Interesting take on CA. I’ve always wondered the value of living there. Essentially it seems so overvalued. Michigan has some lousy winters and some freak show militants, but Cali seems on balance there. My wife and I have some close friends that live about a half mile from the Ocean in Huntington Beach. It seemed so idyllic until I learned that they paid about 6 1/2 times more for 2300 sq ft home on a lot of half our sized lot. The traffic is terrible for them and they both work 60 hours a week to pay down a 40 year- jumbo loan.

Surfing seems so cool though, right? We visited them a couple years after they moved near the water. I borrowed my friends surfboard and bike, road to the ocean and played in the waves the better part of two days only to learn that I’d been in the surf more than he had so far. Work and home upkeep kept him too busy.

I’m gainfully employed in Michigan, my mortgage is no lodestone around my neck and I have a small boat to play with in the nice freshwater lakes near me.

I tend to think many people undervalue the basics of Michigan. That’s fine, you wouldn’t like it here anyway.