I'm often curious why more people aren’t moving to low cost of living areas. I don’t know if I’ve just been fortunate, but I’m a college drop out who honestly hasn’t tried very hard in my “career”, but I moved out to Cincinnati which has a low cost of living at 23 (8 hours from my family) and I’ve managed to do very well for myself with a modest paying job (20ish an hour). I have 40k saved up and plan to buy a house this year. I wonder if other people who have went or started on a similar route are doing well for themselves.
And if you are in a high cost of living area, would you ever consider moving somewhere significantly cheaper?
Everywhere I go gentrifies within 5 years. I would call myself a trend-setter, but I'm just a lower-middle class white kid who slips in right before the trust-fund kiddies, banks and leasing companies kill the area. I'm about two or three years out from another move, and already the avg. rent has doubled in the three years I've lived where I am now. I get it, it's a nice area, but what made it great was that you didn't have to fucking scrimp on stuff, you could spend money on community owned businesses without worrying about making rent. I mean, it was always a fool's game to expect it to last (as I keep telling all of my neo-libertarian hippie friends) but it sucks having to watch it happen over and over again.
Watching the banks vampire the community it just so... exhausting. This shit is going to be as boring and dead as Oakland in another decade.