i get you, i used to live in socal. emphasis on used to. it was nice when i was right out of college, but quickly realized it wasn't the kind of place i wanted to stay long term, largely due to COL and not wanting to raise a family in such an expensive region, at least on my income.We need at a minimum to get our daughter through HS. My wife & I still look for deals around our area. We bought right before the last crash in 2005. My wife can retire with full bennys in 2 years, but since we're paying for college it will be 6. Unless she's still digging her job, which she loves, may stay even longer. With the boom of the tech industry, housing prices has gone through the roof. We couldn't afford to buy our home today. Has nothing to do with dem/rep/ leadership, its all about supply & demand and being surrounded by the billion dollar tech world. That and being 45 min to SF, 45 min to Napa, 1.5 hours away from Santa Cruz beach. Where else in the world can you go surfing in the morning, drive 3 hours and be snow skiing in the afternoon. Can't beat the weather here which also gets tossed into the equation of why it costs so much to live here. Hard to beat wearing shorts & flip flops year around.