Cost Of Living In Your Area And Upkeep?

[Cartagia]

I live in Nashville, and it's situation sounds eerily similar to Denver's. @.@

Ayup.  I avoid Nashville proper at all costs.

Also - I completely forgot that you lived here Kash and was like “Whoa another Nashvillian!”

[cornykev]

I live in Nashville, and it's situation sounds eerily similar to Denver's. @.@

Ayup.  I avoid Nashville proper at all costs.

Also - I completely forgot that you lived here Kash and was like “Whoa another Nashvillian!”

Nice! I live in rural west TN somewhere between Memphis and Nashville. Rent is pretty affordable here. I spent a year in a 3-room above-garage apartment for $325/month and my wife and I now live in a 2-bedroom duplex for $625/month (with commodities such as a garage, laundry, etc.). One of the bedrooms serves as my game room, ha.

[aliensstudios]

I live in the Denver area and have lived here almost my whole life. I graduated college in 2010, got my first real job shortly after, and found a very nice apartment for $945 a month. Fastforward a few years later, weed gets legalized and then suddenly everyone wants to move to Colorado for the legal weed. This then puts a spotlight on Colorado and everyone realizes how little traffic we have, how "affordable" it is, and how our schools are so great. Before you know it we are getting 50,000 new people moving in a month from 2013 to 2016, and the cost of everything goes through the roof. That same apartment I started renting in 2010 went from $945 a month to nearly $1300 a month just four years later. Needless to say I no longer live there and have to move several times now due to my landlord getting greedy and wanting to jack my rent up several hundred dollars a month at the end of my lease.


I love Colorado, I really do, but it has become incredibly expensive and difficult to live here over this last decade, some of it having nothing to do with the cost of living. One of our biggest attractions is the mountains, but good luck going up there between Friday and Monday; a popular mountain town called Dillon is 75-miles from Denver up I-70 and on a typical Friday afternoon when everyone wants to go up to the mountains, it can take between 3-hours on a good day, and as many as 10-hours depending on weather conditions and if it's ski season. Growing up this was an hour and a half drive consistently. I could go on and on about other things too, but it really does make you question how badly you want to live here. I think the most telling sign of this is how last year there was only a net population increase of about 50k even though nearly 300k new people moved here last year. That's because almost 250k people left. Really makes you wonder how great it really is to live here now...

I live in Colorado too and the price of an apartment is crazy, like 1200-2000 a month! I've got a very good amount saved atm but the housing market is discouraging. Overpriced, fixer upper houses for 400 to 500k! I've grown pretty sick of Colorado since finishing High School in 2012 and have looked at property in Virginia, where a lot of our family is for have the price for a comparable house. In Colorado, it's like something goes up for sale and two days later its sold.

It's very discouraging, and I'm not counting on ever owning property in this state unless my mom has me on the inheritance for her house, which I doubt. The two things that keep me here are familiarity, I've lived here almost my entire life, and I have a well paying job that I really like. Despite my job, I still can't afford rent at most apartments, unless of course I settle for a dump, and I certainly cannot afford a house, even in places that used to be dirt cheap like Commerce City or Greeley. My only real hope is waiting for a major downturn in the market, which the market is slowing down, but it is far being at the point where I could jump into a mortgage.

Yeah, the only place I could afford a house right now is Saudi Aurora and I'm just not interested in living down there. You could live in Pueblo for cheap but there's nothing down there. My cousin used to live with her husband in a big house with a five acre lot and got like 80,000 for it lol. Life's short and I don't want to scrimp and save to buy a house that ten years ago would've costed 1/3 of its current price, you know what I mean?

[bikingjahuty]

I live in the Denver area and have lived here almost my whole life. I graduated college in 2010, got my first real job shortly after, and found a very nice apartment for $945 a month. Fastforward a few years later, weed gets legalized and then suddenly everyone wants to move to Colorado for the legal weed. This then puts a spotlight on Colorado and everyone realizes how little traffic we have, how "affordable" it is, and how our schools are so great. Before you know it we are getting 50,000 new people moving in a month from 2013 to 2016, and the cost of everything goes through the roof. That same apartment I started renting in 2010 went from $945 a month to nearly $1300 a month just four years later. Needless to say I no longer live there and have to move several times now due to my landlord getting greedy and wanting to jack my rent up several hundred dollars a month at the end of my lease.


I love Colorado, I really do, but it has become incredibly expensive and difficult to live here over this last decade, some of it having nothing to do with the cost of living. One of our biggest attractions is the mountains, but good luck going up there between Friday and Monday; a popular mountain town called Dillon is 75-miles from Denver up I-70 and on a typical Friday afternoon when everyone wants to go up to the mountains, it can take between 3-hours on a good day, and as many as 10-hours depending on weather conditions and if it's ski season. Growing up this was an hour and a half drive consistently. I could go on and on about other things too, but it really does make you question how badly you want to live here. I think the most telling sign of this is how last year there was only a net population increase of about 50k even though nearly 300k new people moved here last year. That's because almost 250k people left. Really makes you wonder how great it really is to live here now...

I live in Colorado too and the price of an apartment is crazy, like 1200-2000 a month! I've got a very good amount saved atm but the housing market is discouraging. Overpriced, fixer upper houses for 400 to 500k! I've grown pretty sick of Colorado since finishing High School in 2012 and have looked at property in Virginia, where a lot of our family is for have the price for a comparable house. In Colorado, it's like something goes up for sale and two days later its sold.

It's very discouraging, and I'm not counting on ever owning property in this state unless my mom has me on the inheritance for her house, which I doubt. The two things that keep me here are familiarity, I've lived here almost my entire life, and I have a well paying job that I really like. Despite my job, I still can't afford rent at most apartments, unless of course I settle for a dump, and I certainly cannot afford a house, even in places that used to be dirt cheap like Commerce City or Greeley. My only real hope is waiting for a major downturn in the market, which the market is slowing down, but it is far being at the point where I could jump into a mortgage.

Yeah, the only place I could afford a house right now is Saudi Aurora and I'm just not interested in living down there. You could live in Pueblo for cheap but there's nothing down there. My cousin used to live with her husband in a big house with a five acre lot and got like 80,000 for it lol. Life's short and I don't want to scrimp and save to buy a house that ten years ago would've costed 1/3 of its current price, you know what I mean?

i definitely hear you there. I've known and currently know too many people that are house poor and I'd rather be in my current situation then be like them. And yes, I refuse to pay these unnatural prices which I can't see them holding for the life of any mortgage taken out in the last 10-years. Sure, these people could always cash out or short sell, but eventually someone who pays these ridiculous prices will be caught holding the bag, and I refuse to be one of them. Essentially I'm choosing to be patient, and in the meantime enjoy my life while saving what I can to someday buy a home assuming the  circumstances allow me to responsibly and at much lower risk than the current market dictates.

[turf]

I live in north central Arkansas. It’s cheap to live here. Bad cheap. The only thing that is expensive is land. I’m trying to find a small piece of land and build a house, but it’s damn near impossible to find anything at a price I’m willing to pay.

The downside is wages are trash here. There’s not a whole lot of money to be made.

[aliensstudios]

I live in north central Arkansas. It’s cheap to live here. Bad cheap. The only thing that is expensive is land. I’m trying to find a small piece of land and build a house, but it’s damn near impossible to find anything at a price I’m willing to pay.

The downside is wages are trash here. There’s not a whole lot of money to be made.

My Uncle and his wife lived in good old Arkansas in the mid 2000s. He's sort of an off-the-grid kind of guy so he built his own house and everything and had a good ten acres of land. He started building houses from start to finish for folks all over the country so he left Arkansas and moved to Virginia where the rest of my family is to be his hub. I visited him once as a kid and I liked it, it was nice to get away from the melting pot that is Colorado.  I think he sold the land and the house, but he didn't get too much for it. Why is land so expensive now?   

[Flashback2012]

I lived in Boston for a few years when I was starting my collection. Was really in to handhelds and PC stuff cause frankly it was all I could fit. But yeah, a 350 square foot studio was around $1300. Which of course is nothing compared to NYC.

I live near Cincinnati now and things are much more reasonable. Looking at houses now, but things vary depending on how far from the city you are and which neighborhoods. My apartment is around $800 a month, but just across the river I can see Peter Frampton's house... Seriously...

Overall cost of living is just about right though. I can over-pay for my bills, and keep a sizeable monthly game budget.

So you're the one snatching up all the local deals! 

J/K

Cookie cutter neighborhoods are popping up all over around here but instead of building modest sized homes that have floor plans that range from 900-1500 sq. ft., developers are opting to go with floor plans in the range of 2K-3K sq. ft. because they make more money (or so I'm told). My friends tried to put their 1500 sq. ft. home up for like $115-120K but couldn't attract any buyers so they pulled it off the market and then of course the market went crazy to where the smaller starter homes like theirs can't list fast enough. There's a 900 sq. ft. 3-bed, 1-bath down the street from them that needed to be seriously renovated. It listed at $110K and was sold in less than a week. Other houses on the same street went up for sale and have all had sold signs in their front yards within the past year.

I've also read about how foreign investors are dumping money into real estate but I've not heard about it being a big thing here. There are TONS of homemade signs on every corner with people saying they'll pay cash for homes. The flipper mentality is surreal here as it isn't just limited to video games. 

Cost of living isn't too horrible around here. It's roughly the same for most of the Cincinnati-Dayton metropolitan area. Areas like Columbus feel a little more expensive but surrounding cities like Louisville, Lexington, and Indianapolis all feel about the same as it is here. We do not speak of the lands East of the I-275 loop as that is barren wasteland and not fit for living on. Kidding...but the area out there definitely becomes more rural the farther East you go.

[wolff242]

I live in north central Arkansas. It’s cheap to live here. Bad cheap. The only thing that is expensive is land. I’m trying to find a small piece of land and build a house, but it’s damn near impossible to find anything at a price I’m willing to pay.

The downside is wages are trash here. There’s not a whole lot of money to be made.

My Uncle and his wife lived in good old Arkansas in the mid 2000s. He's sort of an off-the-grid kind of guy so he built his own house and everything and had a good ten acres of land. He started building houses from start to finish for folks all over the country so he left Arkansas and moved to Virginia where the rest of my family is to be his hub. I visited him once as a kid and I liked it, it was nice to get away from the melting pot that is Colorado.  I think he sold the land and the house, but he didn't get too much for it. Why is land so expensive now?

"Saudi Aurora" -care to elaborate?

Also, curious what you mean when you say it's good to get away from the melting pot that is Colorado.

[aliensstudios]

I live in north central Arkansas. It’s cheap to live here. Bad cheap. The only thing that is expensive is land. I’m trying to find a small piece of land and build a house, but it’s damn near impossible to find anything at a price I’m willing to pay.

The downside is wages are trash here. There’s not a whole lot of money to be made.

My Uncle and his wife lived in good old Arkansas in the mid 2000s. He's sort of an off-the-grid kind of guy so he built his own house and everything and had a good ten acres of land. He started building houses from start to finish for folks all over the country so he left Arkansas and moved to Virginia where the rest of my family is to be his hub. I visited him once as a kid and I liked it, it was nice to get away from the melting pot that is Colorado.  I think he sold the land and the house, but he didn't get too much for it. Why is land so expensive now?

"Saudi Aurora" -care to elaborate?

Also, curious what you mean when you say it's good to get away from the melting pot that is Colorado.

"Saudi Aurora" ha, well, to the southeast of Denver there is a quaint little town called Aurora. It actually can be quite nice in some spots but it's also the area where the shadiest portion of Colfax avenue runs through. It can be quite the contrast from the niceties of Denver itself, especially in recent times. Basically, a spot I have no interest in living or visiting unless absolutely necessary.

I think melting pot is the wrong term, I just feel like Colorado as a whole is losing its identity with all of the imports from California and other places. Walking through Boulder is like seeing a Reddit thread play out in real life. A lot of the more quiet areas and quaint portions of the metro area have evolved into these massive shopping centers, unaffordable mansions that are three feet apart and have no yards... There's just a general posh feel to Colorado. Like it's becoming Silicon Valley with none of the innovation, just a bunch of smarmy know-it-alls. If you don't make six figures a year and don't have property, you essentially have no value or buying power in the real estate market. Me, I like the quiet life, so I love going to the mountains and hiking and skiing (which is now becoming too expensive for your everyman to do). I've just seen it evolve into this place I don't like, and a lot of the things I remember loving about it from my childhood are going away.

[wolff242]

I live in north central Arkansas. It’s cheap to live here. Bad cheap. The only thing that is expensive is land. I’m trying to find a small piece of land and build a house, but it’s damn near impossible to find anything at a price I’m willing to pay.

The downside is wages are trash here. There’s not a whole lot of money to be made.

My Uncle and his wife lived in good old Arkansas in the mid 2000s. He's sort of an off-the-grid kind of guy so he built his own house and everything and had a good ten acres of land. He started building houses from start to finish for folks all over the country so he left Arkansas and moved to Virginia where the rest of my family is to be his hub. I visited him once as a kid and I liked it, it was nice to get away from the melting pot that is Colorado.  I think he sold the land and the house, but he didn't get too much for it. Why is land so expensive now?

"Saudi Aurora" -care to elaborate?

Also, curious what you mean when you say it's good to get away from the melting pot that is Colorado.

"Saudi Aurora" ha, well, to the southeast of Denver there is a quaint little town called Aurora. It actually can be quite nice in some spots but it's also the area where the shadiest portion of Colfax avenue runs through. It can be quite the contrast from the niceties of Denver itself, especially in recent times. Basically, a spot I have no interest in living or visiting unless absolutely necessary.

I think melting pot is the wrong term, I just feel like Colorado as a whole is losing its identity with all of the imports from California and other places. Walking through Boulder is like seeing a Reddit thread play out in real life. A lot of the more quiet areas and quaint portions of the metro area have evolved into these massive shopping centers, unaffordable mansions that are three feet apart and have no yards... There's just a general posh feel to Colorado. Like it's becoming Silicon Valley with none of the innovation, just a bunch of smarmy know-it-alls. If you don't make six figures a year and don't have property, you essentially have no value or buying power in the real estate market. Me, I like the quiet life, so I love going to the mountains and hiking and skiing (which is now becoming too expensive for your everyman to do). I've just seen it evolve into this place I don't like, and a lot of the things I remember loving about it from my childhood are going away.

Ah gotcha. I'm just a couple hours from Colorado but haven't been there since the 80's. Huge Rockies fan though I think most people know Aurora because of James Holmes :/

[betelgeuse]

I live in Northern CA. Average rent for a house around my area is $3000+ for a 3 bedroom 2 bath.
Not all CA is expensive, just the areas around major cities. Like anywhere else, the more rural your area is, the cheaper the housing gets.

[aliensstudios]

I live in north central Arkansas. It’s cheap to live here. Bad cheap. The only thing that is expensive is land. I’m trying to find a small piece of land and build a house, but it’s damn near impossible to find anything at a price I’m willing to pay.

The downside is wages are trash here. There’s not a whole lot of money to be made.

My Uncle and his wife lived in good old Arkansas in the mid 2000s. He's sort of an off-the-grid kind of guy so he built his own house and everything and had a good ten acres of land. He started building houses from start to finish for folks all over the country so he left Arkansas and moved to Virginia where the rest of my family is to be his hub. I visited him once as a kid and I liked it, it was nice to get away from the melting pot that is Colorado.  I think he sold the land and the house, but he didn't get too much for it. Why is land so expensive now?

"Saudi Aurora" -care to elaborate?

Also, curious what you mean when you say it's good to get away from the melting pot that is Colorado.

"Saudi Aurora" ha, well, to the southeast of Denver there is a quaint little town called Aurora. It actually can be quite nice in some spots but it's also the area where the shadiest portion of Colfax avenue runs through. It can be quite the contrast from the niceties of Denver itself, especially in recent times. Basically, a spot I have no interest in living or visiting unless absolutely necessary.

I think melting pot is the wrong term, I just feel like Colorado as a whole is losing its identity with all of the imports from California and other places. Walking through Boulder is like seeing a Reddit thread play out in real life. A lot of the more quiet areas and quaint portions of the metro area have evolved into these massive shopping centers, unaffordable mansions that are three feet apart and have no yards... There's just a general posh feel to Colorado. Like it's becoming Silicon Valley with none of the innovation, just a bunch of smarmy know-it-alls. If you don't make six figures a year and don't have property, you essentially have no value or buying power in the real estate market. Me, I like the quiet life, so I love going to the mountains and hiking and skiing (which is now becoming too expensive for your everyman to do). I've just seen it evolve into this place I don't like, and a lot of the things I remember loving about it from my childhood are going away.

Ah gotcha. I'm just a couple hours from Colorado but haven't been there since the 80's. Huge Rockies fan though I think most people know Aurora because of James Holmes :/

I'm a diehard Rockies fan, that's my favorite thing to do in Denver!
I forgot about the  James Holmes thing happening in Aurora. Nathan Dunlap, the Chuck e Cheese murderer was Aurora as well.

[bikingjahuty]

I live in north central Arkansas. It’s cheap to live here. Bad cheap. The only thing that is expensive is land. I’m trying to find a small piece of land and build a house, but it’s damn near impossible to find anything at a price I’m willing to pay.

The downside is wages are trash here. There’s not a whole lot of money to be made.

My Uncle and his wife lived in good old Arkansas in the mid 2000s. He's sort of an off-the-grid kind of guy so he built his own house and everything and had a good ten acres of land. He started building houses from start to finish for folks all over the country so he left Arkansas and moved to Virginia where the rest of my family is to be his hub. I visited him once as a kid and I liked it, it was nice to get away from the melting pot that is Colorado.  I think he sold the land and the house, but he didn't get too much for it. Why is land so expensive now?

"Saudi Aurora" -care to elaborate?

Also, curious what you mean when you say it's good to get away from the melting pot that is Colorado.

"Saudi Aurora" ha, well, to the southeast of Denver there is a quaint little town called Aurora. It actually can be quite nice in some spots but it's also the area where the shadiest portion of Colfax avenue runs through. It can be quite the contrast from the niceties of Denver itself, especially in recent times. Basically, a spot I have no interest in living or visiting unless absolutely necessary.

I think melting pot is the wrong term, I just feel like Colorado as a whole is losing its identity with all of the imports from California and other places. Walking through Boulder is like seeing a Reddit thread play out in real life. A lot of the more quiet areas and quaint portions of the metro area have evolved into these massive shopping centers, unaffordable mansions that are three feet apart and have no yards... There's just a general posh feel to Colorado. Like it's becoming Silicon Valley with none of the innovation, just a bunch of smarmy know-it-alls. If you don't make six figures a year and don't have property, you essentially have no value or buying power in the real estate market. Me, I like the quiet life, so I love going to the mountains and hiking and skiing (which is now becoming too expensive for your everyman to do). I've just seen it evolve into this place I don't like, and a lot of the things I remember loving about it from my childhood are going away.

Ah gotcha. I'm just a couple hours from Colorado but haven't been there since the 80's. Huge Rockies fan though I think most people know Aurora because of James Holmes :/

I grew up in Littleton, the town where the Columbine High School Massacre occurred in 1999. I was in 6th grade when that happened, and was only about 3-miles from that whole incident. We've definitely been home to come of the most notorious acts of senseless violence over the past 20-years.

[kashell]

I live in Nashville, and it's situation sounds eerily similar to Denver's. @.@

Ayup.  I avoid Nashville proper at all costs.

Also - I completely forgot that you lived here Kash and was like “Whoa another Nashvillian!”

Damn right. McKay's for days!

Nice! I live in rural west TN somewhere between Memphis and Nashville. Rent is pretty affordable here. I spent a year in a 3-room above-garage apartment for $325/month and my wife and I now live in a 2-bedroom duplex for $625/month (with commodities such as a garage, laundry, etc.). One of the bedrooms serves as my game room, ha.

I like the idea of moving somewhere rural with more space due to the more affordable COL prices.

But. I'm a suburbanite, so living somewhere rural wouldn't work for me. Plus, I can confidently say that I love where I live and where I work.

Still, the city isn't without its flaws. When we moved here from Atlanta, we just missed the boom. Houses were affordable. There was a small town feel. Within months of moving there, it's like Nashville transformed:

*Terrible traffic with some of the worst drivers
*Ugly new construction with zero personality
*Surplus of tourism - I know it's good for the city, but Nashville is the number one spot for bachelorette parties AKA WOO GROUPS

There are times it feels like Atlanta Part 2.

[marvelvscapcom2]

I live in the 43rd most crime ridden city in the United States.  I have seen armed robberies, ATF raids, heard 6 gun shots outside to find that a cab driver was shot at. And have lived next to a murderer. Just last year I was solicited for sex by a prostitute (didn't accept  ) who went on to arm rob a victim who did. The heroin epidemic in my city is atrocious.  USA Today ranked my city one of the worst cities to live in, in the entire united states.  Because although we have tons of crime.  It is also extremely expensive for property and rent.   Not much room for growth and advancement and their are NO jobs. 

I am one of the lucky ones who has an affordable apartment, a good job and luxuries.  But most are over 1,000 easy for 1-2 bedroom apartments.  Which is atrocious based on our economical situation.  I do plan on moving.  I love the city.  It's my home.  But at the same time Its pretty bad.   


I really want to move to Colarado or some rocky mountain wilderness, but of course it's hard to start life a new when everything you have and all the people you know are already in one place.   

Their is a suburb in my city, gated and guarded.  But you have to poop diamonds and have a yacht to live there.  We actually have a odd contrast here.  Because their is emmense bad but also rich boat owners here that simply bathe in money.  And with that comes a lot of corrupt politicans and money coming in and out.  It's a mess.   


My mayor got charged with gun charges, the mayor that replaced him after the recall got charged with felony tax evasion.  My city is something out of a Law and Order SVU skit.   But it's so eazy to adjust after all this time.  It all seems normal. 


Thanks for this awesome thread though,  I love seeing a bit about where people grew up or live.  It's interesting