[Sandro]

I'm currently living very centrally in a city of a bit over a million people, and while I still enjoy city life very much, I've been looking at houses and apartments in the region for a while now. One major reason is the need for some more space for the kid(s), but also the desire to be closer to nature and riding spots. That pendulum swings back and forth however, and both the missus and I have been alternating between prefering a smaller town or wanting to stick with city life and the advantages that offers.

I'm not really looking for advice here, since this is a highly personal choice and dependent on various factors that aren't comparable. Our utterly insane housing market and local conditions are pretty specific, but I know a few of you have moved quite a bit in the past and experienced different locales. What I'm interested in are just personal experiences, delights and regrets about your living situation and how that has evolved over the years.

 

[jonKranked]

after LA i'm over city living.

 

[Sandro]

after LA i'm over city living.

I've never really spent time in L.A. proper, but flying out of Burbank once after visiting Pasadena, I just could't believe how far that town stretched out. It was just a neverending carpet of the same street grid, over and over and over.

My current city setup is actually pretty good: very quiet street that's still has everything you could need within a five minute walk and good connections to trains and the Autobahn. Mountainbiking however requires me to use a car and head for the hills.

 

[Adventurous]

If its any consolation, your ridiculous housing market is probably not unique to your area. The proliferation of cheap money has lots of people entirely too comfortable borrowing more than they could ordinarily because financing costs are so low. Eventually rates will go up, house prices will fall, people will now be underwater on their loans, and things will crash, again.

Unfortunately, we seem to find ourselves in a dynamic where financial opportunity is centered around cities. I can only hope that the pandemic leads to more remote opportunities, as I'd wager nearly 50% of people would rather live out in the country instead of the suburbs.

My 34 years on this planet have taught me that I would much prefer to interact with other people on my own terms instead of being uncontrollably subjected to their bullshit on an every day basis.

 

[Nick]

I grew up in a big city, very urban. I wouldn't do that again unless I absolutely HAD to, but I would not like it.

Too late in life I rolled the dice, moved closer to the mountains where I was spending 80% of my vacation time, found a house in a cool small-ish, walkable town surrounded by good riding. I love this. I have a great neighborhood.

There will surely be more moving around for me, so next move will be another step into the mountains, hopefully a small piece of land. I dislike big crowds (which is different for everyone) and value proximity to open space for recreation. Any moves will take these two criteria into consideration.

 

[eric strt6]

I've moved a fair amount. From the San Fernado Valley of Los Angeles in the 50s to Santa Monica until 78. Arcata in Extreme norcal pop 5,000 at the time. to Aptos pop 10,000 on the Monterey bay. to San Jose pop 1 million, to Las Cumbres in the Santa Cruz Mts pop 400 to Livermore pop 80K. For me Livermore has been about right. Just enough folks to have a really good restaurant selection, couple of good bike shops, two local outdoors stores and a nearby REI. Lakes to Kayak and fish on, Parks with decent Mt Biking, and good road biking.

 

[Sandro]

My 34 years on this planet have taught me that I would much prefer to interact with other people on my own terms instead of being uncontrollably subjected to their bullshit on an every day basis.

Strangely enough, I somehow find that easier to do in the relative anonymity of the city than in a suburban situation under the watchful eyes of my neighbours.

Our housing market certainly isn't unique and EU monetary policy has been even more expansive than in the US. Since there are lots of government programs helping to alleviate the economic effects of Covid, I don't expects lot of houses to hit the market next year due to private insolvencies. Population density is also insanely high here and there is just no land to build on. I know you've also been looking for a house, best of luck for your hunt.

 

[Sandro]

I've moved a fair amount. From the San Fernado Valley of Los Angeles in the 50s to Santa Monica until 78. Arcata in Extreme norcal pop 5,000 at the time. to Aptos pop 10,000 on the Monterey bay. to San Jose pop 1 million, to Las Cumbres in the Santa Cruz Mts pop 400 to Livermore pop 80K. For me Livermore has been about right. Just enough folks to have a really good restaurant selection, couple of good bike shops, two local outdoors stores and a nearby REI. Lakes to Kayak and fish on, Parks with decent Mt Biking, and good road biking.

Livermore is close enough to the bay and has some nice outdoors around it. The 11 months i spent in Modesto taught me exactly which kind of town I never ever want to live in.

 

[DirtyMike]

Montana..... Give me wilderness.......

 

[CrabJoe StretchPants]

I'd prefer to be dead, alas here I am.

I grew up in the city proper (Boston) until 10 or so, then parents moved us to the suburbs (10mi outside the city) for better quality of life as a kid. Lived there through high school, then lived in a few similar spots with a friend after college. Bought my first house about 1.5hrs from the city because it was what I could afford. Pretty rural for it's relative proximity to the city, very beautiful and blue collar area. Tons of privacy and barely spoke a word to my neighbors in the 8 years I was there. As a bachelor, I thought it was amazing. Fast forward a few years, a wife and 2 kids later, I'm glad I'm not in any of the places I lived previously. We moved closer to the city to a neighborhood that's a bit more city-like in comparison, but schools/infrastructure are infinitely better, closer to work/friends/family, and our little dead end street alone has about 10 kids under the age of 8 that all play and get along. All the parents are friendly and super nice too, offering to grab stuff while they're running errands and even do kid pickup from school. But the area is still very rural from a traffic and business/commercial standpoint. All houses and conservation land for the most part. Our house and taxes were more than I wanted, but we could swing it and I don't regret it in the least. I do wish I had a bigger garage, though...


Bottom line, I think you can make a case for wherever you are being the best or the worst place to be at any point in your life. The whole grass is greener thing is real, but sometimes realizing you have any grass at all it pretty important to realize.

 

[6thElement]

10+ years each in NYC was enough for my wife and I. Before we got married we drew up a list of places around the country/world we might like to live with the main focus being our cycling and quality of life and visited a bunch of them.

After we were married we moved into the same small town @Nick lives in, then after a year of decompressing from the NYC way of living we moved up into the foothills of the Rocky Mountains outside of that same town.

It works well in that we're away from a dense neighborhood, but close enough to civilization that we don't need to shop for a month at a time because the closest food shop is a day away

 

[jonKranked]

I'd prefer to be dead, alas here I am.

I grew up in the city proper (Boston) until 10 or so, then parents moved us to the suburbs (10mi outside the city) for better quality of life as a kid. Lived there through high school, then lived in a few similar spots with a friend after college. Bought my first house about 1.5hrs from the city because it was what I could afford. Pretty rural for it's relative proximity to the city, very beautiful and blue collar area. Tons of privacy and barely spoke a word to my neighbors in the 8 years I was there. As a bachelor, I thought it was amazing. Fast forward a few years, a wife and 2 kids later, I'm glad I'm not in any of the places I lived previously. We moved closer to the city to a neighborhood that's a bit more city-like in comparison, but schools/infrastructure are infinitely better, closer to work/friends/family, and our little dead end street alone has about 10 kids under the age of 8 that all play and get along. All the parents are friendly and super nice too, offering to grab stuff while they're running errands and even do kid pickup from school. But the area is still very rural from a traffic and business/commercial standpoint. All houses and conservation land for the most part. Our house and taxes were more than I wanted, but we could swing it and I don't regret it in the least. I do wish I had a bigger garage, though...


Bottom line, I think you can make a case for wherever you are being the best or the worst place to be at any point in your life. The whole grass is greener thing is real, but sometimes realizing you have any grass at all it pretty important to realize.

we're in the burbs too. PA burbs, there are still farms 10 minutes from us, but we're about a 45 minute drive to downtown philly. we have the access to stuff we like now, but once both kids move out for college we'll likely move somewhere we like more, probably closer to mountains/wilderness.

 

[stoney]

after LA i'm over city living.

LA isn't a city. LA is suburban sprawl. No aspect of LA is a city. The closest is WeHo and even then... not so much. NYC, SF, Chicago - those are cities.

I lived city for almost 10 years between Berkeley, Oakland, and SF, with Berkeley being still urban, but not quite as densely urban. We live super suburban (tract home, HOA) now and I can't fucking stand it. I'd prefer to live somewhere semi-urban like Oakland or Berkeley, or Golden which while suburban has a small town feeling.

Wifey's from Santa Cruz/Watsonville and grew up in a blend of agricultural and beach town then moved to SF after college. She likes suburban but she's finally started to admit that being spread out makes it hard to see friends as much as she'd like to.

 

[eric strt6]

close enough to civilization that we don't need to shop for a month at a time because the closest food shop is a day away

That was the issue with Las Cumbres. 17 miles from the nearest store which involved dropping down 3000' on a one lane road then going into town. Winter storms would knock the power out for weeks at a time and wash out roads. You had to have a 30 day supply of food and at least two weeks of generator fuel on hand plus a shit load of fire wood. Did that for 10 years. it got old and so did we...

 

[I Are Baboon]

My life experience has been limited to various Connecticut suburbs, starting with low income housing as a kid to upper middle class now. It's pretty much exactly as you'd imagine.

 

[jonKranked]

LA isn't a city. LA is suburban sprawl. No aspect of LA is a city. The closest is WeHo and even then... not so much. NYC, SF, Chicago - those are cities.

I lived city for almost 10 years between Berkeley, Oakland, and SF, with Berkeley being still urban, but not quite as densely urban. We live super suburban (tract home, HOA) now and I can't fucking stand it. I'd prefer to live somewhere semi-urban like Oakland or Berkeley, or Golden which while suburban has a small town feeling.

Wifey's from Santa Cruz/Watsonville and grew up in a blend of agricultural and beach town then moved to SF after college. She likes suburban but she's finally started to admit that being spread out makes it hard to see friends as much as she'd like to.

Call it whatever you want it's a shit hole and there's too many fuckin people.

 

[Sandro]

My life experience has been limited to various Connecticut suburbs, starting with low income housing as a kid to upper middle class now. It's pretty much exactly as you'd imagine.

Like that? With key parties?

 

[Jozz]

Started my life in Montreal for the first 10 years, after that it was suburb for the next 30. And then moved farther north for the past 10. Each move away from density has proven beneficial for my happiness. Next move should place me in the middle of at least a few hundred acres of my own land. fuck neighbors.

 

[I Are Baboon]

Like that? With key parties?

Well as an example, a few months ago some townsfolk organized a Tesla parade to thank frontline healthcare workers. Because there are enough Tesla owners in town that they can have a fucking PARADE of them. Look, like I said, I grew up in low income housing, so seeing shit like this makes my eyes roll so much that I can see out the back of my head.

 

[jonKranked]

i grew up on the border of the burbs and farm land out in western PA in a one road town, maybe 40 minutes outside Pittsburgh. spent a lot of time in PGH (oakland especially) in HS.

 

[jonKranked]

Well as an example, a few months ago some townsfolk organized a Tesla parade to thank frontline healthcare workers. Because there are enough Tesla owners in town that they can have a fucking PARADE of them.

that might be the whitest thing i've ever heard

 

[Sandro]

Started my life in Montreal for the first 10 years, after that it was suburb for the next 30. And then moved farther north for the past 10. Each move away from density has proven beneficial for my happiness. Next move should place me in the middle of at least a few hundred acres of my own land. fuck neighbors.

Good for you. Whenever I see @dump's photos, I think that his neighbourhood actually looks pretty nice for city living.

 

[Toshi]

I grew up in NYC, and lived in Tacoma, Seattle, Portland, NYC, and on Lawn Guyland before ending up here in Denver.

Denver is a nice compromise for me. I like day trippable good skiing and biking, quality ethnic restaurants, an at least second tier symphony to listen to (and correspondingly good enough community music groups in which to participate myself), fast internet, and direct flights everywhere in non-COVID times.

Denver has these things yet the traffic's not nearly as bad as some places I've been and it's correspondingly cheap in comparison. Since Trump won't have driven me to emigrate to NZ I don't foresee myself moving.

I live in a newish area of the city, redeveloped from the old airport. Thus the physical infrastructure is all new, the power is underground, the internet fiber optic, and the people who chose to live here all of similar intent (self-selecting for the school choice area's good reputation, which then self-perpetuates). It's convenient enough even though there are no local, organically developed restaurants due to its newness.

 

[CrabJoe StretchPants]

Good for you. Whenever I see @dump's photos, I think that his neighbourhood actually looks pretty nice for city living.

That's because Canada isn't the real world

 

[jonKranked]

i spent 2 weeks in Belgium when my sister lived in Antwerp. i'd move there in a heartbeat.

 

[canadmos]

I hate cities.

I live and grew up on the outer fringe of the greater Toronto area, which has a population of almost 6 million people now.

As a teenager without a car, it was great, because you could easily travel to most places via public transit. But now, I hate the "city" and most things about. Over crowded, too much traffic, majority of people are assholes, the city itself is sprawling out and swallowing up trails, forests, farms etc etc.

The lady friend and myself almost never go south towards Toronto.

We enjoy living north of the city where on a breezy summer day, you can smell the cow manure from farms wafting over. There is much less people, no traffic jams, less assholes and the list goes on.

We can see the stars in our backyard. Go 20 minutes south and that isn't possible from the light bleeding out of Toronto. Its crazy to think that I'm sure there are kids or adults living in Toronto and other cities that have never seen the stars.

 

[Full Trucker]

After 20+ years in the suburbia of a major metro area, I am ready to get to someplace smaller, slower, and higher.

Granted, the suburbia I live in is the outskirts of the same small town that @Nick and @6thElement live in, I'm stuck on the border of Golden and Denver's larger suburbs Lakewood and Wheat Ridge. I'm close enough to dirt to ride to it, got a proper grocery within a mile or two, and my particular neighborhood is reasonably quiet. The financée's job is less than 5 miles away, and we're right on the I-70 corridor so GTFO of Dadge to visit the mountains is pretty easy... my drive to ski is easily 30+ minutes quicker than @stoney or @Toshi, for instance.

But still... smaller, slower, higher. Launch in T-minus 2-3 years, I suspect.

 

[canadmos]

Good for you. Whenever I see @dump's photos, I think that his neighbourhood actually looks pretty nice for city living.

What he doesn't show you are the absolute bananas bonkers nutty drivers in Montreal. And their crowded crumbling freeway bridges.

 

[Jozz]

Good for you. Whenever I see @dump's photos, I think that his neighbourhood actually looks pretty nice for city living.

Montreal is a pretty nice city to live in, so is Quebec city. Has long has you don't have to get out of town too often.
WFH has really changed the dynamics in our province. Housing market just exploded in all remote locations.

 

[Full Trucker]

The lady friend and myself almost never go south towards Toronto.

Heh. I often tell people "I don't drive east unless it's absolutely necessary."

 

[Nick]

Bellingham remains on my short list, if I were to leave Colorado. It seems to tick a lot of the same boxes, albeit drastically different ski/snow conditions in the mtns.

 

[canadmos]

Heh. I often tell people "I don't drive east unless it's absolutely necessary."

I lived in Aurora for a bit.. as far as cities go, I thought Denver was actually kind of slightly okay. Maybe partially because I could see the mountains from my street? It seemed like a better planned city than others, as far as roads and whatnot go.

Granted this was like 15 years ago, so I'm sure things have changed.

 

[Sandro]

I like day trippable good skiing and biking, quality ethnic restaurants, an at least second tier symphony to listen to

Those are all things that I also value (but skiing is not really possibility here) and that my current setup offers. One major issue for me is food: it f*cking sucks in Germany if you are not in a major city or tremendously lucky. Even comparing Cologne to my time in Vancouver, the choices here are fairly limited and often inauthentic, and that's in one of the largest cities in the country.

I'll be looking at a house in a smaller town about 25km away tomorrow that still has train service every half hour to Cologne while being much closer to the woods. You are never really away from civilization here since my state is about the size of Maryland, but with 17 million people in it.

 

[jimmydean]

Livermore is close enough to the bay and has some nice outdoors around it. The 11 months i spent in Modesto taught me exactly which kind of town I never ever want to live in.

Modesto was "the big city" until high school when we started going to the Bay area. I wasn't going to stay in the valley so I joined the Navy and moved to San Diego. That was a lesson in "places that are awesome to visit but suck to live in."

Portland is "big city" but very much isn't. I have never lived downtown or really all that close to it, but have never been more than 30 minutes away from it.

I hate suburbia and am not a fan of my back woods redneck community here in Columbia county. We might stay for now and buy an escape place we will retire to eventually, or we might relocate there sooner if things progress.

I love aspects of Portland. The usual big city things (that are no longer happening) but our house is moderately priced compared to Portland metro, but we also have WAY more than we need. So downsizing is step one.

Ideal is 2+ acres wooded and within an hour of Portland. That's the goal.

 

[Full Trucker]

Bellingham remains on my short list, if I were to leave Colorado. It seems to tick a lot of the same boxes, albeit drastically different ski/snow conditions.

Maritime snowpack... sounds horrible.

I lived in Aurora for a bit.. as far as cities go, I thought Denver was actually kind of slightly okay. Maybe partially because I could see the mountains from my street? It seemed like a better planned city than others, as far as roads and whatnot go.

Granted this was like 15 years ago, so I'm sure things have changed.

Denver has just been growing steadily the entire time I've been here. Hell, it's been growing exponentially for a decade longer than that, even. I'm part of the problem, I'm sure. But it's not a terrible city, it's got some great aspects. I'm sure I'll miss good concerts and certain restaurants and such when I move, and not to mention my network of friends. And even the crowded-ass trails are some of my favorite I've ridden, especially given how easy it is to get to them for mid-week after-work rides.

 

[jonKranked]

since we're going over places we've lived:

grew up outside PGH.
college in upstate NY (Rochester)
Philly (conshy)
Pawtucket RI
Hermosa Beach / Redondo beach
NJ (morristown, Chatham)
Philly (conshy again)
current location.

 

[Fool]

Vivo en Brooklyn. Technically I could surf, mountain bike, and ski all in the same day.

 

[Toshi]

Vivo en Brooklyn. Technically I could surf, mountain bike, and ski all in the same day.

Yeah, but you'd stab yourself in the neck with aggravation while waiting in traffic on the Throg's Neck or the like.



NYC region is one that I can only see as making sense for people with tons of local family, and a family owned brownstone or two as assets. But you clearly think differently.

 

[Nick]

Maritime snowpack

point taken, but I didn't say horrible, I said different.

 

[stevew]

PA burbs

born in levittown....parents first house was down the street from my grandfathers house....

lived in bedford texas

baton rouge louisiana

warrenton virginia

nashville tn/knoxville tn

breckenridge co

nashville tn

aurora co

charlotte area nc....

torn living between civilization and the middle of nowhere...

family land in pagosa springs colorado that my dad said we can do whatever the fuck we want to....he does not think he will ever go back to it.
great mountain view....