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No. There are a variety of reasons people opt not to settle in rural areas (I'm one, after years of rural upbringing). But the main drawbacks are, I believe, largely other ones than you suggest.
Although extremely local healthcare access (particularly of any kind of specialized nature,,or anything beyond urgent care/triage) IS rapidly dwindling in many rural areas, which is more of a concern for some populations than others.
If you had every (sub)urban convenience at hand, it would by definition not be rural, right?
There are definitely a lot of rural towns that are dying, and I think it's hard to forget the appeal of the city when you see everything The Johnsons have on TV, but healthy rural towns that haven't been converted into WalMarts still exist and can be pleasant places to live.
It depends on the specific rural area and the reasons the person is there.
In general? I think so. I live in extreme northeast TN. My office is a few miles from the Virginia border. Most of the nearby Virginia counties are "coal country." Whatever was once there is basically gone. The quality people have left, and those remaining are basically an underclass.
There are rural areas with specific economic niches that do well, as well as areas that depend on tourism.
I am so glad to read ALL comments from your guys, words by words. Thanks again.
And I have been curious to find out which rural towns are doing well. College town, new job town or tourist town etc. We have a 100+ acres timberland in south VA, thought to build mobile house there, kind of give up now. It has been over 10 years, we have seen almost NONE change in that neighborhood. But other costs are constantly going up.
I used to live in the city and worked construction downtown every day.I needed to be close to healthcare because that place was killing me.
Not anymore.
What one considers "rural" varies. Most folks in a town of 7200, 15 miles from a city of 400,000, thought of themselves as fairly rural. They had a few doctors and dentists, no hospital, no HD but lately a WM. We lived 25 miles from that town. Five miles of difficult at best road. Miles from fire department, overpriced gas station, etc. Nearest cell phone tower was in that aforementioned small town. That's rural IMO. Retiring from metro D.C. 19 years ago, we loved the life.
But older now, we're heading to a small city, 35,000 people with HD, WM, little else, but less than an hour from a major city. Citified folks would call that rural. We think of it as a compromise.
But yes, having lived the rural life and having seen our "town" of a few hundred lose all its four cafes, bait shop, general store and gas pump, along with its post office reducing its hours, and seeing similar surrounding towns in their death throes, I'd have to say true rural life is on the decline.
What one considers "rural" varies. Most folks in a town of 7200, 15 miles from a city of 400,000, thought of themselves as fairly rural. They had a few doctors and dentists, no hospital, no HD but lately a WM. We lived 25 miles from that town. Five miles of difficult at best road. Miles from fire department, overpriced gas station, etc. Nearest cell phone tower was in that aforementioned small town. That's rural IMO. Retiring from metro D.C. 19 years ago, we loved the life.
But older now, we're heading to a small city, 35,000 people with HD, WM, little else, but less than an hour from a major city. Citified folks would call that rural. We think of it as a compromise.
But yes, having lived the rural life and having seen our "town" of a few hundred lose all its four cafes, bait shop, general store and gas pump, along with its post office reducing its hours, and seeing similar surrounding towns in their death throes, I'd have to say true rural life is on the decline.
I live twenty miles from a city of 9000, 120 miles from a city of 100,000, and five hundred miles from the nearest metropolitan area of 400,000 or more. They each have over a million.
So what? I can buy Roquefort and Humboldt Fog in town. There are medical services as well as a helicopter service that charges fifty dollars per year for a subscription. FedEx, UPS, and USPS all deliver here. I like dirt roads. They discourage sightseers. My nearest neighbor is a half mile away. I can be in Cody in twenty-five minutes except in bad weather or sometimes in tourist season. I can fire a gun from my porch in any direction. I'm also only a few minutes from Yellowstone.
I could find a place seventy miles from the nearest water, but I too have made a compromise. There's a big dog park right on my property.
We used to like rural living lifestyle. With building cost goes higher and higher, we are kind of changing our mind. Usually, house value consists of land and building values. With building value, new or used, has smaller margin, COL, either suburban living or rural living, doesn't make much difference..
If construction costs are going up, I think they are going up in rural areas as much as they are in urban areas.
Quote:
... Yes, rural areas might have better life quality, but the trade-off are less health care and inconveniences to other services..
Does anyone feel similarly?
I feel that the better quality-of-life far outweighs any inconveniences.
We live in a large 'barndominium'. Its construction was much lower, per-square-foot than a wood stick and sheetrock structure would have been.
Its been dying for years. If you think otherwise you're either pretty well off or you're just not paying attention.
Why do you suppose prices keep going up if it's dying? I think that everyone who lives in my rural area is "pretty well off."
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