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The paradox is this:
People from up north, want bigger homes on bigger lots etc, BUT talk about how nice it is outside here year round and all the outdoor things they can do here "year round"...blah, blah, blah....so if you move here for the "weather" why do you need 2500sqf to be air conditioned for no one while you're doing all the outdoor stuff?
Inside that 2500sqf place there's no fresh air, just AC...!
The paradox is this:
People from up north, want bigger homes on bigger lots etc, BUT talk about how nice it is outside here year round and all the outdoor things they can do here "year round"...blah, blah, blah.
there is no "blah blah." that's precisely one of tampa's main draws for many people. it gets just about as hot (same temps, 5-10% less humidity) up here in the summer as it does in tampa (i checked every day last year), but winters are cold, gray, WINDY, and basically miserable. people basically hibernate and many suffer from seasonal affective disorder.
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Originally Posted by algia
...so if you move here for the "weather" why do you need 2500sqf to be air conditioned for no one while you're doing all the outdoor stuff? and just come home to sleep in it? I don't get that? I don't get why anyone who WANTS to live here under the "weather" argument, wants this much space?
you don't get why anyone would want a large place? you don't get how a family might want and/or need more than a 2 bedroom apartment?
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Originally Posted by algia
and on top of that you have the luxury of having public transit and not have to wear your car to death every 4 years
funny thing about the metro. most homes near a metro stop are expensive, whether you live downtown or out by one of the remote stops. so if you want to really take full advantage of public transportation on a regular basis, you're going to pay through the nose for a very mediocre or average house. you could buy for less in the ghetto if you enjoy crime. OR you'll be waiting for the metrobus (they're usually late) to drive you, in traffic, to the metro so can squeeze onto one of the overcrowded traincars. you probably won't find a seat unless a nice person gives his up for you, so you'll have to grab onto the overhead bar while sniffing the armpit of the soulless, scowling worker drone next to you. OR, you could slug in to the city. slugging = you drive to a big parking lot, wait in a destination-specific line for some random strange to pick you up, and hop in. sounds fun, doesn't it? location is everything.
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Originally Posted by algia
here, you'll have twice as much to clean inside and out for HOA happiness of course....are you having stocks in cleaning supply companies? or what? who wants to spend all this time cleaning? rather than be out and about and enjoy the city?
why do you automatically assume everyone who leaves dc wants to buy a huge house? and we have HOAs too, you know, and they're just as restrictive and evil as anywhere else. perhaps even more so, depending on where you are. old town has to be one of the most restrictive places on earth, due to most of the town being historically preserved. it's like living in a museum sometimes.
if you want me to provide your wife with a laundry list of reasons not to move to dc, please let me know.
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Originally Posted by user8
see, that's the problem (as i see it) with 99% of people in the dc area. they move here for a job. that's it. a career (or at least a job that pays well), and they hate their lives. they were given offers that pay better than their hometown and they take them, further clogging the already miserable roads, crowding the inner and outer cities, and then they start complaining about their hour+ commute to a home half the size of their old one, that costs 3 times more. so they move 40 miles away to the remote 'burbs to afford a cookie cutter house, then they whine about the lack of culture in an area that 15 years ago was farmland.
they whine, moan, and groan about how it takes forever to get anywhere and how driving downtown is a joke (great subway system, though). they complain about taxes. about how everything revolves around politics and the washington redskins. they moan and groan about their rent or their mortgage. they're miserable, yet they feel semi-trapped because they think they'll never find a good job that pays as well in another market. to an extent, most of these people are right. but at what cost? sanity?
i've lived here for all 34 years of my life, and i have never, not once, met a transient who moved here because of "quality of life." sure, dc has plenty of things to do, places to see, foods from every culture imaginable. but ask anyone who didn't grow up here what they think about the area. i'll be SHOCKED if you get an answer that's any more positive than "eh, it's alright i guess."
yeah. people generally make more up here. but guess what? they PAY for it. rents/mortgages, state income tax, personal property taxes, etc. let's put it this way. for what i'm paying on my mortgage for a 65 year old shoebox condo 7 miles outside of downtown dc, i could buy a brand new, 2500+ sq. ft. home in tampa with a 2 car garage and a pool.
dc is a rat race where most people are miserable, arrogant, and in a hurry to sit in gridlock.
your mileage may vary
User8,
I am from NOVA so your post is soooooo accurate! For a minute there while reading the first paragraph I thought you were talking about Tampa Bay bc people do the same things here in that regard but everything else you said....hit it right on the head! I moved here and luckily got a raise making more than I did there AND have a MUCH BETTER QUALITY....let me say that again....QUALITY of life here than DC could ever offer me. I will take my sanity, new found positive and relaxed driving habits, cheaper housing and beautiful weather over the culture, museums, politics and big city feel of DC ANY DAY! Dont get me wrong, I love DC and always will but will visit once a year like I currently do and come back here and take a big sigh of relief and say to myself Home Sweet Home.
Awesome Post AND so true! I just learned a lesson on "the grass is not always greener" analogy. I was contemplating going back to NOVA/DC for the first 3 years that I lived here and it dawned on me that there are sooooooooo many things that I LOVE about Tampa and would MISS DEARLY if I were to leave. I sat down and wrote out a list of pro's and con's for me and the cons for moving back took up and entire page and half of the back page. Seriously. It was very deep to see it on paper.
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Originally Posted by Keeper
Great comments everyone. I agree with you all. Tampa is not DC, nor do 99.9% of ppl want it to be. If you had to move there from someplace you liked/loved Tampa will never compare to that place.
If your wife is unhappy in JAX why don't you both list the things that would make you both happy and then which city meets those things. What are the things that you can live with or without. If you take a job in DC to make her happy, is probably not going to make either of you happy either.
You have to look for the good in any place and you will never be happy if all you focus on are the things that make you unhappy. They are there and show up no matter where you live. No place is perfect.
I have met ppl who 'hated' where they lived, couldn't wait to leave. Once they left they realized that they actually missed it and then wanted to come back. How can you ever be happy if you are always looking for the silver ring someplace else instead of the one that is right in front of you.
I was wondering this as well. That's really not all that big. Good grief. My house is 2200 sq ft and our utilities are less than when we were in a 1600 sq ft house. Oh, maybe it has something to do with my extreme overweight-ness. I mean, the government thinks I'm within "normal" limits, but according to Algia I may be taking up so much space I can't see things clearly.
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(if they lost some weight, those 1000sqf or less apts wouldn't seem that small!)
One of my sisters lives in the DC area. She forked over about 1 million for a teeny little 800 sq ft, 2 bedroom house. Because of what she does for a living, they're stuck there, at least for a while. Her opinion of the area is, as a previous poster said, "eh". She and her family do not go out and do all those fabulous cultural activities because they are so busy commuting to work and are so tired on the weekends.
That house she paid so much for would probably go for around 150K here.
I don't like that kind of pressured rat-race environment day in and day out. Some people do. To each their own.
I am a physician, and I have a job prospect for the area. I currently live in Fleming Island (Orange Park, south of Jacksonville). My wife hates it here in the Jax area due to the lack of diversity and culture. She desires moving to DC which has a low income potential, high cost of living and high "Time Poverty".
Algia,
I wish the zoo was FREE here as well but your statement that the zoo here is horrible compared to DC's zoo is flat out false! As a matter of fact, the last time I was at the DC zoo the animals looked malnourished and sickly! Especially the monkeys and the camel. The only attraction there are the Pandas and the parking sucks and its sooooo far to drive to from the burbs! I have been to DC zoo where I had to take metro and then walk a mile to the zoo and it is nowhere NEAR as nice as Lowry Park Zoo. Lowry Park is ranked one of the best zoo's in the nation! Google it. In all fairness, dont forget to point out that when you walk into the FREE museums and zoo's in DC that you are not going to get shows, extras, water parks, rides and all the special things that we pay for here in DC.
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Originally Posted by algia
Here's a paradox though......
Museums are free and are extremely entertaining, it costs us over $100 to go to MOSI! 1 museum, by the time we visit all in Tampa/St Pete we're broke........in DC a whole Mall full of outstanding exhibits FREE! Zoo is free as well...or better, for $100 bucks a year, we can have a membership with the Zoo and be able to attend all the other events as well....! It is costing us $85 to go to the Zoo here and this Zoo is horrible by comparison!
You also have public transportation, so technically you are NOT forced to use your car and sit in that traffic! We don't have any valid PT here...so you are tight to your car and your car is the ONLY thing in walking distance, because when you are in an area closer to a grocery store, you'll have the heat outside preventing you to walk to it!!! doomed if you do, doomed if you don't scenario! or it downpours.....
We shopped in Vienna and Alexandria and prices were the same as they are here at Publix. We have not found one item that was more expensive than here. (We go to DC every year for a few weeks and entertained moving there...it's a matter of time for us)
If you want to stop speaking English all together move to Florida, soon it will all be Spanish! LOLOL All the Indians (Form India) we encountered in DC spoke perfect English, and all the Greeks, Europeans etc. The Hispanics didn't speak English up there either! Weird! very very weird!
The paradox is this:
People from up north, want bigger homes on bigger lots etc, BUT talk about how nice it is outside here year round and all the outdoor things they can do here "year round"...blah, blah, blah....so if you move here for the "weather" why do you need 2500sqf to be air conditioned for no one while you're doing all the outdoor stuff? and just come home to sleep in it? I don't get that? I don't get why anyone who WANTS to live here under the "weather" argument, wants this much space? You do have to clean all that space...so while in DC, with a smaller place you have less to clean and more time to go out and enjoy the city and surrounding areas because there are a ton of State Parks around etc....and on top of that you have the luxury of having public transit and not have to wear your car to death every 4 years.....here, you'll have twice as much to clean inside and out for HOA happiness of course....are you having stocks in cleaning supply companies? or what? who wants to spend all this time cleaning? rather than be out and about and enjoy the city?
Inside that 2500sqf place there's no fresh air, just AC...so basically, you don't really want to move here for the weather if you're going to just stay inside your 2500sqf home? right? it makes no sense to make such move just so when you look outside your window you see the sun!? we are cloudy here a lot...we don't have the sun our 365 days....I am sorry, I just don't get this! It makes no sense to spend this much money on this large of a place, tell everyone you had it with the cold, but you're still indoors!
I don't know, to each his own of course....to me this makes zero sense! as I don't live my life to spend it indoors in a huge house, I prefer to go out and enjoy what a city has to offer! and not trap my money in a house and not be able to do anything else but keep the lawn manicured!
I doubt it, I am your complete opposite, you can never get tired of the Museums as they always have new exhibits!
Plus, I am European, DC is the closest you can get to that in the US......Tampa/cows tale/sprawl is not my idea of a city. I go to the beach a few times in the summer and I'm done, there's nothing there that's that interesting to me...what's worst, is that you have ppl born and raised here who don't go to the beach....so, I'll take DC any day...again, it has public transit...don't even need to use my car!
We drive 14 hours to go to those museums...once a year...THAT's a hassle!
Quote:
Originally Posted by user8
algia, you definitely need to move to dc so you can be miserable just like all the other transients here . methinks you're in for quite a surprise..
i'm sure they'll welcome you with open arms while they're cutting you off in gridlock.
ps - you'll grow tired of the museums within a year (and the hassle of getting to them)
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....so, I'll take DC any day...again, it has public transit...don't even need to use my car!
