Why Don't I Just Move From This "Bad-Ass" Place?

Thank you for your comments! I have enjoyed each and every one of them, and have learned a ton, and that's the point of this blog, right? For us to educate and support one another. I've gotten some great responses, and I ask you to be sure to read through all the comments to my first post, even the ridiculous, ignorant and pretty much crazy responses too!

Having said that, I'd like to respond to a common question that I am getting, which is:

"Why don't you move if it's so bad?"

That's a great point and one that I have considered over and over again. The main reason why I don't move is economical. You have to have a job to move, right? Our jobs are here in Burbank, and we're unable to transfer. My husband is the manager of his department. He landed this great position the beginning of the year, working his way up over the last 10 plus years. I just went back to work this year. I LOVE my job, and although I've got great job skills, I need to re-establish myself in the employment market, as I have been off of work for over 8 years taking care of my kids. I would like to give it at least two years to show some sort of job stability. Also, as I said before, I'm going to school part-time. I've thought of stopping that and going back to work full-time, but I really think I should continue taking classes no matter what. I'm not looking forward to juggling home, family, school and work again starting next month, but it's all for the better, right?

The second factor that keeps me staying here is my kids. The schools are great in Burbank, and I don't want to uproot them until I know that I am going to stay put in the area that I move them to. I was moved around quite a bit as a kid, and I know how difficult that is on a child. This is a personal choice, that's important to me.

There are other points that keep me here, but those are the main ones. I agree, moving out of the area would be a great idea, but it's not happening at this point. It's something I contemplate regularly. I've studied cities all over the nation, but I always get stumped on how to go about finding a job when I'm 100s of miles away. And how would I pay for the transportation to that area to interview? And what job skills or education do I have that would land me said job? Lots to think about, and believe me, I'm thinking. I've often said humorously that I'll probably get my retirement home before I get my home here. That still may be the case the way the housing market is going.

ONE MORE POINT:

I stated this in one of my comments on the first article I wrote, but I think it's important I say it here:

Burbank was not as expensive when I moved here 17 years ago.

This is a very important point. You could rent a two bedroom apartment for as low as $850 and a house for $1100, as early as 2001. The price of rent jumped hundreds of dollars by 2005, and here we are. Lots of families with median incomes of $51K live here. These families were priced out of the market quickly. I'm not sure what's happened to some of them. A lot of families on my block are simply stuck in their apartments, or living with several other families to make ends meet.

I received a comment that because all of the tenants didn't move from their apartments when the prices were raised signified that the rents raised anywhere from $200-$300 more a month were accurate and true market value, so what was I complaining about, right? TENANTS CANNOT MOVE BECAUSE THE PRICE OF RENTS ARE HIGHER IN THE AREA. The point this guy missed is that the rents only recently have gotten as high as $1500-$1650 a month for a two bedroom over the last couple of years. AND that it's only because of the lack of rentals and the housing mess that these landlords are able to take advantage of the tenants and charge exorbitant prices for their rentals. Do you understand what I mean? I can see increases of maybe 10 to 15%, but my landlord increased my neighbors rents between 25 to 34% more a month. Could you imagine what it would be like to receive a notice that your cost of housing would increase 34% as of the very next month? How would you afford it? They can barely afford the increases let alone move to another place that's even more ridiculously priced.

Let's think of it another way, okay?

My name is Mary and I am a single parent of one child. I make $30K a year working as an Administrative Assistant. Okay, so by the time Uncle Sam takes his approximate 25% of my income in taxes, I have a whopping $22,500 a year to live off of. Okay, so now lets think monthly, alright? I have approximately $1875 a month for living expenses, correct? Well not if you're my husband, 'cause he forks out about $300 a month in insurance costs, (more and more businesses are requiring their employees to acquire some of the cost of health insurance). But we'll forget about the out-of-pocket insurance costs at this point, 'cause I'd have to recalculate taxes and everything to deduct them.

Anyway, she's got $1875 for all expenses, right? So her two bedroom apartment has been raised to $1500 a month. Yikes! That only leaves her with $375 a month, right? Okay, well maybe she can move to a smaller, one-bedroom in Burbank, right? That would only be about $1200, right? She'll have $675 for all of her other costs, right? We're talking car insurance, food, utilities, etc. If she's lucky, she'll break even each month. Do you get my point? More than 50% of her income goes to housing. What's worse is that most people don't even make that much money. You see job listings for $10 an hour regularly in the L.A. area. How the heck do people do it?

Now I realize that a few economic geniuses who think they are so much smarter than the rest us of L.A. ignorants will rip this scenario to pieces, but this is a true reality for most people. You need us to live in these neighborhoods to do these jobs. We have to live somewhere, and there's no way that we can commute from miles away, 'cause we can't afford the gas.

Whose going to do those jobs for you? My point in saying this is that a few folks have questioned why myself and others stay in Los Angeles if we can't afford it, suggesting that we choose to live beyond our means in this luxurious, "bad-ass" place even though we can't afford it. You should be addressing this question to millions of us Los Angelians, and not just myself, and here would be the most common, general response:

We live here because there are jobs here, and at one point we could afford it, that and a myriad of different reasons personal to each of us, and too vast to cover here.

We live here, because you need us to live here, so we can do those medial jobs you don't want to do.

But it's not just people in medial jobs that suffer...

Pretty soon, none of us will be able to live here, including teachers, firemen, policemen, etc., because we can't afford it, that or we'll all need Section 8 assistance to afford the cost of living, which you will pay for. Do you get my point?


I think it's important that we dig deeper and see how bad this situation really is in order to get out of this mess.