<p><html> <head> <title>California Cost of living</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=unicode"> <style type="text/css"> <!-- .style24 {color: #000000} .style25 {font-weight: bold; font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;} .style26 {font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;} .style32 {font-weight: bold; font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;} .style38 {font-size: 10px} .style40 {color: #0033CC} .style59 {font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; font-size: 10pt;} .style61 {font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #FF0000; font-weight: bold;} .style62 {font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;} .style63 {font-size: 10pt} body { background-color: #000000; } .style67 { color: #0033CC; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: bold; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; } .style68 { color: #0033CC; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; } .style69 { color: #0000FF; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: bold; } .style70 {font-size: 12px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; } .style72 {font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #0000FF; } .style73 { font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000FF; } .style76 {font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; font-size: 9pt; } .style77 {font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif} .style78 {font-size: 10px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; } .style79 {font-size: 9pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;} .style82 {font-size: 9pt} .style83 { color: #FF0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; } .style84 {font-size: 9px} --> </style> <meta name="Description" content="California Cost Of Living statistics. Rent,Mortgage,Utilities,gas taxes ect."> </head> <body> <meta name="description" content="California cost of living stats by city. Housing, apartment, best places to live, etc"> <table width="685" height="1975" border="0" align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff"> </head> <tr> <td width="679" height="1971" align="left" valign="top" bordercolor="#ffffff" bgcolor="#ffffff" class="style24"><p align="center" class="style25"><IMG height=90 alt="Cost of living california" src="pics/calflag.jpg" width=135 align=middle></p> <h1 align="center"><font size="3" face="Bookman Old Style"> <font face="Bookman Old Style" size="3">California Cost of living</font> </H1> <p align="center"><span class="style61">Select: </span><span class="style79"><a href="cost-of-living-calculator.html">California Cost of Living Calculator </a>/ <a href="realestateca.html">California Real Estate</A>&nbsp;/<A href="southern-california-rent.html"> California Apartment Rent</A> / <a href="realestateca.html">California Homes </a></span><span class="style76"><br> </span><span class="style59"><br><script type="text/javascript"><!-- google_ad_client = "pub-2346121780353164"; /* 468x60, created 5/26/10 */ google_ad_slot = "9951651737"; google_ad_width = 468; google_ad_height = 60; //--> </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script></span></p> <br> <font color="#000000" size="2"> <hr> </font><u><span class="style61">View California Apartment Rent by City </span></u><span class="style76"><span class="style77"><span class="style78"><span class="style79"><A href="apartments/apartments-for-rent-la.html"><br> </a></span></span></span></span><span class="style79"><span class="style77"><span class="style78"><span class="style79"><A href="apartments/apartments-for-rent-la.html">Los Angeles </a> /<A href="apartments/apartments-san-diego-ca.html"> San Diego</a>&nbsp;/ <A href="apartments/apartments-south-san-francisco.html">San Francisco </a>/ <A href="apartments/oakland-ca-apartments.html">Oakland</a> / <A href="apartments/apartments-sacramento-california.html">Sacramento</a></span></span></span><span class="style82"> / </span></span><span class="style62 style77 style82"><A href="apartments/san-jose-ca-apartments.html">San Jose </a> &nbsp;/ <A href="apartments/apartments-santa-ana.html">Santa Ana </a> / <A href="apartments/apartments-bakersfield-ca.html">Bakersfield</a> / <A href="apartments/apartments-stockton-ca.html">Stockton</a> / <A href="apartments-fresno-ca.html">Fresno</a>&nbsp;/ <A href="apartments/long-beach-ca-apartments.html">Long Beach </a>/ <A href="apartments/anaheim-ca-apartments.html">Anaheim</a></span> <hr> <u><span class="style61">California Cost of Living Information </span></u> </p> <script type="text/javascript"><!-- google_ad_client = "pub-2346121780353164"; /* 468x15, created 5/26/10 */ google_ad_slot = "5587143228"; google_ad_width = 468; google_ad_height = 15; //--> </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script> <hr><span class="style24"><span class="style40"><span class="style44 style83"><strong><u>Cost</u></strong></span></span><u><span class="style43 style83 style77 style63"><strong> of living Comparisons</strong></STRONG><font></span> </u><br> <span class="style84"><span class="style77"><span class="style82"><a href="san-diego-cost-of-living.html">San Diego</A> / <a href="california-cost-of-living-san-jose.html">San Jose</A> / <a href="cost-of-living-bakersfield.html">Bakersfield</A> <strong>/ </strong></span></span></span> <span class="style79"><a href="cost-of-living-sacramento.html">Sacramento</A> / <a href="cost-of-living-fresno.html">Fresno</A> / <a href="cost-of-living-san-francisco.html">San Francisco</A> / <a href="cost-of-living-los-angeles.html">Los Angeles</A>&nbsp;</span></span> <hr> <u><span class="style61"> </p> More Information</span></u><span class="style67"><br> <br> <script type="text/javascript"><!-- google_ad_client = "pub-2346121780353164"; /* 468x15, created 5/26/10 */ google_ad_slot = "6241756877"; google_ad_width = 468; google_ad_height = 15; //--> </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script><hr> </span> <p class="style67"> California Cost Of Housing <br><br> <span class="style32">Well your mortgage will be quite high because the average single family home goes for 835,000. It has been speculated that the housing market has hit its bottom. This means that if you know where to look you can find a great home&nbsp; right now well below the average price last year. <font face="Century Gothic"></font><font face="Century Gothic"> </font><A href="realestateca.html">...Continue</A> </span><hr> </p> <span class="style67">Cost of&nbsp;Apartment Rent&nbsp;In California </span><u><BR> <br> </u><span class="style32">The cost of living in California varies depending on where you live. For example the average rent in Huntington Beach is $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</span><span class="style63">. <A href="southern-california-rent.html">.......Continue</A></span><strong><font size="2"> </font></strong><strong><font size="2"> <hr> </font><span class="style62"> <span class="style40">How gas prices are effecting the real estate market in California </span></span></strong><span class="style68">&nbsp;</span><br> <br> <span class="style32">The rising cost at the pump are directly effecting the fall of&nbsp;home prices in Southern California. Recent figure show that real estate has fallen&nbsp;25%&nbsp;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&nbsp;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. <br> There are some really great deals on real estate</span><span class="style63"> ........ <span class="style82"><a href="realestateca.html"><strong>Continue Reading</strong></A></span></span><font face="Century Gothic"><a href=""></A></font><font face="Century Gothic" size="1"><a href=""><br> </A></font> <hr> </p> <span class="style67 style63">California Cost of Living Statistics</span> <p align="left" class="style26">Utilities -&nbsp; $29.38 for garbage $23.50 for water and $25.10 for sewer.<br> <strong>Energy</strong>&nbsp; - 22.1 cents kilo-watts per hour.&nbsp;<br> <strong>Gasoline</strong> -&nbsp;&nbsp;$4.20 per gallon.<br> <strong>Housing Wage&nbsp;-</strong> $22.86 per hour<br> <em>This is the hourly wage a person must earn working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year to be able to afford&nbsp;mortgage and utilities in the private housing market</em></p> <p align="left"><span class="style26"><em> </em></span><span class="style70 style38 style69"><font face="Bookman Old Style">California Sales Tax Breakdown</font></span></p> <p align="left" class="style26"><IMG height=110 alt="california cost of living" src="pics/salestax.jpg" width=142>&nbsp; <br> <br> 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....<br> <strong><u><br> </u></strong><span class="style15 style35"><span class="style38"><strong>State General Fund</strong> - <strong>6.25 %</strong> - <strong>Fiscal Recovery Fund</strong> - 0.25% <strong><br> Local Revenue Fund</strong>- 0.50%<strong> Local Public Safety Fund</strong> .50%<br> <strong>Local Public Safety Fund</strong> 1.00% <strong>Uniform Local Tax</strong> 0.25%<br> <strong>County Transportation funds</strong> 0.75% - <strong> County Operational fund</strong> .25%</span></span><span class="style38">.</span> <strong><font size="2"><hr> <strong><span class="style73">Califonia Cost Of Living On The Rise</span></strong> - <span class="style63"><em> Population on the decline</em></span><br> <br> <span class="style32">The population decline in California is staggering. The Rising Cost Of Living in California&nbsp;will cause all the educated workforce to leave California&nbsp;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.<br> <br> 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. </p> </span> <FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2> <hr> </FONT> <div align="left"><strong> <span class="style72">The Rising Cost Of Living For Seniors</span></strong> <br> </p> <span class="style32">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&nbsp; 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.<br> <br> So why isn't California taking care of its seniors? It is easy to see that&nbsp;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&nbsp;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&nbsp;gives legislators accurate calculations&nbsp;as far as the Cost Of LIving in&nbsp;California and how it effects the elderly. It is designed to secure funding,&nbsp;and allocate resources and aid seniors in their retirement plans. This is apart of a&nbsp;California wide project to insure that adequate funds are available for our seniors to cover their cost of living expensives.<br> <br> Developed over 40 years&nbsp;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&nbsp;effecting the cost of living for everyone including people in California. But for seniors the rising cost of prescription drugs&nbsp;has become yet a bigger burden.&nbsp;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.<br> 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&nbsp;was presented at a legislative hearing in Sacramento on February 27&nbsp;made possible by&nbsp;many contributing foundations.<FONT face="Bookman Old Style"></FONT></span><span class="style26"><FONT face="Bookman Old Style"><br> </FONT> </span> <hr> <A href="cost-of-living-calculator.html" cost-of-living-calculator.html=""><span class="style26">Cost of Living&nbsp;Calculators </span></A><span class="style26">/<A href="cost-of-living-index.html"> Cost of Living Index </A>/ <A href="average-cost-of-living.html">Average Cost of Living </A> / <A href="cost-of-living-washington.html">Washington Cost of Living </A>&nbsp;<A href="cost-of-living-chicago.html">Chicago Cost of Living&nbsp; </A><br> <A href="cost-of-living-new-york.html">New York Cost of Living </A>&nbsp;/ <A href="hawaii-cost-of-living.html">Hawaii&nbsp; Cost of Living </A>&nbsp;/ &nbsp;<A href="florida-cost-of-living.html">Florida Cost of Living</a><font face="Bookman Old Style" size="1" DESIGNTIMEURL="cost-of-living-calculator.html"><A href="california-cost-of-living.html"> </A> /</font><font face="Bookman Old Style" DESIGNTIMEURL="cost-of-living-calculator.html"><a href="texas-cost-of-living.html"><span class="style38"> Texas Cost of Living</span></a></font></span> </div> <font face="Bookman Old Style" size="1" DESIGNTIMEURL="cost-of-living-calculator.html"> <hr align="center"> </font> <div align="center" class="style63"><font face="Bookman Old Style" DESIGNTIMEURL="cost-of-living-calculator.html">&nbsp;</font> Back to the <A href="index.html">Cost of Living By State</A> home page</div></td> </tr> </table> </body> </html> </p>