Pilots & Cali - Do They Mix?

[TriStar_drvr]

The high desert area (Lancaster, Mojave, etc.) used to be RELATIVELY affordable, but it may be wall-to-wall houses by now. Little danger of brush fires, as there was no vegitation to burn--besides, it was already so hot that a fire wouldn't have made any difference.

Actually, I really enjoyed living there.

I live in the High Desert now, in Hesperia. I'm 95 miles from LAX, 45 from ONT, and 85 from SNA. I bought my 3 bedroom 2 bath 1250 sq. ft. house for 86k five years ago. Zillow.com says it's worth around 275k now. There's a glut of rental houses here now due to a lot of speculators over the last few years. A house like mine can be rented for around 1100-1200 a month. Two bedroom apartments can be found between 600-800 a month.

The High Desert ain't Orange County or Santa Monica, but it sure beats the Midwest (lived in St. Louis for three years). Yesterday I road my motorcycle to the mountains, in 45 minutes I was at 6000 feet where the temp was a pleasant 75 with low humidity. I turn my AC off every night and open the windows.

It's not perfect by any means, but it works well for me and my family.

 

[cakeordeath]

Sunriver/Bend is beautiful and ski-town like but C-O-L-D in the winters. The cold just blows through how ever many layers you have on. A lot of my young married friends who love to ski in the winter and raft in the summer moved out that way. I remember lots of microbreweries.

I've lived in Eugene. It's gray and drizzles from September - May but you get used to it. All that rain provides absolutely gorgeous summers. Spring allergies can be severe in that area because of the pollen. Eugene is a nice, mid-size college town but housing costs are going up. A lot of the older homes lack central air because it only gets nasty hot a few weeks out of the year. Nice farmer's market. Good one in Portland too but it has more of a carnival feel to it. Rarely snows more than a few days a year in the Willamette Valley. The air just feels cleaner every time I step off a plane there. Wineries are popping up all over.

If you're an outdoors type, Oregon is great as far as fishing, hunting, camping.

 

[Joshrk22]

I hunt, fish, and camp now, so that's good to hear! Oregon sounds like a nice place to live. Is Washington and Oregon about the same when it comes to geography?

 

[MFRskyknight]

I hunt, fish, and camp now, so that's good to hear! Oregon sounds like a nice place to live. Is Washington and Oregon about the same when it comes to geography?

Yeah.

But in Oregon, you don't have to pump your own gas.

 

[kingairyahoo]

Yeah.

But in Oregon, you don't have to pump your own gas.

ha, you mean...in Oregon you CANT pump your own gas!

 

[SkyBoy1981]

Just get 3 or 4 roommates and you can live alright....makes for more fun too. :beer:

 

[Ravengirl]

I've been in SoCal my entire life, but as usual, your mileage may vary...

If you want to live anywhere near SNA, expect to pay upwards of $1100/month for not a lot of space. I live three miles west of SNA (in Costa Mesa) and pay $1265/month for a 680 square foot 1 bedroom shoebox. The parking and maintenance suck and the cops are called at least twice a week somewhere in the complex. I have a lovely view of a Home Depot and some place called "I LOVE Sushi." My husband and I both make okay money but living expenses are high enough to make saving rather difficult.

As for actual house prices...you aren't going to find anything new that is not a condo going for less then $700K or so, unless it's in an unsavory area. Some new condos START at $700K. Houses routinely go new for $800K to well over $1M. My parents bought a house in Huntington Beach back in '84 for around $150K...neighbors are selling for over $1M now, too.

I love the place for the weather and lifestyle, but it's too full of people and Starbucks and it's WAY overpriced. I'm moving to Colorado, myself...

Good luck!

 

[BushwickBill]

This is in Van Nuys, just north of L.A. I had a one room closet, upstairs, shower - no tub, for $1100/mo. They would have charged an extra $200/mo for a single roommate. The 'building' had 1970's appliances, a gas leak, occasional bouts of no hot water (every time the wind blew), and a psychotic landlord that claimed I was having loud parties every weekend. While I know folks that can have parties at their home while flying out of state, I'm not that capable. I really enjoyed the voicemail messages to "cut out the noise" upon landing in BFN Kansas.

After 6 months, the landlord raised the rent to $1200/mo. The hot water was no longer, the air conditioning didn't, and the toliet was falling off its mounts. The landlord had another fit when I declined to renew the lease. We're about to go to court over the substantial security deposit.

A walk-in closet size place goes for around $1395 a month and up if you have perfect credit. Add another couple of hundred per month for electric, gas, water, and trash. Feel very lucky if you get your own meter instead of an 'estimated' shared one.

Sure, with these rents you could buy a place worth around $200 -300 thousand. That'll get you a refrigerator box on a hazmat site.

If you wait out the 7 years to get on the Section 8 housing list, you can find a really nice 2 bedroom apartment in a nice area with a pool, spa, and landscaping in pristine conditions. However, you must speak Spanish, be pregnant with twins, a single mom, a recognized minority (which the gov't still defines as hispanic despite their majority in L.A.), and on welfare. Being a single Dad doesn't count.

Head north to Bakersfield and commute. The $150,000 home that is 1500 sq feet on a 1/4th acre lot is now $420,000. BTW, the jobs are in L.A. IFTA and the air charter places need a few pilots, but not many. The round trip to L.A., depending on your car, will be approximately $50 in gas and 2-5 hours depending on traffic.

The coast is worse. Santa Maria - a beaten up old 1 bd mobile home on a ranch with contaminated well water runs $1500 a month. An apartment, if you can find one, is in the 1000-1500 range for bachelors (no kitchen).

San Francisco (where some jobs are), see L.A.

Redding? Has a few jobs, and prices are not too insane.

Visit Craig's List and check out the potential areas. Move there before ruining your credit with flying.

Good Luck!

Redding? You've got to be kidding me. I was backpacking shasta 2 weeks ago and it was 117deg in Redding when we drove out. Not too bad you say? It was 8pm at night. It would be nice if you lived in a walk in fridge...

 

[MFRskyknight]

Redding? You've got to be kidding me. I was backpacking shasta 2 weeks ago and it was 117deg in Redding when we drove out. Not too bad you say? It was 8pm at night. It would be nice if you lived in a walk in fridge...

Redding sucks!!! I loathe even driving through that hellhole with the A/C on...

 

[HMR]

I'm a pilot in SoCal. I wouldn't want to trade places with anyone in any of the other 49 states. I can see the ocean from my driveway and my neighbors ride horses on our street. I love my job (PT91) and my new kitchen is bigger than my entire apartment was when I flew charter out of VNY. Life is good.