This is the overall takeaway. It’s a big decision, but once you settle in you find it’s not as daunting as it seemed.
End of the day, if you don’t like it or it’s not a good fit, you can always move back home.
Thinking about moving out of Iowa
- Thread starter mschmitty17
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End of the day, if you don’t like it or it’s not a good fit, you can always move back home.
It runs all through the South. At least the Alexandria/Arlington bit has been renamed Richmond Highway.
I have three nieces (25-35 years old) out there. They are doing ok, but they spend a large amount of what they earn on housing and struggle to save. They all say there are cheaper areas to live out there, but you get what you pay for. Unless you're raking it in, most everyone their age has to have roomates. It definitely has them manging their other expenses a little more closely.
My youngest niece lives in a small apartment with her roomate. She said it costs a lot, but she can be at the beach in about 5 minutes. One of her better lines to me was, "If I fall down in my bedroom, I'm hitting everything I own plus two walls on my way down."
There are plenty of those flags in NC, too....even more if you cross the border into SC.
That sounds right. I moved to the South End of Charlotte 5 years ago. I've lived outside of Charlotte for 3 years now, and I barely recognize the South End when I go there. The number of apartment buildings that have been built or are being built is honestly staggering. I think the NODA area is similar. Housing going up literally everywhere. And I'm not convinced the city has a strong growth strategy in place.
As a Minnesotan, just sell your house and go please. Don't pull that ********. You may find out that you get what you pay for. Sorry, not trying to be an ass but I'm sick of this opinion.
We just spent ~10 days in Italy in June, including 3 days in CT. Not sure I would want to live there full time, but it was a fantastic place to visit and I'd go back for sure. A little bit out of the way.
My wife was immediately researching 'Americans living in Italy' on the way home from our trip. Italy was fantastic and someplace I could definitely see us spending extended time during retirement -- maybe not full time residence though.
The posts in here on Spain are great encouragement. Southern Spain has been on my travel list for quite awhile and I need to convince my wife to move it higher!
You should be careful about picking some place warmer, because when it's warm, it's REALLY warm. This former Iowa boy learned how stifling hot hot can be, It's 90 degrees in October with 90 percent humidity in Florida. Same with Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, etc.. Texas may not be as humid, but just as hot. And the southern states out west, Arizona, New Mexico etc. are the only places I've ever heard of where you had to replace your car battery frequently because the heat ruins them. Missouri is warmer, but not miserably hot. Same with southern Ohio, Kentucky, Oregon along the coast, Washington state, depending on where you live there.
I don't live there but this is a solid choice. Very nice area. A lot of things to do. Lot's of historical places. The cost of living is not bad compared to places like Denver. Quick drive to Mountains or Beach. Lot's of sports to go to. I love that area of the country
Not going anywhere permanently, since the kids and grandkids are right here. But I could see snowbirding in Jan-Feb, and spending a month or three overseas as an adventure (Japan, Ireland, etc).
My theory/joke/wisdom I share about Cedar Rapids (and it applies to Iowa generally) is:
"Easy place to live, but you would never vacation there."
My theory/joke/wisdom I share about Cedar Rapids (and it applies to Iowa generally) is:
"Easy place to live, but you would never vacation there."
Unless you move to, like, boonies of SD or WY...there aren't many good places to really avoid state taxes. States just choose different paths to collect roughly the same amount of money between income tax, sales tax, corp tax, prop tax, etc. Everyone needs money to operate and are all getting it one way or another.
I traveled for work for a few years. My favorite cities to relocate would be as follows.
1 Richmond VA
2 Denver CO
3 Charlotte NC
4 DC suburbs
5 Central Pennsylvania. (Beautiful scenery)
True. Florida had no state tax but they get you in other ways like tolls. I think I read a report saying the states without a tax actually cost more through regressive stuff and private businesses charging so much.
Hot take: I would love toll roads everywhere if the roads were actually nice.
Recently drove through Kansas down to OKC and the Kansas Tollway was incredibly well maintained and smooth. Hell I don't even mind the tolls in IL because the roads are in better shape than IA's.
We moved to SLC for a few years, and then moved to the Portland Oregon area.
SLC has a great lifestyle. It was always amazing to me how close the mountains really are along the Wasatch. Frontrunner is an underrated train from end to end of the populated areas.
We moved because the inversions in the winter were tough to deal with, summer had its own pollution issues, and frankly the culture/counter culture conflict wore on us. We were concerned our kids would be excluded to some degree. Also the brown really wore on us.
The PNW is pretty incredible. I discovered after Oregon I want nothing to do with hot and humid again. The winter can drag a bit, but as someone else said, the rain thing is overblown. We typically take a sunny destination trip to break up the shorter hours of sunlight. You can also get the high desert feel in Spokane or Bend, or a few other places if you do want the sunshine and more weather variation.
As far as housing costs, people don’t account for the increase in wages that go along with that typically. I got a tremendous bump in salary with each move out of the DM metro area, so keep that in mind.
SLC has a great lifestyle. It was always amazing to me how close the mountains really are along the Wasatch. Frontrunner is an underrated train from end to end of the populated areas.
We moved because the inversions in the winter were tough to deal with, summer had its own pollution issues, and frankly the culture/counter culture conflict wore on us. We were concerned our kids would be excluded to some degree. Also the brown really wore on us.
The PNW is pretty incredible. I discovered after Oregon I want nothing to do with hot and humid again. The winter can drag a bit, but as someone else said, the rain thing is overblown. We typically take a sunny destination trip to break up the shorter hours of sunlight. You can also get the high desert feel in Spokane or Bend, or a few other places if you do want the sunshine and more weather variation.
As far as housing costs, people don’t account for the increase in wages that go along with that typically. I got a tremendous bump in salary with each move out of the DM metro area, so keep that in mind.
I don't care for tolls, I just generally want roads taken care of better. Especially here where they tend not to last long. Throw proportionally-more state money at roads.
Is it Kansas that has gas stations in between the interstate directions? That's genius stuff going on there.
**** that. My first month in South Florida. $150 in tolls. I turned tolls off on my map app immediately.
Anywhere along the west coast north of SF will have mild summers due to the cold currents coming down from the north. But you have to be close to the coast. Get about 20 miles inland and temps rise quickly. There are lots of lower COL places in that area, but employment opportunities are also more limited.
We have family in the Santa Rosa area. Really like that area. Peak summer is about like central Iowa with a little less humidity, but it hits more in Aug/Sept vs Jul/Aug.
