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[SilleeMee]

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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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I live in Colorado, far from any coastline, and homes are not exactly what I would call cheap here.

[jubilant]

@ccassaday

This brought back memories of the 90's for me.  We have relatives that come from "out east" to visit us.  When a nephew married and  had a family, they lived in the Baltimore area.  I think he was shocked when he saw our home in the midwest.  To us it was a very simple middle class ranch...not even that big.  I was shocked to hear that a home like ours there would go for almost 3 times as much!  I mean our home is only between 1600-1700 square ft. One of my nieces husbands could not believe how polite we were here.  He even said, "I can't believe almost every driver turns on their turn signals to change lanes!!

  Here in the midwest we may not have the ocean but are not that far from the Great Lakes (which I love and makes a great vacation spot for us).  Also Chicago and Indianapolis, are only about 2 hrs. or so away.   We live close enough to a city that has many famous entertainers and things to do.  Anyway, it's what we like and are happy with.  I guess it's whatever floats your boat! 

[151949]

You have to understand that in places where the COL is high and the cost of housing is high the salaries are also very high. For instance - my friend from nursing school married a guy from LA and moved there. We have the exact same education and worked in the exact same field of nursing as bedside nurses - she in CCU and me in ICU. Her hourly salary was > 4 times what mine was.However, she often said it would have been a real stretch to get by financially if she would have needed to live on her salary alone. Fortunately her DH was a video producer and had a very good income. As soon as they retired though they got the heck outta LA and now live high on the hog on their retirement in San Antonio where the COL is much lower.

[151949]

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@Snowpuppywrote:

Six figure jobs are hard to come by living in Mayberry, USA. Six figure+ people buy expensive homes.

Top notch hospitals, research facilities, excellent universities, symphony orchestras, ballet companies, art musems, high dollar law and accounting firms, financial services/stock brokerages, professional sports teams won't ever locate to a town of 10,000 people.

To staff these industries you need a steady pool of professional talent that rural communities don't have.

 There are many cities that have top notch medical facilities, research, several top notch universities, And cultural  things like renowned  symphony and ballet , plays etc plus great sports teams that often win national championships, plus the other itenms you mentioned, and yet they are not high COL areas. I know - I grews up in one - Pittsburgh. Plus great job opportunities too. Sadly though, Pittsburgh has terrible weather much of the year, & that drove us outta there esp. with me having such bad arthritis, bad weather = bad pain. Not all low COL areas are rural. Pittsburgh is frequently listed as one of the top 5 places to live in the USA for all ages.

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[BirkiLady]

@bikerbabeI'm a fish out of water in a red state. Thankfully, there are many other fish out of water also in this City and part of the state! And we are active. Thankful for the liberal minds of the University and many other colleges! 

[TheMemphisVette]

how blessed we are to live where and how we want.

life is good

[ccassaday]

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@novamc1wrote:

@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.

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To someone who lives close to the major areas you probably do consider 300k small. My grandmother lives just to the north of me. Her town has like 500 people if that. That is what I consider small town. My grandmother has to drive a half hour just to go shopping. We got any shopping you want five minutes.

[ccassaday]

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@Andrewsgrandmawrote:

By the way @ccassaday, have you had a desire to live in another part of the country?

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I think it would be great to live in a warm climate like Florida. Cost of living is pretty good. It would be very good on my arthritis.

[nmurray]

We lived in Pittsburgh, PA (well, Wexford actually) for 6 years and I loved almost everything except the weather.  I always said if the weather was better, you could not afford to live there.  We are now back on the west coast, inland from SF about 85 miles, and I love CA.  Our area is pretty rural, we are in the San Joaquin Valley so a lot of agriculture, mostly almond trees, walnuts and stone fruit.  I miss the city though and go into SF regularly; my brother lives there. We moved here for my husband's work and now that he has retired I would love to relocate closer to a city.  I was born and raised in the city (first Montreal where I am from and then Los Angeles area) My daughter is relocating from NYC (I love that city) to LA and I would like to move south to be closer to her. It is less than a 5 hour drive from here so not bad.  The major drawbacks to LA are obviously the cost of housing and the traffic.  Our house would be at least double the price so we will have to downsize again, which I do not mind if we could find something. The big issue for me, getting older, is finding a job in LA that pays enough to make the move. I am not ready for retirement but not in that ladder climbing competitive career seeker bracket either!

I think this is an interesting discussion because I work with people who would hate to live in a big city and love the open space and less congestion this area offers.  For me, I miss the hustle and bustle and easy access to restaurants, shopping, culture.

[BirkiLady]

We were anxious to leave middle-America after obtaining all of our degrees. When a tranfer came through, we ended up in a very small town of 15,000! Hardly what we expected. However, we found a delightful brick ranch that backed above the Mississippi River. It had a basement (a must-have on our list) and attached garage, so we bought it. The location made it worth the additional expense in such a small town. I returned and sold our home; arranged for the movers and joined my husband within a couple of weeks. That little town had no culture, but the historical significance and the beauty of the River made up for the lack of great restaurants, arts and entertainment! We found that "home is where the heart is" and were content living there. Fortunately, we were transferred within one year to a major city in IL which was conducive to our interests and lifestyles! I sold the home in that small town to the first couple who looked at it, made a nice sum of money (we had redecorated, redone the kitchen and landscaped), and moved on! Our lives became a series of home in various cities and states for 10 years. It was an adventure, which we thoroughly enjoyed. However, after planning a family we decided to return to middle-America and grandparents, extended family, friends, superior schools, amazing medical facilities, higher edcation choices,  low crime rates and a work ethic we both wanted to instill in our son. We continued to travel throughout the US, Canada, Cayman Islands, Mexico, Europe and Greece while our son was at home. But this has been home since we return in time for him to begin Kindergarten. He is now 45, married with a son of his own. Best move was returning. Housing (comparing apples to apples) didn't seem to vary so much, as the huge difference in utilities, taxes and insurance.