I am seriously considering moving to CA to be near my DD. I am just curious how expensive it is to live there. With the housing prices the way they are, I can afford a house, but am concerned with the rest of the costs of living there. Any input would be appreciated. I am also wondering about the homeschooling laws in CA.
It really depends where in California you are. We are working there now and have worked all over California in the past 10 years and it varies tremendously. The thing that I have noticed that gets you the most is the taxes. They tax you to death on everything! On average I have found sales tax to be around 10%. Groceries aren't to bad if you know where to shop - like Winco. I don't know much about the homeschooling laws because we have never stayed in the state long enough to need to switch to their laws. I know their are several veteran hslers on here that live in CA that can be more of a help than I can.
You have four options to homeschool under in California. Check HSLDA for full details. http://hslda.org/laws/analysis/California.pdf As to the cost of living; It will depend on where you live and how far you and/or your spouse have to travel to work. We pay almost $140 a week on gas alone for Handsome to get to work. Gas prices fluctuate, so how much we spend also changes. This isn't counting my gas for my car. California, especially southern, is a commuting state. Many people have to travel at least 30 minutes to get to work. As for housing, prices vary drastically in California. But if you purchase in a decent area while the economy is down, California being what it is, you will most likely triple the house value once the enomomy goes back up. Again, that will depend on where you live. But in California, even the slums hold a high value in a good economy. I also agree about shopping at stores like Winco. They are a lot cheaper than other grocery stores.
We're from L.A. and we now live in TX. One of the main reasons we have not moved back to L.A. is because of the cost of living.
What area are you considering moving to? We are in Modesto, in the central valley. We aren't too happy here but live here for dh work. There's a website called city-data.com that will give you all the stats of the cities, crime, cost of living, weather, etc.
