My company wants me to relocate from Austin to San Diego.

Anyone out there made this move?

I'm struggling with how much the cost of living really changes, as we're negotiating salary, etc...

 

The cost of living here is HIGH! Watching TV last night and the home you could buy in NC for $225,000.00 almost does not exhist in San Diego County, lots of yard etc. Here that home would be $2,000,000.00.

It is a good place to live, San Diego is far better than Los Angeles (after all we are here - we being West Coast MINIs)

I would ask them for a cost of living adjustment based on home value/cost.

Good luck on you move.

Earl

 

We made the move in the 90s. The real difference being property taxes. In Texas they're huge! Not so much, as a percentage of value, here in California. Of course your house size for dollare price is going to shrink. However, food, and utilities are much more reasonable. I woud say it is almost a wash as far as Austin versus San Diego.

As already stated your biggest expense in SD is going to be housing. Hopefully you'll love it here! The weather, especially in summer will impress you for certain!
Would I do it again? I always say, if I had all the money in the world, I'd live in Austin. But I wouldn't turn down a transfer to San Diego at all!

 

Thanks for the input guys... My CEO and VP are going to make some kind of proposal to me tomorrow, so will see... Nice thing is that I can stay in Austin if i really want to. Choices Choices

 

I'm moving to Austin soon from Seatlle because housing is so much cheaper. Our property tax isnt quite as bad here but we have income tax as well so its pretty similar overall, but I can get a new 4 bedroom home near Austin for the price of an old 1 bedroom condo here. It seems like prices are about 3 times here! What does this have to do with San Diego? Nothing really, just excited to move. Good luck to you.

 

SD is indeed a very expensive place to live, but it's also great! And for what it's worth, SoCal has a large MINI community and a lot of fun, friendly people!

 

Not to hijack the thread, but our local paper ran a story on the migration of SoCal homeowners to other areas due to the housing costs, crowding, et al. One of the families interviewed moved from Temecula (or Trafficula as we call it) to NC....got a much larger house and property for about $100K less. Now they want to move back, the cost of utilities, day to day expenses and lack of earnings made it a much more expensive move than they thought. They are now looking to move back!! So, check ALL expenses b/4 moving, including utilities, gas, length of commute, pay, entertainment (most never consider this, but I would go bats**t if I had to live where my dad is...NO entertainment), et al. Back to the thread............

 

That's excellent advice! Most people don't look past the cost of housing.

 

We made the move to So Cal from Northern VA 2 years ago. Coming here from an already HIGH cost of living area didn't shock us too much as we already knew what to expect.

Yes - property taxes are high in So Cal but I have to tell you, they were HIGHER where we moved from. The big difference is you get MUCH MORE HOUSE for the money elsewhere than in So Cal. Utilities are less for us here in So Cal as obviously the weather is not as extreme as other places - we don't even have AC in our house - but we are fairly close to the beach. You go inland by a couple more miles and it does get hot. Hence, our total utilities are much cheaper (so far) per year than what we paid back East.

So if you decide to move here, check out ALL your options, areas, make sure your salary is where YOU think it should be - that is the one thing we found to be very different and lower here - it's called the "Sun Tax". Seems lots of people want to live here so employers figure they can pay you whatever and you'll deal with it...

Donna

 

Thanks, I have often thought of moving elsewhere, but my co-worker moved to NM (to appease his wife) and he's been bitching the whole time (plus he is starting to spend his savings from his SoCal home sale, due to utilities and lower wages).
If I may digress....it was nice meeting you in Vegas (at the Terrible Herbst) Batgirl....I was in the "Wannabe Mini" rental, as BB was in the bodyshop. Have a great time at the Dragon (I'm sooooo jealous)
Back to our regularly scheduled thread......

 

Lived in San Diego for 11 years. Moved away because of the high cost of living back in 1998. I still have friends there. They say a 3 bd 2 bath home built in the 1970's goes for around $400,000 easily.
Great place to live. Weather is great all year round except for the Santa Ana's and wildfires.

If we ever get rich, we will be moving back. <grin> As the wife says.

 

I think you'd love SD! My brother transfered out there a few years ago. He lives near Mission Valley. If you like doing outdoor activities, it's really nice. He's able to go surfing, biking, hiking, golfing all year round. If I had a job offer in SD, I'd leave Chicago in a heart beat!

Housing prices may have stalled out there for the time being. He told me last week, he thinks it's a buyers market (he's thinking of moving to a new flat).

 

If you move to San Diego, I'm sure you'll be closer to a MINI dealer.

 

Ahhh, ok, it was nice to meet you too. Kudos for going to AMVIV sans MINI. I did that last year, (as I didn't have one and my bro had just totaled his) and will do so this year at the Dragon.

I have also heard that housing prices have started to level off here.

 

We only have one, and it isn't even in the city of San Diego.

 

Living in Texas, we don't have a state income tax, so our property taxes are higher.

I still haven't quite figured out how to consider that in my cost. The CEO didn't want to pay me for the geographic move, and I basically told him tough. If YOU want me in San Diego, then I have to consider that. It's not like I'm applying from off the street for the job. They are in trouble with their onsite resources.

So far I've gotten him to agree to a 15% raise plus moving expenses, but still not sure if it makes sense for us; since we would lose my Wife's salary and seniority.

And not like Austin isn't already a GREAT place to be... (except for a few of those summer days)

 

Unless you're earning over 100k on your own, I'd say the move isn't worth it if your wife won't be working. It's a tough decision, but her future earning and seniority have to count for something. You have the best of all worlds in Austin, sun, lakes, a days drive from the coast or the mountains, food, food, and more food, music of all kind and South by Southwest. And heck, running into Sondra Bullock on occasion has its advantges.

Put those in the plus column with your wife's employment and think about it very hard. The expansive home has to go there on that list too.

It's not that I don't love San Diego. It's not that at all. I just really love Austin and can't think of a good reason not to stay if your wife is giving up her job seniority to make the move.

 

15% is a slap in the face! You should get 15% plus a cost of living adjustment plus moving expenses just to make it worth your while.