Get ahead in a starter city

[Fern]

Get Ahead in a Starter City - Kiplinger.com

[Exile]

Wow! How times have changed since the 1960's when young people from all over America were "California Dreamin' ". I don't know about the cost of living in the Bay Area at that time, but Southern California was relatively inexpensive. In Los Angeles, rent was cheap, jobs were plentiful, and opportunities abundant. And homeownership was not a pipe dream.

Flash forward to 2005 when my wife and I left the area. By that time, Los Angeles had become a rundown shadow of its glory days. The only places left with decent affordable housing were in the remote suburbs. Wages had fallen and companies were leaving the city or outsourcing their operations.

So here we are, retired and living in the Philippines, my wife's native country where we live modestly but comfortably on our social security. As matters stand, I wouldn't be surprised if Metro-Manila winds up being our "ender" city.

[Broken Arrow]

Fascinating! Never thought of it that way before, though you wouldn't have caught me dead in a high cost of living area anyway.

[PrincessPerky]

Well the difference is that a starter home is usually in the same area, so you spend 5 years making contacts and friends that can just change a listing in a address book but continue to be friends or contacts.

with a city moving means cutting most ties, and having to start over on the friend deal...course if you are 'going back home' after you have old ties to renew.

[MonkeyMama]

BA - it's hard when you are born in a high COL city - LOL. Why I started there.

Yeah - we did that. In 2000 Sacramento was a really nice starter city. Now it's gone the way of the Bay. (Not quite as bad, but certainly no longer affordable).

It really isn't that bad Princess Perky. If you move to the starter city that everyone else is moving to you will have your friends and contacts already. Was how it was for us. We think of some day moving to Oregon and we already have MANY friends and business contacts who have made the move. Plus we were lucky we only had to move 2 hours away. We are still close enough to family - I wouldn't really want to move out much further from family (which has stopped us from moving to ORegon thus far).

Granted it wasn't easy, but it sure as hell beat paying $800k for a starter home just to stay in the area. Just not a viable option for most people.

But yeah when you live somewhere expensive everyone is moving away anyway - it is hard to maintain friends and business contacts in the area honestly.

[DayByDay]

I live in an expensive area, born and raised here back when prices were reasonable. We did move to another state around 1992 with dreams of a better life. But we both had trouble finding decent paying work, and I was very homesick for the family we left (the holidays were the worst). After one year we moved back to our home area. DH talks a lot about moving out of state again, so we will probably do it eventually. We have some family living in the two states we are considering, so I probably wouldn't be so homesick the next time.

[scfr]

I see Austin made their list of faves ... Hopefully real estate prices won't skyrocket until after DH & I have bought our house.

While I am in the midst of doing this (relocating to a lower-cost part of the USA, from the Seattle area to the Austin area), it's definitely not for everyone. My husband owns his own business and can work from anywhere, and we have no children. Obviously this is much easier for us to do than for a family with work ties and children who would have to be uprooted. When you have kids, I think you really need the support of family or close long-term friends. Even tho' I have no kids of my own, I firmly beleve this. My family moved half way across the country when I was young because of my dad's work, and I still remember how hard it was on my mom losing her support system. [It might be easier today than it was back then because of the internet and because calling long-distance is not the big expensive deal it was back then, but it would still be tough.]

For young singles, couples without children, and retirees, it's most definitely worth looking in to.

Thanks for posting the link, Fern.