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[shoekitty]

I am in Silicon Valley.  Born here, when it was called the valley of the hearts delight.  We were a fruit growing, canning area.  I was here before we knew it was expensive.  You grown into it.  No place I'd rather be. To me this is the best state, best county, best everything.  I am a teue California girl.  Love the people, the culture, the arts, the environmental attitude and the diversity.  Yes, anywhere else my little home would be one quarter to a third of the cost, but we bought this place 32 years ago.  You deal with it.  I can see where it is hard for the younger generation.  But this area does draw the techies, engineers, aerospace and "googling yahoo apples on facebook" so as soon as a house goes up for sale it is gone.  There are bad years and goods years..just like anywhere.

this place is beautiful though.  From my town it is 2 hours to the snow, 30 minutes to the ocean, 20 minutes to nearest lake, and hour to big city,  5.5 hours to SoCal, 5 hours to desert, the mountains are down the block, and I am in the flat valley surrounded by hills and n

mountains.  I can get mexican, vietnamese, indian, nigerian, thai, italian, japanese, chinese, south american, Hawaiian food in this town.the wineries are down the street if I drank, there are festivals, a short trip can get me to several museums, waterslides, amusement park, performing arts centers.  There is a park or two in every town.

I love it

[Desertdi]

My parents didn't give me any choice.    I was born in a big city......and I'm living in my third big city.    It's what you are used to.

[shoekitty]

By the way, I was just thinking.  Back in the late 60's gas was about 26 cents a gallon. The 70's we had gas shortage, and gas was nearly 60 cents.  The rumor was someday we would pay 1.00 or 1.50 a gallon of gas.  People said, oh, I would never pay. Dollar for a gallon of gas, I would walk first!!!  Well here we are.... And people walk less than they used to.  Also, most people jere work an hour from work.  No where to walk, all freeway if you want to get work.  Lol

people adjust.  Prices like sin creep up on you slowly.

[Sweet Caroline 1]

I have always lived in Birmingham except when I ws married.  My ex husband was a horseman and we lived for a short period oftime in Kentucky and about 5 1/2 years in west Fort Worth.  I'm a big family person and got terribly home sick when we moved.  I want to remain close to family here in Birmingham unless everyone agreed to relocate all together.  I'm probably where I'll always be.  I like that I am near the beautiful coast to the south and to the north there is white water rafting and the Huntsville Space Center.  And a little further north there is beautiful Tennessee  to visit.  We have four seasons here and I suffer during the heat of summer.  I would be happy living in the smallest of houses with the basics of life as long as I have a storage shed for my Christmas decorations.  Family comes first with me.  

[novamc1]

"Expensive areas" become expensive because they offer high-paying jobs requiring lots of education.  Lots of educated people demand good school systems for the kids , which requires high taxes to support schools..

  Land gets used up with more population growth.  Land  then gets more  expensive and leads to building of  expensive houses.

Thriving industries pay high salaries to attract the best talent, and this in turn supports high-priced homes and schools.  

 Great hospitals and other services are created to serve the people who can pay to support them. 

More and more land gets used up as businesses and people flock to or are recruited to those areas.

As soon as house prices and taxes get too high to be supported by salaries or personal wealth of the population, the housing market will stall, and  home prices, rents and property taxes could fall.

Expensive areas became that way as  a function and process of socio-economic  progression for which there is no single cause but an intermixing of various factors.

It's not rocket science to figure out why some areas can become increasingly expensive--particularly if they provide good transportation systems (such as airports, railways, roads)  that major industries demand and workers need to get to good jobs offered by those industries.

 Educated, highly paid workers want to live with great medical care, schools and recreational/cultural activities nearby and are willing and able to pay for them.

I was once in a conversation with someone who couldn't figure out why so many sources were saying that land in the U.S. was getting more scarce, because he saw "lots of vacant land from the window of a plane while flying over the country".

I suggested that much of this  "fly-over" country was not really vacant land.  It is pasture for livestock and  fields for growing crops---the folks in the cities need to get their food from somewhere!!

[CelticCrafter]

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@ccassadaywrote:
I am always amazed at home prices on the east and west coast. What attracts you to want to live there. Just curious. Is it the weather or family. How do people even afford a house. It’s amazing the little shack you get in California. Is that mainly the southern part. You could have a mansion in other parts of the country. Is it work. Surely you can find the same type of jobs elsewhere.

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And maybe not...

[novamc1]

@CelticCrafter

Not just "maybe not".  Certainly not.

[novamc1]

@ccassaday

You mentioned that your "not small" Midwest city population is 300,000.

 The county I know best, right outside of Washington, DC, has a population exceeding 1 million.  That is only one county surrounding the DC area, which includes Maryland, Northern Virginia and the city itself.  Things get even bigger, I'm sure, when you get to coastal California, coastal Florida, New York City, Dallas/Houston/Austin, Chicago Boston, Philadelphia, Las Vegas.

Just pointing this out because size is relative.  So are job prospects, salaries and everything else associated with cost of living in various areas.

[Sweetbay magnolia]

No wonder you are so smart, @novamc1!  I grew up there.

[YorkieonmyPillow]

  I love small town/rural living. It's what I know and what I love. Living in the country keeps you grounded, although I can appreciate why people love NYC - I've never been there but it must be exciting - and not having to own a car would save a person $$$. It's very expensive to own and maintain a car!