If you're moving out of the DMV area because of the HCOL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a person of color, I always get envious of this thread, I don't feel like I can just take my kids and move to a random non diverse city. It is privilege no having to think about how your kids or family will fit in. Enjoy

Very few cities (especially on the coasts) are non-diverse. Suburbs and rural areas? Yes.

PP here. That is exactly my point, the cities are probably going to have HCOL. Most people on this thread are not moving to big city. I am in IT and considered moving to Austin because I was told it is diverse but I visited and didn't see lot of people like me.

I never understand the hype about Austin. I lived there for years and it has always been white dudes who think really highly of themselves with the same skill set. Not a lot of diversity at all whether it be ethnic makeup, industry, rec activities or thought. I tell people all the time that if you're moving to Texas, you should go to Houston. Every minority group is well represented there and the economy is more diverse. Arts are better and people considerably less pretentious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
There are a lot of things about the DMV that not only cost more, but are more stressful. Services in this area are weirdly limited in ways that you don't run into in other cities, partly because of how many people abandoned the city for the suburbs in the 80s and 90s. DC never really built up its service infrastructure when people started moving back in. We got lots more bars and restaurants, but not necessarily more daycares, dentists, and auto body shops.

I'm a cheerleader for DC and have no plans to leave, but OMG this so much. This is my biggest complaint about the city, more so that HCOL (dare we say VHCOL?) and traffic. It's so freaking hard to get basic services done. Medical and dental offices don't accept new patients. My dog groomer schedules appointments two months out. You can't just walk into a chain salon and get a haircut for $20. Reliable handymen are impossible to find unless you happen to know someone through your social circle. Any type of home repair? Get three estimates? Bwahahaha. Go with the first company that actually agrees to do the job and then also shows up. I'm sure part of this is that having such a high cost of living drives out the working class that would provide the home / auto / cosmetic services we want without a waiting list.

On the other end of the scale, we don't have much accessibility to a lot of the quirky/cool things other cities have. Much smaller cities have studios for circus arts. There's currently a thread on Reddit about the impossibility of signing up for a pottery class in DC. I remember in the before times I wanted to take cooking lessons, and the local options were both exorbitantly priced and sold out.

I love restaurants as much as the next person and partake in them freely. (I'm one of those weirdos whose spending actually increased during the pandemic because of frequent takeout and extra booze.) But I don't understand why a metro area with such a vibrant and diverse population has very little to offer in terms of vibrant and diverse amenities.

Agree. We just had to get our oil changed and it was a massive hassle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chicago. Bought a SFH in 2017, 5bd 2ba with a 1/2 acre corner lot for $335k. Great school district and 30 min train to downtown.

Seriously?! What suburb is this? I am from Chicago and would love to move back, but we're still finding that a normal house (3/4 beds, 2.5-4 baths, 2000-2700 sf) without any glaring deficits (half a block from an interstate, on a main artery, etc.) in an inner or "midring" suburb, in a good school district, in a town with a train is at least $600k. Plus the taxes are crazy. I'd love to know where you live! (If for no other reason than my own curiosity.)

We are in Mt. Prospect and love it!
My cousin bought a 3bd/2.5ba in Elmhurst yesterday for 320k.
My dad bought over the summer 3bd/1ba in Niles for 317k.
My best friends bought last year also in Mt. Prospect 3bd/2ba for 302k.

Also look in: Des Plaines, Arlington Heights, Glenview, Morton Grove, Golf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People aren't going to tell you *exactly* where they are moving. Why? Because plenty of people on this forum are snobs and will try to rip any place listed to shred. I *love* my home (i.e. the LCOL I left the DMV for) and I don't want to see it criticized by the angry, bitter people who think the DMV, New York and San Francisco are the only place to live. I will NEVER mention it by name on this forum. And, yes, my home has
1. Great school district (highly rated by all objective measures).
2. LCOL
3. Better traffic.
4. Better weather.
5. I make significantly more here than I did in the DMV.
6. Laid back attitude

These places are out there. You just have to look. Some people will never "see" them because they only want to live in places considered desirable by their social circle.

**quietly agreeing**

The herd mentality is strong. The only places that aren’t trashed (and even then, they are by some) are the places that have already been deemed “acceptable,” like Austin, and those places have already been ruined by an influx of people from the coasts.

I won’t post where we moved because one of two things would happen (1) people on here would trash it and explain the myriad ways I really don’t love living here or (2) I would actually convince people that it’s awesome, and we would be overrun, even more so than we are already.

FWiW, our house wasn’t cheaper than our house in DC, it it is bigger, has a water view, and nicer in every way. Everything here is so much less stressful. Everything — from kids stuff (schools, car pool, summer camp, etc) to little things like going to the grocery store.

Ugh. This sounds amazing- I am done with DC. I grew up In a coastal city, I’ve lived in four different coastal cities since childhood. I’m actually wondering if I’ve literally never been to these magical places. Did you have family there? Did you visit once on vacation? How did you wind up in your new city/town? Help an exhausted sister out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1) Where are you going?
2) What is your HHI in the DMV (and what will it be where you are going)?

By HCOL I really mean real estate. That is truly the only think here that I think is ridiculous here. Food is honestly the same here as back home in a relatively lower COL area.

Childcare is relatively high here too, although lower cost options do exist. But I think childcare cost here are among the highest in the country.

I also think form a quality of life perspective, it's the cost of childcare plus its scarcity. When I speak to friends in other cities, even cities where childcare costs just as much as it does here or more (like NYC, San Francisco, LA, Seattle) they are always surprised by the hoops we have to jump through just to get a spot in a daycare. You see that other places but only with certain, very in demand centers that offer special services like bilingual education or that are attached to prestigious institutions. We sat on waitlists for months just to get a spot at a regular, decent daycare that was reasonably close to one of our offices. That's unusual.

There are a lot of things about the DMV that not only cost more, but are more stressful. Services in this area are weirdly limited in ways that you don't run into in other cities, partly because of how many people abandoned the city for the suburbs in the 80s and 90s. DC never really built up its service infrastructure when people started moving back in. We got lots more bars and restaurants, but not necessarily more daycares, dentists, and auto body shops.

Some of those things were better in the 80s/90s. For instance, I used to take my car to get oil changes on NY Avenue right near mt Vernon square but I’m pretty sure it got priced out after they opened the new convention center. And remember that awesome hardware store that used to be on 17th street? There’s still a bunch of dentists on 19th street. Mine is not hard to get into.
The building of the Verizon and new convention center priced a lot of service type places out in the center of the city. Everything is so fancy fancy now with cute restaurants and hotels everywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People aren't going to tell you *exactly* where they are moving. Why? Because plenty of people on this forum are snobs and will try to rip any place listed to shred. I *love* my home (i.e. the LCOL I left the DMV for) and I don't want to see it criticized by the angry, bitter people who think the DMV, New York and San Francisco are the only place to live. I will NEVER mention it by name on this forum. And, yes, my home has
1. Great school district (highly rated by all objective measures).
2. LCOL
3. Better traffic.
4. Better weather.
5. I make significantly more here than I did in the DMV.
6. Laid back attitude

These places are out there. You just have to look. Some people will never "see" them because they only want to live in places considered desirable by their social circle.

**quietly agreeing**

The herd mentality is strong. The only places that aren’t trashed (and even then, they are by some) are the places that have already been deemed “acceptable,” like Austin, and those places have already been ruined by an influx of people from the coasts.

I won’t post where we moved because one of two things would happen (1) people on here would trash it and explain the myriad ways I really don’t love living here or (2) I would actually convince people that it’s awesome, and we would be overrun, even more so than we are already.

FWiW, our house wasn’t cheaper than our house in DC, it it is bigger, has a water view, and nicer in every way. Everything here is so much less stressful. Everything — from kids stuff (schools, car pool, summer camp, etc) to little things like going to the grocery store.

I won’t judge! We are really looking to explore moving to places like this, and are making a list to start checking out different locales. Please say the city or town; who cares what people say?! It can help those of us who are just beginning to explore options! It would be so much appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a person of color, I always get envious of this thread, I don't feel like I can just take my kids and move to a random non diverse city. It is privilege no having to think about how your kids or family will fit in. Enjoy

Very few cities (especially on the coasts) are non-diverse. Suburbs and rural areas? Yes.

PP here. That is exactly my point, the cities are probably going to have HCOL. Most people on this thread are not moving to big city. I am in IT and considered moving to Austin because I was told it is diverse but I visited and didn't see lot of people like me.

Houston, Nashville, Charlotte, Chicago, San Antonio, Phoenix are all relatively low cost and diverse (some more than others in different categories). It depends what type of diversity you’re looking for of course. As someone LGBT & minority I definitely get it, but I also think some people who have only ever tried coastal cities are too quick to write off Southern/southwestern/etc cities as non-diverse when it’s not true (speaking for my community).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Moving to upstate NY. Keeping my remote job, spouse will have to look for something new. House price much lower than here but high property taxes,

Enjoy six months of winter. I'm from there and absolutely refuse to live there year-round.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
There are a lot of things about the DMV that not only cost more, but are more stressful. Services in this area are weirdly limited in ways that you don't run into in other cities, partly because of how many people abandoned the city for the suburbs in the 80s and 90s. DC never really built up its service infrastructure when people started moving back in. We got lots more bars and restaurants, but not necessarily more daycares, dentists, and auto body shops.

I'm a cheerleader for DC and have no plans to leave, but OMG this so much. This is my biggest complaint about the city, more so that HCOL (dare we say VHCOL?) and traffic. It's so freaking hard to get basic services done. Medical and dental offices don't accept new patients. My dog groomer schedules appointments two months out. You can't just walk into a chain salon and get a haircut for $20. Reliable handymen are impossible to find unless you happen to know someone through your social circle. Any type of home repair? Get three estimates? Bwahahaha. Go with the first company that actually agrees to do the job and then also shows up. I'm sure part of this is that having such a high cost of living drives out the working class that would provide the home / auto / cosmetic services we want without a waiting list.

On the other end of the scale, we don't have much accessibility to a lot of the quirky/cool things other cities have. Much smaller cities have studios for circus arts. There's currently a thread on Reddit about the impossibility of signing up for a pottery class in DC. I remember in the before times I wanted to take cooking lessons, and the local options were both exorbitantly priced and sold out.

I love restaurants as much as the next person and partake in them freely. (I'm one of those weirdos whose spending actually increased during the pandemic because of frequent takeout and extra booze.) But I don't understand why a metro area with such a vibrant and diverse population has very little to offer in terms of vibrant and diverse amenities.

Agree. We just had to get our oil changed and it was a massive hassle.

Come to the suburbs! Lorton Workhouse offers pottery and cooking classes. I'm taking one now. $250 for a nine-week class that is 2.5 hours one evening a week. Seems reasonable to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Moving to upstate NY. Keeping my remote job, spouse will have to look for something new. House price much lower than here but high property taxes,

I moved to Upstate NY from the DC area. It's so much better. Less stress, beautiful outdoors, and better schools. The people who talk about 6 months of winter are either exaggerating or climate change has made a massive difference since they last lived here. (I grew up in an area that is much hotter and drier than when I was a kid, so I'm not just being snarky.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Moving to upstate NY. Keeping my remote job, spouse will have to look for something new. House price much lower than here but high property taxes,

Enjoy six months of winter. I'm from there and absolutely refuse to live there year-round.

I’m from there too. I can afford tropical vacations and the people will be nicer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a person of color, I always get envious of this thread, I don't feel like I can just take my kids and move to a random non diverse city. It is privilege no having to think about how your kids or family will fit in. Enjoy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a person of color, I always get envious of this thread, I don't feel like I can just take my kids and move to a random non diverse city. It is privilege no having to think about how your kids or family will fit in. Enjoy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a person of color, I always get envious of this thread, I don't feel like I can just take my kids and move to a random non diverse city. It is privilege no having to think about how your kids or family will fit in. Enjoy

[/quote

I'm white, from upstate NY. Grew up in a suburban area with good schools. There were almost no minorities and the few we had did not fit in. If I were a POC, I wouldn't move there either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Moving to upstate NY. Keeping my remote job, spouse will have to look for something new. House price much lower than here but high property taxes,

Enjoy six months of winter. I'm from there and absolutely refuse to live there year-round.

Same- I grew up in upstate ny outside of Albany and loved it. It was a great place to grow up, but now that I think about winters, I don't know if I can handle it. So we're headed a bit further south of DC.