Lake City, Iowa? (Des Moines, Fort Dodge, Dayton: house, rent, income)

[J-Daddy]

Looking for some info on Lake City, Iowa....My wife has been contacted about a job there and we are considering it if the job pans out..It's an administrative position "salary $100,00+ a year" and we were thinking that it's probably really great money for the area...I'm yet to look for anything there as far as work goes "i'm bluecollar, i'm use to busting my butt for $$"....We lived in Naples, FL for a couple of years and the cost of living was crazy high there and she's been looking at a job in Daytona,FL that pays more than Lake City but I figure the cost of living in Lake City is well below that in FL so it would probably even out in the long run.
Anyone give me any info on that area? The schools "we have 3 girls", house market, cost of living, jobs, recreation "i'm a big outdoorsman" and things of that nature....We live in Kentucky right now so a small town isnt really culture shock to us, I'm a country boy so I'm use to it...Wife grew up in Cinn., OH so she prefers shopping over fishing & hunting, lol.

[heaton]

My Aunt lives in Lake City, IA and I'v been there several times. It's SMALL, they don't even have a stop light in the town. I would guess about 1,700 people in the town. The estimated mediam household income is $33,800, so you'll be set. The estimated mediam home value is 59,800. It's 98.1 white and 1.1 hispanic.

I love visiting Lake City, IA. So peaceful. I'd move there if I could make $100,000 a year. It's a place where your kids can ride there bikes outside around the block and you don't have to worry about them.

[gran4]

I've lived in Lake City most of my life and it is really a nice little town. I have raised my own family here and one of my daughters has since moved back here. There is a lot of hometown pride. We have a hospital, nursing home, a home for the handicapped, good schools, and many more ammenitiies. Our town is family oriented and we have recently built a new library and are currently raising money to build a new swimming pool. The old pool is still in use. Even though we are a small town, we are 100 miles from Des Moines and closer to great shopping. We are also a few miles from communitiy colleges (22 miles and 42 miles). My husband is also a hunter and there are good places around here for deer and pheasant. We take pride in our town and it is a quiet and safe place to live. I hope this has answered some of your questions and good luck with your decision.

[J-Daddy]

Thanks for the info on Lake City, actually my wife and my mother are there right now...They drove out there yesterday "July 8th" to stay for a few days, plus she's interviewing for the job today...Actually more of a meet & greet than an interview...I think the job is 99.9% her's if she wants it.
Honestly we're looking more at living a little closer to Fort Dodge just because we have done some research on it and it seems there is a bit more to do than in Lake City...If it were up to me Lake City would be fine, I like the small town life...But the wife is from the big city so she has to have shopping and stuff like that.

Gran4, I didnt want to come right out and say I was a hunter, didnt know how many tree-hugger's might be lurking on here and I didnt want to get into a war about how wrong it is to hunt & fish, I figured "outdoorsman" was a bit more PC...
The job she's looking at is at the hospital in Lake City, she had dinner with the CEO and other administrators and Dr's. last night...She called me and said everyone was super nice "something that never happened when we lived in FL, people in our sub-division looked down on us because we were from KY for the most part"...She said it was like she had known them forever...
So far it's looking good, looks like we might be making the move very shortly to Iowa, I'm glad, because I really dont care for the area of KY we live in right now...It's not the part that I grew up in and the people around here suck for the most part...Plus it's where my in-laws live and they like to be in control of what everyone in the family does 24-7.

[Zack-boy]

The hospital is a great place to work. Nice people. Great CEO. What job was she interviewing for? Did she get it?