Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I'm a borderline Gen Xer / millennial that has always lived in the suburbs or city areas. I can't wait to get out to a rural area. My wife and I are sick and tired of most aspects of suburban and urban life. We just want to move out to the woods so we have to deal with as few AH's as possible.
That said, I am well aware that this is a completely abnormal viewpoint for my generation and upbringing.
Decent internet speeds are one of the few things I would miss from urban/suburban living. This will become less of an issue in the future, but for now it would still be the major thing I would miss.
I used to work in southwest Virginia and many of these areas are still stuck on dial-up or satellite for broadband. It's so bad over there that a couple of federal contractors who relocated to the area are having a difficult time keeping skilled personnel because of a lack of basic amenities.
I can tell you that drug abuse and crime is much higher back home in rural Appalachia than it is here in suburban Indianapolis. It's much safer here than it is in the rural area back home.
Distinction should be made between "rural" and "small town". "Small town" could be a BOBO (in the David Brooks sense) college town or outlying satellite of a major city, with high-end dining and arts-theaters on Main Street, but a population of only say 5,000 (not counting the college students). It could be Mister Mustache Man's Longmont, Colorado – which, though not outright small, is lower-cost alternative to a major city. Such places remain quite popular. "Rural" on the other hand almost invariably means poor, underdeveloped, lacking modern conveniences such as internet-access. If there is a nearby town, it is moribund and declining, with mills and factories and so forth shuttered, with weeds growing in former parking lots and padlocked fences forlornly rusting.
When I think of a "rural town" it's small enough that it doesn't have enough activities and distractions to satisfy the great majority of people, and is not within an easy drive of a town that does.
Based on my observations of towns in the west, "viability" seems to occur at around the 15-20k population mark usually.
Internet access is everywhere BTW. Most have DSL, and satellite is an option if not.
Quote:
For me personally, the great disadvantage of rural living is the lack of women to date. Everything else – "convenience" and even culture – can be circumvented or obviated by other means.
I considered that also (when I was living in the wilderness for 13 years), but realized I wouldn't find any women I wanted living in a place I didn't like in the first place. In other words making concessions for that reason is a fool's game. I found my wife camping in the wilderness, and no that wasn't what I was looking for there.
I don't see this as a problem. People tend to live in rural areas because they like the space, they like living with nature and they don't want to be crowded. When some people move out of rural areas, the people who stay just get more of what they want.
It depends on the part of the country, if people are leaving the rural area or not. Some areas are seeing moving out, and some are not with people moving in.
Some people are moving into all areas while other people are moving out. People are so focused on net movements that they don't even notice all that's going on behind the currtain. It's the same with jobs. Many people will have heard the headline that the US added 223 thousand jobs in June. But that number is simply the difference between the well more than 4 million people who left an old job during the month for one reason or another, and the well more than 4 million people who at the same time started a new one.
Quote:
Originally Posted by oldtrader
As far as high paid jobs being in cities, when the wages are adjusted for cost of living, many cities have lower actual spendable incomes after adjusting for taxes and cost of living, than more rural areas.
As always with mythology, YMMV. The current state leader when it comes to real disposable income is Washington DC. They edge out the oil-fired engine of North Dakota by more than a thousand bucks.
By the way, "crime" and "violent crime" are two different things.
My impression is that suburbia will do fine around the major cities. Suburbia around NYC, DC or even Chicago will continue to sprawl and to thrive. Where suburbia will suffer is around the secondary cities… St. Louis, Cleveland, Indianapolis. There the urban cores might (and in many case have) recover, but the suburbs first populated by the newly-minted post-WW2 middle-class are in arrant decline, and will continue to struggle.
Madison, South Dakota. Ive seen 4 square homes there for $30k...not in the ghetto either because there is no such thing in these towns.
Amusingly, it wasn't too many years ago there were homes in Canova, SD people some people were trying to rent for free. Just pay the utilities and keep the house up. Canova is about 25 miles from Madison.
Madison is only about 60 miles from Sioux Falls (Canova about 80 miles). Sioux Falls is a city of approx. 175,000 and growing rapidly. So, these communities aren't totally out in the 'boonies".
You better really like the rush of living like a bee in a beehive in some big city when there are places out in rural areas so cheap to live in. In most cases in comparing the big mega-cities with quite rural areas a person can cut their wages in half and still live better moving to many parts of rural America.
I used to work in southwest Virginia and many of these areas are still stuck on dial-up or satellite for broadband. It's so bad over there that a couple of federal contractors who relocated to the area are having a difficult time keeping skilled personnel because of a lack of basic amenities.
I can tell you that drug abuse and crime is much higher back home in rural Appalachia than it is here in suburban Indianapolis. It's much safer here than it is in the rural area back home.
This is a very recent phenomena in small town USA due to meth. Even 10 years ago you never saw any drug issues in the smaller towns in our area of the Midwest/Plains. I'm flabbergasted at how parents are allowing their kids in the teens and 20's get into this stuff. Most families around here are still core families with both parents, yet this drug issue is taking hold.
The crime that associates with the recent meth problems is burglaries. There hasn't been any appreciable increase in violent crime so overall, this area is still very safe. Believe me, our rural areas are MUCH safer than in any metro area.
Totally depends on where you are! In some areas, rural areas aren't having population decreases. My county has been increasing for years and almost the entire thing is considered rural. Now being rural here doesn't mean it's 10 miles between houses and 10 miles of corn in between houses like Oklahoma and Nebraska's farm country. Tourism is HUGE here! Helps that we have 11 lakes and 2 Great Lakes....or is it the wine? Or the agriculture? It's all of that!
Those factors, are what is happening in many big cities. The lower income is replacing the more prosperous in city after city, raising the poverty rate, etc. The smaller cities and towns are not losing their businesses at the same rate as the big cities. In fact I am watching shopping centers being built to keep up with the demand.
Totally depends on where you are! In some areas, rural areas aren't having population decreases. My county has been increasing for years and almost the entire thing is considered rural. Now being rural here doesn't mean it's 10 miles between houses and 10 miles of corn in between houses like Oklahoma and Nebraska's farm country. Tourism is HUGE here! Helps that we have 11 lakes and 2 Great Lakes....or is it the wine? Or the agriculture? It's all of that!
Yeah I agree with this. I live in what I would consider a more rural area, although one might consider it a small town after reading people's definitions of rural. We had the highest wage growth rate in the nation last year and was named as one of the fastest growing economies by Bloomberg for 2016.
I consider it rural because it's not next to a big city, but I guess it's more of a small town than pure rural, although 10 minutes in either direction and I am out in the cow pastures and 20 minutes I can be in some of the best hiking country in the US.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
.
