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Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming

economist.com

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Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming

#101

Post by adrianN »

codingdave wrote: post #84
01100011 wrote: post #30

I envy the folks who are able to do this. If I had the means, I'd probably have already fled back to the country. I can't help but think that it is unsustainable though. Supporting a large, rural population is less efficient than urbs or even suburbs. Global warming, increasing global competition... I can't help but think the people fleeing the cities will be forced back by incentives and economics in a decade.

> Supporting a large, rural population is less efficient than urbs or even suburbs. Whenever I see statement like this, it makes me wonder if you know where your food comes from. Because for the most part, the rural populations are supporting the cities. If the supply chains in this country were to fail, it is not the rural communities who would be scrounging for food and water. We'd be just fine.

I don't know how it is in the US, but in Germany at least a quarter of the population lives in "rural" parts of the country, but only a single digit percentage actually works in agriculture.

Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming

#102

Post by blunte »

My last home in the US was near a ski resort in Colorado, and it was a fantastic life - incredible mountain biking in the summer, and of course snow skiing in the winter. It was truly heaven. That was before remote work was as common as it is now. If I had to go back to the US, that would be the place.

Sure, you miss out on the cool things the city offers; but a couple hours drive and you're in a big city. I found the need to go only about once a month; the rest of my time was just too happy in nature to feel much need for what the city offered.

If you haven't tried mountain life - and I mean mountain life, not big city near mountains - you should. Rent a condo for the summer and temporarily relocate there. Chances are, you'll decide you don't want to leave when the summer is over.

Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming

#103

Post by rm_-rf_slash »

reducesuffering wrote: post #50
garren wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And that doesn’t even touch on the new year-round fire season normal we have to contend with. Last year was crazy and this year is supposed to be as bad or worse. Every 3rd or 4th pine tree in the hills is beetle kill. A lot of people are looking to move into mountain communities that are largely water stressed already. Adding more people, with less water, and higher fire danger and it’s going to get ugly.

Where can one find areas that are most water-abundant and don't run into the water scarcity issues?

Upstate New York. Plenty of water, decent farmland (with more farm shares than you can count), and it’s one of the safest places in the U.S. in terms of proximity to natural hazards.

Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming

#104

Post by paul_f »

Frustrating to see an interesting HN headline, only to be presented with a paywalled article. Such as this. I wish there was a way to avoid even seeing them. In addition to the dashed expectations, half the comments will be from people who could not read the article (like this one)

Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming

#105

Post by dagw »

dnndev wrote: post #94

With and without kids makes a huge difference. Without kids and if your an introvert- it’s a no brained. Buy you that 15 acre ranch (just for looks, we know your a programmer) If you have kids stay close to a larger city. Your kids will have more opportunity. For anyone else looking. We took a two month road trip during the worst time of year (climate wise) and took a road trip to see where liked it best. We chose No…

Without kids and if your an introvert- it’s a no brained. Buy you that 15 acre ranch

Back when I was a childless introvert, living on a 15 acre ranch by myself would have been living hell, and would no doubt have done terrible things to my mental health. I might not like being social, but I still went out to concerts, movies, restaurants and similar (often by myself) and doing so was always mentally invigorating. Plus going to the pub with that one friend I did have was very necessary for my mental health. Being an introvert doesn't mean you don't want to be around civilization. As a childless introvert having a small apartment in the middle of town where I could walk everywhere was the obvious no brainier, and worth every penny.

Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming

#106

Post by whalesalad »

dnndev wrote: post #97
pyinstallwoes wrote: post #51

I actually really want to move to a mountain area that is secluded and has nature with snow. The problem is, it's very hard to figure out where to go when all you've lived is in a city or one state. I've researched a lot of properties on zillow but I have no idea how to investigate the proper area. Maybe someone can give me a tip. I like snow, and I like people, I just want enough space to experiment with my own land…

Only way to find out is take a road trip and stay in each place for a week or so. We did this years ago and you know when you found the right place. Of course do your research first and visit the top 5 locations. What most find is ideally and if you can afford it is two homes. A secluded home and a city home (or beach, etc... whatever you like)

Great advice. Start small with baby steps: car camping, Airbnb’s, or rent a small van/camper and tour around for a while. Don’t rush it - the physical environment is a huge element but you’re also gonna want to agree with the culture and politics of the area, too.

Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming

#107

Post by refurb »

bushbaba wrote: post #71
refurb wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is your solution? Have internal passports? Government owned housing? Price controls?

Raise interest rates and kill federal backed mortgages except for low income. Limit fed backed loans to 1 per household. Tax housing income as normal income. Remove 1031b exchange. Remove depreciation of homes. Tax all housing sale gains. Housing would then be affordable.

I upvoted you because while I might not agree with all of them, they are ideas that would certainly lower prices.

Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming

#108

Post by dagw »

extraAccount wrote: post #93
MomoXenosaga wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Grew up in a village. It's nice if you are a 10 year old boy. When you're a grown man you want to be surrounded by degenerates and atheists.

A lot of people grow up in an Urban environment, I don't really see any disadvantage to it. We get to meet a lot of people and there is always stuff to do. During COVID I am seeing a lot of talk about moving into the countryside with their children, as if their children are sheep which need a lot of open spaces in which to graze. But the will probably get bored and miss their friends, and probably force them to pack…

I raised a child in the middle of a city from age 0-8 and it was great. So much to do! Parks, botanical gardens, playgrounds, museums, swimming pools, fun fares, concerts and so on, all within walking distance or at worst a short bus ride.

Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming

#109

Post by sneak »

dagw wrote: post #105
dnndev wrote: post #94

With and without kids makes a huge difference. Without kids and if your an introvert- it’s a no brained. Buy you that 15 acre ranch (just for looks, we know your a programmer) If you have kids stay close to a larger city. Your kids will have more opportunity. For anyone else looking. We took a two month road trip during the worst time of year (climate wise) and took a road trip to see where liked it best. We chose No…

Without kids and if your an introvert- it’s a no brained. Buy you that 15 acre ranch Back when I was a childless introvert, living on a 15 acre ranch by myself would have been living hell, and would no doubt have done terrible things to my mental health. I might not like being social, but I still went out to concerts, movies, restaurants and similar (often by myself) and doing so was always mentally invigorating. Plu…

> Being an introvert doesn't mean you don't want to be around civilization.

As someone who lived in Manhattan, I used to believe this.

Then the pandemic happened, and I watched how our so-called "civilization" handled it. I could not really imagine a worse outcome: it was mismanaged and terrible from the highest levels of authority down to the most insignificant end-user.

Now this introvert very much wants the option of being not around civilization at times. I don't trust civilization to remain civilized, in even a minor pinch.

I will likely build a house 100km from anything, and spend 25-50% of each year there.

Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming

#110

Post by sneak »

stouset wrote: post #29
iJohnDoe wrote: post #4

Great, you can work from. So you take your California money to middle of nowhere and buy a home for cheap. Renovate it and now it’s awesome. However, that local, who isn’t making California money, that is working a local job and making local money and is hoping to move up in housing for their family is priced out because housing pricing has doubled or even tripled. People that wanted to retire to rural or remote area…

I used to believe this “wealthy Californians fleeing” narrative and… I’m just not sure I buy it any more. 135,000 more people left California than moved in last year. Even if they overwhelmingly moved to only ten other states, that’s just 13,500 extra ex-Californians in each one of those unlucky states. And not all of them are going to be wealthy, surely some non-negligible portion will be less well off. Maybe they’l…

Once again we see narratives handily out-competing actual facts and real figures for mindshare.

Never underestimate the power of a good narrative.

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