We moved to the San Francisco area, and discovered that not only was there sticker shock ... there was upwardly climbing sticker shock! When my husband was offered a teaching job here, we looked at real estate web sites to see what prices were for housing in this area, and said okay, we can swing that much. What we thought of as a decent house was a little under $300K at that time. By the time we moved here several months later, the same houses were about $350K. By the time we *bought* a house, a year after moving here, the same houses were up to about $400K. Now, 3 years after moving here, those houses are around $525K. You see where I am going with this ....
So before making the decision, talk to a real estate pro who is in the area you want to move to, and find out how fast housing prices are moving up. You may be able to afford a house *now* ... but can you afford one six months or a year from now, after you have moved out here and had time to scope out all the neighborhoods? Maybe not.
If your company has offices in Texas, you might consider going there. True, it's hot there in the summer, but prices are reasonable and so are the people (unless you say something bad about Texas! LOL!). Anyway, that's what air conditioning is for.
RE: If your company has offices in Texas, you might consider going there. True, it's hot there in the summer, but prices are reasonable and so are the people (unless you say something bad about Texas! LOL!). Anyway, that's what air conditioning is for.
In truth, the more afordable areas of California, WHERE MOST NEWBIES END UP UNLESS THEY ARE QUITE WEALTHY, are typically far enough inland that they are typically hotter than most of Texas (exception - Rio Grande Valley at times). But it's a dry heat (LOL! ... )