I've covered California's housing crisis for years. Living it is a different story

My move from Sacramento to Los Angeles began with acceptance. My rent was going to go up - and it was going to go up a lot.

For close to four years, I've been writing for The Times about California's housing affordability problems. I've worked in the paper's bureau in Sacramento, focusing on government's response to rising home prices, rents and homelessness. I've chased lawmakers in a six-block radius around the state Capitol, and kept a close eye on the eye-popping stats about the cost of living.

But I've never lived it. Until now.

In October, I accepted a new assignment to write about housing affordability from a community rather than a government perspective - a change that required moving to Los Angeles.

Even though I understood what it meant to move to one of the most expensive regions in the country, I hadn't yet felt what it was like