Boring city but nice house or exciting city and rent? (relocate, back east)

[doglover29]

Originally Posted by 5chevin5

Okay so my point. You more then likely will find that most cities of 300,000 or more have most the things you need for day to day living. How often do you go clubbing or to the museum or to "cultural events" I mean yes, they are nice., but life is not made up of those experiences day in and day out...right?

If you are in your early 30's, you will see your priorities change quickly in the next 5-10 years, so whats your long term plan? You aint kids anymore!

I agree with all of this. We do take advantage of all DC has to offer weekly--so I would definitely miss this if we move to a boring city. My husband and I have often phrased it that way--that we would enjoy a nice house with a yard on a daily basis, and that perhaps is a better trade off than a rental in an exciting city that we enjoy only weekly--that is kind of how we've been looking at it.

I have no idea what our long-term plans are.

[5chevin5]

Define Boring ( since we all have different measure)
And tell us a little more specifically what you would miss on a daily or weekly basis.

Trust me, I completely agree with the worry of feeling like a "shut in", but I think there could be a happy medium. There are mid sized cities all over the US that have a vibrant art/music/club/restaurant/sports mix. Maybe not on the scale of a city like DC, but as you mentioned previously, you and hubby desire something more then a rental and want to start creating a "hometown" for yourself and have a less gypsy lifestyle.
I am an OG...."Old Gypsy" and have moved a ton for the better part of 20 years...I understand.
I think there needs to be a compromise and a true evaluation of what your needs are (including a dog happiness factor?) Maybe a new city will not have all those things that DC has, but it may surprise you what is lurking under the surface! Take a city like ....hmmmmm Portland Or. Now there may be reasons many people dont like it (weather, unemployment etc) However for the sake of discussion lets say you are both fine with that. It is a fraction of the size of DC, but has relatively affordable housing and a TON of things to do daily, but maybe not all. You mentioned in your blog that your folks retired and moved out West?

I think for me the biggest x factor is livability with a job or career still driving my choices. My field is a bit specific at my level, there just is not a position open in every city. So more then likely I will need to create my own job and become self employed ( which is a natural progression anyway)

Early 30's is a weird time (or at least is was for me) So many choices and possibilities. Truly the world is an open door to you. BUT as you cross 30 little voices of adulthood start to whisper....and the idea of a true home becomes comforting. That doesnt mean you need to start knitting scarves, collecting spoons at gift stores and owning more cats then the zoo. (Nothing really wrong with multicats though!)

Good Luck...
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[doglover29]

Originally Posted by 5chevin5

Define Boring ( since we all have different measure)
And tell us a little more specifically what you would miss on a daily or weekly basis.

Well, boring for me would be small town life (unless it was within 30 min. of a big city) or a city like Indianapolis (where I lived for awhile), where there is good restaurants and good shopping, but there's not a whole lot of museums, events around the city, interesting things to do, etc. I found Indy to be very boring. Also there's not a whole lot to drive to for interesting weekend trips from Indy, except for Chicago of course. We really love the fact that the mid-Atlantic is full of interesting weekend trips.

What I'd miss on a daily/weekly basis about DC is the museums, the interesting lectures going on all the time, the sightseeing, the tours, the multitude of events, etc. On a given weekend I have a hard time deciding what fun things to do, there are so many. There are fun events all the time. For instance, in April is the Cherry Blossom Festival, with all its events. DC has so many unique things going on. I also miss living in a vibrant city that has so many interesting tourist sites. I love walking around the monuments, looking at the beautiful architecture of the old buildings downtown, and the fact that there are so many esteemed institutions in DC (the Smithsonian, Library of Congress, National Archives, etc.) I love the fact that I get to live in a place where other people vacation. I think that's so neat, because it's like I get to be on vacation all the time, too--I can go do the sightseeing and tourist stuff any time I want. I think that's really, really neat. I also like the fact that there's so much historical stuff in DC and on the East Coast--I really like that sort of thing, and enjoy going to historical type places. The midwest doesn't really have that sort of thing as much.

Hubby and I can move anywhere, but we have only one requirement: we don't like hot weather, so the south and southwest is out. In fact, I find DC really hot, so nothing south of DC. Also, we'd prefer to stay in the Northeast if possible, but are open to the midwest and maybe the West Coast.

Ideally, we'd like to live in a single family house with a decent sized yard, with a reasonable mortgage. On the weekends, like we do here, we'd enjoy going into a city and doing sightseeing, museums, or other interesting things, going to events around the city, etc. or taking weekend trips to interesting locales. We're not really homebodies, so we wouldn't like a place where we felt there wasn't much to do.

[5chevin5]

Dont worry too much about long term plans...
Just try and visuilze yourself and how you desire your environment moving forward in progression with out the "guilt" associated with a timeline.

Its the pre- boomer generations and media that put that pressure of marrige by x, kids by x, home by x in our heads. It doesnt apply anymore.

As far as the daily/weekly thing, I think the best way to assess is to ask yourself how much of these events or stimulis has even been redundant after some time. You will someday (maybe not soon) find yourself doing those things less and less as you find other needs in your life.

My example, Im looking to move to Eugene, OR. Now most people would think that moving to Eugene from Tokyo is "fun time suicide" and maybe thats true, but at nearly 40 I think "fun time " is being redefined for me as having a yard with some dogs, and the ability to grow a vegetable or two. If I need "big city fun" I can jump in a car and be in Portland in under two hours, Seattle in under 5 hours and Vancouver BC in under 7 hours.
If Im really figgity I can fly to San Fran in under 2 hours and be in a world class restaurant eating and drinking within an hour of landing. What I elaborating (perhaps too much!) is that you will not be in a cage of boredom in a midsized city if you never view it as a boring city.

Sorry for the double post...
Gambate!
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[findingmesomeday]

If you want to live somewhere where others vacation, move to Seattle. I've lived in Seattle, Portland and San Francisco (as well as a lot of other places) but would choose Seattle as #1.

[Sunnydee]

Originally Posted by 5chevin5

Early 30's is a weird time (or at least is was for me) So many choices and possibilities. Truly the world is an open door to you. BUT as you cross 30 little voices of adulthood start to whisper....and the idea of a true home becomes comforting. That doesnt mean you need to start knitting scarves, collecting spoons at gift stores and owning more cats then the zoo. (Nothing really wrong with multicats though!)

Good Luck...
5

I agree with this. If you plan on having a family, a nice home, in a safe neighborhood, with good schools, and a yard to play in, will become very important to you. Also you need to remember that, once you have children, you won't have as much time to do all of the exciting things you've done as a childless couple.

[tallrick]

900,000.00 for a house is total insanity. Move to a city where your income is 1/3 of your home's worth and enjoy life. Bored? Make things more fun.

[hdzup3]

insain is right.. holy cow! im planning on moving to FL very soon, im trying to assume what my anual income will be vs here.. and working on figures to keep my mortage 25% of that with taxes and insurance included. i need to loosen the grip and simplify. enjoy life a little not struggle to eat every week. different strokes for different folks i guess. i think im a bit of an old soul here. 38 but very tight with the funds.. still cant manage to have a savings. who wants to be a millionaire? not i. just comfortable thanx. ahhhh.
if i can give my children anything... its to learn the value of life and a dollar.

[ottomobeale]

Dont move. If you found Indy boring the rest of the midwest will be too POSSIBLY excepting Chicago.

You have to pick your poison. NE is expensive but very densely populated. MW is between stupid cheap (Youngstown OH) and rather expensive (Chicago) but simply wont be like NYC.

Once you have kids... You will pick Indy anyway. Once you NEED 4 bedrooms priorities shift. So wait till then.

[UW Badgers]

We moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa 4 1/2 years ago for what we thought would be a better move for us. We lived in Wisconsin(suburb 20 mins from Milwaukee)our whole lives.

Hubby was offered a job promotion and it was his chance to move up in the company. We were renting in Wisconsin and pretty much knew we would never be able to afford a home.

When DH mentioned the job, I checked into housing here and was stunned at the cheapness. So we came and looked around and decided to bite the bullet and "improve our living". We rented the first year we were here since we didn't know the area well. Hated the place we were at and decided it was time to buy a house.

Our house is a cute one story 2 bedroom home. It's got a big yard 2 1/2 car gargage, finished really nice basement, 2 baths. We paid $106,900 for the house and our property taxes are about $1550. To compare to Wisconsin, my brother's house is about the same size as ours and his taxes are close to $4000. Our house in Wisconsin would probably sell for about $170,000 or a bit more.

There isn't shopping in every city surrounding Cedar Rapids. It's hard to explain. There are 2 sides of the city. There is the town we lived in the first year on the outside of Cedar Rapids, but the shopping is still in CR. We can go 80 miles to the next biggest city, or about 25 to Iowa City/Coralville for the next city. There isn't anything in between, but small farm towns. There is North Liberty which is inbetween CR and Coralville, but there are no malls or big box stores. I'm used to driving all around cities and have all stores available to me.

We have been trying for 2 years to get back to Wisconsin. We are willing to give up our home and maybe even sell one of our cars to get back. CR was terribly flooded this past June and the city is in terrible shape and will be for some time. This is our "now" moment. I take care of a 4 year old who will go to kindergarten next Septemeber. I told hubby this will be the now or never to get back. We are saving every penny we can to make the move. The moving company we want to use is $2500 dollars in itself. I don't think I can move ourselves again, though we haven't left that option out. If that 2500 dollars can help us get into a place where we want to move to, then we'll move ourselves.

The part that has made it hard for us is that hubby can still work for the company, but not at the same position, so his income will decline. We know we may have to rent, but we'd rather rent and be happy, then have the house we do now and be miserable day in and day out. Weekends here are terrible and we struggle to find things to do. We miss family, friends, restaurants(lots of chains here), and our favorite places to visit.

Before you make the decision, make sure it's going to be the perfect city for you. If we had to do all over again, we would never have moved. We just want to get back "home".