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Since you are familiar with the DC area, how would you compare Capitol Hill today to what it was 20-25 years ago. Can you explain how the one-time blight of the Southeast Waterfront became what it is today and will be more of tomorrow. How did prices in West End, Logan Circle, Penn Quarter, and upper 14th Street get where they are from where they were? How did Swampoodle turn into NoMa? Even across the river in Northern Virginia, where did Rosslyn and the Ballston Corridor come from? What's going on out at Tysons (formerly Tyson's Corner)?
It's all the result of urbanism, something the DC area has benefited a great deal from.
As soon as you explain why the suburban and even exurban Counties ringing DC, up the I95 and I270 corridors and down RTE 4, 5 and 301 were among the fastest growing jurisdictions in the US from the late 1980s and through the 1990s until the recession hit. Those are for Maryland. The Virginia jurisdictions experienced the same.
Those people are coming from somewhere and the vast majority of that somewhere in MD is inner Montgomery County (to Calvert, Frederick, Howard and St. Mary's Counties), inner Prince George's County (to Charles County for the most part) and DC (all over the area).
Those people are generally broken down into two groups, breeders and empty nesters.
This is why I don't see the death of suburbia, the way that many do.
Close enough access to a city for jobs and the entertainment that we all have so much money to partake in...:rollseyes: , plus still some access to life once one retires. And Target is close by, most likely.
If you hate all of that part of America, there is still lots of sticks to move out to. Not for me. That said, the claustrophobia of a New York City would be madding after a while.
It's a very specific type of person that loves living in the middle of nowhere or even just very rural areas. Living in large cities has so many practical advantages that it appeals to a larger portion of the populace.
We plan on moving to a more rural area when we can afford it. Problem is, around here, the majority of houses in the rural areas that are actually for sale are a hundred or so years old, and need a lot of upkeep or a complete remodel. To get a house comparable to ours in quality (and our house isn't even that awesome, it's a development cookie cutter house, but it's "nice") we'd have to spend at least another 100K. Or build ourselves, which again would be about another 100K. It's not unreasonable, really, but we can't afford it yet.
It's also a little harder to deal with things like septic, propane, more power outages, slower Internet, etc. Distance from hospitals is a little concerning when you have accident-prone kids. And sometimes it's harder in, say, the winter - a lot of the roads are harder to drive on when they're not as well-plowed as city streets. You kind of have to hole up in winter.
Culturally, there are tons of awesome people living in the rural areas. There are also, I hate to say, a lot of people who... I don't even know how to put it. They've grown up in the same area their whole lives, with their families, and are either outright distrustful of newcomers, or just not interested. Unless you have an "in" - like a family member or something - it's hard to meet people sometimes.
What doesn't concern us:
- lack of shopping (gardens, pantries, bulk meat, online ordering for non-foods - that's how we do it here, too)
- lack of "entertainment" - we entertain ourselves, pretty much, and love getting out in nature most
- lack of fancy schools - we homeschool anyway
- lack of a dating scene
- lack of jobs - we're self-employed via Internet.
However, just because we're not worried about those things doesn't necessarily mean our kids won't face those issues down the line. There's no guarantee they won't move across the country or world regardless of whether we live in the city or in town vs. the countryside, but if they did stick around, they'd be faced with a smaller dating pool, maybe no college options or work options once they reach that age... So I don't know. Wouldn't feel good if they felt like they "had to" move far away from us once they hit young adulthood, just because there was "nothing to do" where we lived.
Society is so tedious and unvarying in a rural area.
I prefer a metro area of at least a million.
The point of living in a rural area is to get away from society. And the tedium is in your mind.
You all don't know what you're missing! When the city people do get out of town, it's like they bring Disneyland with them. They have no clue how to enjoy peace and solitude, so they haul their big RV and ATVs and guns, 2000W sound system, cut down trees to build a bonfire, have big drunken party, and leave a mess.
Young people imagine life must have been unbearably horrible before internet. Or cell phones, TV, planes, electricity, cars, etc. No, the real horror is the mind that believes these things are necessary for joy and happiness. Yet joy and happiness are more elusive than ever.
Consumer addiction. An endless cycle of wanting and getting and all the games that go with it.
Now that my kids are getting older, health care is at the top of my list when considering places to live. I have a chronic illness that requires regular care by a specialist. I have my fantasy of living up the Mendocino coast, but realistically there's no way I could live far from a large metropolitan area. I'm pretty sure it's Denver suburbs for the long haul. A truly rural location would never work for me.
Someone mentioned Iowa. Whenever I think of rural living I think of a farm I saw in central Iowa miles from anywhere. Lots of corn and hogs. Anyway this area of central Iowa had a lot of rolling hills. Off in the distance I could see a hill next to a house. The hill seemed strange. The closer I got the stranger it seemed. A mile of corn later I could see and detect that the hill was a huge pile of manure that had been dumped right next to the farm house. I guess if you are a corn or hog farmer, you get used to manure. Even so I think I could have found a better spot in all of those miles of corn field. Considering the smell I would have picked an area at least a mile downwind.
Someone mentioned Iowa. Whenever I think of rural living I think of a farm I saw in central Iowa miles from anywhere. Lots of corn and hogs. Anyway this area of central Iowa had a lot of rolling hills. Off in the distance I could see a hill next to a house. The hill seemed strange. The closer I got the stranger it seemed. A mile of corn later I could see and detect that the hill was a huge pile of manure that had been dumped right next to the farm house. I guess if you are a corn or hog farmer, you get used to manure. Even so I think I could have found a better spot in all of those miles of corn field. Considering the smell I would have picked an area at least a mile downwind.
I assume the house was already there. I would have picked a place downwind to pile up the manure.
Anyway it was one of those sights I will never forget. I also always wonder about the reason that the manure was piled by the house. I assume it was to be spread on the fields and the house was in the center of the fields. It is one of those puzzles where I will never have an answer.
I could easily see myself moving to an exclusively "rural county" when I get older because the area I have in mind is only 30-35 minutes removed from most amenities, hospital, box stores, etc. Carroll County, NH is at the top of my list in terms of a good chunk of the housing stock being smaller in sqft with acreage. I prefer scenic "high amenity" rural counties because they have so much to offer if one really enjoys outdoor recreation like I do. Skiing, hiking, lakes, mountains, etc.
Census Bureau definitions:
Metropolitan County
Micropolitan County
Rural County
I don't prefer living in a specific county with over 500 people per square mile. The last three places I lived in have been in the 150-400 per square mile range. This is a bit more comfortable with what I prefer (having city, town and rural areas all nearby but without all the concrete.
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