The house next door to mine in San Leandro,CA. a one bath 1,100 sq.ft. home just sold for $500,000. ( no bull)
My wife is a native NoCal and she wants outta here. I just returned from a business trip to Pittsburgh and picked up some real estate literature. ( I have relatives in that part of the country.)
While the boom is on in CA we could sell this house and do very well if we were to move to Pittsburgh.
We are thinking about it. Because yes the middle class here in CA. is being squeezed into oblivion.
Only thing is my wife has never driven in snow and she gets cold when its 50 degrees outside. Not sure she would like putting up with winter.
Take your wife back there for a Christmas vacation. Make her do all the driving while visiting, help your relatives with the grocery shopping, introduce her to storm windows, etc.
My Pittsburg-area grandparents (Valencia) loved to visit their children in California for the winter. One of my friends freaked out when he heard my grandmother tell my grandfather that it was March and so time to go home to start the spring plowing. He realized she wasn't joking.
My father took us back there one winter and I did not like Pennsylvania winter at all. I was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area (western Marin County plus Burlingame in San Mateo County), where it never got below 40 F or over 90 F, and rarely over 80 F.