It depends on what other state you want to compare California to. Many factors influence your decision, the most important of which is your current situation. Such as Where is your workplace? where do you live? Where does your family live? What is your income? And many other conditions.

It all depends. There is only one good reason to buy in Calif. if you want to do so as an investment. But where? All the major cities and their many suburbs are very expensive. I would say from 350K on the way up to millions.

What do you get for 350K? Generally a basic house, 2 Bed and maybe 2 bath, Kit, Liv Rm and small Dinning Rm. Maybe good storage and maybe small closets and very little storage. All the newer houses generally have a double garage, but no attics or basements.

There are areas with houses in the 150K/350K cost, but you also have to check on local and State taxes. How much down, interest, property condition, Weather, Insurance, Earthquakes, basic upkeep. The cheaper houses are either old and in need of a lot of fixing up, location may or may not be very good.

A lot of variables are involved. Will you live in it or rent? How long can you afford to keep it until the market goes up in the area you buy and hope to make a good profit.

I bought a brand new house on a nice lot next to an open meadow in a small town for around 65K+. I sold it 5 years later (Divorce) for 74K. Not a bad profit, but it didn’t cover much of my 5 years living and paying for it. Today, 30 years later that same house will cost somewhere around 300/350K . . . but over 30 years to get to that point.

Yes there are areas with cheaper housing, but almost always in an area with little to no good employment.

So if you can afford aa house in a big city area for say over 500K, have a good job near where you live (Calif, big cities, big lengthy traffic jams), and sty in it for 8 or 10 years you may make a great resale profit, then again you may not.

There are many magazines, info on the internet, realtors with brochures, etc.