Post
by Satpal_S » Mon Jan 15, 2007 9:31 pm
ngrewal:
Read your post regarding desire to move to Northern California.
A decade too late!!!
Here is my take, California has gotten very crowded and expensive, especially the Bay area. Home prices have skyrocketed and quite a few young people are moving out. Salaries/Incomes have not kept pace with the real estate inflation. NAPA too being close to the Bay area has gone upscale (unaffordable) so is Sacramento. The really beautiful places are 100 miles+ north of Sacramento/Bay area. Very easily accessible by good roads. The Shasta region offers excellent Hiking, Fishing, Hunting, Boating, Mountain climbing, Camping and other enjoyments that thrill the soul. The Trinity Alps are magnificent. The bordering areas of Oregon are awesome too. Yet even here Real estate speculators have driven home prices beyond the reach of the average outdoors enthusiast. In Redding a small town in these areas, with no real jobs, a few years ago a nice basic home could be had for $90K now they want $200K+, all because of the Bay area real estate speculators.
Other than that well known places like Lake Tahoe and Yosemite are overrated "Tourist Traps". Especially Yosemite NP, the bloody place is so over crowded, lines to get in, traffic every where, even line to take a piss in the bathroom (sometimes no toilet paper or soap).
Lake Shasta and Lassen Volcanic NP are much less crowded and enjoyable.
San-Diego is nice in the off season, summers it gets filled with Tourists. Other areas South of LA are nice too.
Right now Texas seems to be a nice place to move to.
My Son has moved to Austin, Texas. The town is beautiful and very affordable, home prices are less than 40% of what they are in the Bay area and salaries almost the same. Texas though hot, is very green around Austin, lots of wild life, Butterflies so many they bother. Near my sons Townhome, there is a lake, and boy does it teem with fish. I have seen Armadillos on road sides etc.. Texas offers excellent hunting and is very Gun friendly too. Only problem seems to be insects, too many in Texas, in downtown Dallas there were so many Crickets, buggers were getting in my pants!!
Yet either of these places are better than NYC, unless you work in the Financial services sector (NYC Banks/Brokerages/Insurance etc. have excellent jobs hard to find elsewhere).
Have fun NG!!
Satpal
PS: So given a choice, Texas is the place to be now, unless the Oil Boom continues to fizzle, then Texas economy could be in a slowdown.
Both California(Lots more than TX) and Texas offer tons of "Classy Punjabi/Desi Chandal chowkri and food", you will forget India!!!