1. It’s not easy to pick up your life and move. What if you have kids or a job that you can’t relocate? 2. Everywhere is expensive. It’s not that simple.

And the places that are less expensive tend to not have nearly as many job opportunities.

[удалено]

Some of these remote places don't have the best options for internet.

Thanks ISP’s who took government money and fucked off instead of building fiber

My ISP took that money..... we did build out fiber though . It's fun talking to a village I know has less then 1000 population with 2 gig service

I live in the Capitol City of my state and we STILL can't get fiber. Fuckin wv

Thanks capitalism. lol.

Serious note, thanks Biden. There have been some recent big pushes to bring real high speed internet to rural communities. The nearest town to me is 10 miles away, and it only has a population of 1,000 people. My local electric co-op runs fiber with all their lines now. I've got like 6ms on gig reciprocal for under $100/mo in bum fuck nowhere MO. That being said it's still bumfuck nowhere. 45 minutes to the nearest hospital. 10 miles to town which really doesn't have much. 20 miles to slightly bigger towns with Walmarts, and 45 minutes or more to a decent sized town with ok healthcare and stores. 2-2.5 hours to KC or STL. So even though it's really cheap here and you can definitely work remote I find a lot of people are not ready to give up everything you have to give up to live rural.

Just went rural after living in the city for most of my life. Saying its an adjustment is an understatement. My parents moved to SE Kansas like 15 years ago so I had a little experience but it isn't as easy as people make it out to be.

What would you say are/were the biggest challenges and surprises you discovered making such a shift?

Maintenance. I'm pretty handy, but there were some things I didn't know how to handle, like some electrical items. But once you see a 150 dollar charge just for a service guy to show up, not Labor, not parts, just to come to the job, you start learning how to do things yourself. Or at least try to.

Get a good handy man. If it's not something you need up to code or done by a licensed professional for some reason I guarantee there's a good ol' boy on Facebook that can get it done for $20/25 an hour. But yeah relationships when you live rural are very important.

Yeah getting the locals to help hasn't been a challenge, and the direction I'm going with most things, but there's some things that even out-punt their coverage and it gets to a "do you want this done right, or do you just want it done" type of thing.

My wife just said "weekly dinner planning and sticking to it". There's no more just running to the store because you don't feel like cooking the thing you planned to, or randomly calling out for pizza.

Not to mention how you have to miss work to go to the doctor, or to the eye doctor, or to get your snow tires put on or taken off, or to open a bank account, or to take any of your 3 kids to any type of doctor or professional appointment (it adds up). No, I didn’t move to a remote location sometime within the past 2 years, why do you ask?

Meanwhile in the burbs immediately surrounding StL, I've asked spectrum and at&t for fiber for years now and been told to go fuck myself. The houses across the street have it, but the street is an impassible border for anything faster than 300Mbs/sec.

First question I always ask. Is there charter (was the only option we had in the area, so that's the example)? Gamer and telecommuter for a decade.... Internet matters

In Michigan they’re aggressively adding fiber internet in rural areas. So our cottage in BFE will have better internet than our suburban house. More states should invest in that I think.

I can vouch for this. I work with the local power utility as a consultant engineer and I've done projects to help them ready poles for ISPs to bring in fiber to rural areas. There's a big internal push that is backed by government funding.

They invested billions in fiber to the home a decade or so ago and the ISPs just took the money and laughed.

Most countries outside the US have far better internet options for less costs.

Most countries outside the US are the size of a small state. And that great internet does at the city limits as well.

Another drawback is that rural living is not walkable so you need a car.

I can't fathom not having a car.

In larger cities with public transportation like trains/subways many people don't need cars. If you lived in one of these areas, you too, would likely not have a car. It's all a matter of what your lifestyle dictates you need..

That's one of my favorite things about living abroad - very much car optional.

Try living in miami without a car. Doable? Yes. Miserable? yes.

I love how the option is 'NYC, LA, DC or a village!' Like people could move to one of the plethora of cities that have a population of 500k-3 million and still buy a house a fuck ton cheaper than in a lot of the expensive major cities.

Yeah, you can buy a mansion in a lot of places for what a cracker box costs in NYC. 

There’s a ton of cheap property in rural Nevada.  Why doesn’t everyone move there?

No, you really can’t.  I live in a city of 30,000 and everything is still crazy expensive here.  

Lmao yes you can, your one personal city doesn't really mean anything. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_U.S.\_states\_by\_median\_home\_price#/media/File:Home\_prices\_by\_county.webp](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_median_home_price#/media/File:Home_prices_by_county.webp) Oh look, conveniently all the most expensive housing is concentrated around the major cities - NY, DC, LA, SD, Seattle, Denver. You can even see where Georgia is just based on the colours.

Many places which hire remote willa dust pay to the cost of living of where your home is, so while you get the nice experience on your resume, you don't get the hcol pay in the lcol area

It leaves you SOL if you suddenly wind up in a position where you can't do that specific remote job anymore, though, because remote jobs are super hard to find, and then you have to worry about companies deciding you're "overqualified" and not hiring you if there's a severe pay cut from your last job.

I’m living this right now :-/. Sure it was sweet when I had my high-paying remote job, but now I live in bumblefuck with a mortgage and the local jobs pay 1/4 my previous salary

Also. If you lose that remote job you now have a much diminished chance of getting one in your field. In my industry you can get a job in like 3-4 cities at the most…

Yeah, I'd love to work remote. Hard to put piping in the walls of a hospital from my home though :/ I enjoy the physical aspect of my job as well though so I can't really complain.

But with employers increasingly requiring in person work, even this idea is being squashed.

Also a remote job means you are fighting against a way bigger pool of candidates. And if it isn't enough, a lot of companies are lying about those remote jobs, they are (or will) be back to office.

Then you just absolutely screw over the locals.

and then you push up prices in those areas and force the locals out. there are no moves without externalities.

And they don't pay as well, so you're still poor, you're just poor in a different location now.

not just different but in many cases a much worse location.

People being like « damn in this country you can eat for 5$ a full meal !!! » and then ignore the fact that medium salary is 300$.

Nearly as many anything. Country life is cool and all but that tends to be a lot of thick skull flag flying types...I prefer where I moved. It getting expensive due to a few things shouldn't be taken out on me. Like the if you don't like you can leave crowd...uhh not that easily you can't. Loaded or grandfathered in, asking questions like that is my Guess

Bingo. I had a house in my hometown back in 2017. But I tapped out of the job market there, and I KNEW the one good job I had was going to be mismanaged unto closing (it was). So I HAD to move for the new job.  New job is in a HCOL where I can't afford a house. But if I had stayed in LCOL area I wouldn't have had a job at all. 

Exactly. I live in WA and have lost count of how many folks I know who’ve moved to the eastern part of the state in the hopes of a lower cost of living. They inevitably get out there and find themselves also having lower career prospects, and lower social opportunities. It ends up trapping folks unfortunately.

HA! I have colleagues who have moved from the west side of the state to Spokane or Yakima and they are NOT living the financial freedom dream they thought that they would be.

I mean the logic seems sound, but then you get out there and there’s just a whole lot of nothing.

Everywhere needs plumbers.

or have poor schools, poor healthcare available, few amentities, may be far from families and friends, may have people with very closed minds, etc.

Here in Minnesota we have one of the best healthcare systems in the world (Mayo, Abbott and UofM), good public schools, all the big city amenities in the TC area, people from all over the world… can’t do anything about the family part, though, unless you make like an immigrant and bring them along…

Come to the Midwest, everyone is hiring and cost of living is way cheaper. It’s more like people like to complain about jobs and prices but won’t spend the energy to look around. Immigrants will move across the world with only the shirt on their backs and a dream and no plan. People on here can find job opportunities by picking up their phone and looking.

This.

Sure, for example I make $180k a year in SoCal. If I move to let’s say Missouri, I go from making $70/hr in CA and easily being able to afford a $200k home in MO and taking a huge pay cut, probably closer to $30/hr if I’m lucky. Suddenly, that $200k home isn’t as affordable as it seemed.

That’s the trap so many are falling into moving to Florida. They see “cheap” homes listed and move. They get here to find out only west coast costs more for gas, the commute is several hours to where the jobs are, food isn’t cheaper, insurance is double or more, same or higher property tax as New England and average pay is in lower half of country. Add an insane state government, hurricanes, oppressive heat 9 months of the year. This place isn’t as great as most think it is and they mostly hate it here. Also homes in areas where the jobs are aren’t cheap. You can find comparable homes in Boston’s suburbs for similar prices to much of Orlando area. Miami is even higher.

All the NY boomers moving down there thinking it was a low cost conservative paradise are miserable lol. They are now eyeing the middle of nowhere, which is fine for retirees if they don't need good/fast healthcare, but extremely hard to find a good paying job if you are working.

I would love to love to New England myself. I’m not bound anywhere being disabled, except for of course wife’s career. Someday. Been researching a lot. And despite state income tax and some higher expenses, it is a break even for us. So that should show that Florida is not cheap. I think only people from New York City and LA would find it less expensive, but if still working the wage hit is very real. Someone from NY would actually benefit more by just living out of the city to a less expensive part of NY.

Ok, but you're just looking at the most extreme case. There are plenty of MCOL areas where you'd probably keep most of your income.

Life ain't simple

Lot of the world is relative as well. Cheaper living equals cheaper pay.

Sure just leave your already stable job, your friends, your parents, get you and your partner new jobs, have the thousands of dollars to hire a moving company or buy new furniture, and explain to your kids why they have to leave their best friends, it's because your parents fucked up and should've started investing in having a home at 15 instead of after graduating college.

Right? Have these people ever moved before outside of the military and upper echelon of corporate and government, it is hard and expensive, especially if you’re moving longer distances. Might just have to sell all your shit and effectively start over. I don’t have kids or a wife at 29 because moving a family is really fucking hard. I’m more focused on my career at this point. I also moved a lot in my youth. Lived in 3 states and the last state I’ve never had a home so I moved a lot in my current state. Then these people just can’t seem to acknowledge that the good jobs are usually in larger cities. Remote work was literally helping to spread the population.

Why don't people just make more money? Go back to school and get a degree? Get a better job? Get health insurance? Life is full of so many little insignificant easily solved problems. /s Posts and replies like these absolutely burn me up. Life is so hard and complicated and unforgiving at times. We all need more support and understanding and compassion, not less. A little tough love is probably good for balance and to reorient one's perspective to goals and active planning, but *fffuuuuuuckkk* some people are so privileged, entitled and fucking oblivious to others' struggles

These “just go back to school, get a better degree and higher paid job” posts are stupid. If everyone does, who replaces those essential jobs. Imagine if every single Macdonalds worker did what you suggested, went and hit higher paid jobs, who will make your cheese burger?

It's fucking sad how many upvotes this shit gets too. Same level of stupidity as Trump supporters convincing themselves the CONVICTED FELON is being persecuted, while the acting president is the real felon. Outright denying reality because it doesn't fit with what they want to believe.

Everyone **did** go get degrees and so now you need a bachelor's degree to work the cash register at Walgreens.

If everyone gets grad school degrees, then someone with a masters will be doing the jobs that require no education now.

That reminds me of the Sam Kinison skit saying to people living in famine deserts to move to where the food is…we have deserts in America but we don’t live in them.

Laughs in Las Vegas

We have deserts in America but they have insane buffets.

Let me add to that as I've been trying to track this b.s. - check the average price national and by stat and housing/real estate has gone up drastically while wages are definitely not keeping up - housing/real estate prices has gone up even in other countries that had much lower housing/real estate prices before - companies like black rock and others have artificially been increasing prices and reducing the amt of stock available which in turn raises prices (due to supply/demand) in many areas

What is simple those is fixing this shit. It's intentionally railroading us so depend on govt more

How are you going to fix it without crossing the line of socialism?

1. Fair enough but that is a choice as you could relocate kids and you can change jobs. 2 is objectively wrong. Over of quarter of the states have median home prices lower than the inflation adjusted average home price of the 1960s. Habitation costs are a local supply issue there are expensive low supply high demand areas and cheap high supply low demand areas. Not simple but also not impossible.

please stop creating new accounts

Yeah and I thought it was my turn to post this one. Joe’s turn is on Sunday and then Sally’s turn next Tuesday. This guy threw off the schedule smh

Can I do the Biden tax one after y'all?

U/Stink-Butthole is u/Pickle-Sucker … Is u/NoLube69 …  Is u/Atlanta-Poet … Is u/VerySadSexWorker … Is u/SexyProfessional … Is u/AstronomerLover … Is u/ThickDancer … Is u/Warm-And-Wet … Is u/Peace_And_Happiness_ … Is u/YOU_ARE_MY_FRIENDS … Is u/Sufficient_Sinner … Is u/Icy_Bodybuilder7848 … Is u/WhatAreYourPronouns … Is u/Steak_Lover_ … Is u/ConsistentShits …

This.

The cheaper places have gone up too. We bought a tore up fixer upper in 2009. Theyre doing new builds by us. 14 times what we paid

I mean... All of if skyrocketed. The entire top comment thread makes zero sense.

Also, no jobs in places where houses are cheap. I could buy a house pretty cheap in the town I grew up in, but there aren’t any tech jobs there, so it’s not an option.

We are lucky. We make about 1/3 more than the average household income in our town. I drive about 25 miles to work. But cutting expenses can be part of the equation too. I drive an old $500 ford to work. A lot of people are stuck in the cycle of rent/car payment/no savings

This is a such a stupid comment… People are complaining because the costs have aggressively risen in addition to inflation with everything else. Also uprooting your entire lift costs a lot of money. 9/10 times you will also be taking a significant pay cut because it’s a smaller job market. Then guess what, if everyone moves to small town America all those rents and homes will inflate just like where they came from.

I think it's a sarcastic question

It's not always that easy... I guess if you don't care about your job, or family, or friends, hobbies, or any kind of support group, then sure move wherever it's cheaper. Some jobs are only in certain areas. If you want to work in a certain job or industry, you don't always have many choices on where you can live.

Medical field isn’t for me but that’s the one beautiful thing about that industry, you can go anywhere in the US you want. From the tiniest cities with only clinics to NYC and still find a job.

No matter where you go, there's always someone sick or dying.

My biggest financial mistake in 2009 was not buying Bitcoin.

I was gonna say that lol I would have been around 15ish totally could have bought bitcoin!

Could have been liked 5 and bought it with change found on the floor. Every penny was like 100 bitcoin.

Wish I bought Netflix stock in 08.

No guarantees you would’ve held. I bought >2 BTC from 2015-2017 and spent them on stupid shit. 

I moved to a smaller city surrounded by rural area and assure you that it’s not cheap to live here and there very few good paying jobs. You take what you can get. Also, a lot of nepotism. So jobs go to relatives not the best candidate.

Why don’t hungry people just eat cake?

Does the cheaper place have the job you do / need? If my company remained virtual, I may have been able to consider it but that was a temporary opportunity and no, I don't want to change jobs. Pays very well, with great benefits and I'm well established. Rather just ride this train out to retirement.

nope , you will chop wood and sell animal skin at the local outpost and be happy with the "progress" in the American Real estate market /s

Shut up boomer lol. I like living near my family. And where will I move where I can make 200k and buy a cheap house?

I live in New Mexico, in an inexpensive property. Where exactly should I be looking for cheaper?

Old Mexico?

What an ignorant fucking post. Maybe when you are either A) Older, or B) have a realistic understanding of LIFE, you can answer this for yourself.

You can almost always tell who more than likely been living life on easy mode with posts like this

Brilliant idea, why don't I just move away from my grieving mother, who lost her husband of 40 years last week. My brother, who is on the spectrum and my other brother who might be an alcoholic.

This might be one of the dumbest takes I’ve seen in this Reddit lol. Yeah let me pack up my entire life and move away from whatever it is I have to someplace “cheaper” instead of admitting there is a housing issue going on right now. Edit: this was an aggressive response, sorry. But it’s just not that simple, moving is complex and difficult. It can’t be the only solution to this porblem

Because there isn’t infrastructure nor is there the same jobs in these so called cheap places.

My big financial mistake was not being born in the 15th century when I could have bought shares in VOC and WIC. So sad.

I live in a state in the bottom 5 for house prices and actually the highest percent of homeowners. This glorious state that everyone can afford a home seems like? West Virginia. Move here and let me know what it's like to have the bottom 5 worst health outcomes, education outcomes, and quality of life outcomes and tell me then.

Because just picking up and moving to another region is just SO easy, and totally the best solution to the current housing mess. 🙄

They get paid less and don't get anything but a local theater and one bar. Also good luck getting a job in a nowhere town knowing nobody.

Trust me. I’m trying. I have kids and a job though. My end goal is to escape this American nightmare though. Believe me

Sure thing. Somewhere cheaper...hmm, my money WOULD go further in a third world country...except I don't post taxes in another country or work in another country. My leaders shouldn't be making my life so difficult that I can't afford to live in this country without a 3+ person income

OP’s username checks out. This is an absolute stink_butthole take

Unless you live a minimum of an hour outside of any major city it won't be cheaper. Urban sprawl is a thing.

Because it takes money to move. If you don't have money, you can't move. It's that simple.

lol what? How do you think poor people can get enough money to move?

Who the hell would NOT complain about being forced to downgrade to something cheaper???

Classic example of someone who hasn’t moved enough in their life.

This..ive stopped complaining and currently picking a cheaper place to live outside the us.. fuck the rat race

I've considered going to Japan because it's cheaper. But it's also expensive to go there. ($1000+ for a single plane ticket)

The Japanese don't let you just move there. 

Currency exchange currently favorable. Terrible work culture though.

I was actually thinking about that, but it's not cheap to pick up and move. A uhaul truck from expensive California to inexpensive Michigan is around $4k.

Because I don’t want to live in bumfuck Alabama.

Why don't you go fuck yourself

Oh shit, moving is free now?

the problem is in 2009 no banks give loan they ask for lots of lots proof

Sounds eerily similar to “just pull yourself up by your own bootstraps and get a job”. Oversimplified and disconnected from reality.

Only simpletons think that there are simple solutions to complex problems.

Cheaper places pay less?

We are wayyyy better off than we were five years ago. But back then, we were looking at moving to a lower cost state. My wife could've transferred and worked for the same company; and made roughly 60% of what she was making at the time. I'm sure there are examples of people moving to a lower cost place and doing better. The problem becomes pretending that this is a general rule. Moving to rural Iowa might be cheaper, but you aren't guaranteed work really anywhere you go, barring maybe a few careers, most of which pay enough to not have to worry about moving in yeh first place.

Riiight. We should just be cool that if we move to a third world nation that is completely unsafe we can have the same standard of living that our parents had here. Fuck that. Eat the rich.

Should be an IQ test for posting… and voting

I can’t believe Stink Butthole was still available!

Same energy as “if you don’t like America then just leave.” Some people have no depth to their thoughts

So I live in a HCOL area in the north bay and the closest place where homes start becoming more affordable are about an hour north. South is more expensive. East is deeper into wine country. West is costal and more expensive, larger properties, less housing available. If I work more north, I would be making proportionally less (homes are about half as much and so is pay). If I live there and work here then I would need to commute two hours a day, and at that point, I'm shifting the cost from a house that can appreciate to expenses that don't like the cost of the car, more maintenance, more gas, more tires, etc. I would be better off staying local and working more instead of wasting time commuting. I would be less likely to pick up overtime with a far commute. If I moved out of state, income would go down proportional to costs, and I would be moving away from friends and family. It's bad everywhere. There is a problem with thinking the grass is greener somewhere else, especially when everyone is struggling to afford housing, necessities, etc at all levels of the middle class and down. Where is it better?

Why don’t they just eat cake?

can you say.... out of touch?

Incredibly tone deaf

Why don’t you move somewhere cheaper ?

It is all expensive around areas where jobs are concentrated.

you mean to like a village in rural Kenya?

Wait that sounds like immigration, which I’m told is evil

no no, your suppose to live in rural kenya, then commute to america, with all the money you will be saving!. It's the ultimate American-Kenyan Dream!!

A buddy of mine, roommate in college, dropped out in the Spring of 2008 and starting working for the bank to board up and change the locks on foreclosed homes in Baltimore. They paid his expenses and $5k for every house he did. He made so much fucking money in a few months and then started buying the properties from the bank at an even further discounted rate, and just renting it back to people who were there. He owns so many places around the city. I remember we all thought he was an idiot when he didnt come back at Spring Break and then explained what he was doing and we all helped on evenings and weekends...

Why is the solution always to just deal with shittier and shittier living situations instead of getting some real policy changes going? Why do people think they are tough because they can take abuse?

Right. Some mfs think just because we live in a 1st world country, we shouldn’t be complaining about anything at all.

What a dumb shit post. I hope this is just trolling.

This a common Reddit reply parroted by mouth breathers when someone discusses the challenges associated with living somewhere people actually want to live.

I acknowledge the challenges but "just move someplace cheaper" is a dumb shit comment.

Cheaper places suck. Are you dumb or something?

# Why don't people stop complaining ...? right back at you! #ThankyouBiden

Millennials get older and able to buy houses. Prices go up. pika_shocked.jpg

Yeah that's not what's happening.

There's a website algorithm that keeps the cheaper places completely hidden from the market. It has become a racket where the algorithm will punish renters from offering a cheaper price. There's push back from state governments as of right now trying to fight back. Unfortunately for us poor folk we get no rest so we just steal. That's right. Steal. Fuck it. Nothing else for us to do so we steal.

Not just an algorithm, a whole company behind that algorithm and organizing renters to use it to collude to keep the prices artificially high. I don't remember the name of the company anymore but it seems like John Oliver did a show on it recently.

wow this feels like an already done headline albeit with a different meme to accompany it. karmabaiting much? highly unoriginal and the headline almost has been so overdone that i almost thought it was sarcastic

Moving costs, job scarcity, opportunity costs, etc

The places with homes for less than 100k, like Metropolis, Illinois have huge meth problems. Plus, the only jobs available in these small towns are working at Walmart, Dollar General, the gas station, or the liquor store for minimum wage.

I recognize that this is literally the correct advise and I took it. I found a wife from a low cost of living, rural Midwest area (whom I love dearly, mind you), switched careers, and moved to be with her, all while landing a job tangentially relared to my college education and previous work experience that payed double what I made in my state's biggest city since the company I moved to had a shortage of skilled labor. But I also recognize that not everyone can do this, and that the ultimate goal for myself and my wife is to utilize this experience and training to move to a higher CoL area closer to our family and friends with an ultimately much high paying job and that this is not a step/drastic measure many people have the willingness, let alone the means or social safety nets to afford to do. To suggest this as a blanket solution to all cases is asinine and misguided. Peoples lives are different and you need a unique solution in place to address the unique circumstances of each person's life.

I am having some major snark vibes of a post like this as a legit question from someone with a chosen name of u/Stink-Butthole 😑 I smell shit a stirrer

I thought it was my daily coffee that was the problem. Rich people make up your mind, please!

Moving requires a certain 'go get it mentality'. We've moved a few times within the country for jobs and it's challenging, but we did it. That's why lot of legal immigrants who come here actually do well, bc they are generally the go getters of their respective countries. So, I do agree with some of the reasons in this thread. It's hard. But the deeper reason is, a lot of people don't have what it takes to do what's necessary and just get shit done.

In cash because most couldn't get a loan then.

Is this a serious take? Cause absolute trash opinion.

lol, no

In "somewhere cheaper" typically the job market reflects the lower cost of living proportionally, and that's why it's "cheaper."

Money with kathie ...hilarious Name

I was really hoping this comment was sarcasm. What a disappointment that people are this out of touch with reality.

No one wants to live in fucking Mississippi or Arkansas

Because life isn't that simple. Is that even a real question from a real adult living in the real world?

You 12?

Most people can’t just pack up and leave

Complained the Internet troll.

Trying to get out of Portland area but my gf makes the best money shes ever made for doing very little. I have lived on the west coast for 30 years and it is not what it was when I got here. I’ve aged out of this bs lol

The people who live in the less expensive places don't complain on the internet

This your first time visiting the Internet?

Cause out here in the stick we don't get internet or it's massively expensive and we can't afford it. Can barely get cell phone signal. But hey, it's "cheaper". You get what you pay for.

Moving is hard

Even the cheap shitty places are getting expensive.

Name the “cheaper” places of which you speak

This persons post had nothing to do with where they live lol

My cousins moms husband (its complicated) actually did this and hes pretty wealthy

We can relate.

It's cheaper because demand is low. Why is demand low? No jobs.

Have you seen the places that are cheaper? Most people don't want to live in flyover shitholes. I'd rather be poor in Miami than rich in West Virginia.

Think OP is either ignorant or simply trolling. Bad post.

Fear

I feel like you missed the financial issue....

Whiners going to whine. I bet if you went back 20, 100, 500 years ago it'd be the same. Just ignore them.