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Hmm....interesting way to look at it. You might be right. But......I still think you're wrong. I don't like anywhere with significant amounts of people.
Then you're living in the wrong part of the country, with some of the highest population densities in the nation all around you.
In Michigan, unless you love winter sports, you are also cooped up inside-but using heating instead of AC. And even if you do love winter sports, it is so cold that you can't be outside for very long. In addition, many people in summer stay inside in Michigan because is is so hot and humid with storms, bugs, etc. Not saying you are wrong, just playing Devil's Advocate.
It's not Antarctica. Give me a break.
Summers are pretty pleasant in Michigan and in much of the Northern Great Lakes, so I'm not sure what you're talking about.
Call me a homer but as an Ohioan turned SC resident I can tell you exactly
why SC will continue to out grow it's neighbors for decades to come.
1. VERY business friendly. Non - Union / Right to Work state has lead to
industrialization across the state (Boeing, Michelin, BMW, GE, even Goodyear is
working on opening a facility down here)
RTW states have not shown any greater economic growth than non-RTW states, however. "Business-friendly" just means businesses are able to save more on their taxes, not pay their workers better or provide greater opportunity in upward mobility.
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2. low property taxes (property taxes on homes down here of comparative square
footage and value to those in Ohio are typically half)
No, they're not. I just did a housing cost comparison between my hometown of Columbus (the most expensive city in Ohio) with your current location, Greenville. I used 4 different comparison sites. Housing came in at a low of 5% less expensive to 27% more expensive in Greenville. Best case scenario, it's about the same.
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5. Believe it or not weather is a factor. I put it last though because it's not
nearly as important as economic factors. HOWEVER I've met dozens of people from
up north who moved down to florida then moved up to SC primarily because SC
offers seasons much like the midwest / northern states. Met a couple who moved
to Florida from NY and then came up here because they liked the warm weather but
not every day. SC provided them they said with plenty of warmth but also the
appropriate amount of chilly / break out the wind breaker kind of days they
missed from back home.
According to the Census, less than 1% of people who relocate from state to state or region to region do so because of weather. Jobs and family are reasons #1 and #2. The only people who move exclusively or largely because of weather are either retirees (who still have to think of economic impacts) or otherwise wealthy people who can simply move wherever they want and not have to worry about anything else. Simply put, when people say, "I moved because of the weather," it's either a half-truth or a lie. What they really mean is that they moved for another reason and then use the weather to make general conversation.
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Greenville, Columbia and Charleston have already seen growth rates higher in
3 years than most states will see over 10 years.
This trend will most likely continue for decades to come provided the
business climate remains the same.
This is all at a cost though remember. Carolina roads and highways are
tragically bad. Schools are poorly funded. Schools in the metro areas are good
schools but imagine if they were actually funded appropriately.
SC may also end up benefitting from the fact that the NC State Legislature is an embarrassing disaster of stupidity. But in any case, all that growth, as you allude to, has consequences. Cost of living will be forced to rise as a greater number of people create more and more demand on infrastructure. It's why parts of the North are expensive... all those amenities cost a lot of money to maintain, something the Sun Belt states are only now just beginning to witness for themselves.
In Michigan, unless you love winter sports, you are also cooped up inside-but using heating instead of AC. And even if you do love winter sports, it is so cold that you can't be outside for very long. In addition, many people in summer stay inside in Michigan because is is so hot and humid with storms, bugs, etc. Not saying you are wrong, just playing Devil's Advocate.
I live in Michigan and this is exaggerated to the nth degree. We are having another gorgeous summer in Michigan this summer, one of the best I can recall, actually. The humidity has been very tolerable, high temps in the upper 70s to upper 80s, sunny almost every day, and gorgeously green everywhere you look. We generally enjoy the outdoors here from April well through October, and are often outdoors in only a light jacket in November, since it is often still in the 50s during the day.
Winter is coldest in January and February, but it isn't always snowy, and there are plenty of those sunny winter days where the skies are bluer than blue. We don't partake of winter sports at all, for the most part, and still find plenty to keep us busy.
Bugs? Well, I'll take the few bugs that we get over the amazons that you find in the Sunbelt, thank you, and I haven't actually seen my first mosquito yet this summer, probably because it hasn't been rainy except for occasionally during the night...perfect!
As far as storms, we are not in the tornado belt and we don't get hurricanes, so yes, we do get an occasional summer thunderstorm, but who doesn't?
I live in Michigan and this is exaggerated to the nth degree. We are having another gorgeous summer in Michigan this summer, one of the best I can recall, actually. The humidity has been very tolerable, high temps in the upper 70s to upper 80s, sunny almost every day, and gorgeously green everywhere you look. We generally enjoy the outdoors here from April well through October, and are often outdoors in only a light jacket in November, since it is often still in the 50s during the day.
Winter is coldest in January and February, but it isn't always snowy, and there are plenty of those sunny winter days where the skies are bluer than blue. We don't partake of winter sports at all, for the most part, and still find plenty to keep us busy.
Bugs? Well, I'll take the few bugs that we get over the amazons that you find in the Sunbelt, thank you, and I haven't actually seen my first mosquito yet this summer, probably because it hasn't been rainy except for occasionally during the night...perfect!
As far as storms, we are not in the tornado belt and we don't get hurricanes, so yes, we do get an occasional summer thunderstorm, but who doesn't?
Don't sweat it, people can't themselves in terms of feeding at the trough full of stereotypes. I'm sure many think Detroit and Flint dictate what the rest of the state looks like physically and economically too.
In Michigan, unless you love winter sports, you are also cooped up inside-but using heating instead of AC. And even if you do love winter sports, it is so cold that you can't be outside for very long. In addition, many people in summer stay inside in Michigan because is is so hot and humid with storms, bugs, etc. Not saying you are wrong, just playing Devil's Advocate.
Have you been to Michigan?
Granted, I live in the southwest part of Michigan, but winters here are usually restricted to only 3 months (some years less..ie2011-2012). Lake Michigan creates a micro climate that warms the state in winter and cools it in the summer. The climate here is a lot nicer than what you think.
I ride my bike everyday of the year here - in Arizona, I could only ride 3 months of the year.
FYI..the coldest winters I ever had was in Manhattan, KS. The wind chill was murder.
In Michigan, unless you love winter sports, you are also cooped up inside-but using heating instead of AC. And even if you do love winter sports, it is so cold that you can't be outside for very long. In addition, many people in summer stay inside in Michigan because is is so hot and humid with storms, bugs, etc. Not saying you are wrong, just playing Devil's Advocate.
Haha, what are you talking about? What a mess! Some people love the cold (like me), and others love a blast furnace (like you). The former is active year-round up north, the latter down south. Get over it.
Those are excuses you commonly hear from uninformed Easterners, but chiefly conservative, paranoid Bible Belt Republicans as to why they could never live in Phoenix or Arizona in general.
As you travel east of the I-35 corridor, especially in the South, you hear a lot more negative comments about Phoenix/Arizona than you do further north and west, up to and including too barren, too little rain, too isolated, too many Mexicans/illegal aliens, and unsustainable water supply--things that most of us who live here never even give any thought because, for the most part, these issues have very little to no impact on our day-to-day lives. In fact, most of the people who live here appreciate the warm, dry, sunny weather and rugged, majestic Sonoran desert scenery and those are some reasons why we chose to live here--could ya believe it?
However, I will say that Southerners almost invariably preface their negative commentary of Arizona with something along the lines of, "Well, I like Arizona's laws and politics, but..."
The best comment about Arizona I've heard to date in the South was when a friend of a father, who was born and raised in Houston, explained to me that he could never live in Arizona because it's "not tenable" in the event of an apocalyptic-type event--talk about paranoid.
I didn't know opinions like "too hot" and "too brown" were so divided along partisan lines. Maybe I'm not such a raging liberal after all. .
Anyway, no need to get defensive, my point is simply that everyone has different preferences. And sorry, but I do think 115 degrees is too hot. I do however agree that parts of AZ are stunningly beautiful. In fact, the one area of AZ I would consider living in, Sedona, is IMO one of the most beautiful places in the world. But that area has much more greenery than the Phoenix area and doesn't get nearly as hot.
And also- I wasn't just talking about the water issues in Phoenix when I cited environmental concerns. Phoenix consistently ranks among the most polluted cities in the country. It faces the same issues as LA does because it sits in a valley, and the high summer temps exacerbate the air quality issues.
Those are excuses you commonly hear from uninformed Easterners, but chiefly conservative, paranoid Bible Belt Republicans as to why they could never live in Phoenix or Arizona in general.
As you travel east of the I-35 corridor, especially in the South, you hear a lot more negative comments about Phoenix/Arizona than you do further north and west, up to and including too barren, too little rain, too isolated, too many Mexicans/illegal aliens, and unsustainable water supply--things that most of us who live here never even give any thought because, for the most part, these issues have very little to no impact on our day-to-day lives. In fact, most of the people who live here appreciate the warm, dry, sunny weather and rugged, majestic Sonoran desert scenery and those are some reasons why we chose to live here--could ya believe it?
However, I will say that Southerners almost invariably preface their negative commentary of Arizona with something along the lines of, "Well, I like Arizona's laws and politics, but..."
The best comment about Arizona I've heard to date in the South was when a friend of a father, who was born and raised in Houston, explained to me that he could never live in Arizona because it's "not tenable" in the event of an apocalyptic-type event--talk about paranoid.
Huh? I see and hear almost nothing but praise for Phoenix from Southerners. I've even heard "That's the only place out West I could live" many times. The only real criticism I hear from most Southerners (concerning Phoenix) is in regards to the dry desert weather, as most Southerners are accustomed to high levels of humidity and dense greenery.
Most of the negative remarks I hear about Phoenix come from the urban West coast or urban Northeast. Phoenix isn't very popular with very many liberals, though it's not always necessarily about politics. The biggest gripe I hear is about the lack of culture and the cookie-cutter sprawl. I'm not saying I necessarily agree with either side, but those have been my observations.
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