The sweet spot for quality of life nowadays is in secondary / tertiary cities

Can I get a witness here?

Tertiary cities? Are you sure you're using the word correctly Einstein?

yeeeeck wrote:

Tertiary cities? Are you sure you're using the word correctly Einstein?

I'm quite sure - care to share your personal definition of the word?

I would agree but the difficulty is finding the city that gives you what you need. I live in N.Y. but if I were young I'd move elsewhere.

Coach wrote:

I would agree but the difficulty is finding the city that gives you what you need. I live in N.Y. but if I were young I'd move elsewhere.

What? The whole point of the thread was to point out that these do have everything you need.

I would tend to agree if all you want is a boring middle class suburban family life in a neighborhood with very average schools. In places like Columbus, OH, Charlotte, and Indianapolis, most of the inexpensive suburbs are within 20-30 min of the major employment hubs. Similar real estate in places like San Fran, Boston or Washington DC are over an hour from the city center. And tolls, train fare, downtown parking costs are very steep in the mega cities.

But if you want to live in the hot close in neighborhood with the great restaurants and progressive schools, you really do not get any great bargains in smaller cities compared to income levels. A law school classmate of mine moved back to Salt Lake. She complained about not being able to afford to buy into the nice neighborhoods southeast of downtown because that is where everyone wanted to live. All the decent houses were $500k+.

And all the "decent" houses in San Francisco are >$2 million. My point stands.

Secondary cities wrote:

Coach wrote:

I would agree but the difficulty is finding the city that gives you what you need. I live in N.Y. but if I were young I'd move elsewhere.

What? The whole point of the thread was to point out that these do have everything you need.

Everyone's needs are different. You need to decide what you want and where to live to maximize it. For example the hunting and fishing scene in San Francisco isn't that great. The snow skiing in Nashville is pretty poor. And the surfing in Salt Lake City leaves a lot to be desired.

Expecting other people to want your life is pretty darn narcissistic.

Exactly. I'd take into account weather, sports available, professional teams in the area, religious choices available, politics, etc...

I mostly agree with this. I think you need to eliminate the secondary cities that are past their prime and are the product of industry that has long since left (I am looking at you Buffalo), but there are plenty of cities that are secondary cities that are on the rise.

Sure, as Precious Roy points out, when you look at the earnings relative to cost of living, they probably are not all that much better than the nation's largest cities, but the competition is a lot less fierce. I have a Big 4 sports team, world class attractions, good restaurants, and a world class performing arts center in my city. I have a decent sized single family home with a pool built in this century that is about a mile from my office. Such a thing does not even exist in NYC, and to the extent it exists in other large cities, to be able to afford such a home you would need to be independently wealthy or work 60 or 70 hours a week at a minimum. I have the good fortune of being able to have such a home while still making it home in time to have dinner with my family most nights (unless I am out running).

Not only does it not exist in NY, what N.Y. offers, (food, museums, arts) most can't afford to take advantage as it's too expensive anyway. How many $400+ days out with the family at a sporting event or show can one afford?

asdfasdasf wrote:

Expecting other people to want your life is pretty darn narcissistic.

Way to totally miss the point of this thread, which was to explain that cultural amenities that yuppies enjoy can basically be found in any medium to large city nowadays. The only difference is volume (Salt Lake City has maybe 50-60 really nice restaurants, NYC has 1000 - but you'll never eat at 90% of them).

I'm not telling people how to live - actually just the opposite. I'm saying the lifestyle that "big city" people love can be easily replicated in many smaller cities, but they refuse to get off their high horse because they just HAVE to live in Manhattan.

You can onlybea real man in small cities and villages,because his pathetic is a life centered around restaurants and sports teams?

This thread is shocking to me.

You need a job, a spots hobby and a workshop to be a well-rounded role model to your kids.

Don't raise them to be the next generation of credit card whores!

Being "overpriced" keeps out the riffraff.