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*shrugs* I lived in Manhattan for a year after finishing grad school. While yes expensive it was a lot of fun. I certainly don't regret it. The average 20 something is more than willing to forgo having more space to be closer to the action. It's not like you spend that much time in your apartment... Besides I had a super short commute which to me was a great trade off.
It's not something I was going to do long term. But doing right after college is the perfect time - before making major decisions like getting married, buying property, or having kids.
Same here. I went to grad school in New York and lived there a few years after graduating (though I had to move to Queens after school because rent). It's great for your 20s, then I realized I didn't want to spend the rest of my life in a tiny apartment with miserable cold winters and hightailed it back south. But if I was super rich, I'd spend those 3 or 4 weeks of nice weather in NYC there.
Also if you worked in NYC and lived in Greenwich, literally none of your friends will come visit you in Connecticut. My Brooklyn friends would barely venture into Manhattan or Queens to see me. Same when I lived in Arlington, VA just outside of DC. Having the proximity of living in the city makes a big difference on your social life when you're younger. I'm sure you would run into the same issue if you're a happening single trying to save money by living in Fuquay Varina or Wendell.
I never lived in NYC, but I used to spend a lot of my time in DC when I was in my early 20s. Didn't have the money to travel the same way I do now or stay in the same places I stay now, but we were up there as many weekends as we could manage it for a couple of years. Had friends up there and would crash with them, or get a hotel with a group. It was fun.
I might have moved up there, just never did.
I did live in the Chicago suburbs briefly after high school. I think people just take off and do fun stuff in their late teens/early 20s before they have any other responsibilities.
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Anyone who enjoys the energy of a big city should definitely try and live in one while they're young and without layers of obligations and responsibilities. Both of my boys (ages 22 and 18) have expressed a desire to live in the NYC area for a few years and my wife and I totally support that (emotionally, not financially). It's a hard place to survive, even with a decent paying job but a non-stop thrill ride as well.
As someone who was born and raised in NYC I can tell you there's no place like it in the world (and I say that with some well-earned perspective) but it's not a place to raise a family or have a chance at a decent retirement unless you're making an obscene amount of money.
Quote:
Originally Posted by UserNamesake
Buffalo?
By choice?
Buffalo is a cool city with a great vibe. I used to work for a company based up there and it was one of my favorite places to travel to. They have great restaurants, a vibrant music scene, an NFL team, easy access to many points of interest (e.g., Niagara Falls, Canada, Cleveland, Pittsburgh), low traffic with great highway systems, cheap flights with any easy to access airport (like RDU), and a great university culture.
The only limiting factor with Buffalo is snow in terms of volume and unpredictability. But even that's manageable because they know how to handle it when if falls (I mean, Raleigh is more affected by 1" of snow than Buffalo is by 1').
Now all these new grads are moving for great jobs and opportunities.
Well, yeah. It seems like you answered your own question. The kids doing that probably want the lifestyle that living in the city provides. There's nothing wrong with living near NYC in a place like Stamford or whatever, but it's nothing like living in the city, whether in Manhattan or Queens or another borough.
I grew up in CT and moved to NYC after college. My friends from home all moved to big cities too, like DC and Boston. It's pretty common.
Friends, Sex in the City, Seinfeld, the shows their parent's watched when they were kids. They want an eclectic life where all of their interesting friends live in the same building and they have interesting situations when they're walking down the street.
50's shows were Honeymooner's and I Love Lucy, 60's was Andy Griffith and Beverly Hillbillies, 70's was Brady Bunch and Happy Days, 80's was Cosby show and Roseanne, 90's was Friends and Seinfield. They want to go live the lives that they saw on TV, that their parents didn't have. From now on TV won't have as much influence as the internet, but I still believe it's cyclical. Cities become the hot spot to move to, then their kids will all want to move to the suburbs because the simple life of Green Acres comes back around.
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