Shadow Puppet Storyteller

Not again

I have a disillusionment building about California. It's been my home all my life, but I'm facing the real possibility of leaving it. Now I have to counter this with the sense that I do this to myself. Things get routine, you know, then someone brings up a new place or activity and -*bam*- suddenly that place is da bomb for me! It's new, it's change - I want some of that!

The sheer economics is astouding me though - I really thought I kept a finger on the pulse of California economics. I actually like the Business section of the paper; when Variety was coming regularly to an office I worked out of, I read that puppy cover to cover.

I think I have been relaxed in my study of California's financial movers and shakers since 9/11/01 and since the old Governor was ousted and the new stepped into place. Maybe we all went to sleep at that point - "Oh, look, dear, a local movie star is going to take care of us, won't this be fun? I wonder if they'll make a sequel? And I wonder what Maria will be wearing to the premiere?"

Since I've been given that impetus to look into the cost of living in another state, it perplexes me more. What makes the real estate market boom in California? How can properties go for so much in one area and not in another? I never questioned that so much in the State as a whole, cities throughout Southern California have a kind of mental equivalent to pricey living or working class living. But now, everyone's home is appraising for amounts higher than before. So now my question is: What is wrong with every other place in the world? What really motivates these changes? I'm making an effort to understand how Texas real estate can be so much more affordable. I dunno, it makes my head hurt. But it also makes me think I'm moving to a new frontier.