My honest answer is Baltimore. and not just because I'm biased lol. The city itself is pretty walkable, and a lot of the suburban communities are moving that way. It's got a lot of the amenities of big cities - professional sports teams, high-end restaurants, traveling broadway shows, concerts - but then it is a lot more accessible IMO since it is smaller. It's not a big deal to drive from the east to the west side except mentally because people are entrenched in their neighborhoods lol. There are a LOT of excellent restaurants that are really affordable and there are a ton of neighborhood dives where "everybody knows your name." We still send our Christmas card to a few lol.
You are a few hours drive from DC, Philly and NYC, but minus the COL that goes along with those cities. As in, H and I rented a great 1400 sq ft TH literally two blocks from the Harbor and two blocks from Camden Yards and we paid 1400 a month. With a parking spot. We got it a little below market but market would still have been about 1700. So that is a HUGE difference compared to a city like DC or new york.
We have 4 distinct seasons and its nice beccause we do close a lot for snow lol and while summers can be brutal, typically its not the entire summer.
there are so many suburban communities where you can move to if you want more space and while some are pricey, most are pretty affordable, especially compared to NYC. I'm a half hour from downtown and we paid less than 300k for a rancher on a half acre. Again some areas are pricier but you can probably find something in your budget if you want to buy and are flexible on location.
Downsides: Traffic can be bad. Usually its just rush hour, and the rest of the time its fine, so its not like an endless stream of traffic, but rush hour if you need to take the Beltway can be pretty intense. Public transportation here kind of sucks so the light rail or metro isnt really practical unless you work and live close to it. Some of the suburbs are very stereotypical suburbs (looking at you Columbia). Property taxes in the city are pretty high, but depending on where you live, there are some really good elementary schools there (which a lot of people don't realize).
I almost typed out this exact post this morning. There are so many distinct, really cool little neighborhoods in Baltimore. I think that is what is so cool about Baltimore - each neighborhood definitely has its own identity. If I could afford the property taxes, I would have looked for a place somewhere between Hampden, Roland Park or Mt Washington. They are all located within the city limits but not located downtown. Hampden has really become a very cool little area with tons of shops and restaurants. Super walkable. Roland Park and Mt Washington each are walkable to a degree if you buy in the right spot, but they also are very open with lots of green. I used to live in Roland Park in a gorgeous turn-of-the-century row home. I had a huge yard, but I literally stepped off of my back property line and stepped into the most adorable little wine shop. I now live in a suburb right outside of the city limits, but I am still so close to everything. It takes us 15 minutes to get downtown and less than that to get to a major shopping mall. I leave the beltway and within a minute, I'm driving through windy wooded roads and it looks like I'm in the middle of the country. Pretty much anywhere in Baltimore is going to seem cheap compared to NYC.
I think what would make this post more fun is if everyone posted a favorite real estate listing in the areas they are suggesting. It's nice to see what a certain amount of money buys in a given area. (And this is MMM, right?)
I think we would need an idea of budget. There could be quite a range in some places.
blah. yes, I misread, which is why I didn't make any recommendations. Okay, in that case, I'll give you the cities that were on our post-France list until we came back and realized we weren't ready to say goodbye to NYC forever. These are:
- Asheville, NC: pps have mentioned the great access to the outdoors. Has a good music scene, seems to have a good mix of people from different places (one of my requirements is that a place not be 95% people from there who look at outsiders with suspicion or just have no interest in befriending outsiders), lots of young families, affordable real estate.
- Charlotte, NC: Some of the same as Asheville, plus I know a few people there already and DH's job prospects there are good.
- Chatanooga, TN: Cute, walkable, great food, really liked the vibe when we visited a couple of years ago.
- Nashville, TN: Seems to have a lot of the good restaurants, good schools & world-class amenities (in the arts, for example) that NY has, but I still haven't actually been there
- New Orleans, LA: DH sold me on this as having everything I love about Havana without everything I don't like. I don't have a better tagline for you. Three downsides, however, are: hurricanes (so it does have that in common with Havana), questionable public schools and issues with local government. This last one may be an issue elsewhere, but I haven't paid as close attention.
Of cities I have lived in before, we thought long and hard about Philly, but for DH's industry, the paycut would be pretty significant while the decrease in COL wouldn't parallel it. Plus, we'd basically have to pay for private school OR bite our nails trying to get a place in a catchment without knowing if all residents of the catchment will be guaranteed a school spot or not OR move to the suburbs, which doesn't interest us.
One thing I had a hard time doing was setting realistic housing price expectations when we left the NYC area. To be in a walkable neighborhood in MCOL still meant paying up more than I expected. Just wanted to throw that out there.
This is exactly what happened to us when we left NYC. You pay for walk ability.
You maybe could find a nice 3BR realistically walkable to downtown Asheville for $350k, but it would be pretty difficult.
DS works in New Hope. I'm there all the time. Love it as a destination, but there's not much for kids to do there. And the traffic on weekends? Shoot me now. DS's car was in the shop last weekend, so I drove him Sunday and was reminded why I don't live there even though I love it.
Doylestown PA would be a good choice with more to do in terms of family activities- museums, walkable town, great camps, public pool, awesome schools, a fabulous library, cute theater, sports and really neat houses in the borough. It's like living in a Rockwell painting.
We traded in Seattle for Bozeman,MT and are never moving back! No traffic, hardly any crime, plenty of outdoorsy stuff to do, laid back, it's everything we wanted.
Plus youd have two MMMers to hang with.
Colorado would be awesome too!!
If I could guarantee jobs, I'd move there. Montana is so freaking gorgeous. Alas, we are more than likely moving back to Chicago next month. Which is totally awesome, FYI! You definitely can find affordable neighborhoods, there is rampant liberalism, a fantastic food scene, public transit, biking infrastructure, walkability, and a plethora of things to do.
Post by smiledamnit on Jul 1, 2015 21:19:38 GMT -5
Denver is a great city (lots of sunshine, walkable depending on neighborhood, good art and decent music scene - RED ROCKS! -, international airport, etc.) but it's growing by leaps and bounds so not necessarily the small town feel that you'd get from Boulder or Fort Colins. The housing/rental market is absolutely ridiculous right now, too, but surely it can't stay this bad (read: grossly overpriced) forever.
I think someone mentioned Bozeman, and I'd throw in Missoula as well. Liberal, walkable, decent COL, beeeeautiful.
@mrsbecky cosmowife Can you give me a few neighborhood/suburb names in Baltimore to use in searching?
I was coming in to say Baltimore. We live in Federal Hill/South Baltimore and love it. We have three decent schools to choose from in our neighborhood. There is so much near by. I love where I live. Rents might be a little higher than what you were looking for though.
Post by thecatinthehat on Jul 2, 2015 4:15:00 GMT -5
Is Hawaii an option because I love my town! It is cheaper than Brooklyn but not a whole lot. It's always sunny and warm (75-85s during the day), yet it cools down at night (50-60s at night). Rarely pouring rain, we get sprinkles that comes and goes. We are 20 mins to the best beaches on the island <3 Also very liberal Come here! If you ever miss snow, we get snow here on the winter too! Just have to drive up 11,000ft (2 hrs).
@mrsbecky cosmowife Can you give me a few neighborhood/suburb names in Baltimore to use in searching?
I am more familiar with the north side of the city. One thing to keep in mind - Baltimore City is its own county, and Baltimore County is a separate county. Baltimore County sort of wraps around Baltimore City, but the city isn't in Baltimore County. So you will hear lots of people say that they live in the city or the county, or that they left the city to move to the county (or vice versa).
North side of Baltimore City: Roland Park - a couple of very small retail areas, lots of old gorgeous mansions, and you'd probably find something like an apartment in a converted old house or rowhome. I lived in a converted rowhome on the second floor. Mt Washington - the very edge of the city, has a super cute downtown plus a whole foods and other retail. Again, mostly houses with some apartment buildings - I lived on the second floor of an old converted house with a big yard. Hampden - (I think this area is fairly safe but I've never lived there) very eclectic, TONS of restaurants/shops/places to walk to. There are some new apartment developments over in a converted mill area (Union Mill or Clipper Mill I think) that is pretty cool. This neighborhood is slightly closer to downtown than the other two.
Northern Baltimore County suburbs: Lutherville - expensive area but gorgeous and great schools. I don't know if there are apartments there. Rodgers Forge - I've heard great things about the schools and it is a very nice community from what I remember about 10 years ago. Townhomes are usually for sale but you could probably find a rental as well. Pikesville - convenient to everything, some decent elementary schools but some areas are a bit sketchy. Ruxton - super expensive but really gorgeous. Mostly old expensive homes but I believe it is in a good school district. Roads are prone to flooding (I had a scary drive through this area over the weekend!). Hamilton - not sure if this is city or county. I've only been a couple times but it appears to be a very up-and-coming area with nice restaurants moving in and a nice community association. I have no idea about housing here.
If you are willing to go further out (and south), I've heard that Ellicott City is very nice, and it has an adorable historic downtown area.
Closer to downtown, some of the "cool" areas are Federal Hill, Fells Point, Canton, Mount Vernon, Harbor East. I am not very familiar with living in these areas. I would assume that all are super walkable from what I've seen while visiting.
@mrsbecky cosmowife Can you give me a few neighborhood/suburb names in Baltimore to use in searching?
Actually feel free to check with me with anything that is appealing to you. the streets and neighborhoods are very different block to block.
@pnkybrwstr yes, definitely check with Baltimore folks before picking a place (if you end up here!). It is very hard to really know specific areas without living here, and like mrsbecky said, they can change street by street.
For something more suburban, this is a nice area. The elementary school is good albeit a bit overcrowded (jury's out on middle and high). Not really walkable but you are not far from both the downtown area of Mt. Washington (with a Whole Foods) and also a nice area called Quarry Lake.
There are like 3 houses for sale on my block. NEW JERSEY is the only answer. Although I guess I could make an exception for Philly.
WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME?! THINK OF THE CHILDREN!
This is my answer too. Just come out to jersey already.
I have lived in Albany though and loved it. It's beautiful and we had such a feeling of community. I moved away 10 years ago and still have so many amazing friends there.
(I also like how cosmowife and matildasun and I have all decided that you should move here lol).
I'll join in on the Baltimore love! We have lived downtown (South Baltimore - Locust Point), Carroll County, and now are in Baltimore County, just north of the city. We absolutely love where we live and plan to never move again.
(I also like how cosmowife and matildasun and I have all decided that you should move here lol).
I'll join in on the Baltimore love! We have lived downtown (South Baltimore - Locust Point), Carroll County, and now are in Baltimore County, just north of the city. We absolutely love where we live and plan to never move again.