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Re:Why the San Francisco Bay Area should have 11 million res... by mahyarm on Tuesday May 15, 2012 @12:45AM (#3974933)
If it's really weather, why are almost all of the east coast sun states significantly cheaper? And two of them don't have a state income tax! (Florida and Texas). New York also has fairly shitty weather comparatively and it's even more expensive.

It's more complicated than that. Prop 13, cities forcing a lack of density and other polices and forces I don't know about push California to it's sky high rates.

Re:Why the San Francisco Bay Area should have 11 million res... by bitops on Tuesday May 15, 2012 @01:08AM (#3975001)
> If it's really weather, why are almost all of the east coast sun states significantly cheaper?

Simple - people don't want to live in those states as much as California. For example, we have palm trees in California. They have them in Florida too - it's not the same!

Similarly, Texas also has nice weather but it's way more variable than California which has a fairly temperate climate. In TX crazy temperature swings are the norm. Also, I've known a number of Texans throughout my time in the Bay Area, pretty much all of them from Austin. The culture of Austin is the most like California and San Francisco - artsy, liberal, etc. Places like Dallas, Fort Worth and San Antonio are decidedly not like San Francisco.

To your point about Prop 13, I agree that it's an issue, and it's definitely a major part of why we keep having this budget crisis over and over and over again, every friggin' year. Sadly, I don't think Prop 13 will be abolished or really revised until the state is completely broke - much worse than it is now. But eventually it will change.