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

Millennials to Small Cities: Ready or Not, Here We Come

pewtrusts.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 149 posts

Re: Millennials to Small Cities: Ready or Not, Here We Come

#21

Post by Nelkins »

I think about this a lot, mostly about Rochester, NY (where I went to college). It has world-class universities (and a renowned music conservatory[1]!), great history, festivals, relatively low unemployment[2] and the housing is dirt, dirt cheap[3].

The thing is, right now I make a pretty great salary in NYC and I don't know that anything in Rochester could come close, even taking into account cost of living. Even if everything is expensive here, and even if expenses might be lower on a percentage basis in Rochester, I think I'm still able to save more in absolute terms where I am now. Not sure about that though, would need to run the numbers to confirm.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastman_School_of_Music

[2] https://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.ny_rochester_msa.htm#eag_ny_roch...

[3] https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/Rochester,-NY_rb/?from...

Re: Millennials to Small Cities: Ready or Not, Here We Come

#23

Post by alex_anglin »

don_draper wrote: post #6

Real estate is one of the biggest intergenerational scams ever. Be smart and just buy a cheaper house and then work less. pretty simple

When I got my place I decided to optimize for two factors: Cheapest place, nicest neighborhood.

Re: Millennials to Small Cities: Ready or Not, Here We Come

#24

Post by wbl »

don_draper wrote: post #6

Real estate is one of the biggest intergenerational scams ever. Be smart and just buy a cheaper house and then work less. pretty simple

That assumes you can find a job where the housing is cheap, and you won't end up with as much money. Some things are not cheaper in poor areas like flights.

Re: Millennials to Small Cities: Ready or Not, Here We Come

#25

Post by enraged_camel »

alex_anglin wrote: post #23
don_draper wrote: post #6

Real estate is one of the biggest intergenerational scams ever. Be smart and just buy a cheaper house and then work less. pretty simple

When I got my place I decided to optimize for two factors: Cheapest place, nicest neighborhood.

"Cheapest" place often means a nasty fixer-upper, and most people don't have the time, money or expertise to fix those up.

Re: Millennials to Small Cities: Ready or Not, Here We Come

#26

Post by novaRom »

Move abroad. That's simple. Lots of places with much better quality of life. European Union is terrific place: multiple nations, different climates, various cultures, freedom of speech, parlamentary democracy, clean ecology, safety, good education, inexpensive housing.

Re: Millennials to Small Cities: Ready or Not, Here We Come

#27

Post by toomuchtodo »

pmorici wrote: post #19
toomuchtodo wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife and I picked a low cost locale, allowing us to pay off our mortgage by mid 30s. This also allows her to be a full time parent, and we're home schooling (two kids). Also, our neighborhood is very safe (low cost housing does not equal dangerous automatically). Not shackling yourself to a high cost of living area and all of the trappings that go with it allows you a crazy amount of options (our burn rate is unde…

Yeah, and I think that is why these cities mentioned in the articles are attractive. Low cost while still being acceptable for children. You can't find that though in the major metro areas. Cost almost always translates to safety or school quality.

I'd agree with that. In major metros, you're looking at $125k-150k/year income to raise your kids somewhere safe with quality schools.

Re: Millennials to Small Cities: Ready or Not, Here We Come

#30

Post by athenot »

Nelkins wrote: post #21

I think about this a lot, mostly about Rochester, NY (where I went to college). It has world-class universities (and a renowned music conservatory[1]!), great history, festivals, relatively low unemployment[2] and the housing is dirt, dirt cheap[3]. The thing is, right now I make a pretty great salary in NYC and I don't know that anything in Rochester could come close, even taking into account cost of living. Even if…

Affordable housing and good salaries are usually on the conflicting ends of the same scale.

A place that has high-paying jobs will have residents out-bidding each other, driving up the prices of the housing market. Conversely, super cheap housing is usually an indicator that there really is no demand from affluent residents.

As a counter-point to what I just said, more and more information-based jobs can be done remotely in a very effective manner. This lets people enjoy these small towns and their high salary. Two things could happen, though:

- this could form communities with enough remote workers to start altering the housing prices, and produce a similar effect to gentrification in that the locals end up outpriced of their own town;

- or this could encourage a better spread of higher-paid employees throughout a lot of small towns, and end up not affecting those towns markets. And as a bonus, this might even help relieve the housing pressure on the larger cities.

Post reply on HN