Moving for a simpler life! (Des Moines, Waterloo: income, rent , jobs)

[Minnehahapolitan]

It surely beats Fla. DSM is the heart of the state. Enough to keep a young family entertained and secure. Good schools, safe, kid friendly. Alot of new development (both in city and suburb). I am also enamored with Iowa City. A great college town of about 30,000 with enough students to match. Univ. Iowa gives the town a nice vibe. There is stuff to do, but you get the benefits of a smallish town. IA City is more naturally scenic and is a quick ride to Chicago when and if you want it. Both cities have a good economy and quality of life.

[nofearfactor]

I dont live there now,but I moved to the DesMoines area from the Bay area of California in spring of 01,with my girlfriend who was from there, and was working in just a few days.rents were cheap.lots of stuff to do.nice place to be in the summer with alot of stuff to do.and I made tons of friends.most through my jobs.and most I am still friends with today even though I live in another state now.I miss alot of stuff about DSM...

[Poolman]

I couldn't believe when I read your post. We are from Iowa and moved to Florida 2 years ago. We are going back. It is so much safer, cleaner and miss all the people. Look at northwest, west side of Des Moines if you want to live in Des Moines. Also Urbandale, Grimes, and Waukee have reasonable prices. Good luck. We have our home on the market now and can't wait to return. The only thing we'll miss is the ocean! It is the largest insurance industry in the United States so there are lots of jobs. It is constantly growing and the people there are GREAT! Very rare will you find anyone who is not friendly. Good luck and I will watch for your post as you decide.

[TeeJayMaJay]

Hi there - My husband and I are FROM DES MOINES - but NOW live in FLORIDA. We have lived here in FL going on 17 years come July. We had such a difficult time with the long blustery and gray winters. Never ever again - and the bare trees - no green until April! OH MY! So be ready for that. My husband actually was born and raised there in DM - we also moved to FL because the COL (cost of living ) was very high up in IOWA - sure we are creeping up w/ taxed but you will have State Income Tax and our utilities were SO HIGH even back then. We are actually lower here in FL - even in the summer here than any winter up there. Perhpas it has gotten better but we seemed to always be working for the high heating bills. We had fireplaces, built our own thick insulated home but WOW those wintery winds and drifts of snow, and clear nights of long months of winter was a drag for us. I would HIGHLY recommend to go there in FEB - that is the worse month - even though it is the shortest in days it always seemed to be the longest to survive (at least for us).
COL SITE: Here is a great site to compare what you make now to where you want to move.
Cost of Living - Cost of Living Calculator from CNNMoney
put in your salary and then the city you are leaving to the city you are "thinking" of. Great way to COMPARE. Someone posted this on another thread and I bookmarked it.

My favorite area of DES MOINES was out by Lake Saylorvile "JOHNSON" - GREAT "COUNTRY" feeling but I heard there are so many housing developments, with homes of 3 and 4 car garages... that I really am not sure now.
Do check out IOWA CITY - they have the UNIV and lots to do. Hawkeyes are pretty good in sports but lots to do and see there...yet not so big. They do get a lot of ice and they have many hills - so get your snow tires and chains.

I think the part of winters that I hated up in IOWA the most is that @ 4 PM it was dark. I was a teacher and I arrived @ school in the morning parking my car and it was dark. Finished teaching school at the end of the day about 4:30 and it was dark. UGH!! So be ready! You may miss the blue skies and sunshine of FL....so go up there in the winter and see!! Just my 2 cents. I know FL needs to get their act together - be patient and maybe they will - maybe not but I know one thing - I would not be able to handle those gray cold winters after having what we do down here. Be cautious.

[dubuquersue]

Well...I have lived here all my life and I am fairly educated with 2 degrees...Accounting and Business Management and NO....Dubuque is not the place to be for job opportunity. I sent out 157 Resumes last month alone and got two interviews and was told I was over qualified for each. There is nothing here unless you want to earn peanuts for wage, and work as a laborer in some factory. Now if you want welfare and free government programs come on in.

[Chicago60614]

Originally Posted by TeeJayMaJay

Hi there - My husband and I are FROM DES MOINES - but NOW live in FLORIDA. We have lived here in FL going on 17 years come July. We had such a difficult time with the long blustery and gray winters. Never ever again - and the bare trees - no green until April! OH MY! So be ready for that. My husband actually was born and raised there in DM - we also moved to FL because the COL (cost of living ) was very high up in IOWA - sure we are creeping up w/ taxed but you will have State Income Tax and our utilities were SO HIGH even back then. We are actually lower here in FL - even in the summer here than any winter up there. Perhpas it has gotten better but we seemed to always be working for the high heating bills. We had fireplaces, built our own thick insulated home but WOW those wintery winds and drifts of snow, and clear nights of long months of winter was a drag for us. I would HIGHLY recommend to go there in FEB - that is the worse month - even though it is the shortest in days it always seemed to be the longest to survive (at least for us).
COL SITE: Here is a great site to compare what you make now to where you want to move.
Cost of Living - Cost of Living Calculator from CNNMoney
put in your salary and then the city you are leaving to the city you are "thinking" of. Great way to COMPARE. Someone posted this on another thread and I bookmarked it.

My favorite area of DES MOINES was out by Lake Saylorvile "JOHNSON" - GREAT "COUNTRY" feeling but I heard there are so many housing developments, with homes of 3 and 4 car garages... that I really am not sure now.
Do check out IOWA CITY - they have the UNIV and lots to do. Hawkeyes are pretty good in sports but lots to do and see there...yet not so big. They do get a lot of ice and they have many hills - so get your snow tires and chains.

I think the part of winters that I hated up in IOWA the most is that @ 4 PM it was dark. I was a teacher and I arrived @ school in the morning parking my car and it was dark. Finished teaching school at the end of the day about 4:30 and it was dark. UGH!! So be ready! You may miss the blue skies and sunshine of FL....so go up there in the winter and see!! Just my 2 cents. I know FL needs to get their act together - be patient and maybe they will - maybe not but I know one thing - I would not be able to handle those gray cold winters after having what we do down here. Be cautious.

Des Moines has come a long ways since 1990 or so when the state of Iowa was bottoming out from the manufacturing and farm crisis that hit the state.

The Des Moines metro is also the 2nd fastest growing in the midwest (%). It's grown from 392,000 in 1990 to around 535,000 today.

A few updated pictures of Des Moines:

[ScranBarre]

Thanks for the pictures! Des Moines looks to be absolutely wonderful! I'm suprised that a city of 200,000 has such an impressive skyline. The only thing I can recall about Des Moines was an episode of South Park in which Des Moines was mentioned as a place "stuck in time" where "technology, fashion, and culture are two years behind." LOL! It's nice to see that this apparently isn't the case. In many ways it sounds comparable to my native Scranton, PA, only with a healthier skilled employment outlook (and the fact that you have a Williams Sonoma and we don't yet).

I've been looking into Des Moines as a vacation destination, and these photos were a great help!

[GraniteStater]

Here in east Kansas and west Missouri the sun does not set very early at all in the winter. The earliest in sets in the winter is 4:45- 5:00. The amount of sunny and dry days are extreme in the plains in my opinion. Everyone is thankful for a cloudy and rainy day. I can not wait to move to New Hampshire and enjoy the cold snowy winters. Their are plenty of outdoor activities that you can do in the winter because of the White Mountains. Great skiing, snowboarding, ice fishing, and snowmobiling.

[Chicago60614]

^ well I think people tend to exagerrate on here based on how their personal memories skew reality.

The earliest sunset in Des Moines is 4:45pm in late December. The earliest it sets in the county that poster is located in Florida is 5:35pm. Only a 50 minute difference, not that HUGE.

In the summer the latest sunset in that Florida county is 8:29pm, while in Des Moines it's 8:53pm. There's always a flip-side to things.....

Des Moines also has the exact same number of "sunny days" as Pensacola, Florida.

[zz4guy]

Moving to a city based only on its good economy would be dumb. You need to look at what it is you want to do. Dubuque has plenty of jobs in manufacturing, publsishing, machining, etc, but not much banking and finance. Des Moine is quite the opposite. They are loaded with banking, finance, and insurance jobs, but have hardly any manufacturing. Most of the manufacturing industries are in the Eastern part of the state.