why are people not moving into kentucky? (Lexington, Louisville: employment, university)

[censusdata]

Originally Posted by dazi

Does anyone have suggestions for the better areas of Kentucky to look for buying reasonably-priced acreage [$2-4K/acre]? All I know about KY is from driving through it, and love it! I've lived in GA the past 30yrs and want to move next to a secluded country setting. So far, KY and TN really appeal to me. I like rolling hills, a lot of large trees, and an area sparsely populated with dwellings. I figure it's unlikely that I'll find the house of my dreams on the acreage of my dreams, so I wouldn't mind building on the right piece of ground. How much acreage? I'm not sure, but would guess, 15-30 acres. I don't want to have to drive an hour for groceries, but a 20 minute drive is acceptable, and I don't need a mall...!

I'll certainly appreciate anyone's input. Thanks!

$2-4k an acre would mean somewhere outside the "Golden Triangle" (Louisville-Lexington-NKY)

I'd probably recommend Casey or Lincoln Counties. Check the "Rural KY Picture sticky" for pictures of these and other areas

[dazi]

Originally Posted by dazi

I...want to move next to a secluded country setting.

My wording was ill-chosen:

What I meant to relay is that next, I want to move to a secluded country setting.

[Traveler87]

Kentucky is a great state. Louisville is a great city with a riverfront that is coming along and will look great in the coming years. Louisville and Cincinnati are building their new tallest skyscrapers, in my opinion I do not like Louisville's, but it shows that both cities are doing very well. I hope that in the future Ohio and Kentucky can work together and help our economies grow and prosper. We have great cities, great people, and pretty large economies compared to many other states in this country.

[tazzy99]

I moved from the Los Angeles area to kentucky and we love it here. We moved two years ago. I am a Louisville, Ky. native, but husband is a Los Angeles native. He loves it more than I do here. We live in Shelbyville, just east of Louisville. I had lived away for 18 years but was thrilled to come home again.

It's so wonderful to have a short commute to work and to have a huge home on acreage for 1/3 the cost of our smaller home on a tiny lot in California. Plus, everyone is SO friendly!

And the best part - the parking spaces are HUGE! None of that westside los angeles tiny parking space stuff where everyone dings your car doors!


someone asked about the cost of acreage - it's about $9K to $10K an acre in Shelby County. It's a little bit higher in Oldham County and about double that in jefferson county, where Louisville is located. you'd have to get pretty far removed from the cities to get land for $2K to $4K an acre. if you buy, say, 100 acres, you can get it for less than $10K per acre in shelby county.

[kygman]

Originally Posted by dazi

My wording was ill-chosen:

What I meant to relay is that next, I want to move to a secluded country setting.

dazi, if you know the area you want to move to (Paducah, Elizabethtown, etc) go to realtor.com and put the city or town in. It will show you what's for sale in your price range in the area.

[GG74K]

louisville is one of my favorite cities, very unique town, nice people, great scenery and inexpensive, i've been in indianapolis now for 6 months and don't care for it much at all...kentucky is beautiful

[censusdata]

This map may help...

[EclecticEars]

Jefferson County (Louisville) continues to grow, but very slowly. However, Oldham and Bullitt Counties continue to grow at a pretty fast clip in terms of raw numbers. That accounts for most of metropolitan Louisville's population growth. That shows that this area is maintaining a steady, but not growing, economy.

Fayette County (Lexington) has slowed down considerably in terms of growth. However, Madison, Jessamine, and Scott (although it too is slowing down) Counties are accounting for the vast majority of the population growth in the Lexington area. This region, too, has a steady but not fast-growing economy.

Boone County is the only county in northern Kentucky that's really growing. Period. Campbell County is actually losing population and Kenton County has almost stagnated. Grant County doesn't have any population growth to "write home about."

Warren Co. is growing at a decent clip. But, while Barren, Pulaski, and Laurel Counties might be growing at fairly high percentage rates, those counties are still small and the raw numbers aren't anything to remark about.

So, the oranges on the map might represent high percentage growth rates, but look where they're typically located: in smaller, more rural counties like Anderson, Owen, Grant, and Henry that might have had 10% population growth but have really added fewer than 2,000 people. Not impressive in terms of raw numbers.

Let's face it. Mostly Ohio, but also CVG (airport) and its surrounding industrial parks (the latter two of which are in Kentucky) are fueling the growth in Boone County. Louisville and Lexington are neither slugging nor booming. Until Kentucky can rearrange its tax structure so that it's not as regressive or as penalizing (in terms of raw dollars) to the average citizen, it will not be a haven for individuals and corporations. I'm surprised we have as many Fortune 500 companies based here as we already do. Of course, on the upside, I think our pretty scenery actually keeps a lot of people here.

Oh yeah, our public universities are becoming so expensive to attend that--give it 15 years--it will become cheaper to attend southern schools like UGA, Ole Miss, North Alabama, or LSU for their out-of-state tuition rates than it will be to attend UofK, UofL, or WKU for their in-state tuition rates. Look at the booming economic havens Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey are (j/k)! Seriously, look at all the students those five states in particular that are coming to Kentucky for the comparatively good deals we have in higher education. Over time, Kentuckians will probably join this group of northern states. This, still considering the budget deficits Kentucky and other states are supposedly experiencing, as well as the tuition increase rates in each state.

Furthermore, compare in-state tuition rates for KCTCS to in-state tuition rates for LSU; the rates at LSU aren't that much higher than they are for KCTCS. So, it doesn't cost that much more for a poor joe schmo in Baton Rouge to attend a world-class university than it does for a poor joe schmo in Hazard, Paintsville, or Providence that really wants an education to attend a community or technical college. That's sad, don't ya'll agree?

[censusdata]

Northern Kentucky has grown by nearly 12% since 2000 while the Cinci Metro Area has a whole (incl NKY) has only grown by 3%. Most of the population and job growth is simply a shift from Ohio to Kentucky.

Northern Kentucky - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[EclecticEars]

Originally Posted by censusdata

Northern Kentucky has grown by nearly 12% since 2000 while the Cinci Metro Area has a whole (incl NKY) has only grown by 3%. Most of the population and job growth is simply a shift from Ohio to Kentucky.

Northern Kentucky - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

That's a good point. That said, the vast majority of the commercial and industrial (translates into jobs), as well as population, growth has occurred just in Boone County. If not for that, Boone County's cheaper land, and the massive Cincinnati-NKY Airport, NKY itself would be nothing as a region except a bedroom community for Cincinnati.