Funnily enough, I left a comparable (to Boston, in incomes, house prices, political attitudes, etc.) metro for a smaller city in a stereotypical "red state", which the residents of my former city are fond of describing as a third-world country. My quality of life has increased in almost all the ways I care about.
I entered into a 30-year mortgage at slightly above 3% last year, with a reasonable amount of money down, and my mortgage payments plus tax on a bigger and newer house are substantially less than what I used to pay in rent. Plus I deal with less traffic, I encounter more diversity in my day-to-day life, and people, even the less well-to-do, are happier here. The only real downside has been that overall the availability and quality of fine dining is less here.
Naturally, people don't move solely for the ability to buy a cheaper house, but it is something worth considering, depending on your circumstances. I was in a similar boat as yours before I moved, where I could theoretically have afforded a house where I was, but I didn't want to.
>Funnily enough, I left a comparable (to Boston, in incomes, house prices, political attitudes, etc.) metro for a smaller city in a stereotypical "red state", which the residents of my former city are fond of describing as a third-world country. My quality of life has increased in almost all the ways I care about.
I'm having anxiety about moving from downstate New York to Lexington, Kentucky. I've spent time there, I enjoy the city and the surrounding area, but I keep coming back to "If I don't like it I can always move back", instead of "The upsides far outweigh the downsides. You'll like it."
If you like the outdoors, Lexington is great. Plenty of hiking, kayaking, fishing, rock climbing, etc. within a short drive. It is a college town, so it is way more progressive than the backwoods parts of the state. You will hear different accents for sure. Neat seasonal events like Keeneland, plenty of scenic drives to the smaller surrounding cities (things like bourbon distillery tours and small museums in/around Frankfort) and lots of Mexican food.
Cincinnati is close and has even more amenities like Jungle Jim's (2x giant grocery stores, 100% go here), CAM, theme parks, Union Terminal and niche museums (Sign Museum, VOA, Air Force Museum in Dayton), various pinball arcades, and places like Microcenter.
== Funnily enough, I left a comparable (to Boston, in incomes, house prices, political attitudes, etc.) metro for a smaller city in a stereotypical "red state", which the residents of my former city are fond of describing as a third-world country.==
I won't name them out of privacy concerns, but I went from a major coastal city (metro population over 3 million) in a state that reliably votes blue to a small city (metro population under half a million) in a state that reliably votes red.
Not sure how you have privacy concerns in metros that large, but I’d be interested to hear what the people in your new metro area say about your old metro area.
Either way, you still moved to a city, so the local politics aren’t likely all that different. Though you did make sure to mention it a few times.
From the point of view of my new city, there's typical banter about how silly/crazy/whatever "those people over there" are, though there is a general consensus that the people of my old city are richer. There's no equivalent to the people of my old city dismissing this region as a "shithole" or "third-world country", I guess because objectively there is more wealth there. People here generally feel that they are freer here and prefer to make that tradeoff against more money.
I’m fascinated by how different people define being “free”. From my perspective legal sports betting, legal medical and recreational marijuana, not banning books, not dictating what teachers can/can’t teach, freedom to protest without being run-over, biometric privacy, and choice for women makes for a “freer” place than having loose gun laws and slightly lower taxes.
I entered into a 30-year mortgage at slightly above 3% last year, with a reasonable amount of money down, and my mortgage payments plus tax on a bigger and newer house are substantially less than what I used to pay in rent. Plus I deal with less traffic, I encounter more diversity in my day-to-day life, and people, even the less well-to-do, are happier here. The only real downside has been that overall the availability and quality of fine dining is less here.
Naturally, people don't move solely for the ability to buy a cheaper house, but it is something worth considering, depending on your circumstances. I was in a similar boat as yours before I moved, where I could theoretically have afforded a house where I was, but I didn't want to.