People are fleeing California, are you?

[Karen Margrave]

I was born and raised in CA. It's so heartbreaking to see what is happening to it.  A recent poll says that 46% of the people plan on leaving the bay area. Let's do our own poll (FOR CALIFORNIANS or those that recently left in the past 5 years) 

• Do you live in California? 
• Have you lived in California in the past 5 years?
• If so, where?
• Will you be staying or leaving? 
• Why?
• What is your full time income producing job?  

[Account Closed]

I live in Torrance California, a city in the Los Angeles metro area.

I plan on staying in California. If I moved somewhere else I would feel like I was settling for less. We’ve thrown around the idea of going to Texas or Arizona so we could buy a home in an A class neighborhood. But, that would feel like giving up. We don’t give up. Leaving for a less expensive city would be giving into weakness. I’ve grown accustomed to perfect weather and the endless options for recreation. I could never live somewhere that people don’t want to come on vacation. There is a price to pay, it is exorbitantly expensive. Life is too short to settle. I’ll never say I can’t afford it. Instead, how can I afford it? There’s things I don’t like. I’m a card carrying republican/libertarian so obviously the political landscape of California isn’t my cup of tea. But that’s not enough to make me live somewhere mediocre. Also, my future in-laws will be retiring to Ensenada Mexico soon and we need to be close to family when we have kids.

I am a baggage handler for a major airline at LAX. My fiancé is a flight attendant for another airline. We make a living wage and save quite a bit of our income. But, not enough to buy a home and raise a family here in LA. That’s why we are working like nobody else to buy more rentals. We’ve made amazing progress this year. $20,000 in the bank since January! If we can do it living in Los Angeles anyone can. At this rate we’ll buy 2 a year.