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Americans are rethinking where they want to live

economist.com

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Re: Americans are rethinking where they want to live

#171

Post by jeffbee »

donatj wrote: post #77

I live just west of Minneapolis with my wife in a house that's been in my family for generations. I don't want to leave but the continuous stream of car jackings, home invasions, petty theft and seemingly random acts of violence have me rethinking this. Calls to defund the police sound pretty tone deaf when your elderly neighbor is assaulted in their own home and robbed.

FBI crime stats for Minneapolis proper don't look that much higher than the last 20 years, and considering that the metro population has almost doubled since 1990 you have to discount them per-capita. Are you sure it's not just that you are reading too much Nextdoor?

Re: Americans are rethinking where they want to live

#172

Post by ethbr0 »

zeku wrote: post #151
ethbr0 wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just learn the accent before you move there, and don't tell your neighbors where you're from.

Honestly I'm from rural Tennessee. They aren't worried about you being an "outsider" they're most likely wondering if you're rich so they can overcharge you for work on your property.

I've got family in Athens, TN and from parts more easterly.

That's generally true now and previously, but I wonder about the next decade+ as relocation shifts into higher gear. My historical impression has been that locals are usually okay with a few outsiders... but when it turns into a deluge, and everyone who moves there is wealthier than them...

Well, better to be nondescript than driving around east TN or KY with a CA or NY plate.

Re: Americans are rethinking where they want to live

#173

Post by lotsofpulp »

malermeister wrote: post #150
coryrc wrote: post #112

In my city (Seattle), you never know if a mob is going to set up a month-long occupation outside your building, whether unregistered sex offenders have set up camp in your doorway (can't roust them), every road puts cars first, and the school is removing gifted programs for being racist. I'd love to live in a safe, well-managed, urban city. I don't believe any exist in North America.

Montreal!

coryrc should have stipulated one more condition - the weather is temperate enough to survive living outside.

Re: Americans are rethinking where they want to live

#174

Post by kritiko »

thehappypm wrote: post #24

I moved the the suburbs way earlier than I had planned due to the pandemic and my job being much more WFH. I love it. I’m still accessible the city (14-28 minutes by train depending on schedule), I have way more space, and I’m near some really wonderful nature areas. I love having a garage and a yard and a grill. Im still near restaurants and stuff, and I kinda outgrew the bar scene a few years ago — now I’m more lik…

That sounds great, but I am very skeptical. 14 minutes by train - what's the actual door to door commute time? I'm not aware of any city in the US with commute times that short where the place you live wouldn't be more urban than suburban e.g. Hoboken/Harrison, NJ, Quincy, MA, etc...

Re: Americans are rethinking where they want to live

#175

Post by lifeisstillgood »

snek_case wrote: post #129
ben-schaaf wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's always crazy to hear that suburbs are cheaper. Dense living inherently requires less infrastructure and less transportation, so it should be considerably cheaper. It's only through the subsidisation of suburbia and the low supply/high demand of high density urban areas that this is the case. Car centric suburbs aren't just terrible for the environment, terrible for safety and terrible for transportation; they're…

It's clear that, because people view housing as an investment, supply and demand increases the value of city housing (often to levels that seem ridiculous). Can you elaborate on the subsidisation of suburbia? Are there tax provisions that advantage them?

I think this is the "StrongTowns" argument - roughly speaking some local / federal government borrows billions and builds a suburban area, roads, sewers, schools, hospitals. Rich white people move in, taxes are collected etc. The marginal cost of the services is covered, but the bonds that raised the money may or may not be. And 2 years later the sidewalk is cracked, the sewers need replacing, the roads need widening, and there is no money - the long term sustainability of a town needs tax revenue from dense living and from local businesses that thrive in density, not businesses that sit thirty miles away at the end of a commute.

So the town slowly dies, and another municipality starts to raise a bond issue ...

The town was subsidised by a bond issue against National creditworthiness, against a building project with no long term revenue plan and the people living there did not pay for full long term cost of utilities (although to be fair that's the case for most utilities as they all chronically under invest)

Re: Americans are rethinking where they want to live

#176

Post by criddell »

selectodude wrote: post #106
Clubber wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With remote work becoming the norm, it is significantly less terrible. I remote 100% and the only time I drive is to visit family and friends. I put around 1500 miles a year on the car.

I don't care how big my house is. The idea of being locked inside like that sounds absolutely awful to me.

It's different for everybody. In my 20's my apartment was where I slept and bathed and that's about it. The city was great because there was always something going on and the energy level is high. All that energy fed me in some way.

In my 50's it's the reverse. I know who I am and what I like and the things that make me get up and be excited about the new day are now mostly internal. Being around a lot of people drains me. I've spent decades figuring out what I love and my home contains the stuff that makes me happier than anything outside (with the exception of really great restaurants).

I hate saying it because I know it was really hard on a lot of people, but during the COVID lockdown days, I was happier than I've been for a long time.

Re: Americans are rethinking where they want to live

#177

Post by trevyn »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #119
asimpletune wrote: post #39

I'm also sure a small percentage of people from the USA may even rethink living there.

If only it didn't require an incredibly privileged position to be be a reasonable thing to do, I might.

It’s easier than you think, the barriers are actually all in your own mind.

Re: Americans are rethinking where they want to live

#178

Post by panzagl »

zucked wrote: post #116
panzagl wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh goody, another Californian who is fed up with the trash heap they've created and is moving to Colorado. Can't wait for another local business to be replaced by a car wash or a Pollo Loco.

I mean, I can appreciate the snark (CO born and raised) but the who "Californian" really hit the peak in the 90's. The next wave was Texas, and now there are so many people moving here it's hard to pinpoint a majority. Ironically, I'm very strongly considering leaving because all the things I love(d) about Colorado are being destroyed now.

I've heard that before, but I think that's just visibility- Texans keep their license plates because registration and taxes are cheaper there, Californians change their plates first chance they get to stop paying CA taxes.

Re: Americans are rethinking where they want to live

#179

Post by long_time_gone »

larrymyers wrote: post #10

My family and I decided to stay on the north side of Chicago, a very high cost of living location, despite no longer needing to head downtown every day for work. Why not move outside of Chicago where our cost living would be substantially lower? * We wanted to keep our kids in the same school, which is walking distance. * We like being walking distance to the grocery store, doctor's offices, etc. * Our kids can walk…

Also in Chicago (northwest side). After our kids were born, we stayed for many of the same reasons.

+1 on school within walking distance. Walking to-and-from each day with my son has been an amazing experience. A big surprise for us has been the sense of community within our neighborhood and school.

Re: Americans are rethinking where they want to live

#180

Post by throwaway6734 »

jermaustin1 wrote: post #113
itsyaboi wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've entertained the same idea from time to time, but just don't see how it can work out financially. What is your contingency plan for medical expenses? Kids? Btw, big fan of your blog posts.

So in rural America you definitely give up access to top-notch medical care, but I'm relatively healthy currently, and if we drop our household income, we start to qualify for subsidies. My wife only just started her career, 17 years into our relationship, so she's going to start ramping up income over the next few years, and that will hopefully cover any unforeseen issues. I actually tried retiring this year. I paid…

>if we drop our household income, we start to qualify for subsidies

Yuck

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