We moved to Texas about 10 years ago. Bought a house, made friends, had kids,ect,ect.
Well my Sister in law told my wife that after her yongest graduates(in 2011) we could move in with her for about a year or so to save for a down payment on a house. We have a great house in a great subdivsion but ther are a lot of appartments in the area and those appartments have gone to section 8. The grade school that my son will be going to in the fall is top notch. But after that the schools go down hill. So we where thinking of moving to another city with better schools when he is close to 6th grade or after 6th grade. Well where my sister inlaw lives, the schools are awesome.
We would also be able to go to the beach,snow ski, Glamis,Dumont,Pismo,ect. NO BUGS,the weather,we could swim at night in the pool, we would live close to family,ect.
On the other hand we would loose our great neighbors, have to down size on the house,traffic and have a higher cost of living.
Out here we can get a great home for 200K. In Ca we would have to spend 400K to 500K to get a decent house.
I do miss CA but I am just trying to figure out the pros and cons.
I know this has nothing to do with rails or quads just trying to get some good points of view.

you can get a nice house in socal for 200k nowadays

I say find a job first, then the rest will come. Most companies are not hiring right now and you need to base your decision on cost of living more than anything else. With that said, if you are a go getter, you will survive anywhere you live.

Job's are getting hard to come by here in SoCal at the moment. I would say start looking and if you find something that has the pay and benefits you want............come back! It doesn't hurt to start sending out your resume and come to town for interviews as they come up. Some companies will even pay for your travel for an interview.

As far as living with the sister......talk out all the details.....living with family when you come back to town after living away can go from good to bad over night!! I speak from experience of course my sister is extremely moody!!

Yep, the 500k days are over..
Jobs are what to worry about.

a guy i knew moved to Austin last year. seems like he loves it there!

if you can find a good job close to a good school district, and all the stuff you love to do is close by as well, those are the things i would look for!

How about a nice house that's not out in the ghetto or out in the middle of BFE!!!

200k? where?

450 will bring you a beautiful home in the inland empire nowdays

We moved from So Cal to Ft. Worth 2 years ago and love the change. Yes it is a long haul to Glamis but since Glamis Storage opened I have that covered as the trailer stays their all year and I fly out. Jobs are getting harder to find everywhere but I would say So Cal is getting worse. Unless Cal is really home for you I would stay where you are and let your family enjoy life!

Please inform me as to where this might be?

I think you meant, "You can get a DECENT CONDO in socal for 200k nowadays"

I would also have a job locked down! 1 in 16 people in San Diego do not have a job!

ya. 300k is about as low as a non-rathole costs. 400k will get you a nice, older track home.

250K in the Temecula area can get you something very nice......
Not ghetto, not a chithole.....but it is kinda bfe.

About the neighbors, my experience...they are just neighbors Only reason you met is because they happened to live next to you or near you.

If you do it make sure you talk about everything before you move in like boundries, noise, food, parking, and every idiosyncrasy you can think of. Also talk about expectations like rent and length of stay. How long you stay seems to cause alot of animosity between family members.
You must also agree to remain open to discussion of any problem that may arise.
Humility must be king.

As for the job issue there is none. My wife works from home and there is a local office for the company she works for about 10 min from where we would live. She would continue to work from home and go in the office as needed as she does now(got to love the internet). For myself, I am a stay at home dad that is back in school. My sister in-law even said I could go to school full time and she would watch the kids, take them to school ect.
My sister said we can store the toys at her house. If we move we would sell all of our furniture. I would just bring my tools and toys. We would get new furniture after we got the house. We have gone over all of the idiosyncrasy already. No rent and full run of the house. She said we can stay for about a year. She also wants us to let her neighbors behind to know that if they decide to sell to let us know first. I am hoping that the market continues to go down(sorry guys in So Cal) so we can get a house for less out there. The market here is in good shape and was not hit hard like everywhere else. So I don't think we will have a hard time selling our house.

Sounds like you didn't do all that when you let someone move in...

Well, sounds like you've worked it all out then! Whatever you decide, good luck! As for your Texas friends, they can always come to So Cal to visit!

Make sure that the lines of communication between sister and you are always open so no hard feelings ever happen! My sis and I did not talk for about a year after I moved out of her place! It was ugly!

TD is right. I live in the Temcula Vail Ranch area near Redhawk and the houses are going for around $250-$275K in my area. Not the largest homes but they are nice and were built in '97.

Where do you live in Fort Worth. We live in Arlington not far from the Ballpark and the new Cowboys stadium. My 5 year old calls the new stadium the death star.

Thankfully it wasn't me, however I saw the train wreck coming and then had to help clean up after I warned the two parties involved.