Bob- Tennessee is a beautiful place, we just don’t have any reason to move there.

Prop 13 was written by anti-tax advocates. They used the fear of senior citizens getting “taxed out of their homes” but didn’t write it to only help seniors on fixed incomes. Anybody who buys property gets their property tax increases limited.

Guess who benefits the most from this?

Corporations. They don’t die that often.

Especially, when it comes to the schooling, California is about the worst one can get. State has no money to fund it. The tax money goes to all those who benefit from prop 13. As a new comer you are at a disadvantage from the get go. Add to that the income tax. It make you participate in a orgy of financial overcommittment. Becuase even if you don’t buy a home, you pay tax. So the state wants you to buy a house and save on taxes. That raises the demand and housing becomes unaffordable.

But on the other hand, I tend to do stuff out in the yard and house. I also enjoy hiking, camping, and going to bluegrass festivals. In other words, my life is fairly sedate.

Let me give you a comparison between East TN and here. It is close to a number of fantastic national parks. Beautiful mountainous terrain and large lakes. The last time I was home a few months ago, I hiked 16 miles in Big South Fork which has the largest collection of stone arches in the world. I was the ONLY person there all day, and what’s more, the freeways were sparsely used. In essence, there’s less people in my entire home state than the Bay Area. When places get congested… people GET UGLY.

Another comparison: My mom is a 35 year veteran of the public school system I grew up near. She is about to transfer to a brand-new high school.The building is an actual building. Not a series of trailers. It has huge sky lights, lights that automatically dim and brighten in response to the sunlight within, and a number of new curriculums that include biotechnology, architecture, nanotechnology, and computer languages. That along with gym, a pool, tennis, and all the other items currently being slashed in California. The fact is that the schools that are considered “good” in California are rather mediocre and passe in my home state. Simply put, if you are a child in TN, then you are pretty much guaranteed a good education because the public schools are predictably good. In comparison, sorry to say this, but the schools here suck.

Lastly, my parents own 18 acres of land with a large house, a heated pool, a 2 story workshop, a boat, camper, and apple orchard. Grand total value of the property: $180,000. Approximately 1/2 the cost of a crappy 1 bedroom condo in Oakland.

Anyhow, I realize that there are die-hard Bay Area people who are frightened to death of anything that doesn’t resemble the Bay Area. Their fear of the unknown will keep them here forever.

May be you try to be consistenly right about every small thing that you do. I tend to concentrate when it comes to my work and financial decisions in my life. I tend to take liberties especially when it comes to writing on blogs where the discussions are quite informal. I want to write what I think in the quickest possible way. And that may result in a post where the “Submit” would be clicked before the due diligence of proofreading. But I see the point you are making. I’ll try, but cannot promise because I may not have time for it.

Quality of life is obviously way good here. That’s why everyone wants to be here and no one wants to leave. The schools are outstanding as long as you are in the RBA. It’s like anywhere. There are good school districts and bad school districts.