I never can understand people willing to pay extra to live in town.
I grew up where my next door neighbor was 3 miles (4.8km) away.
I live in (a very small) town now, because I am saving up to by the acreage that I want… I pay US$550/month for a 1600 sqft 3 bed/2bath sitting on 1/3 acre.
The city recently changed the laws, and now I cant keep the chickens and rabbits I raise for food… And then there is the light pollution, the noise of the city, and the fact that I can’t see yhe horizon from my front porch…
Please explain to me why anyone would pay a premium for that?
I work with a woman who lives in a 300sq ft apartment and has really done lovely things with it (she showed us pics) She helps early childhood centers improve their programs, which includes replacing, buying and arranging their physical spaces. She’s very good at her job, and somehow manages to find space in her 300sqft apartment for tiny graph-paper diagrams of the programs she serves.
More employment opportunities, A variety of restaurants and cultural choices, ethnic and racial diversity, anonymity, not having to own a car, proximity to transport hubs that can take you quickly to places where there’s no light or noise pollution when you need a break, etc.
It’s not for everyone, but combined with the law of supply and demand and adding in predatory late-stage capitalism it’s not exactly a puzzle why people (especially young ones) pay a premium to live in big cities.
Here are the reasons we do it: We get access to several elite public schools for our kids. We have neighbors that we really like that we can walk out the front door and chat with. We can walk to great restaurants and the grocery store. We don’t pay rural route surcharges for UPS, which may not seem like much but is a very big deal in our case. Our friends and our kids’ friends are very close at hand. The airport is also very close at hand. We have a very fast internet connection at the house, where rural internet near here is often subpar.
Different strokes for different folks. I wanted to live in the country on acreage for a long time, but I just can’t justify it in this part of the state with the life we’ve set up for ourselves. Also, worth noting that in this part of North Carolina you can’t ever see the horizon because of all the d***ed trees. We only ever see hints of a beautiful sunset.
I hope you find an awesome piece of land. Best of luck!
Ive explored the dynamics of living and working in a big city vs living and working in a small town or in the country.
It doesn’t wash. Sure, you can earn more in the bug city, but the cost of living is more than proportionately higher.
As I said, I pay $550/month for a 2 story 3 bedroom 2 bath house, and I am paying too much… But I know people who gladly pay 2-3x as much for a studio appartment, and make about as much as I do… All for that priviledge to be close to all that “culture”
It is FAR cheaper for me to enjoy a peaceful country life and make the trek into the city when I need to than it is for you to live in the city and trek into the country when you cant take it anymore.
In fairness, TX has a lot more open space than NC, so I do have an advantage.
Also, I grew up having to drive 30 miles to school… I’m OK with that… And ive already picked the school I will be taking my son to when he is old enough… A half hour drive is no big deal to me
If it works for you, great. But as noted above, it’s about more than just the culture a city offers. For example, one of the biggest benefits for me is that I don’t have to own or maintain a car. Taking mass transit and rideshare costs into account, that’s keeping approx. $300/month in my pocket and also reducing my carbon footprint and my stress levels. Travel outside the city is also easier – I don’t have to drive an extra hour or two to get to or from an international airport, and buses to the country are frequent, plentiful and cheap.
There are trade-offs, but even taking into account the higher cost of homes in cities we’re still a rapidly urbanising planet. So obviously city living makes sense for a lot of people.
Where I live now, if I have a stroke I can be in the ICU ward of a top hospital in 10 minutes. As I near retirement age, that isn’t a trivial consideration.
From 2005-2009, the mortality rate in rural (non-metro)
counties was 13 percent higher than in metro counties. Similarly, rural-urban disparities in life expectancy widened over time, and life expectancy showed an inverse relationship with level of rurality.
I could afford twice the square footage in a less populated place, but I’d have to greatly increase my corporeal square footage to make the extra space at all useful, and that would be hard on my health.
I knew all 8 of my great grandparents (meaning I remember talking to them, not just that they died after I was born).
My son, and my siblings’ children, know their great grandparents, too.
My brother’s oldest 2 children knew 2 of their great-great grandparents.
Tell me more about the longevity of city-folk.
A bus ride to the country?
Sitting shoulder to shoulder with a bunch of people to go to a place where there is a bus stop?
I dont think you know what country is.
Country is where your mailbox is 1/2 mile from your house and bus stops, subways and taxi cabs are things you see in movies.
It’s where you can see the stars and have actual anonymity (as well as actual privacy)
Yep. For example, the Hamptons Jitney from Manhattan or the new one that goes upstate to the mountains. I suppose you can take a cab from whatever town they stop in if you want to go to the real country, but usually there’s enough peace and quiet and stars to satisfy the city-dweller looking to get away.
Which is one of the reasons I wouldn’t live there, unless I was a hermit. Having to own and maintain a car is a dealbreaker for me. It isn’t for you, so great.
You asked above why someone might choose to live in the city instead of the country despite the housing costs. Several people have given you good reasons as to why people would make that choice. Just because they’re reasons that you personally don’t care about doesn’t mean that they’re reasons no-one else would or should care about.
A teenage girl in Texas is more likely to become pregnant than a girl in almost any other state. Though there
have been historic declines in teen pregnancy across the nation, our state has not seen the same kind of
progress as almost every other state in the union. Texas ranks #5 for the rate of teen births and hold
Yeah, growing up in TX framed my perspective. From my parents’ house there you can see the horizon in every direction over lightly rolling pasture land and mesquite trees. Out here I pretty much have to go to the beach or the mountains to see the horizon.
Also, I don’t like the barbecue in North Carolina. We moved here in 2001, and I thought it was the start of a bright new future. Then my wife and I went out for NC’s version of BBQ for the first time, and homesickness crashed onto me like a tsunami. We were going through the line and I was looking everywhere for the ribs, and then the guy scooped some vinegar pork mush onto my plate with a literal ice cream scoop. Right at that moment, I thought, “what have I done???” So sad. So far from home. Then we lost our jobs and then came Sept. 11. It was kind of rough.
But that’s a long time ago, and aside from their confusion about BBQ, I really like NC. Durham has a similar vibe to Austin. It’s a really cool town to raise a family in.
