shihtzu

my rn friend in tx wants so much to buy a huge house. so she's afraid of transferring to california since she knows it's impossible for her to afford one. but ... if she buys a huge house in tx and decides to get out of her house (maybe she figured she's tired of looking at her house all day), there's nothing to see outside plus it's too hot out there. id rather have a small house and be able to go outside when i feel like it and have fun :)

it's true, some new grads make $46 or more, with benefits. they make $46/hr or more if they work nights. on my 4th month in my current hospital (UCSF), i made $40 base pay with 16% nights differential (amounted to around 47 per hr). in CPMC (SF) they pay new grads $42 (base), their differential is 15% for nights (11p-7a). but these are in san francisco. the other good paying hospital that i know (that's not in SF) is washington hospital in fremont, which is also in the bay area. my friend who works per diem in CPMC makes $61 per hr (night) she has 2 yrs experience.

UCsf is always ahead of stanford in the US News & world report yearly top 10 hospital ranking. sometimes stanford is not even in the top 10. http://www.usnews.com/usnews/health/best-hospitals/honorroll.htm but no doubt both are excellent hospitals regardless of any ranking. yeah i heard UC has about the same pay rate now as everyone else bec of CNA negotiations

in my hospital new grad nurses get paid $37/hr (days) or $43 (nights).. after 6 months it becomes $39 ($45). that would change this march because we (all nurses) will have another 3% pay raise thanks to CNA. not everyone here in the bay area chooses to buy a house. buying a house in this area takes courage (imagine paying the high mortgage, usually more than $2000 monthly just for a 1 bed condo). BUT consider that if you get an equity of even just $60,000 in one year, there's no way you could save $60,000 in one yr just out of your own pocket. no f way! (btw, my mom's house in houston texas never made that amount of equity in 6 YEARS. it only appreciated about $30,000 to $40,000 in 6 LONG YRS, check out zillow.com! and she bought it new) this is just my opinion.. i would never exchange beaches, snow, mountains, fine weather, accessible national parks, beautiful sceneries, thriving culture .. over flat lands, high humidity, smog, lack of natural attractions even if it means cheaper cost of living.. (i would have liked austin if it wasnt for the weather. austin is actually nice. very diff from other texas cities)