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The northeast is the most crowded and desirable place to live other than California. Therefore, it gets more crowded and expensive up here every year, until people who can no longer afford it move out. Many of them are bitter about feeling "forced" to move. Many of them go to the south and try to turn it into a new New Jersey, New York, Penn., Mass., Ohio, or wherever they are from. They also complain about the South and the southerners (as I hear southerners lament incessantly) while at the same time bashing their former northern home. Generally, they are the people who for whatever reason couldn't make it up north with the lifestyle they wanted so they moved south. Once in the south, they realized that while they were able to get the cheaper, bigger home with more property, now they missed the other things they didn't have up north.
Granted, there are some who move and like their new southern homes, but most of them are unhappy because what they really wanted all along was to have it ALL - a northern culture and community and values and opportunities but the cheap property and homes of the south. Wherever they live they complain about what they're missing instead of being happy for what they have. If they were happy for what they have and not bitter over what they're missing, most of them would never have moved.
The only reason people go on about how great real estate is in the south is because they're not southerns. All states down south have more people in poverty than any northern state (fact). This is what so many norther's ignore when they bash the north and glorify the "dirt" cheap state.
It's the northern state earnings you receive along with a great supply of opportunities that get people moving down to the "luxurious" south, the majority of the southern natives are financially roughing it way more than northerners.
So what you should be asking is, "why are northerners able to afford to move almost anywhere in the country?"
Granted, there are some who move and like their new southern homes, but most of them are unhappy because what they really wanted all along was to have it ALL - a northern culture and community and values and opportunities but the cheap property and homes of the south.
LOL!
Despite your allegedly extensive travels, you are obviously totally misinformed about the South. You really need to stop passing yourself off as some sort of expert on the region.
I would say 60%+ of my friends are transplants from the NE. After being here for over 20 years, a total of ONE couple has moved back (to Brooklyn). The only reason was they wanted to be near the grandparents when they finally had a baby.
In your warped view, NOBODY ever accepts a transfer down here, moves here of their own accord (not because they were "failures" for being priced out) or relocates to be near family that moved prior to them.
I can assure you each and every one of these supposed "losers" from your region are happy, healthy and have no desire to ever move back.
"If you are a Northerner please tell me what percentage of your friends, relatives, and neighbors have talked about or discussed moving South. Please , I want overall estimations." Answer, none. I have no patience with people who make a lifestyle of dissatisfaction with where they're at. There likely to be whiners no matter where they end up.
Property and houses in the south are cheap because we have more land to build on. Higher cost of living really is only high in some places due to lack of land. However, if you come down here expecting the northern culture and feel; You will be disappointed. This is the south. Once you realize that; you'll do alright.
I was raised in the "South" that is the South Bronx. All kidding aside when I was in the Navy many years ago some of my best buddies were from the South. Now that I am rapidly approaching my retirement years and grow weary of the wife's complaints about the cold weather in New York we are looking for warmer climates. We have looked in Mexico, Texas and recently in Florida. Why, so that we could have a nicer quality of life in our remaining years.
I for one liked Texas because it is something out of the ordinary. Most people we know move to Florida and they say they like it. I liked it but found it to be quasi-NY. Texas (the Rio Grand Valley area) is about as close to living out of the country without having to show a passport. I don't believe that the cost of living is all that much less expensive (high gas bills in NY winters vs. high electric bills in Texas/Florida summers). The price of food is about the same, gas is about 20-30 cents a gallon cheaper there than in NY (but it looks like it is the same price in the South as it is in NJ). I found that property taxes are about the same (we pay over 7 grand a year in property and school taxes and that is in a small school district in the Hudson Valley area of NY) and I understand that a home in the McAllen and Corpus Christie areas going for $150-175K is about the same.
One really good thing about Texas is that there is no State income tax and when you get old enough you get a homestead exemption on property taxes (not too sure how much of a break).
As for big Baptist Churches, bible thumping stuff, I say so what - I attend Mass every week (Irish Catholic) and I have lived in the midst of some of the most prejudiced people on the planet - by that I mean liberals. I have developed friendships with some Northern liberal but for the most part feel a kinship with individuals who have an affinity towards more "traditional" values.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HughMcs
I have developed friendships with some Northern liberal but for the most part feel a kinship with individuals who have an affinity towards more "traditional" values.
Up in Minneapolis I only know one person who has moved south (from a former work place - Northwest Airlines). It was for a job in the airline industry. He's adapted and mostly enjoys it, but there are some aspects of life down there that still leave him puzzled (up here, government works smoothly, down there its kinda broken and a lot of people LIKE it that way is the example he gave). Other than that, "down south" usually means Arizona or New Mexico or sometimes Texas, and its typically retirees snowbirding during the winter. When people leave, its either within the region, the west coast, or New York.
Honestly, no one up here even thinks that much about the Dixie-style south. Its just a totally different universe - I know more people who have spent time in Europe than they have in the deep south. Since our ancestors came over only a century ago we have more in common with Norway and Germany than we do with, say, Alabama or Georgia but I'm sure with time that will change.
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