Cost of living In California



California Cost Of Living Information

Cost Of Apartment Rent By City 

California Real Estate




Recent Articles

Cost Of Home Mortgage in California?

Well your mortgage will be quite high because the average single family home goes for 835,000. There are still more great buys out there. Seized or Foreclosed real estate is everywhere you just have to know where to look. You can find lists of foreclosed properties by contacting any financial institution Continue Reading

Cost of apartment rent in California?
The cost of living in California varies depending on where you live. For example the average rent in Huntington Beach, $1,439 a month while average rent in Santa Monica is $3,246 a month. The Cost of living in Anaheim is the cheapest at $1,265, that is if you are looking to move close to Los Angeles. Continue Reading

California Cost of Living Statistics

Utilities -  $29.38 for garbage $23.50 for water and $25.10 for sewer.
Energy  - 22.1 cents kilo-watts per hour. 
Gasoline -  $4.20 per gallon.
Housing Wage - $22.86 per hour
This is the hourly wage a person must earn working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year to be able to afford mortgage and utilities in the private housing market

California Sales Tax Breakdown

california cost of living 


Living in California has it's costs when it comes to sales taxes. Californians pay anywhere from 7.25% to 8.75 % depending on what county they live in. California doesn't tax on food or prescription drugs but does place a 40 cent per gallon tax on gasoline and an 87 cent tax on cigarettes. Here's where our hard in dollars go....

State General Fund - 6.25 % - Fiscal Recovery Fund - 0.25%
Local Revenue Fund
- 0.50% Local Public Safety Fund .50%
Local Public Safety Fund 1.00% Uniform Local Tax 0.25%
County Transportation funds 0.75% - County Operational fund .25%
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Califonia Cost Of Living On The Rise
- Population on the decline

The population decline in California is staggering. The Rising Cost Of Living in California will cause all the educated workforce to leave California by the year 2020. Department of Finance estimates show natural increase (the difference between births and deaths), now account for more than two thirds of the state's growth.

It is no suprise that many California residents have moved north in search of a lower cost of living through better wages and more affordable housing. The big question is why in such a robust ecomony are people having trouble making the mortgage? Especially when the average wage is $14.00 per hour. The answer is homes cost way to much and the cost of even renting an apartment is out of control. If cost of living in California stays as is a unique problem will exist. Plenty of jobs with out any people to work them which will create a very interesting paradox.

The Rising Cost Of Living For Seniors


How poor do you have to be to be able to afford pubic assistance in California. According to the CHRP public assistance programs cover less than half of seniors basic cost of living in California. With an annual income of  less than $13,000 to qualify it is easy to see why this is the case. In comparison the average cost of living for a retiree in California is roughly $30,537 this is $17,000 more than the California assistance threshold.

So why isn't California taking care of its seniors? It is easy to see that California leadership is not keeping the policy up to date with rising living costs. Understanding how expensive living is for seniors is important to ensure that their basic cost of living is covered. The elder index is a fact based and comprehensive look at expenses effecting senior citizens and is designed to replace the current Federal Poverty line. It gives legislators accurate calculations as far as the Cost Of LIving in California and how it effects the elderly. It is designed to secure funding, and allocate resources and aid seniors in their retirement plans. This is apart of a California wide project to insure that adequate funds are available for our seniors to cover their cost of living expensives.

Developed over 40 years ago the official federal measure of poverty was grossly outdated using surveys from the 1950s. The measure was factoring in soley the basic cost of food needed to satisfy minumal nutritional requirements. It does not account for housing and transportation costs. And we all know gas is effecting the cost of living for everyone including people in California. But for seniors the rising cost of prescription drugs has become yet a bigger burden. The Elder Index, in contrast, provides a calculation of a basic cost of living for retired adults age 65 and older for every California county and includes things such as the cost of food, transportation, medical, housing and other expensive directly effecting the cost of living in california.
The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research based its calculations using widely accepted and credible national and state data sources such as the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Geographically relevant data was used for each county in California, reflecting local market rates for items such as housing, food, and health care.The policy brief was presented at a legislative hearing in Sacramento on February 27 made possible by many contributing foundations.

How gas prices are effecting the real estate market in California 

The rising cost at the pump are directly effecting the fall of home prices in Southern California. Recent figure show that real estate has fallen 25% in the last year alone and even more so in some outer suburan neiborhoods. This is because of the longer commute to work which is something citizen were willing to accept for more affordable home. But now home buyers are force to factor in gasonline prices into their home buying decision. This is directly affecting real estate prices in these regions. The money that they would save buying these homes is offset by the rising cost of fuel. Recent reports reflex this reluntancy, median home prices drop all the way from $500,000 down to 375,00 in one year! This was the biggest yearly drop in real estate in over 30 years. Lancaster and Palmdale were reported as the worst median home prices fell an average of 40% in these communities. Los Angeles fell around 25% and San Bernardino County drop down 31%. To make matters worse experts say that these communities will take much longer to recover than the bigger cities. Foreclosures are also playing a role in this declining housing market but the rising cost of gas prices are believe to be the cause. It is predicted that we are only half way through this drop. It is said that until home falls to a amount people can afford to pay we wont see a bottom out. Other experts say that their is a strong arument that prices are coming down fast enought to attract bargain huntings and that demand will go up because home builders have stopped building new homes. It really hard to say what exactly will happen to the market at this point. No one can really accurately predict what will happen. One thing is for sure their are some really great deals out there for home buyers. There are some really great deals on California Real Estate  



Cost of living Comparisons


San Diego  Cost Of Living in California 
San Jose   Cost Of Living in California    
Bakersfield  Cost Of Living in California 
Sacramento  Cost Of Living in California 
Fresno  Cost Of Living in California 
San Francisco  Cost Of Living in California 
Los Angeles  Cost Of Living in California 

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