[k310]

You have choice, something people in other states don't have. I bought a 3 bedroom like-new home in the Sierra foothills for less than half the state median home price. Backup power, my own well. It's a prepper's (and photographer's) paradise, though I am not a prepper.

People work from home here at jobs elsewhere.

If things are bad, take action. Fight regulatory capture by utilities and (ahem) Giant tech companies. Fight billionaires' campaigns against the average homeowner and renter. Prop 13 was meant to keep taxes down for businesses that never move. Citizens move often, except for a handful. Don't trust tech execs. Many of them are on powerful drugs. The wealthy can never have enough. Any solution is extremely difficult due to the extreme concentration of wealth.

There are large cities with everything you need ... airport, Amtrak, medical facilities and ta-da universities, at half the state median price.

I see new home developments replacing farm land. People love the multicultural and energetic, high tech and old redwood bay and coastal areas. Having lived in the bay some 30 years and in the woods some 10 years, here's a clue. The state and your community is its PEOPLE.

Very often, the price of cheap is a monoculture. The hell with that.