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Old 02-08-2016, 12:41 PM
 
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My wife and I are considering relocating to rural SE Des Moines for my career in private practice healthcare. We lived in Cedar Rapids, IA for a brief two year period, but have since resided in midtown St. Louis, MO for about 10 years. My wifes career requires a large metropolitan area with large companies (Des Moines). I'm considering acquiring a rural healthcare practice in southeastern Des Moine vicinity (Hartford, Pleasantville, Sandyville, Knoxville area). I'm not familiar with Des Moines, but I've been told and read that West Des Moines in experiencing heavy growth. I'm curious to know what the feel of this particular SE are is like and if it's starting to see growth? Do most residents in this area either farm or commute to DM? I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts. Thanks!
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Old 02-10-2016, 02:39 PM
 
Location: Des Moines
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That is a pretty rural area. I would guess that Knoxville at least doesn't see too much commuting to and from Des Moines. Most commuting to Des Moines tends to happen along the I80/I35 corridors.
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Old 02-10-2016, 03:45 PM
 
Location: Sioux Falls, SD area
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My oldest daughter lives in that area. You're around 30 miles outside of Des Moines, but there is several 4 lane highways making commuting access for work in the metro fairly easy from the Pella, Knoxville, Pleasantville, and Indianola communities. There's plenty of commuting as good paying jobs, especially in Knoxville, aren't very plentiful. Pella has a lot more jobs there for the locals.
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Old 02-11-2016, 05:26 PM
 
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How are your winter driving skills?
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Old 02-12-2016, 10:55 AM
 
Location: Des Moines Metro
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I would suggest looking into Pleasant Hill. It may not be quite as rural as you want, but it will be less of a nightmare commuting from there to Des Moines and points south in the winter. There are a few homes in that area with some land.

It's about 35 minutes from Knoxville, doable if you're not down there every day.
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Old 02-14-2016, 11:24 AM
 
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Thanks for all your replies. The broker selling the practice and the seller made it sound like growth is starting to head in the Southeaster direction. On our way into town we drove through Pella, Pleasantville, and Carlyle and stayed in West DM. West DM felt very much like metro St. Louis, only slightly smaller. Carlyle and Pleasantville felt very rural and undeveloped. Contrary to what the broker and seller told us, we didn't feel like this area was experiencing any growth. It was almost like the tale of two cities between West DM and the Southeastern DM. I don't find it likely that the SE corridor will see any significant growth, but would appreciate others opinions.

On our way out of town we drove through Indianola and down through Pella. Both these areas had noticeable growth with grocery stores, shops, housing developments, etc
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Old 02-14-2016, 11:38 AM
 
Location: Des Moines Metro
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Quote:
Originally Posted by QUICKDRAW81 View Post
Thanks for all your replies. The broker selling the practice and the seller made it sound like growth is starting to head in the Southeaster direction.
To be fair, what you consider growth and they consider growth might not be the same thing. WDSM is getting a lot of out-of-state transfers as companies shut down offices in CA and back East. Not everyone wants or can afford to live there, so places like Indianola are seeing a few more people moving in. Having 6 new tenants in a year vs. 1 is growth! (:

I imagine CapitalCityGuy will be along in time with all his growth stats and stuff, so I won't go dig those up. I'll just suggest that you think about how the overall economy is collapsing and where you would want to be when it falls apart. I want to be here. There are fewer zombies! LOL!
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Old 02-15-2016, 11:00 AM
 
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Thanks for the info. I appreciate your responses!
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Old 02-15-2016, 12:37 PM
 
Location: Des Moines, Iowa
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Those cities you list are not ones that come to mind when I think of places that are growing rapidly. That said like most smaller rural towns, their futures really depend on how close they are to a major (relatively speaking) city and the health of that city.

People are migrating to urban areas in Iowa just like they are in the rest of the US and world, too. I don’t think there is any reason to expect that trend to discontinue. In fact, I would expect it to accelerate. I do believe as the “sharing economy” continues to grow and wages continue to stagnate, individuals that live in areas where their family can reduce their household of one of their family cars (if not all of them), will hold distinct advantages over those living in rural small towns.

For example: take a family making a modest $40,000 year household income. If they are required to own and maintain two cars, they are spending anywhere from $5K - $8K/year per car (according to AAA) just on maintenance and upkeep. How much better off are they if they can drop one of those cars because they locate in an area that allows for multiple modes of much cheaper transportation vs having to drive their own auto(s)?

I can remember being shortly out of college a couple decades ago and struggling mightily to be able to afford a car. In reality, I couldn’t afford one but I also couldn’t afford NOT to have one. (stop for a moment and think how cruel that is that we’ve built our towns and cities to put this burden on people in order to be productive and have a job?)

Well, if I was just getting out of college today, it is much more realistic that I can locate in a city where I could much more realistically rely on a combination of options ( uber, biking, etc) and a lot more available housing in downtown/urban areas close to places of employment…so walking even becomes an option! While my urban housing may (or may not?) be more expensive than my small town counterpart, I’m not dinged with an annual high cost of having to drive a car everywhere and everyday just to exists.

It used to be that young people might feel they couldn’t’ afford to live in the city (even though the culture and environment was desired) so they settled for cheaper nearby small town. Now that is turning around. They can actually get both!

Can small town Iowa (or anywhere) compete with this reality? And it is a reality. Downtown Des Moines TODAY has approximately 2,200 housing related units currently under construction. Many more are proposed or in planning stages.

At the current rate, there will be 15,000 people living in downtown Des Moines alone within next few years. This is 2, 3, 4X larger number of people in just downtown Des Moines than what you find in these small towns. Furthermore, since 15,000 downtown residents are located in a more traditionally built, dense neighborhoods as compared to similarly populated rural town or city with 15,000, the urban population can enjoy 24-hr grocery, restaurants, entertainment options, possibly their place of employment all within a short walk, bike ride, or bus ride from their front door. In the 15K rural city, all the amenities are probably located on the edge of town, near an interstate or major highway exchange, and thus the only way to get there is to drive.

Sorry, got into a groove there and took this much further than planned. Hope it gives you some things to at least think about. I don’t have a crystal ball, but to have a keen interest in this type of thing and spend a lot of time reading and observing what is occurring before our eyes. I also probably hold a more pessimistic outlook on US financial and economic outlook given massive debts we continue ring up, so I think the future mean much scarcer resources and thus people are going to have to live much smarter than what we’ve had to the last several decades. I think that means not only will individuals need to be more frugal with their personal transportation expenditures, but also, gov’t won’t have the available funds to maintain the infrastructure we’ve already built…and thus it will contract. All the pressure will be towards people relying less on their own personal automotive transportation, not more. That benefits densely built urban environments over rural (or even sprawling suburban) areas.
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Old 02-15-2016, 02:57 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by QUICKDRAW81 View Post
Thanks for all your replies. The broker selling the practice and the seller made it sound like growth is starting to head in the Southeaster direction. On our way into town we drove through Pella, Pleasantville, and Carlyle and stayed in West DM. West DM felt very much like metro St. Louis, only slightly smaller. Carlyle and Pleasantville felt very rural and undeveloped. Contrary to what the broker and seller told us, we didn't feel like this area was experiencing any growth. It was almost like the tale of two cities between West DM and the Southeastern DM. I don't find it likely that the SE corridor will see any significant growth, but would appreciate others opinions.

On our way out of town we drove through Indianola and down through Pella. Both these areas had noticeable growth with grocery stores, shops, housing developments, etc


When you say "West DM" are you referring to the actual city of West Des Moines or the west side of the city of Des Moines?


Also, it is Carlisle, not Carlyle, for those that aren't familiar and may be trying to find that town on a map.
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