ThumpAZ

Hey all, I need some pointers here.

Currently we live in the Phx, AZ area, have a house, no kids and a totally useless lump that society calls a cat.

A company approached me offering me a job, but it is Sante Fe Springs, CA (just East of LA).
The benefits are better, the company is better, and I expect the salary offer to come in as a very attractive one. I also get a company car.

They are so serious that they are flying me AND my wife out next Friday, putting us in a rental car and a hotel for the weekend. Friday morning, I am interviewing with them, and tghen the rest of the time is open to us, but we will be viewing homes all day Saturday.
We have kinda picked the Rancho Cucamonga area and a newer home. But are not locked into this area. We have been looking at South OC and as far North as Santa Clarita as well.
Any thoughts on this?
Any areas that are good for newer, reasonably priced houses? We are looking in the 300-520K range.
I will be mostly at satellite locations while at work (hence the car) and these locations are from Riverside to the beach. So my commute is gonna be odd.

Lemme know, please, as this is a big move for us. mail me at glenn@-removethispart-uselessfurball.com as I don't know how often I will be able to check in here
Thanks in advance.

glennp_1999

Depends on what time of the day you are planning on doing your driving. Pretty much screwed if you have to live in the Cucamonga area and commute to SFS area. But if your job will going from place to place then I guess living anywhere in SoCal should be ok. Orange County is the best but very expensive I doubt if you will find a house in that price range unless you plan on living in a really small townhouse. I would suggest Corona area that close to Riverside. You can still find homes in that price range and it's still a developing city. One thing about this area is that traffic in the morning and coming home commute is murder. Rancho Cucamonga is a good area as well but the price range on houses over there are also rediculous. I guess if you guys really look hard you can find what you want. Goodluck in your job interview sounds like a very promising career for you. Hope you will like SoCal weather is great and lots of places to go on the weekends.

Egbert Souse

a major downside to moving to LA is that housing is VERY expensive. the further out of town you live, the cheaper, but then you need to deal w/ very long commutes in horrible rush hour traffic.

i have lived here all my life and i love it.

ThumpAZ

Tahnks for the responses. IT seems I am getting about the same reaction from everyone (I frequent a couple of other, unrelated, boards and posted this there as well).

Let me know if anything else comes to mind.

ThumpAZ

Ok, went on the interview and all that crap. It looks promising. They seem serious and are aware that a house is going to be about $3K/month more than currently, and they are talking about a 20% down payment as a signing bonus (that's like $120 fn K!!!).
Anyway, we were looking at houses in Rancho Cucamonga and the surrounding areas. We found some new homes and are looking at several different ones.
I expect the formal offer on Wednesday and will see where it goes from there.
Anyway...
What are taxes like out there. I know about the property taxes, I am wondering about the other taxes... Income and such.
If anyone can let me know, I'd apreciate it.

Sharif@Forged

iTrader: (92)

10% state income tax, and property tax is moderately high, and depends on the county/city you live in. I would buget 1.25% of the home's value. Sales tax is 8.6% in LA country (and may go higher in a few months), and OC is 8.25%

Pretty much everything here is more expensive. Premium gas is $2.50/gallon, insurance is higher, electricy is rediculous...the list goes on and on and on.... But Welcome to So Cal!!!

Egbert Souse

gq -

didn't you just move here from NYC?

LA must seem lik a bargain to you. lol

ThumpAZ

Is that 10% of gross? Or, like AZ, a percentage of federal?
Also, what is the price per KWh for electric? I can compare to AZ then in an apples to apples manner.
We already found out about the property tax thing, that was odd to me, but i am happy about it even though it is more expensive at the onset... but it gets cheaper over time. Most states base off of assessor's current value, instead of 1% (plus that other thing) of selling price and only allowing for max of 2% increase per year... that is actually nice.
What about water costs? Natural gas (for the home)?

Thanks!

GM-West

Well personally; I grew up in a town called Claremont, which is about 15 to 20 minutes west of Rancho Cucamonga. Note that Rancho Cucamonga is in San Bernardino County which makes for slightly different tax rates than L.A. County. Also note that the further east you go, the hotter the weather although coming from Arizona, I don’t think you’ll have too much of a problem with that.

The problem is the traffic; driving east to west in the morning equals lots of traffic. Driving west to east from around 3pm to 7pm equals lots of traffic. My home town of Claremont is a place I recommend to people moving in to Southern Cali. Also La Verne, San Dimas and Glendora which are all nice areas just west of Claremont.

If you don‘t already have it, get yourself a copy of Microsoft Streets and scan over the area’s in question. It’s a really handy program to have for many reasons. Also check out the following sites which should give you access to over 85% of the listed properties for sale in any area you might choose: www.realtor.com, www.ziprealty.com, www.imrmls.com:8080/servlet/lDisplayListings and www.themls.com. I believe the first two require a free sign-up and then you can do specific searches and browse for homes.

Good luck!

ThumpAZ

Well, it turns out that I won't be moving out there. They were about $15K short of where I wanted to be. Mind you, I could live the same as I do now on what they offered, and my wife could take her time finding a job with the money on the table. I just told them simply that I was looking to move up, not laterally.

Oh well... It was fun while it lasted. And we'll see if they send another offer.