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If you moved from a large/larger urban area to a small town - either within the same state or elsewhere, how did you go about finding your landing spot? What brought you there to begin with? And has it met your expectations since moving?
Went from a city of around 600k to one of 60k. I was tired of road rage, long lines and crazy wait times, too much crime and crooked politicians, poor performing schools, and I hated the climate with a passion.
Found my new city by using a process of elimination and by using an online quiz about my perfect 'spot'.
Looked at a map and eliminated everything too hot, too cold, too far away from family, too brown, too gloomy, too big or too small, etc. The quiz gave me names of a dozen or so towns to look at and I was able to narrow my choices to five of them that sounded promising. I did a ton of internet research, including the CD forum, all sorts of COL calculators, weather and gardening sites, natural disaster probabilities, and narrowed down to a specific area I had been through before and liked. Altogether six months of intense research and then took the plunge sight unseen. I asked for a job transfer without having actually been to any of the cities in the area
It's not perfect, I had to sacrifice a few wants in order to get other things I felt were more important to me, but so far I've been very happy with my choice. It is pretty much what I expected it to be when I moved here ten years ago.
If you moved from a large/larger urban area to a small town - either within the same state or elsewhere, how did you go about finding your landing spot? What brought you there to begin with? And has it met your expectations since moving?
I knew the R.E. bubble was going to burst big time (thanks partly to some brilliant posters in an old usenet group), but had no idea how the economy would recover or what the future would hold. I did know that I wanted rural and something sustainable with no ongoing drains like high taxes. Being self-employed, most anywhere in the U.S. was possible.
Out came a U.S map. Anything north of the Mason Dixon line was X'd out due to my having SADS. California was out due to politics, southwestern states too dry, anything within 100 miles of a coast in the southeast eliminated after having lived through hurricanes Andrew, Frances, Wilma, and more. I need hills, so flatlands were out. The target narrowed to Tennessee, north Georgia, and Alabama with a slight preference for Alabama due to my wife's family. Then came searches about conditions in areas on City-Data - which was an awesome help. Then numerous road trips and inspections, mostly centering on northeast Alabama and the Mentone area. Nothing of interest showed up with a creek, Tennessee was in drought, so the search moved past the racist sand mountain area, the goat lots around Gurly, to west of Huntsville beyond areas likely to quickly develop into sprawl.
Expectations have been mostly met. The ratio of quality of life to cost of living is about as good as it gets, and most "neighbors" are about as good as you could ask for. Internet speeds and cost have emerged as an unexpected issue. Web development has penalized rural users.
I dig the "peace and quiet" thing but every time I see one of those places makes me wonder what if someone meant us harm in the middle of the night, or anytime for that matter. You feel so exposed and helpless.
A shotgun, rifle, handgun, and 2 dogs keeps us safe. Nothing better than a cur for an alarm and protection. Curs are hunting dogs capable of taking down wild boar and bear. Think "Old Yeller" - and they also make great pets and service dogs.
We are searching via the Internet, mainly through Zillow. We focused on TN because of those sweet words "unrestricted land use." Missed out on a place we both really liked, but are still looking. We've got to finish the house and list it. We plan to go back on a scouting trip, to check out the area in person. We've located a land attorney and someone that can check out any house we come up with. We like the folks we've talked with in the area. My husband's dad was in the military, so he is good at fitting in to new locations. We really want to be up in the hills, in the country, for a change.
I am on some unrelated internet forums. I've found it helpful to ask anyone that is from TN if they can tell me what the area is like. Most people will do that, especially if they relocated to the area. I have one contact that has lived in the area I am currently in, so he has been helpful at comparing the differences in climate and culture. (He's in Nashville.) It would be nice if there was a place we could relocate to on the West Coast, but it all has the same restrictive land use laws. I'm tired of dealing with bureaucrats.
A shotgun, rifle, handgun, and 2 dogs keeps us safe. Nothing better than a cur for an alarm and protection. Curs are hunting dogs capable of taking down wild boar and bear. Think "Old Yeller" - and they also make great pets and service dogs.
I had a Doberman, but it was the same thing. I never worried about being unprotected when I had him. Then when I was living in my truck, I learned how to live in code yellow, so to speak, and I don't think that ever goes away once you've done it. It sounds oppressive, but it's not. It's simply being aware of everything around you all the time.
We were rural for about ten years living in a very small village that was mostly just a few houses clustered around a part time post office. The nearest town for groceries was a fifteen mile drive and the better town for groceries was a thirty mile drive. It was an old house on a half acre with a nice view and the neighbors were nice, there just weren't very many of them. Trips to town happened because we needed to go there, not generally just for frivolity. The small village is also on a fairly rural island, so even if we went to town, it still wasn't really urban.
For the past eight years, we've lived in the small town which had been the location of the closest grocery store. Population is about 2,500 and it's way nicer living in town. A whole lot nicer living in town! It's a walkable town, we can walk to the grocery (although bringing back very many groceries is a chore so we usually drive), we can walk to the post office, library, restaurants, the hardware store, the town pool, our little town main street, our dentist, etc., etc. We can decide at the last moment to go to the movies and still get there on time. We end up going to more events and meeting more friends since it doesn't take a fifteen mile drive for it to happen.
We have friendly neighbors in town, although the ones directly next door are a bit more standoffish than the ones in the small village. Probably as population density increases, folks disengage with the folks closest to them to get more perceived 'space'. But we have friends scattered through town and a lot more of them when we were just in the tiny group of houses.
In both locations, we've had enough neighbors and nice neighbors that security has never been an issue. Should there be any trouble where we are now, we can yell loudly and our neighbors would come see what's up.
Our first house in town was on a quarter acre lot. We kinda found the limits of that pretty quickly. A big back deck with a hot tub was added and that pretty much meant no more area if we wanted to build a shed or add more fruit trees. We're now on just under a half acre lot again with this second house in town and it's at a higher elevation with much better views. Either house is good, but this second one is better especially since it puts us in the middle of town and it's now much more walkable.
Living in the tiny village was pretty much what we expected and moving to town has been even better than expected. It's been surprisingly less expensive to live in town, too. No more having to drive to get supplies and no more having to stock up on stuff. Now that we're in town, we can shop things on sale daily instead of having to get what we need for the next two weeks.
If you moved from a large/larger urban area to a small town - either within the same state or elsewhere, how did you go about finding your landing spot? What brought you there to begin with? And has it met your expectations since moving?
My story involved meeting someone who lived out of state and seeing the area with them. Got a good view of many towns on the western side of Atlanta. Definitely will settle there within the next few years.
We wanted beachfront living on a low retirement income, so here we are. We gave up some things others could not live without, but all-in-all, it suits us and we never tire of the ocean.
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