blvd and Highland Avenue.
The heavy traffic and congestion can take the most fuel efficient Toyota and kill any chances for mileage at all. If the vehicle engine is running and the car isn't moving your are burning precious and very expensive fuel at an unacceptable rate.
The cost of living in California is horrific. Let me give you some examples:
License Tags 2002 Ford F-550 Pickup in 2005 was $985 for one year for the plates. California has a Value Added Tax on Vehicle Licensing. How about $395 for the license tags on a Camry Solara Ragtop that is the first one? Then you have the bi-anual smog check that no car over 5 years old ever passes. There is always a magic number to fix the vehicle and make it pass. For my 1984 Chevrolet it was $800 every two years. It always needed a bunch of new smog equipment, vacuum lines, and a carburetor rebuild.
Your automobile insurance rates are figured by a combination of your driving record and your zip code. If either one indicates risk, count on a $2,000 yearly car insurance premium for a single car for a good car and good coverage.
If you want to buy a home your BASE property tax rate is calculated as being .0125% of the sale price of the home. This means that before any City imposed fees are tacked on you have a $1250.00 yearly property tax bill for every $100,000.00 and percentage of what you pay for your home. City fees are then added on top of that. You pay sales tax on everything in California. Everything is taxable including the fees that you would pay as straight labor. A gardener coming in and mowing your lawn has to charge you sales tax on the labor he furnished. You pay numerous different taxes on your utilities in California. In Los Angeles County a trip to get information dealing with land titles can cost you many yours AND it can in addition take you many hours waiting in line.
In the name of "budget cuts", Department of Motor Vehicle Offices designed to be staffed by 60 people are being handled by as few as ten. In some offices in some locations even with an appointment which you must make in advance, renewal of a driver's license or obtaining a California Drivers License can take you up to a 8 hour wait on a bad day, count on 3-5 hours as a norm.
I am very familiar with Arizona having family in Phoenix, Tuscon and at one time in Nogales. Currently look at the price you are paying for motor fuel. You can easily add between $.45 and $1.00 per gallon depending on the time of year, location, and how much you are willing to shop for fuel. Also remember that California Clean Air Standards require a different fuel formulation. The increased ethanol levels and other additives required for California emissions not only increase the price, but, these additives can have as much as a 25% penalty on fuel mileage in your car. If your car averages 20 miles per gallon on Arizona fuel, you will probably see no more than 15 miles per gallon on the California formulation.
Now we come to the Power Companies. Southern California Edison, which supplies much of the suburbs around the Los Angeles basin was badly hit in the ENRON mess. Also hit hard were San Diego Gas and Electric, Pacific Gas and Electric in the San Francisco Bay Area and several others supplying the San Fernando Valley. In Palm Springs where high temperatures reign supreme in the Summer it is very easy to have a $650 electric bill for a single month unless you want the summer temperatures in your home to be about 88-90 degrees.
I think that there will be a time that California will again be a good place to live. Right now it is hard hit in the economy. In addition financial mismanagement has plagued the State for many decades. It will be fixed, but right now everything is very unstable.
The number one export in California right now is jobs. I have 3 personal friends who have lived and worked there who have lost jobs in engineering and technical fields because their jobs were shipped to India. They had been with these companies for over 20 years in the case of two of the men.
I would suggest that you check out States by virtue of what their primary driving forces are. If you have a State heavily dependent on tourism such as California and Florida you are looking at trouble. Las Vegas, Nevada is in the same condition because tourism is way off because of the economy. A State relying heavily on manufacturing is also a bad bet right now simply because the economy has taken a heavy toll. This explains the economic disaster of Michingan. It will be far worse if the U.S. Government approves the impending 61% buy out of General Motors by interests in China.
Look to States which depend heavily on military bases, aeronautics, and have economies less dependent on tourism. There are some cross-over areas.
I wish you the best of luck on your quest to find a location that may bring you happiness personally and economically. I have strong doubts that Southern California at this time is going to create anything but an indentured servant. You will be working to support and make everybody happy but yourself.
When I really put a pencil to paper and made the decision to leave that State it was done with great sadness. What I found was that it was going to cost me nearly double the money to live in California and to do so at a greatly reduced standard of living.
Do a great deal of research on this one before you even consider it. It is not a bright happy place for jobs, business or prosperity right now. Maybe in the future, but not right now.
