Why I didn't stay in the Bay Area when I retired.
Here's a link to a house listing in San Mateo, CA, next to Burlingame, where I lived in a rental property for 22 years before retiring and returning to Ann Arbor, MI. I'd like to have stayed in CA but I wanted my own place and every time I thought I'd make it the goal posts got moved again. The house in the SFGate story is a pleasant Arts and Crafts building from 1905, and might get 350K-500K in A2, perhaps 750K-800K in B'ham. Check the price in San Mateo. It's nice to have Draeger's, the Bergdorf's of supermarkets, nearby, and the streets look pretty grand, clogged as they are with Ferraris and Bentleys from next door Hillsborough, America's sixth richest town [[doesn't even have sidewalks). So, I've got my little faux Regency townhouse here, which would have been about 10 times the price in Pacific Heights or Nob Hill, or maybe just 8-9 times as much down the Peninsula, and now even when I look at my winter DTE bills I'm glad I came home to Michigan. Any other readers [[refugees?) who came back to Michigan and fiscal sanity?
http://www.sfgate.com/realestate/wal...eo-5368322.php
