LCOL- who moved from this area and it was beneficial?

[Anonymous]

It seems like DH would be moving to a field or regional office and moving out of a HQ role? If that's the case, there may be lots of opportunity for him to move up to a management role in the region.

What do you value more-- a larger house or DC amenities? For us, one of the factors for staying in DC and not moving back to our hometown in Ohio is the 3 airports and easy access to travel, the museums, restaurants, and the # of concerts and events that come here. Yes, we'd get a larger house for the same price in Ohio, but that doesn't seem like a better tradeoff to me, and I don't see how we'd actually end up saving that much more, we'd just be getting more house for our money.

For you, you'll have to consider the cost of travel back to MD to visit family in your decision as well.

[Anonymous]

We moved to Charlotte from the DC area 10 years ago. Sold our 1100 sf row house for $520k and bought a 2700 sf house with 2-car garage on .5 acres for $620k. It’s now worth $1.2. We were/are 6 miles from city canter in both places, so pretty comparable.

My husband is a fed and I’ve been working remotely since 2007.

Def a win for us. I can’t really think of one area of our lives that didn’t improve. Medical care especially has been much better.

DC is a tough place to live if you’re not raking it in. We definitely were not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We moved to Charlotte from the DC area 10 years ago. Sold our 1100 sf row house for $520k and bought a 2700 sf house with 2-car garage on .5 acres for $620k. It’s now worth $1.2. We were/are 6 miles from city canter in both places, so pretty comparable.

My husband is a fed and I’ve been working remotely since 2007.

Def a win for us. I can’t really think of one area of our lives that didn’t improve. Medical care especially has been much better.

DC is a tough place to live if you’re not raking it in. We definitely were not.

This is awesome, but in 2024, OP likely isn't buying a $1.2 M house, otherwise they'd just stay in MD?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not worth it. Your husbands salary will be adjusted downward due to a change in locality pay. You will also lose the low interest rate you have on your current mortgage, so a cheaper house may actually be more expensive.

I already looked at house similar to ours in sq footage and school district and its $200 less than our current mortgage that has a 3.5% interest rate. We could sell our house for 500 or more. It's way less tax and less to insure, etc. The salary difference is 10k per year and I would make my same salary. Housing costs are 60% of DC costs.

Just looking online doesn't work. You have to go to the city and see these neighborhoods. We moved to a LCOL area that on paper has houses significant less than our 2MM home in a HCOL city. But no way would we want to live in those neighborhoods. Usually newer developments farther away from things to do. And the older neighborhoods with less expensive house were owned by people who couldn't afford the upkeep. We ended up in a nearly 1MM house in a good neighborhood. We are better off financially, but we miss having so much to do in our HCOL city.

[Anonymous]

I would consider moving to many lower cost areas, but not to Missouri. My relatives who live there call it "the state of Misery" and I haven't been impressed during visits.

If you really want to live there for reasons other than low cost, or you are willing to do it for a few years to save money, that's one thing, but I would not move there without a plan to get out if you don't like it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually moved from a hcol area to DC area.

Pros:
larger house, lcol (compared to where we came from). I was able to step back a lot, and we weren't always feeling stressed about saving.

Cons:
I didn't know anyone, and that meant I made no friends on my own by working remotely. All friends I made were through my kids, and parents of their friends. We aren't even that close. Everyone is busy working and raising kids.

I missed where I moved from a lot, but not the hcol.

In some ways, I regret it; in other ways, I don't.

So, you have to weigh the pros/cons, and what's more important to you.

For the record, DC *IS* a hcol of living area. There are only a few that are worse than here. So you moved here from some places in CA, NYC,Hawaii or....what's left?

Yes, it was one of those. We got double the house for the same price. I go back often (family), and the col is truly insane.

Had to CA, or maybe Hawaii it’s a nice lifestyle out there if you are rich and great weather

Yes, DC has much higher wages and half the cost of living compared to NYC (for us). Similar weather, so wash there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The tough thing is that if both of you are working it will be hard for both of you to advance in your careers in LCOL areas. If one of you wants to take a step back, fine. If not, make sure you move to another area that can support two professional careers. Remote workers are the ones first fired.

People don’t advance in their careers in LCOL areas?

How many policy analyst positions are you aware of in the Quad Cities of Illinois? In Wyoming? Let's not pretend job opportunities in DC specific fields are the same everywhere you go.

Not the same. But let’s also not pretend that every good federal gov job is DC specific.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The tough thing is that if both of you are working it will be hard for both of you to advance in your careers in LCOL areas. If one of you wants to take a step back, fine. If not, make sure you move to another area that can support two professional careers. Remote workers are the ones first fired.

Soft disagree.

My husband is a highly valued remote worker (specialized software engineer working for a federal IT contractor): he would make the same salary in DC, and his salary goes much further in our flyover state. DC is the only other place he’d be able to do his work.

I have been able to advance precipitously in my field (healthcare), because I’m talented - yes - and also because the talent pool is much smaller.

Things to consider. Also my husband has been fully remote since covid and his company just firmed up their next 5yr contract with remote terms intact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually moved from a hcol area to DC area.

Pros:
larger house, lcol (compared to where we came from). I was able to step back a lot, and we weren't always feeling stressed about saving.

Cons:
I didn't know anyone, and that meant I made no friends on my own by working remotely. All friends I made were through my kids, and parents of their friends. We aren't even that close. Everyone is busy working and raising kids.

I missed where I moved from a lot, but not the hcol.

In some ways, I regret it; in other ways, I don't.

So, you have to weigh the pros/cons, and what's more important to you.

For the record, DC *IS* a hcol of living area. There are only a few that are worse than here. So you moved here from some places in CA, NYC,Hawaii or....what's left?

There are only 3 areas higher than dc.

San Francisco
NYC
Boston

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We moved to Charlotte from the DC area 10 years ago. Sold our 1100 sf row house for $520k and bought a 2700 sf house with 2-car garage on .5 acres for $620k. It’s now worth $1.2. We were/are 6 miles from city canter in both places, so pretty comparable.

My husband is a fed and I’ve been working remotely since 2007.

Def a win for us. I can’t really think of one area of our lives that didn’t improve. Medical care especially has been much better.

DC is a tough place to live if you’re not raking it in. We definitely were not.

Are you driving the the triangle for medical care? Duke, UNC and Wake Forest are the high quality medical options in NC. They may have affiliate offices in Charlotte, but the quality of the affiliates is not comparable to the locations in Chapel Hill and Durham. Medical care is better in DC compared to Charlotte unless you are referring to the RTP area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think what people here miss is that not all lcol areas are the same. Things like medical resources, cultural amenities, and proximity to air travel, for example are very present in some former rust belt cities.

The sweeping generalizations here are ridiculous. There are medical resources, cultural amenities and proximity to air travel in LCOL areas in the South as well.

Shocking, I know.

It’s true that some small towns can be insular and it can be difficult to make friends, but that is not true everywhere. IME, it varies widely. We moved to an exurb of a small Southern city and live in a very welcoming, social neighborhood, and have not had any issue at all making friends.

The only warning I’d give is that you’re not the only one looking at a move, and desirable, walkable small towns across America are booming, and real estate prices in the prime areas are increasing commensurately. There are a bunch of houses being built on the fringes of our town that are affordable, so if you doesn’t know the area and are looking at Zillow, it can be a bit of a bait and switch. In our town, if you’re ok with living in a new cookie cutter subdivision, it can be relatively cheap, but if you want a property with a view and/or walkable to downtown, it’s going to be $1 million on up and there’s not much on the market. It’s still LCOL compared to prime real estate in NY/DC/SF etc, but it’s not the screaming bargain people think it’s going to be from a real estate perspective. On the other hand, everything is easier here and there’s almost no crime. Seeing what’s going on in the world, I do feel that we’re living in a bit of bubble, but that’s wonderful, as far as I’m concerned.

[Anonymous]

We did and it’s working very well for us. We moved to a wealthy town outside a midwestern city. Excellent schools, great medical care, and reasonable housing costs.

DH transferred to the fed job in the city and I was remote. Minimal salary adjustment. So glad we did it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think what people here miss is that not all lcol areas are the same. Things like medical resources, cultural amenities, and proximity to air travel, for example are very present in some former rust belt cities.

The sweeping generalizations here are ridiculous. There are medical resources, cultural amenities and proximity to air travel in LCOL areas in the South as well.

Shocking, I know.

It’s true that some small towns can be insular and it can be difficult to make friends, but that is not true everywhere. IME, it varies widely. We moved to an exurb of a small Southern city and live in a very welcoming, social neighborhood, and have not had any issue at all making friends.

The only warning I’d give is that you’re not the only one looking at a move, and desirable, walkable small towns across America are booming, and real estate prices in the prime areas are increasing commensurately. There are a bunch of houses being built on the fringes of our town that are affordable, so if you doesn’t know the area and are looking at Zillow, it can be a bit of a bait and switch. In our town, if you’re ok with living in a new cookie cutter subdivision, it can be relatively cheap, but if you want a property with a view and/or walkable to downtown, it’s going to be $1 million on up and there’s not much on the market. It’s still LCOL compared to prime real estate in NY/DC/SF etc, but it’s not the screaming bargain people think it’s going to be from a real estate perspective. On the other hand, everything is easier here and there’s almost no crime. Seeing what’s going on in the world, I do feel that we’re living in a bit of bubble, but that’s wonderful, as far as I’m concerned.

This. The mid-sized town we moved to is absolutely booming. Housing cost was okay for us but not super cheap. Still better than the DMV though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think what people here miss is that not all lcol areas are the same. Things like medical resources, cultural amenities, and proximity to air travel, for example are very present in some former rust belt cities.

The sweeping generalizations here are ridiculous. There are medical resources, cultural amenities and proximity to air travel in LCOL areas in the South as well.

Shocking, I know.

It’s true that some small towns can be insular and it can be difficult to make friends, but that is not true everywhere. IME, it varies widely. We moved to an exurb of a small Southern city and live in a very welcoming, social neighborhood, and have not had any issue at all making friends.

The only warning I’d give is that you’re not the only one looking at a move, and desirable, walkable small towns across America are booming, and real estate prices in the prime areas are increasing commensurately. There are a bunch of houses being built on the fringes of our town that are affordable, so if you doesn’t know the area and are looking at Zillow, it can be a bit of a bait and switch. In our town, if you’re ok with living in a new cookie cutter subdivision, it can be relatively cheap, but if you want a property with a view and/or walkable to downtown, it’s going to be $1 million on up and there’s not much on the market. It’s still LCOL compared to prime real estate in NY/DC/SF etc, but it’s not the screaming bargain people think it’s going to be from a real estate perspective. On the other hand, everything is easier here and there’s almost no crime. Seeing what’s going on in the world, I do feel that we’re living in a bit of bubble, but that’s wonderful, as far as I’m concerned.

Same observations here re: the northern New England town we moved to a few years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think what people here miss is that not all lcol areas are the same. Things like medical resources, cultural amenities, and proximity to air travel, for example are very present in some former rust belt cities.

The sweeping generalizations here are ridiculous. There are medical resources, cultural amenities and proximity to air travel in LCOL areas in the South as well.

Shocking, I know.

It’s true that some small towns can be insular and it can be difficult to make friends, but that is not true everywhere. IME, it varies widely. We moved to an exurb of a small Southern city and live in a very welcoming, social neighborhood, and have not had any issue at all making friends.

The only warning I’d give is that you’re not the only one looking at a move, and desirable, walkable small towns across America are booming, and real estate prices in the prime areas are increasing commensurately. There are a bunch of houses being built on the fringes of our town that are affordable, so if you doesn’t know the area and are looking at Zillow, it can be a bit of a bait and switch. In our town, if you’re ok with living in a new cookie cutter subdivision, it can be relatively cheap, but if you want a property with a view and/or walkable to downtown, it’s going to be $1 million on up and there’s not much on the market. It’s still LCOL compared to prime real estate in NY/DC/SF etc, but it’s not the screaming bargain people think it’s going to be from a real estate perspective. On the other hand, everything is easier here and there’s almost no crime. Seeing what’s going on in the world, I do feel that we’re living in a bit of bubble, but that’s wonderful, as far as I’m concerned.

Same observations here re: the northern New England town we moved to a few years ago.

A 4,300 sq ft house (tiny lot, but walkable to downtown) in our small town just sold for $2.3 million. Less per square foot than "high cost" areas, but still not cheap, and more than twice what we paid pre-Covid.

Upside is that we have more restaurants/coffee shops/etc, but the town is starting to have problems keeping up with infrastructure needs (traffic, water, sewer, etc).