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

[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

I don't recommend moving to a "random non diverse city." But that isn't what this thread is about. It is about finding a place outside of the DMV that is a better place to live for you and your family.

[Anonymous]

I would like to move to Charleston, SC. Home prices are the same as here where I was looking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

+1. Move to MD or VA if you need more services. They are plentiful here.

[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,

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.)

I'm from upstate NY, and there is some truth to this. We did not have AC growing up, there'd be a couple weeks in the summer where it would feel uncomfortably hot but otherwise it just wasn't a big deal. My parents couldn't live without it now- we were there during a heatwave last summer and it was brutal. A couple years ago when we visited in the summer it had been so dry that all of the lawns were brown. But overall summers up there are still way better than down here.

When I left I never thought I'd want to move back but when I compare notes with friends who are still there I just get envious of how much easier things are. Plus I always find myself wanting to vacation in the Adirondacks or Finger Lakes anyway. I think if it made sense for our jobs I'd try to convince DH to move there, but that will always make it challenging for us to get away from DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I live in your area (over by Silverbrook Elementary) and I am having a hard time getting my kids into swimming lessons. The rec classes are full as is the swimming place in Woodbridge and the one up on Braddock Road.

Daycare is somewhat more available out here than what it sounds like for DC proper now that COVID restrictions are being loosened.

[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

I don't recommend moving to a "random non diverse city." But that isn't what this thread is about. It is about finding a place outside of the DMV that is a better place to live for you and your family.

Yeah but many of those places people are moving to are not very diverse. My point was, it is nice not to have to think about it when making this type of decision. Before COVID, DH got a couple of great job offers in some cities with LCOL and we say no because they were not that diverse, we are even more aware of this since Trump presidency. It is what it is, I was just being envious

[Anonymous]

Post some recommendations in VA or NC. I’m originally from southern VA and would love it go back, but the culture where I grew up is backwards. We would love to find a toned-down, cheaper version of our Maryland suburb. RTP in NC seems expensive with lots of traffic.

[Anonymous]

For BIPOCs looking for lower COL while not decamping to Deliverance country, you need to look at the big cities of the South. Atlanta, Houston, New Orleans, Tampa, etc. Don't be afraid of being in a red state...the cities are generally islands of blue. And in the case of Atlanta and Houston, you'll have even better connectivity (airports) to the rest of the world than we have in DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For BIPOCs looking for lower COL while not decamping to Deliverance country, you need to look at the big cities of the South. Atlanta, Houston, New Orleans, Tampa, etc. Don't be afraid of being in a red state...the cities are generally islands of blue. And in the case of Atlanta and Houston, you'll have even better connectivity (airports) to the rest of the world than we have in DC.

All of the cities you mentioned have massive BIPOC communities with deep culture too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are moving to Colorado. It will prob be the same cost of living, but better overall lifestyle. Taking our jobs with us. Making around $350k

I'm so jealous!!!

[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

I get what you're saying, PP, but I agree with several other posters that you might find more diversity than you think, if you look for it. I'm South Asian and moved to a suburb of a large city in the Midwest. My kids have never been the only South Asian kid in any of their classes. And I doubt they ever will be. It's far better than my childhood in an oh-so-enlightened DC suburb, where I was told by other kids that I looked like a gorilla, and constantly asked if I was related to the one other Indian kid in my grade. There is a large Black population here, too (both AA and immigrants, mostly Nigerian and Caribbean). Plenty of Chinese people also, as well as a large Jewish population.

My friends in DC seem to think I should be desperate to move back there. I'm really, really not. My $350k house here would be $2 million for the same quality of schools in the DC suburbs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Daycare in the DMV is insane.

Hhi in dc was about 200k

Hhi in new city is about 300k

South west

Taxes are lower and we live in a great house with a 15 minute commute. Being in a newer house where things are breaking or falling apart is a huge stress reliever. Our daycare bill is half of what it was in dc. Our friends from our 20s in DC all left or like turned into anxious aholes.

You know daycare ends? And you'll be rolling in the Dough as your home appreciates 15%.a year and the area is recession proof actually gets stronger in recession

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1) Pittsburgh suburb
2) HHI stays about the same, maybe a little less. Is around 300k maybe would have been 350k in DC

I love my big 4 bedroom home with 2 car garage and new kitchen in a good public school district in a private neighborhood that cost 370,000.
Daycare was half of what it was in DMV, which i didn't expect. Dining out is way less too.

We moved from DC to Pittsburgh nearly ten years ago and actually make a lot more money now due to salary increases over the years, and it just goes so much farther. We have a $550k HHI here and live in a big old house in a leafy city neighborhood (it cost $500k when we bought it and would probably sell for $950k or so now). Our kids are in a nice little private school, and our commutes are 15-30 minutes. Our jobs are very intense by Pittsburgh standards, but it’s mostly reasonable hours compared to our jobs in bigger cities. The worst part is the lack of direct flights anywhere you’d actually want to go.

[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

This. I dream of moving to a cheaper place, but enjoy the diversity here (let's face it, the places I TRULY want to move to- NYC, L.A., are wayyy out of my price range), the public schools are good, and I get nervous, particularly in today's climate, if an area is too politically conservative. Even Loudoun County was too much for me (too suburban, too conservative, not diverse enough)- moved back to Fairfax.

[Anonymous]

We’re moving to the Chicago northern suburbs.... I wouldn’t call this area LCOL by any stretch but our budget for a 4bed 2.5 bath house was 850k and we wanted 9/10 rated public schools. With this budget we got a dream house with amazing public schools in a beautiful established leafy neighborhood; we are closing in a few weeks. With this budget staying in NOVA we’d have to sacrifice house or school quality. Our hhi is 320k not including stock and bonuses in nova and it’s not changing once we move.