I know two people that did this, with mixed results:

First one was a family where husband and wife were both from the Boston suburbs. Their second child was born just before Covid, and they quickly outgrew their DC rowhouse. They're very outdoorsy/into skiing, and they missed that lifestyle in the DC area. Both their jobs were 100% remote, so they moved to a small town in Western Mass, where they were closer to their parents than before, but didn't have to pay Boston COL.

While it was great at first to go skiing on a whim, and see their parents without driving all day, they found their small town very provincial, in that everyone knew everyone else, and was hard to make friends. Similarly, finding child care was a challenge, as most of the child care there was designed more for people who needed a few hours of child care, not for those who needed five days a week. The last straw was that one of their children developed some medical issues. There weren't any doctors who specialized in this type of care in their area, so they had to drive closer to Boston to receive adequate care. Eventually, they moved to the outer suburbs of Boston.


The second couple was from Central PA. Loved living in NOVA, but both their families were in Central PA. When their son was born, it was a challenge to find gap care when he was sick, and both parents needed to work. Additionally, making the 3 hour drive back home to see their famililes more and more frequently was wearing on them, so they moved 15-20 minutes from both sets of parents. It was great to not have to worry about gap care if their kid was sick, but similar to the first couple, they found it very challenging to make friends. Additionally, they also found the politics of the area to be a bit offputting.

The salary has to be a misprint. The DMV cannot be so egregiously underpaid for feds.

Anonymous wrote:Check the taxation in the new locality first. A lot of Southern states have much higher sales taxes and comparable property taxes in desirable areas. Do your homework. Don’t assume that you’ll be able to afford a more lavish lifestyle based on Zillow alone.

I did. total tax burden is 11.8% in MD and less 10% in this state.

Property tax is 50% less than our current. Ours is close to 7 with the recent increase.

Check the taxation in the new locality first. A lot of Southern states have much higher sales taxes and comparable property taxes in desirable areas. Do your homework. Don’t assume that you’ll be able to afford a more lavish lifestyle based on Zillow alone.

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. Its 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.

Its boggling my mind honestly.

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. Its 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.

Anonymous wrote:I can generate a big list - poor medical resources, restaurants, culture, entertainment, food/grocery, rednecks, blight, crime, and the list goes on and on. If you can afford, it stay in a cosmo area.....$$ not everything especially in old age when you may not have much time left. Quality of life matters.

You can move to a nice suburb of Richmond for a Low cost of living and not deal with anything on your list.

We moved to a lower COL area, but it was somewhere we actually wanted to move to. I wouldn't just pick a random place that doesn't have anything going for it other than cheaper.

The area we moved to has diverse housing stock though. You can get a house in a good school district for under $500K, but a large home in an exclusive area something like you'd find in say Palisades isn't going to be any less expensive.

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.

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?

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.

Understood- my company had remote workers before it was a thing and is very pro-remote work. I would say 90% of our workforce is hybrid/remote with 30-40% WAH only and the 10% not remote/hybrid choose to be or their job requires them to be in-person.

We could literally live off of my DHs salary in this other area. I'm still a bit flummoxed as to why the pay scale is literally5k less than the DMV pay scale but the COL is 60% of DC. Our combined income would put us in the highest 10% whereas here we are ....not.

My DH wont likely progress past his current 13, for reasons discussed here - pay isnt worth additional workload/supervision and non-supervisory 14 is rare especially in his field. Transition to private sector would be lucrative but golden handcuffs are real.

The area of interest would actually be near a cosmopolitan city with lots of medical resources and very established culture.



I just dont want to be on this hamster wheel of nothing is enough.

I can generate a big list - poor medical resources, restaurants, culture, entertainment, food/grocery, rednecks, blight, crime, and the list goes on and on. If you can afford, it stay in a cosmo area.....$$ not everything especially in old age when you may not have much time left. Quality of life matters.

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.

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.

Anyone regret moving from DC area for financial reasons?

DH is a fed. I work for a contractor remotely 100% even though I am local.

There's a position for my DH with basically the same salary as he is making now in a LCOL place like Missouri.

I was dreaming of selling our money pit of a house and moving there. Our mortgage would be lower for a larger house. Our income would be the same in a LCOL area. The schools aren't any worse compared to where we live now, although we do love our neighborhood and ES.

We would likely be able to sell our house and use the proceeds for a 20% DP plus pay off all our debt. And then be bringing in the same income. Our families are local but not helpful. Our long-time friends are all kind of spreading out and we all do stuff with our own families/sports and maybe get together 2-3x per year.

My DH wont go for it- he has never lived anywhere but MD- but I am fantasizing so would love some success stories. Or regret stories