Aussie thinking about buying real estate in USA

Thanks for all the input and the common thread is stay away from Ca. I did look at real estate in some of the other mentioned places and yes I see that Ca is a lot more expensive in comparison. I was taken with Georgia mentioned by Greymouser. Could get a real nice house close to the coast (brunswick) for 200k - 300k. I discounted the East coast as I thought it would be to cold in winter but those day time temps seem ok to me. Have visited the USA plenty of times and the places I took to were that CA coast. We also did like the black hills in SD but it would get cold there Id say. South Carolina looks pretty whenever I see TV programs showing the coastal towns however real estate looks expensive there.