The Economy

All this is chicken and egg type philosophy, and I don't have an answer for it. Companies and people go where the infrastructure is already in place for what they want to do, and I'm not talking about TikTok or Instagram living, just regular day-to-day things. Supply and demand drives up prices. I know Marlin Perkins made Omaha seem cool for a while, but I don't see too many tech startups opening there instead of the Bay area. I don't see too many people wanting to blaze a path on the Oregon Trail these days because they don't want to die from dissin' Terry.
I am in the process of selling my farm. A neighbor thinks I should sell it to him for pennies on the dollar out of the goodness of my heart so he can keep someone from coming in and building on it. I think I should sell it for as much as I can to look after the financial interests of my family, and I don't give a hoot what anyone does with it.

 

With remote working, there have NEVER been more opportunities to take a job headquartered in an expensive place while working from an inexpensive place.

 

You’d be surprised but BH has affordable housing in some pockets. I know; I lived in two of them, including a granny flat that served as my first home out of college.

 

The tension between the costs and benefits of living in the city versus living in the country goes back to the founding of civilization. Nothing new.

 

Yeah, but there are "cities" (Birmingham, Omaha, Oklahoma City, Milwaukee), and there are CITIES (Miami, L.A., Bay Area, NYC, Chicago, Seattle, Denver). The former are affordable, the latter generally not.

 

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

 

We have to EARN everything in life. I doubt that’s ever going to change. And things cost what they cost. It’s an age-old fact that nice places to live cost more than shitholes.

I’m pushing 50 and I still can’t afford to live in some non-shithole parts of the city I was born and raised in. I live where I live now because it was basically the last neighborhood in the entire DC metro area where single-family homes sold for less than half a million, and that was 10 years ago. I probably couldn’t afford to buy my current house if it went on the market now.

Honestly, this post reads like an episode of one of those house-hunting reality shows where a couple wants every amenity known to man on a budget of $100K, and the realtor somehow “magically” gives them everything they wanted at no cost.

 

I don't know. I work with young (mid 20s) single people making a good living who can't afford to move out of their parents house in a small town. To be fair, it's a double-edged sword. There isn't a ton of apartment type housing available for people like that, and what there is is already taken or way over-priced. The places someone can find and afford, well, a decent person wouldn't want to live there.

 

According to government stats, Barnstable County (Cape Cod) is the 12th wealthiest metropolitan area in the country. That is 100 percent due to housing prices. The median per capita income is below the Massachusetts median. But $5 million and up vacation homes that stand empty 9-10 months a year skew the numbers. BTW, my town has a $20 million estate that is about one storm away from dissolving into the North Atlantic. Changes in the barrier sandbar left it exposed to ocean sized waves and tides and the very very large stone revetment built to protect the property fell apart in a December storm.

 

DC is an interesting case study in this. And again, I don't have an answer for it.
Let's say someone's singular goal in life is to work for some federal agency. You kind of have to be in DC for that. It would be the same as wanting to work for NASA but not being able to afford to live in Houston.
I don't think the solution is Soviet style concrete housing, but at some point, something's got to give.
I'm happy to not be in any of those situations.

 

I get that. But, just taking my area as an example, there are plenty of affordable apartments — you just have to drive 15-20 miles outside of DC to find them. And you may not always be near public transportation. That’s why traffic here sucks — because most people live on the outskirts.

But if you WANT to be closer to DC and you WANT to be near a Metro stop, you’re going to pay for it.

 

The federal government here is like the entertainment industry in LA — literally everything within 75 miles in every direction feeds off of it.

I say that only to point out that you don’t have to live IN DC to get one of these jobs — many live in the more affordable outskirts and commute (or don’t, post-COVID).

But, if people dream about being Hollywood stars, they’re not living anywhere near the epicenter of the LA entertainment scene from the get-go.