New York Times Business Day: Affordable Housing Draws Middle Class to Inland Cities

[xeemzor]

All in all I'm pretty happy with Chicago and wouldn't want to move. COL is very affordable, I can park my car on the street, live blocks from the CTA, and have a very active social life. The only downside is the weather, but I take vacations every winter to get around that.

My sister in the Bay Area I would love to live there but the COL isn't even close to worth it. She makes $45k and life is a constant struggle. Is it really worth the 25% cut in take home pay to have nice weather?

 

[SheHateMe]

Artists are not just going to suddenly move to Detroit because it has cheap housing. They need to attract them with restaurants and cafes, parks, lofts, shops, and enigmatically, other artists.

Detroit already has all of these things and more have popped up over the years. Detroit is full of artsy people and a lot of young people have been moving towards the downtown area.

Detroit has none of that. Any kind of turnaround there is at least 20-25 years away, and I don't see what would spur it.

I love it when people talk about Detroit and don't what the fuck they are talking about..

 

[Hugo Drax]

There is a reason Detroit property is cheap.

This quick tour of Detroit pretty much answers it.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=T6WKMNmFsxM

 

[SheHateMe]

Oh look, somebody posted a one sided video that only shows the worst of the city. No frickin' way would it be possible for the person shooting the video to be so dishonest or that these clips represent only the worst areas in a big city like Detroit.

I could take a camera right now and drive to DC and shoot similar footage...I guess that means the whole city is bad too.

Stop being so negative. There are so many good things happening in Detroit right now that are being overshadowed by this obsession outsiders (and some insiders) have with perpetuating negativity.

Downtown Detroit is as vibrant as ever, there are so many good things coming into the city and work is being done to rejuvenate blighted neighborhoods.

Lastly, not all property in Detroit is dirty cheap. In the worst areas, sure....but a large amount of the land in Detroit is not covered in dilapidated buildings and dead playgrounds. There are people out there who take care of their property just as well as there are very lovely neighborhoods within Detroit where the houses are anything but cheap.

 

[RockinZ28]

We moved from upper west side manhattan to Carmel indiana and wouldnt go back. After living in socal and east coast and traveling for 15 plus years just hanging out in carmel and going on more vacations is just fine with us. Rat race gets to folks after a while. Things are slower here and we like it just fine.

Yep. Made the move from L.A. to southern Indiana in November. Think life is much more relaxed and enjoyable out here. Not much traffic, cheap housing and everything's a bit less expensive.

Wife doesn't work now. My mortgage for a 4bdrm/4 bath/3 car garage with 3000 finished Sq ft on 3/4 acre is less than my rent was for a crappy 2 bed condo. I was just waiting for a decent job opportunity to get out of there, and jumped when it came.

 

[Muse]

Yep. Made the move from L.A. to southern Indiana in November. Think life is much more relaxed and enjoyable out here. Not much traffic, cheap housing and everything's a bit less expensive.

Wife doesn't work now. My mortgage for a 4bdrm/4 bath/3 car garage with 3000 finished Sq ft on 3/4 acre is less than my rent was for a crappy 2 bed condo. I was just waiting for a decent job opportunity to get out of there, and jumped when it came.

Sounds awesome, congrats! L.A. traffic sucks. I don't live there anymore but relations do. It's just incredibly denser than when I lived there (until the end of the 60's). The weather is kind of monotonous in L.A. You can get days in the 80's in January. Lately you can get that here too, but it's freakish, not in L.A.

 

[evident]

I did this, although at the time I didn't realize I was doing it. I moved from coastal NJ (basically one giant suburb of NY/Philly) 7 years when I was 25 to Minneapolis/St. Paul. I did it for the relationship I was in at the time. When that didn't work out, I stayed anyway.

I looked at what my life was like and would be like if I went back to the east coast: extreme high cost of living, commuting, traffic etc. Almost everyone I knew from High School graduated college, got jobs not in their chosen career field and moved back in with their parents. That or they lived with multiple roommates just because you couldn't afford anything. Not that there is anything wrong with that but I didn't want to go back to that.

I bought a house in South Minneapolis in 2012 for 135K, it's a beautiful house in a nice quiet neighborhood. Back in NJ something like this would cost easily 2-3X as much plus many added expenses. I work 5 miles from home and anywhere I could possibly want to go is less than 45min away with most much closer to 20min.

My annual driving mileage has been cut easily in half if not more. Minneapolis has hundreds of miles of bike paths/trails. Dozens of lakes right in the city and hundreds of parks.

If I want to get out of the 'city', I just drive an hour in any direction and and I'm in the middle of nowhere, no light pollution and you can actually see the stars.

I thought for a while, even after I bought my house, that I would want to eventually end up back on the east coast but not anymore. I visit often and that is enough for me.

I have a friend who just moved there from the south jersey / philly area for work and while they like it, they can't stand the cold. I think every place has drawbacks. looking forward to visiting them in a month though to see what its like,.

 

[CountZero]

Many people in Dallas, including high ranking county and city official want to rip out I345 from the heart of down town(it links 45 to 75). The 1.something mile stretch of elevated roadway is at the end of its useful life without hundreds of millions of dollars in repairs. The state says it will cost $2.something billion to tear down and replace with surface streets.

The issue is, the highway is a blight, and it takes up prime real estate in downtown Dallas. The city and county are going to continue to fight for its removal because they would get a shit ton in property taxes once its redeveloped.

Downtown Dallas is kind of a crappy downtown for a city of its size due in part to how hemmed in it is by interstates so maybe removal would help.

I always love these city vs suburban vs rural discussions. There isn't a right answer for everyone. I went from Seattle to Dallas. Gave it a fair shake but ultimately hated it. Now I'm in the SF Bay area. Liking it a lot more but it isn't without its own set of downsides. On the flip side I knew people that loved Dallas and people that loathe the Bay area. Often enough it is all about tradeoffs, no right answer for everyone. Not even a right answer for your entire life. Some people seem so vested in their own decisions that they can't fathom that others have different values and desires.

When someone says "I can't imagine why someone would want to live in the city/boonies/suburbs" then I feel like you just lack imagination.

 

[mirageracerx]

some people thrive in urban environments, others in suburbs, and others in rural areas. problem is big cities pros are heavily outweighed by the cons. especially with artificially inflated prices. that is the biggest reason for this shift. after recession prices went up and stayed up, and while pay rates stayed stagnant. so there is a disconnect in economy in bigger cities so people are leaving (as they should).

 

[K1052]

some people thrive in urban environments, others in suburbs, and others in rural areas. problem is big cities pros are heavily outweighed by the cons. especially with artificially inflated prices. that is the biggest reason for this shift. after recession prices went up and stayed up, and while pay rates stayed stagnant. so there is a disconnect in economy in bigger cities so people are leaving (as they should).

This is all your opinion. To me the cons of living in a rural/suburban setting far outweigh the pros. Nobody is "right" since these are subjective judgements based upon our individual desires.

The largest US cities are also still growing. NYC recently broke though it's all time population record as one example.

 

[purbeast0]

some people thrive in urban environments, others in suburbs, and others in rural areas. problem is big cities pros are heavily outweighed by the cons. especially with artificially inflated prices. that is the biggest reason for this shift. after recession prices went up and stayed up, and while pay rates stayed stagnant. so there is a disconnect in economy in bigger cities so people are leaving (as they should).

as K1052 said, this is all 100% opinion. i can't think of 1 pro to living in a rural area other than cheap housing, and it's cheap for a reason, because no one wants to live there and there isn't jack shit around.

 

[mirageracerx]

yes. pros outweighing cons is my opinion. not trying to portray it as fact. for my personal career path etc. moving to certain big cities would require sacrifices with little benefit to me. 0_o
there are more pros purbeast0 than you probably want to admit. and a good thing this article does is mention those.