You likely have a lot more money than I do, from what you said. I did live in a couple of major cities in Texas over the course of 5 years. I'd recommend the Dallas area. Easily one of my favorite areas in the country, especially for someone starting off. Doing it all over again, knowing what I know now, I might have moved there long ago and stayed. It has also exploded though, but probably nothing near CA proportions. I also like Washington State but have only visited once. I took multiple trips to Oregon in consideration of moving there, but declined in the end. CA is where I'd live if money is no object.

I share your holistic view, I don't want everyone around me suffering and acting tense. Its been that way in most of the country for a couple of decades now. A lot of people must really enjoy that, but I don't really see a true benefit to holding everyone down in such a way. To get a fairer society means less profits for employers so there's a lot of effort to contain those costs. My spouse is a teacher so I know what you mean, though teachers are fairly compensated where I live for sure. She makes more than I do with better benefits by a longshot. Most public school teachers in big cities are bad because the families/students are bad, and they have no authority to discipline them. Most teachers that care don't last and go teach for less money in the suburbs.

I'm in Chicago and while dangerous in 80% of the city, if you lived in the suburbs and don't mind winter, I've never known anyone that doesn't like it here. It's my favorite city in the country, it's the only city that the times I've driven out to move or visit elsewhere that I felt heartbroken. The only other place I've lived where I felt that way was France. I've lived all over and multiple countries on top of it. Crime and undesirable weather for most people keeps costs down here. I like Florida but it's such a diverse state that each area needs examined by itself. Just some thoughts.

My thoughts on buying for you are the same for me: at least wait until January. There's just too many near-term risks. My conclusion has been if things are still the exact same as today in Q1 2022, then go ahead and buy, my crystal ball is broken. That said, I'm deal hunting so if I can get anything for 15% off going rate or more, I'll probably just do it. I'm looking at homes that are in blue collar neighborhoods.

I agree with most of what you've said, but I think the core issue of affordability is not dependent on private enterprise profits. I think the core issue in California is that its so difficult to build homes in high density, and NIMBYs prevent new development everywhere, creating more and more sprawl as people move ever out of the range of existing NIMBYs to form new towns, where they in turn become NIMBYs.

If California would allow anyone to build an apartment complex nearly anywhere (as Minneapolis does in many neighborhoods) then there would automatically be more housing, and more affordable housing for blue collar workers and entry level workers. Instead, we have so many neighborhoods where each house is forced to be on .25 acres, or .15 acre, with forced single family occupancy. Affordability is a construction, zoning, and permission problem in California.

And that high expense for housing then trickles up and makes everything more expensive from child care to healthcare to services ... as everyone has to pay workers ever more just so they can get a roof over their heads. People are making $25/hour with no college degree and feel poor.

That's interesting. I've never lived anywhere where that's a problem, at least not to that degree. The places I've lived have low costs of living with the wage disparity holding most people down. A truly urban city where half the people are in a high rise, like myself, has its problems too. Which is what the NIMBYs are worried about I would presume. Tough to scale transportation and everything else around it. It really takes one of the older cities that were designed from nearly day-one to be densely populated. Everything is already in place. For example here all the roads are mostly perfectly square making for efficient movement and trains are the heartbeat of the city.