California is very greedy. Living is no longer affordable unless your filthy rich. both my mom ant aunt get fat checks every month but are still strugeling to make it.with the cost of living who can afford to eat, let alone by all your personal needs. And heaven forbid if your in college because now you have to dish out more money for supplies that you cant afford. It is near imposable to live alone and be happy to. there is so many people who are aginst welfare but these days its a way of survivle. i know many people who are on welfare who wouldent be making it if it wernt for welfare. When I was a kid i got New shoes almost every month and my family was concidered to be a low income family. today I'm lucky if i get new shoes at the end of the year. I looked up some other states and found that california is the most expensive. Have you ever heard of a 2 bedroom town house for only 400$ a month? I saw that in NC and not mintion my sister lived there and said its realy nice. As soon as i finsh school im oout of here because the cost of living is already high and who knows how high it will be in 3 years.
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i live in northern california, and i am starting to fell the pain of educational cost for university.
I know what you maen I just finshed my first yare at AII and it seems like everything just went up
If you care about wealth-building, no other state in the nation seems to match California or New York. If you struggle for 10 years, put together a down payment for a $500K house, you are essentially guaranteed to get a pretty great return by the end of another 10 years. My parents paid for a home for 250K in California, and they sold it for 750K just 8 years later. I don't see any other state that can do this other than in the Manhattan, New York area.
If you go out to Texas, Minnesota, or the state you mentioned, North Carolina, you might get a cheaper house and a nice standard of living, but it would be very hard to build wealth anywhere as quickly.