I mean some are better than others, but Great Schools is only comparing within states. For the most part, the only public schools that are good are the $$$$ real estate like Palo Alto and Newport Beach. Or maybe some magnets. Overall it’s pretty grim for middle class parents like OP |
Good luck! With much higher housing prices, ridiculous taxes and commuting costs you’d likely need to double your current salary to make it worthwhile. After a couple of months of two days in SJ and all its hassle you will wonder why did we ever do this. |
We lived in CA for about five years in a wealthy community and the schools were terribly underfunded despite crazy taxes as the money goes up to the state and then gets filtered down through levels of bureaucracy. Our ES had good teachers but it was embarrassing how money had to be raised to afford things like paper for the copiers and basic art supplies. We were about to send our kids to private but we had the opportunity to move to the north shore of Chicago which has wonderful public schools. Lower COL, lower taxes but very cold winters but it was worth it. |
I would live near the Burbank airport, which is the best airport in the entire world. Easy parking, small, many flights a day to SJ on Sourthwest. When I say near I mean Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena, Montrose, La Cresenta (excellent schools btw), etc. Living in SD or even orange county/Irving/Rancho Palos Verdes you both will hate your life. If you will be gone when your husband needs to commute he just needs to be closer to the office unless you are hiring help. Your salaries are good, but you will be spending a fortune on housing, flights, parking, hotels etc.
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+1, and people jeering this seem not to realize that many of OP's bosses, peers, etc will think the same thing. At best she will be the crazy one with the wild commute that makes her more likely to quit (ie, a risk to promote) but many will also find it morally wrong. It will harm her advancement. |
I would encourage you to research Orange County. Irvine has a great school system and is so close to Orange County airport. Traffic in LA is horrible. And unless you plan to go private school, public is not that great unless you live in one of the few school districts that are decent. |
West coaster, absolutely would not move to SoCal. NOPE.
Terrible public schools High taxes Lots of crime |
that’s absurd. I swear people on DCUM are totally mentally deranged about public schools. |
Northern California is BIG. It’s not entirely made up of San Jose and SF. Of course beaches are warmer in the San Diego area. But there are many places in Northern California where people are normal. |
Agreed. For Northern California I would look at the East Bay like San Ramon, or Sacramento suburbs. |
Op here. Thank you for all the replies. We have scrapped the plan (well, not that it was ever really a full fledged plan-we were trying to see if it could work).
We are going to keep looking/negotiating. |
Curious why the one of you with the offer in SoCal didn't accept, and the other double down on job search efforts in that area? The odds of you simultaneously being offered dream jobs in dream location seems low, no? |
🙄🙄 Right. Because your relatives represent the entire state. Did moving to DC make you lose your ability to understand statistics or something? |
You are trolling at this point. In no way does $500k/year make you middle class, even in California. And of course there are many excellent public schools in California that are outside of Palo Alto and Newport Beach. You sound so DC provincial. It’s embarrassing. |
Lol no. 😆😆😆 I realize you’ve never worked professionally in your life, so you have a completely fantasy-based view of the workplace but let me tell you that outside of the semi-abusive work environment of a few environmental NGOs based in San Francisco, commuting by plane will not hurt career advancement. Actually you are more likely to hear a “huh, bet you save a lot on housing costs” and then people will forget. |