cjsmith | Background on the changes, fiscal no-brainers

A couple of people have implied that they missed the story triggering this pile of research into new places to live. No need to go looking; ya didn't miss much. :-) This entry, written shortly after a two-week vacation overseas, described my dissatisfaction with my current life and listed a few things I needed to do. One of those is ditch high-tech, which for me also means move.

Rob did the legwork on getting our current house price guesstimated by a local real estate agent. Mercy. Buying that thing eight years ago was the best financial decision the pair of us ever made.

When we start looking at the purchase prices of lovely homes elsewhere, the tiedown or hangar fees, utilities costs, various taxes, and so forth, we realize we would have to be absolutely butt-stupid not to move. A couple months ago I thought "maybe this would be a good idea"; now I'm thinking "DUH". I really wasn't quite prepared for the power of that realization. It's as impossible to ignore as a fist to the face. Unless we have ties to this place so strong it would break our souls to move, this is a complete no-brainer.

There's a lot I'll miss about this area, including people. I'll come back and visit if y'all want. The savings on utilities alone could pay for quite a few round trip plane tickets.

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The cost of living out there was the biggest thing that stopped us from ever seriously considering relocating out there.

And, of course, we can come visit you wherever you guys end up :-)

You beat me to it. :-) Can I have the brain back?

Ayep, it stopped my parents too, and I think that's one of the many seeds that started my brain going on this. Cost didn't mean much when I was twenty-two and fresh out of the Army; I could (and did) live in a rat-infested structurally-termite-endangered bucket of junk and eat Fritos for dinner. But now I see that there are better options.

Vice versa, we can visit too! Imagine having a bit of free time AND a bit of free cash -- both! At the same time!

We get a lot of Californians moving up here for many of the same reasons you've talked about. About the only thing I really really miss in the Bay Area is my C3 tape group (and of course the fun group I got to dance with while learning C4 Basic). :-) I'm sure you've done well on your house. My little Eichler appreciated over 300% in the eight years I owned it.

Exciting to look for a new place, isn't it? :-)

Exciting indeed! And while we may have picked the wrong eight years for maximum house appreciation, we've still done quite well and I'm feeling very fortunate.

Challenge square dancing will be hard to leave. One of the things I noticed about Boise was they have one A2 club. (Rob counted twice to be certain.) Rob will have to travel to keep up his C4 skills, and I'll have to travel to keep up my Challenge calling skills, if we choose Boise.

What's the square dance scene like there?

I can sum up the square dance scene in Bend in one word: non-existent. But we're close to Portland and Seattle. An easy trip, especially if you have your own airplane. :-)

Well, if you & Rob moved to the Ashland area, then we'd be much closer to having a square!

Two-couple C4!

If we moved to Ashland we'd immediately file for bankruptcy.

Why bankruptcy? If you're worried about housing prices, you can live in the next town over & have a much cheaper house. It would just mean you would have to drive to Ashland for the things there, but you probably wouldn't be walking all that much anyway!

Oh, I was just figuring house price / cost of living is high and there is not much income potential. I can't fully retire right now. I can downshift to a lower-income track if I pay cash for a house.

Ashland is beautiful. I really enjoyed our time there. Living in the next town over... oh darn, why aren't I a veterinarian *now*?

Though I'll miss you two even after the short time I've known you, I've got to support your decision. Then again, I support ANYBODY who wants to get out of high tech. Go! Don't look back! Run! Run! Run!

(And that's coming from somebody who used to live in Santa Barbara, where housing costs are even higher than locally, believe it or not.)

Wow. I knew Santa Barbara was "up there" but I didn't know it was that pricey.

Aren't you in high tech yourself? Crazy world, isn't it?

Nope- I'm in the non-profit adminstration sector, so I have an 8-5 job.

I worked in high-tech briefly. I'm glad I never looked back.

bibliocub and I have toyed with moving away from San Francisco, ourselves. We cannot justify (nor really afford) buying real estate here and yet we are paying over $3000 in rent. Looking at other parts of the country makes me sick when I see what we could get for $500K or less.

We have thought about Portland, OR since we both like the Northwest climate, have friends there, and have square dancing available. Heading back to Michael's Kansas City is a possibility as well but I don't know about the weather or being in such a conservative area.

We are sticking it out at least through September 2008 when the West Coast A&C weekend is done and I am no longer President of the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus. After those obligations are done, anything is fair game.

I hear ya. The costs are just astronomical.

Portland would be LOVELY. I suspect if it were either more sunny or just a tinch less pricey we'd be up there in a heartbeat. "Family"-friendly, dog-friendly, book-friendly... it's got just a wonderful feel to it. Heck, it's not 100% off the list as it is. Saturday market under the bridge! Powell's! *sigh* :-)

If you can afford to stay or be where important friends are, you might want to think long and hard about that... It depends on what's most important to you both.

A good point. I've never built the kind of roots here that I had in New England. Perhaps I kept seeing this as a temporary move, "just until we win the startup lottery" maybe, and suddenly I look and it's been sixteen years. Or maybe it's just that college is a crucible that forms deeper bonds. Definitely, making friends in a new city will be a big deal. LJ will remain my primary support network.

I'm not sure what Rob's outlook on this is. He too has lifelong friendships from where he grew up, but I'm not sure he has quite that kind of bond here. He knows more people here than I do, but the people he's closest to aren't local.

It should be easier if you don't have roots. I had lots and lots of them, and I feel the loss. I did what I had to do, but I really miss lots of folks out there.

I know what you mean about feeling the loss. I still feel it from having moved from New England. I will probably never again have roots, and I miss that as much as or even more than I miss specific people. Do you feel you're building roots where you are now? In ten or twenty years, will the loss be offset by those?

Interestingly, as long as I was with Dave, roots didn't seem as important. The roots were all *right there*, wherever we were.

Once Dave was gone, I realized just how deep the other roots I had went and how important they were to me.

Background on the changes, fiscal no-brainers

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