Single woman in her 50s considering relocation to KC (Kansas City: best cities, condo)

[aragx6]

Originally Posted by kcmo

I see you have managed to pull me into yet another one of your fun threads.

Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, what the hell is the difference. KC is loaded with people from the rural midwest and that has a pretty significant impact on the culture of KC. Outstate KS is not that populated, but the population it does have migrates to metro kc (and denver).

Say what you want, but KC is heavily influenced by its isolated location and rural to urban migration. Chances are higher that you will meet somebody in metro KC from Salina or Lincoln or Joplin than from Seattle or Boston or Atlanta, and they do live in places like Olathe by the tens of thousands. Nearly everybody I have met out here is from another big city or from DC/Balt. That is just not the case in KC.

This.

[xenokc]

^Nope. Here are some stats.

This is a bit dated, 2007 report but still a pretty good indication. Here are some of the major imports into KC metro...

Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA 4,206
Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, IL-IN-WI 13,790
Columbia, MO 7,139
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX 14,483
Denver-Aurora, CO 7,676
Des Moines, IA 5,194
El Paso, TX 2,274
Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX 6,038
Iowa City, IA 1,179
Jefferson City, MO 2,923
Lawrence, KS 22,203
Lincoln, NE 3,714
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA 12,291
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI 4,406
Oklahoma City, OK 4,427
Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA 9,647
Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ 7,441
Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA 4,064
San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA 5,854
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA 3,889
Sioux City, IA-NE-SD 791
Springfield, MO 9,713
St. Joseph, MO-KS 12,304
St. Louis, MO-IL 17,940 (more from STL move to KC than KC to STL)
Topeka, KS 13,735
Tulsa, OK 4,895
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV 6,487
Wichita, KS 15,903


This in total in-migration from each market into KC. I took out net/outflow just to show that there is a mix incoming from everywhere, not just surrounding cities. You're more likely to run into someone from Chicago or Dallas in KC before someone from Omaha or Topeka. You're more likely to run into someone from STL before someone from Wichita. You're almost twice as likely to meet someone from LA than someone from Columbia. More come from San Diego than Des Moines, more from Seattle than Lincoln. About the same number come from Minneapolis as OK City. If you include Riverside with LA, that area imports nearly as much as from STL.

While the biggest import is from Lawrence, most metros have the major imports from nearby cities.

Now if you add up all cities around KC, it will come out pretty high, but if you compare to every city/metro in US not listed here, it's likely higher for number outside 250mile radius than within. Considering that KC has many mid-sized towns surrounding the area, it's almost a bit surprising that a bigger % probably comes from outside that radius.

Granted, this doesn't explain details like if someone left town and came back or came to town and left within 10 years. Is still highly likely more come from outside 250 mi radius than within.

http://www.metrooutlook.org/assets/migration2007.pdf

[Blue Earth]

Originally Posted by xenokc

^Nope. Here are some stats.

This is a bit dated, 2007 report but still a pretty good indication. Here are some of the major imports into KC metro...

Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA 4,206
Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, IL-IN-WI 13,790
Columbia, MO 7,139
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX 14,483
Denver-Aurora, CO 7,676
Des Moines, IA 5,194
El Paso, TX 2,274
Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX 6,038
Iowa City, IA 1,179
Jefferson City, MO 2,923
Lawrence, KS 22,203
Lincoln, NE 3,714
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA 12,291
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI 4,406
Oklahoma City, OK 4,427
Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA 9,647
Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ 7,441
Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA 4,064
San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA 5,854
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA 3,889
Sioux City, IA-NE-SD 791
Springfield, MO 9,713
St. Joseph, MO-KS 12,304
St. Louis, MO-IL 17,940 (more from STL move to KC than KC to STL)
Topeka, KS 13,735
Tulsa, OK 4,895
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV 6,487
Wichita, KS 15,903

This in total in-migration from each market into KC. I took out net/outflow just to show that there is a mix incoming from everywhere, not just surrounding cities. You're more likely to run into someone from Chicago or Dallas in KC before someone from Omaha or Topeka. You're more likely to run into someone from STL before someone from Wichita. You're almost twice as likely to meet someone from LA than someone from Columbia. More come from San Diego than Des Moines, more from Seattle than Lincoln. About the same number come from Minneapolis as OK City. If you include Riverside with LA, that area imports nearly as much as from STL.

This.

[xenokc]

^Yeah, it's astounding the amount of misinformation about KC on this site. And it's coming from people who don't live in KC anymore with no stats to support their self-proclaimed 'anecdotally my view so it's the only view' information. A lot of the misinformation here smells of people who had a bad experience here, such as losing their job, and have radically misconstrued perceptions and confidently post bogus info, and will even repeat crap when shown otherwise.

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by xenokc

^Yeah, it's astounding the amount of misinformation about KC on this site. And it's coming from people who don't live in KC anymore with no stats to support their self-proclaimed 'anecdotally my view so it's the only view' information. A lot of the misinformation here smells of people who had a bad experience here, such as losing their job, and have radically misconstrued perceptions and confidently post bogus info, and will even repeat crap when shown otherwise.

Fine, I'll walk away from the KC forum. Moving on. Watch it become one of the slowest city forums on citydata in three months and maybe all the blue valley threads will rise back to the top. See ya...

[xenokc]

Originally Posted by kcmo

Fine, I'll walk away from the KC forum. Moving on. Watch it become one of the slowest city forums on citydata in three months and maybe all the blue valley threads will rise back to the top. See ya...

This KC forum is probably slow due to much more active kcrag.com (STL IE doesn't have a site like that so is more active here) and because there is a lot of constant downer misinformation here (or if not misinformation, an abnormal amount of focus on the cons). This forum might pickup if it's more conversational like the rag rather than anecdotal rants (then the reaction to rants) from those who had a bad experience. Is very strange more than half the posters on this particular site seemingly aren't living here anymore. Most locals who visit probably don't want to come back given it's taken over by downer posters.

I almost quit this site, letting the debbie downers take it over. It's no wonder this is not a heavily visited site compared to the rag. If my only view of KC was from this site, there's no way I'd want to live here.

[50something]

Well I go away for one day, and look what happens.

Hey all, I didn't mean to spark a debate here.... I merely wanted some info about the area.

Thanks to all of you who took the time to contribute to this thread -- I've found much of the information you provided to be quite helpful.

I have to choose between Kansas City and the DC/Silver Spring area, but no sweat -- just give me a few minutes while I go out back and hang myself.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by xenokc

^Nope. Here are some stats.

This is a bit dated, 2007 report but still a pretty good indication. Here are some of the major imports into KC metro...

Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA 4,206
Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, IL-IN-WI 13,790
Columbia, MO 7,139
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX 14,483
Denver-Aurora, CO 7,676
Des Moines, IA 5,194
El Paso, TX 2,274
Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX 6,038
Iowa City, IA 1,179
Jefferson City, MO 2,923
Lawrence, KS 22,203
Lincoln, NE 3,714
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA 12,291
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI 4,406
Oklahoma City, OK 4,427
Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA 9,647
Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ 7,441
Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA 4,064
San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA 5,854
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA 3,889
Sioux City, IA-NE-SD 791
Springfield, MO 9,713
St. Joseph, MO-KS 12,304
St. Louis, MO-IL 17,940 (more from STL move to KC than KC to STL)
Topeka, KS 13,735
Tulsa, OK 4,895
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV 6,487
Wichita, KS 15,903


This in total in-migration from each market into KC. I took out net/outflow just to show that there is a mix incoming from everywhere, not just surrounding cities. You're more likely to run into someone from Chicago or Dallas in KC before someone from Omaha or Topeka. You're more likely to run into someone from STL before someone from Wichita. You're almost twice as likely to meet someone from LA than someone from Columbia. More come from San Diego than Des Moines, more from Seattle than Lincoln. About the same number come from Minneapolis as OK City. If you include Riverside with LA, that area imports nearly as much as from STL.

While the biggest import is from Lawrence, most metros have the major imports from nearby cities.

Now if you add up all cities around KC, it will come out pretty high, but if you compare to every city/metro in US not listed here, it's likely higher for number outside 250mile radius than within. Considering that KC has many mid-sized towns surrounding the area, it's almost a bit surprising that a bigger % probably comes from outside that radius.

Granted, this doesn't explain details like if someone left town and came back or came to town and left within 10 years. Is still highly likely more come from outside 250 mi radius than within.

http://www.metrooutlook.org/assets/migration2007.pdf

That proves the strong Sunbelt influences in KC without a doubt. 51,000+ in-migration from Texas, Arizona, California, etc but less than 14,000 from Chicagoland with DC the only city from the east represented.

[xenokc]

I didn't include all cities. When looking at all cities, about 60K came from N or E of KC (including STL/MSP, Great Lakes states, DC to New England). And that's just late 90s to early 2000s. Is highly likely pre-90s in-migration came mostly from Great Lakes/NE than from sunbelt.

KC has influences from all corners of US, but least from the NW. Looks like only about 14K came from W or N of (and including) Denver.

[aragx6]

Originally Posted by 50something

I have to choose between Kansas City and the DC/Silver Spring area, but no sweat -- just give me a few minutes while I go out back and hang myself.

If I were choosing between those two, I'd choose DC/SS in a heartbeat. I'm sure you also have to take cost of living into account, but outside of that, there's not much reason to choose KC in my opinion.