Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: How to find a small town to relocate for remote work?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

321–330 of 582 posts

Re: Ask HN: How to find a small town to relocate for remote work?

#321

Post by ajross »

forrestthewoods wrote: post #105
ajross wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This still sems mixed up. In fact Texas has among the highest property tax rates in the country, above both NY (which it beats by a little bit) and CA (which is way down in the middle of the pack). You can find data on states by total tax burden (which, sure, is going to depend on your particular assets and flows being taxed). It's not nearly as big a differentiator as you seem to think it is (especially, again, sinc…

> You can find data on states by total tax burden (which, sure, is going to depend on your particular assets and flows being taxed). It's not nearly as big a differentiator as you seem to think it is (especially, again, since it's quite minor compared with your federal liabilities) Nonsense. The difference can easily be 10% of gross income. Tax burden estimates are also really bad for tech workers making mid-six figu…

> Nonsense. The difference can easily be 10% of gross income.

The use of "easily" is maybe a bit spun, that's at the outer edge of the distribution (e.g. moving from NY to TN, Seattle to Cleveland might net you quite a bit less). But sure, that's about right. A 10% change in income is really worth an unqualified "avoid these states" recommendation to you? That seems unjustified to me.

(Especially since employers already know this. 10% is in fact more than the penalty I already "pay" simply for living outside the Bay Area myself!)

Re: Ask HN: How to find a small town to relocate for remote work?

#322

Post by snarf21 »

You should definitely come to Lancaster PA!!!!

There are lots of houses downtown for less than $400K and even new "luxury" condos going up everywhere. There is a convenient train that can have you in Philly in an hour for Come live with the cool kids.

(Source: I live in Lancaster and there is no place better net net)

Re: Ask HN: How to find a small town to relocate for remote work?

#323

Post by UncleMeat »

novia wrote: post #155
rswerve wrote: post #4

College towns. Pick some states, and go visit towns with colleges in them. They'll have restaurants and groceries, and those faculty kids have to go to school somewhere. Internet should be passable, too. They won't be the cheapest small town option, but houses should come in well below a million bucks. The one town you mention, Lancaster, PA, is a model of the type.

please don't price students out of college towns...

College students tend to live in apartments or housing focused on college students where few other people want to live because of noise problems. Other people living in other areas of a college town are critically important for the health of a town, or else basically everything cannot exist while the student population is away.

Re: Ask HN: How to find a small town to relocate for remote work?

#324

Post by vlunkr »

Just know that wherever you go, people will probably complain, even if it’s behind your back. I don’t think it’s justified, but I hear lots of problems attributed to “California people” moving in.

I think complaining about any change is just part of small town America.

Re: Ask HN: How to find a small town to relocate for remote work?

#325

Post by snarf21 »

eatonphil wrote: post #293
rswerve wrote: post #4

College towns. Pick some states, and go visit towns with colleges in them. They'll have restaurants and groceries, and those faculty kids have to go to school somewhere. Internet should be passable, too. They won't be the cheapest small town option, but houses should come in well below a million bucks. The one town you mention, Lancaster, PA, is a model of the type.

I'm from Lancaster and I don't really consider the city a college town. State College PA is a college town. Lancaster is just a nice small city with a few colleges in it.

I agree it isn't a true "college town" but I think with the gentrification and the art college it feels more like a college town than say Carlisle that also has one main college. I think it also has a lot of the cultural diversity that you'd expect from a bigger college town. But in either case, it is great!

Re: Ask HN: How to find a small town to relocate for remote work?

#326

Post by blululu »

throwaway2037 wrote: post #182
inferiorhuman wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In San Francisco if you start from St. Mary's: UCSF is 1.1 miles away by car , CPMC Davies is 1.5. If you start at Kaiser's Geary campus: UCSF Mt. Zion is 0.4 miles away, St. Mary's is 1.1 miles away. If you start at SF General: St Luke's and UCSF Children's Hospital are 1.5 miles away – although UCSF only takes pediatric patients and I think Sutter closed the ER at St Luke's because focusing on specialists is more p…

This is amazing analysis. Hat tip! Did you just happen to know all of these hospitals... then you used Google Maps to show distance? You are like the Ken Jennings of hospitals!

He probably knew that there around a bunch of hospitals around the geographic center of SF (if you live in that part of town it’s hard to miss), and then did a Google search for the numbers. I used to work at UCSF and this matches my sense that there are a lot of medical facilities in town.

Re: Ask HN: How to find a small town to relocate for remote work?

#327

Post by a2tech »

daurnimator wrote: post #235
ryanmercer wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Curious why the city is so reluctant to support new businesses. I'm guessing the town wants him to do very basic stuff to get the property up to code, and he doesn't want to. Anther person pointed out in a comment that comment chain OPs twitter had posts about about holding somebody at gunpoint in apparent frustration. To me it sounds like OP knew absolutely nothing about commercial real-estate, absolutely nothing a…

> I'm guessing the town wants him to do very basic stuff to get the property up to code, and he doesn't want to. It looks like he wants to but the city won't let him. e.g. https://twitter.com/pontifier/status/1534754382885052417

This is a process problem. The correct order to do things is: pull permit to fix plumbing, that permit will allow you to connect to the city water for testing purposes once you've proven the system will hold pressure (initial inspection), then when you're connected to the water an additional inspection will be done to verify working plumbing, if thats the only outstanding issue you can apply for a certificate of occupancy, otherwise you move onto other work.

Dealing with the government on things like this can be EXTREMELY frustrating especially if you're not used to running in those circles. Its a lot of things to learn and the people involved assume you know everything and when you get difficult they have a million ways to make your life more annoying.

Re: Ask HN: How to find a small town to relocate for remote work?

#328

Post by 2Gkashmiri »

ulfw wrote: post #286
2Gkashmiri wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious, how do you people deal with medical emergencies? I live in a city and I have 3 24x7 hospitals within walking distance. I have gone dozens of times on foot at 3 in the morning to get medicine.

Why would someone go DOZENS of times on foot at 3am to get medicine? And if so, why not get it from a pharmacy?

multiple times is over many years

Re: Ask HN: How to find a small town to relocate for remote work?

#329

Post by mynameishere »

rlawson wrote: post #288

Let me give you the scoop on the Carolina's. I'm a developer living in the upstate of SC. I am an agnostic liberal which makes me a rarity but I was born here so I can go under the radar thanks to my deep melodious southern accent. Pros - Great climate 10 out of 12 months - Friendly people - Lots of outdoor activities - Beautiful beaches (Fripp Island and Kiawah especially) - Low cost housing (altho going up rapidly)…

Pretty standard answer. "It's great except for those Leftover-Americans."

Re: Ask HN: How to find a small town to relocate for remote work?

#330

Post by [deleted] »

eertami wrote: post #311
hunterb123 wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Judging from all the traffic inside cities and my experiences, most people do idle for awhile in traffic just to go a few miles. The bikes are the minority vs cars sitting in the roads and all the full streets / lots, but the bike riders are generally the worst offenders on the street. Most city public transportation is sub-par quality and safety wise. I don't mind public transportation in some countries to an extent…

> your idea of small towns is quite off My idea of small towns is based on well designed towns in central Europe. Almost everything you talk about here are problems from poorly planned suburbs, and have nothing to do with actual towns/cities. > bikes are inconvenient because I'm most likely getting groceries for the next two weeks, or it's raining If you can't realistically walk to a supermarket to buy groceries and…

[deleted]
Post reply on HN