I am former Kansan now Californian, move to Hutch? (Wichita: real estate, rent)

[Roccaluma]

I went to High School in western Kansas and moved when I turned 18. That was twenty two years ago. The average home price here peaked at $600,000 a few years ago. Now it is $350,000 for a house on a tiny lot. And recently the real estate hacks have been talking up the market so it soon should be over $450,000. I live in Sonoma county, California near Santa Rosa. Well I live on disability income that does not change whereverer I live. I was looking at home prices in the Hutch area and they look great, and since I dont work, I do not have to worry about the job market, its actually a plus that an area grows slow or loses population. And for all those people who go on and on about cultural activities, I live 45 minutes away from San Francisco and have not went to any plays museums etc in ten years of living here. There is a special Pink Floyd lasarium show there but its a hassle and maybe $60 bucks. I went to the beach once a couple of months ago. I actually enjoy four full seasons. Is Hutch still a small city where I have to worry about small town gossip. Im just a regular white guy who is straight, I could go to church, most likely something tame like the Methodists. Also what are the mobile home lot rents in the area? What is your heating and cooling costs? Is food expensive, I am in a very high priced area for food. I have lived in Sterling Kansas for one year.

[Roccaluma]

I mean I lived in Florida for awhile and they made you buy a license plate for $100, which you take off and put on the next car you get. That was in addition to the other fees. And no they didnt let you sell the plate back when I moved. In California they have these smog laws for vehicules on older cars every two years which cost $80 at the minimum. If your car doesnt pass then it could be thousands, even though the car runs well. I like clean air but that is a little costly.

[GraniteStater]

The weather in Hutch will take some adjustment if you are coming from California. Otherwise, it is a very LOW COL area with a stagnant economy. However, Wichita is less than 1 hour drive away with all of the ammenities you would probably need or want.

[briansgi]

Stay away from the mobile homes, it is Kansas you know, remember Wizard of Oz?!

[j_k_k]

When I move back to Kansas, it'll probably be back to Hutch.

[GraniteStater]

Hey, the state fair is held in Hutch. You can't beat that!

[j_k_k]

That is definitely one plus of Hutch. You would get to see the butter sculpture every year. Seriously, though, the State Fair is a pretty huge affair with a lot of different entertainment, bringing people from all over Kansas. The fairgrounds must take up quite a few acres. It's a definite highlight of the year for pretty much everyone living in Reno or any adjacent county, at the very least.

My own tie to Hutch is not really very objective, in that it was the last place as a kid I had a good school experience. After that, for me, it was all warfare, but thank the gods I at least got a start in Hutch the way I did.

[Roccaluma]

Thankyou for the information. I will never be able buy a home in Californ. Just to live here I have to be on section eight, which makes it affordable. But now I have a landlord, he is a good one but he has cancer, so in a few years he may die and sell the house. Section eight doesnt allow me to own two cars. I am a pretty good shade tree mechanic and always like to have two or three cars since one may go out and you never know when you come across a deal. And I did live there in western Kansas, Garden city. Now that I think about it that area seemed to have dry heat, which is better than humid heat. I would probably live in a poorer area and poor people are too busy working to gossip. I heard no gossip in the trailer home in Garden City. It was a town of 25,000 back then. I geuss it is the the towns of 3,000 or less where that goes on. I also assume that Hutchinson does not have any traffic problems, is that right?

[Roccaluma]

We now have a buget deficit of at least 20 billion. So they decided to close almost all the state parks about 80% of them. Five in my area. I went to one of the buget grocery stores in my area, it was crowded and 98% hispanic. I saw one white worker and one black guy, we were like the only regular americans in the place. I think positive so I realize that they and all their children will pay my social security taxes but it was a little weird, not as bad as when I went into a McDonalds in Georgia where all the customers were black and they all seemed at once to look at me and think, he is the only white person in here. The traffic is very bad here because of the geography , lots of vallys and high hills, so the city cannot have ring roads. Another aside, about ten years ago I was looking into affordable housing out here so I went to a few mobile home parks, they wanted $40,000 for a 1970s double wide with a space rent of $700. Then recently the greedy owners of the parks have decided to turn the park into one where you own the lot, they sell you the lot for $60,000-$100,000 and you have to do this there is no choice because you cant move your home here because most of the other parks are doing that or require new mobile homes.