Leaving DC for a lower COL area

[Anonymous]

Have you done it?

We are strongly considering it over the course of the next five years. We have to make it work with careers, of course, but if we can, we'd like to head back to upstate NY to be closer to family and to be in a lower COL area.

We didn't get on the property ladder when we should have and now are still renting while paying for childcare, saving for college, and saving for retirement. We simply cannot afford a home in the city that would guarantee good school options through high school. We hate the thought of long commutes and what that will mean for spending time with our kids. DC is increasingly expensive and we think we can have a better quality of life elsewhere. BUT I am sure I am romanticizing, and there are likely plenty of factors I am not considering. So, have you done it? Have you left for a lower COL area, and if so, what have been the pros and cons?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have you done it?

We are strongly considering it over the course of the next five years. We have to make it work with careers, of course, but if we can, we'd like to head back to upstate NY to be closer to family and to be in a lower COL area.

We didn't get on the property ladder when we should have and now are still renting while paying for childcare, saving for college, and saving for retirement. We simply cannot afford a home in the city that would guarantee good school options through high school. We hate the thought of long commutes and what that will mean for spending time with our kids. DC is increasingly expensive and we think we can have a better quality of life elsewhere. BUT I am sure I am romanticizing, and there are likely plenty of factors I am not considering. So, have you done it? Have you left for a lower COL area, and if so, what have been the pros and cons?

Haven't done it but are also in the same situation. We feel tied to the area since our careers are so closely tied to the fed govt. I also wonder if we're romanticizing, but when we spend time in new england and a major southern city with family I truly think they have a better balance. We just can't figure out how to make it happen.

[Anonymous]

Big con - finding good jobs in places like Cooperstown and Otsego.

I mean that’s why you left isn’t it?

[Anonymous]

We did this. But we moved to a lower COL area that still had strong job prospects incase one of us was laid off. We moved with my DH landing a new job and me working remotely. Eventually I was forced to resign since they said I could no longer telework 100%.... I expected them to do this, but it still felt like the rug getting pulled out from under me. We have been very happy and I was able to land a job in the new city.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Big con - finding good jobs in places like Cooperstown and Otsego.

I mean that’s why you left isn’t it?

I get you OP. I'm from upstate NY too and some days I get sick of the traffic and the expenses of living down here, and just feeling like I'm in a rat race.

Reasons, I don't leave:
1. DH and I are both 15s down here. We can't get that back home.
2. Real estate getting more expensive in many places. We did buy right away so we do own a SFH in Fairfax County in a good school pyramid that has appreciated in value. I live in a peaceful neighborhood, and that makes me content.
3. Telework means we don't go in the office every day, so we get a break from commuting, and just being around people.

Once we can retire, we are leaving DC. Only 23 years to go!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Big con - finding good jobs in places like Cooperstown and Otsego.

I mean that’s why you left isn’t it?

I get you OP. I'm from upstate NY too and some days I get sick of the traffic and the expenses of living down here, and just feeling like I'm in a rat race.

Reasons, I don't leave:
1. DH and I are both 15s down here. We can't get that back home.
2. Real estate getting more expensive in many places. We did buy right away so we do own a SFH in Fairfax County in a good school pyramid that has appreciated in value. I live in a peaceful neighborhood, and that makes me content.
3. Telework means we don't go in the office every day, so we get a break from commuting, and just being around people.

Once we can retire, we are leaving DC. Only 23 years to go!

Also, another thing I don't miss. The weather in Upstate NY sucks 9 months out of the year. Its may and still cold as hell up there, people are insular and not as friendly as you would think, and taxes are too high.

[Anonymous]

We just spent the weekend in small-town upstate NY, and the lack of diversity was striking. Culinary diversity was not in evidence. A lot of that area where we were is “red” and we are pretty liberal.

But a slower, cheaper lifestyle is appealing, as is being closer to family. As a PP noted, the weather is not so wonderful and personally as I get older I have less tolerance for the snow!

[Anonymous]

Another former upstate NY resident (Albany area) and I think about this constantly. We'd likely move to western MA or a far-out suburb of Boston. For us, it's the slower pace but also to spend more time with family and have free childcare We haven't done it because we cannot find a comparable job for DH, but I hope we are able to make it work in the next 2 years before our youngest starts school. I don't think we'd miss the lifestyle here (smaller homes, less land, less privacy, traffic, traffic, or the traffic) but we will miss the weather and the community of friends we have built here.

[Anonymous]

I moved to DC two years ago as it is cheap. My car insurance lower, my property taxes lower and my commute costs much less.

If you are moving from NYC or San Fran DC is still cheap

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I moved to DC two years ago as it is cheap. My car insurance lower, my property taxes lower and my commute costs much less.

If you are moving from NYC or San Fran DC is still cheap

OK, you're right, DC is super cheap.

[Anonymous]

I dream about this too, but you can't find the jobs, schools, and doctors etc. you need for kids or when you are old in alot of those places. My parents fled to a lower COL area about 15, 20 years ago with their younger kids. They struggled to get good schooling, special services for a SN sibling, and now Dad has serious health problems and they have to commute several states to get good care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I moved to DC two years ago as it is cheap. My car insurance lower, my property taxes lower and my commute costs much less.

If you are moving from NYC or San Fran DC is still cheap

Yes, but the subject is: Leaving DC for a lower COL area

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I dream about this too, but you can't find the jobs, schools, and doctors etc. you need for kids or when you are old in alot of those places. My parents fled to a lower COL area about 15, 20 years ago with their younger kids. They struggled to get good schooling, special services for a SN sibling, and now Dad has serious health problems and they have to commute several states to get good care.

There are plenty of places (SO MANY) that cost less than DC and are not the complete sticks.

[Anonymous]

I did this. Moved to Charlotte. Came right back.

[Anonymous]

Lower cost areas don't have the same amenities, and too often they're Trump country, so I don't want to raise kids there. My parents both live in areas like this--super cheap areas of FL and TX. Those are not my people or politics, and I like DC, so here we stay, for now. May eventually head back to CA as empty nesters.