PUCampin wrote:
If my entire extended family did not live in Southern California, I would have moved. Have had coworkers that had no ties leave. EVRYTHING is expensive here.
Sales Tax - 7.25% base, 9% in LA county where I live, some cities as high as 10%
Property taxes - Prop 13 helps, but since the properties are so expensive property tax is also high. My 1200ft track home on 7000ft land in the desert suburbs of LA cost me $454k in 06 and $5600 in property tax. It is now worth about $260k and even though the assessor reduce the tax, it is STILL $3800
Oh, our legislature is right now trying to ammend prop 13 so only a 55% majority is needed to raise property taxes instead of 66.67% They claim the 66.67% is too high to pass anything. BS! My community has twice passed school bonds (which I voted for) with over the required 66.67% because enough people felt they would benefit. The 66.67% requirement is supposed to be a check to keep stuff from getting rammed through.
Income taxes - 9.3% on anyone with anything approching middle class income and over 13% for high earners.
Auto Registration - partially based on value. 07 Expy $285, 01 Focus $95, TT $110
Insurance - 100/300 limits full coverage on the Expy, liability only on the Focus, liability on the TT. Both DW and I are premier drivers, I had 1 ticket 10 years ago, DW none, no claims, average milage driven, multi policy discount etc. $1650 per year (and I consider that cheap for CA)
Gas - currently around $4.05 with $0.382 of that state gas tax, which is SUPPOSED to be fixing our roads.
Electricity rates - SCE has a 5 tier system starting around $0.13 per KWh for baseline building to over $0.30 per KWh for tier 5. Baseline is set rediculously low, if you run the AC at all you are in tier 5. To keep my 1200ft home at 78 degrees in the summer costs me over $500 a month.
Yea, my roots are here, my family is here, but there is definately a tarnish on the golden state and I completly understan the exodus.
This thread has actually been interesting to see what stuff that you don't always think about costs in other places :)
Actually, except for the electric, it doesn't sound that bad. My electric, water, and sewer came to $125 total this month. But natural gas is close to $200 a month in the winter for heating, and low in the summer, about $15 a month. My 100,000 home comes in close to your $260k home for taxes. Would be higher but I get a bit of a break being a disabled combat vet. Our sales tax is a 3/4 of a percent lower. Homeowners insurance is very reasonable even with full replacement value. Auto insurance close, but covers 09 Focus, 13 Honda Fit, and the motorhome. But I do carry extra liability protection on that policy. My vehicle registrations are lower. Depending on where one lives in the state, our fuel is lower, with gas being about 40 cents lower. Our state gasoline tax is 25.85 cents per gallon, with other taxes being charged to the refiners and distributors. So your is lower, but North Carolina pays higher than either of us!!! And when considering other factors like crime and people, and beautiful scenery, I would not trade with anyone the location where I live. Oh, one other thing - we never had a housing bubble like you guys did!!!
