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"Rust Belter" here, I bought a place in So. California for a winter home about 16 years ago. The weather was great most all of winter, and the scenery is as the OP would expect. But times have changed and in my experience, people have too. Socially, 10+ years ago, there were a lot of friendly easy-to-talk-to people there. People from everywhere. Many Great Plains folks, even an occasional East Coaster. But that is no longer the case! Those folks are gone. And soon, so am I.
There is now an attitude toward, if not a total aversion to anyone who hails from east of the Rockies. Just say you're from Wisconsin...end of conversation.
I've really come to loathe this place. My place goes on the market as soon as I get back. Don't need that garbage. Nosiree. Lockdown down there is severe but so what? I've locked myself down for several years already anyway, just to avoid the people.
In general, these days, I'd advise against big moves away from your familiar turf. At least stick to the same side of the Mississippi.
I haven't seen anything like this "regionalness" since the 1950's, back when a Yankee wouldn't dream of driving through Tennessee, let alone, move there.
Last edited by TwinbrookNine; 05-11-2021 at 02:24 PM..
How do the rural areas of those states (and other eastern states) compare to those in the western USA in terms of expense - specifically intermountain west? Genuinely curious.
Well in NY, even in rural areas, you will pay much higher property taxes than out west. School taxes are also high here ... however, what you get I find is superior. For example, NJ, MA & NY have some of the highest rated school systems in the country. My in-laws in SoCal don't even have bussing. We get bussing for anyone who wants it - but you pay for that. We get recycleables and garbage pick-up twice a week - again, you pay for that. The teachers here go out of their way to provide time after school for students who want some one-on-one extra help. My stepson is with us from MI and he said he has never heard of anything like that back in MI.
I am unsure of the costs of rural west b/c I have never lived there. Rural NY is much cheaper than the NYC area but it's still New York and the Northeast on the whole is pretty expensive.
"Rust Belter" here, I bought a place in So. California for a winter home about 16 years ago. The weather was great most all of winter, and the scenery is as the OP would expect. But times have changed and in my experience, people have too. Socially, 10+ years ago, there were a lot of friendly easy-to-talk-to people there. People from everywhere. Many Great Plains folks, even an occasional East Coaster. But that is no longer the case! Those folks are gone. And soon, so am I.
There is now an attitude toward, if not a total aversion to anyone who hails from east of the Rockies. Just say you're from Wisconsin...end of conversation.
I've really come to loathe this place. My place goes on the market as soon as I get back. Don't need that garbage. Nosiree. Lockdown down there is severe but so what? I've locked myself down for several years already anyway, just to avoid the people.
In general, these days, I'd advise against big moves away from your familiar turf. At least stick to the same side of the Mississippi.
I haven't seen anything like this "regionalness" since the 1950's, back when a Yankee wouldn't dream of driving through Tennessee, let alone, move there.
My experience in California has been different. Most people in California are pleasantly surprised to meet a Rhode Islander and usually remark that they have never met anyone from Rhode Island before. The more curious people will ask questions about what life is like there. Rhode Island is a very polarizing place, but it has a rather positive reputation from “abroad,” especially among Californians, who are, for the most part, naturally curious.
Well in NY, even in rural areas, you will pay much higher property taxes than out west. School taxes are also high here ... however, what you get I find is superior. For example, NJ, MA & NY have some of the highest rated school systems in the country. My in-laws in SoCal don't even have bussing. We get bussing for anyone who wants it - but you pay for that. We get recycleables and garbage pick-up twice a week - again, you pay for that. The teachers here go out of their way to provide time after school for students who want some one-on-one extra help. My stepson is with us from MI and he said he has never heard of anything like that back in MI.
I am unsure of the costs of rural west b/c I have never lived there. Rural NY is much cheaper than the NYC area but it's still New York and the Northeast on the whole is pretty expensive.
The bolded sentence may depend on where in NY and out West, as there are some rural counties with lower property rates to the point that the Amish and Mennonites have moved to said areas of NY State due to relatively affordable land. So, I would say to do your research.
I will say to look in counties like Lewis, parts of Jefferson, Essex, Yates, parts of Cortland and St. Lawrence counties are some of the counties that come to mind. For instance, if you are a person that wants cheap land, lower property taxes and say you want a school district with some cultural diversity, I would suggest rural parts of Lewis County in the Carthage Central SD(gets military family kids from Ft. Drum in Jefferson County). Lewis County also has its share of Mennonites also around Croghan. Lowville(pronounced Lau-ville), a village of about 3500 is it biggest urban(like) community and county seat.
Also, most of Upstate NY is actually around the national average in overall cost of living, give or take. Utica-Rome is the most affordable metro area and to the point it rivals even less popular Southern metros in overall COL.
What offsets a lot of things is the lower median home prices across most of Upstate NY.
Last edited by ckhthankgod; 05-11-2021 at 08:04 PM..
I prefer drier heat and would take Sacramento's summer over Charlottesville's any day. Charlottesville is very humid during summer, and you really feel it at night and with the bugs.
I’m like you when it come to preferring dry heat/no bugs. But I have experienced bad humidity and bugs (black flies/mosquitoes) in Northern Michigan. Wondering if Charlottesville could be as extreme as Northern Mi? Have you actually lived in Charlottesville? Did you really find the humidity/bugs to be extreme?
I’m not talking about the metros though. I’m talking about property prices in places that would be considered the “middle of nowhere”
Property prices in the rural west are much higher.
Maybe I'm confusing MSA with CSA ... still there ARE rural areas within certain metro areas. For example, the east end of LI has many rural areas but that's still considered within the NYC metro area ... same with Westchester. Many areas with a rural feel, still statistically NYC metro.
I’m like you when it come to preferring dry heat/no bugs. But I have experienced bad humidity and bugs (black flies/mosquitoes) in Northern Michigan. Wondering if Charlottesville could be as extreme as Northern Mi? Have you actually lived in Charlottesville? Did you really find the humidity/bugs to be extreme?
I'm still wondering where the mosquitoes are in the forests around atlanta? Nothing even close MN lake level. I swatted mosquitoes occasionally in COS, so far ATL is closer to that then the cloud levels of the northwoods.
I'm still wondering where the mosquitoes are in the forests around atlanta? Nothing even close MN lake level. I swatted mosquitoes occasionally in COS, so far ATL is closer to that then the cloud levels of the northwoods.
The Northwoods only has a 1.5-2 months a year with bad black flies and mosquitoes overall. The reason is climate. They had low temperatures of around 20F this morning in most of the region. That keeps the bug issues at bay, although ticks are very bad everywhere these days due to warming winter temperatures in particular.
I've been wanting to relocate to a better place than the dying Rust Belt town that I live in for a long time, but I seem to have this aversion to going out west because I'm worried that I'll have a hard time adjusting to just how different the geography, landscapes, and climate are. I worry that maybe those things will be so different that it'll always feel kind of foreign to me and it'll never really feel like "home". As such, I'm reluctant to take on the much more significant financial and logistical burden of moving out west (vs. staying on this side of the country) if this might be the case.
At the same time, if I completely write off the entire Western US, I'm missing out on some really incredible places to live.
The Western US is dominated by things like prairies, deserts, semi-arid regions, big rocky mountains, and alpine forests. For the most part, none of those things exist on the Eastern seaboard: we have deciduous forests everywhere, our mountains are more like big hills, and we surely don't have anything even close to a desert.
Has anyone had experience with relocating from the Eastern US to the West coast or Intermountain West? Did it feel foreign and weird to you? Did it ever end up feeling like "home" to you, or was there always some aspect of it that remains foreign-feeling?
For someone who values a little bit of greenery (hell, look at my username), is there a place out west that fits the bill (without being shrouded in clouds for 9 months out of the year)?
The scenery shouldn't concern you so much as the people and possibly the politics.
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