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With so many people on the move, a lot of us are now living in "other" places. My hometown in Southern California was bucolic while growing like a weed. I remember when a new area opened up in 1968 and the gorgeous new homes near the new golf course were $50,000 - the horror! None of us could believe it. My parent bought a house in 1963 for $22K. It's now assessed at $800K (yeah, everywhere's overinflated but anyway).
If money were not an issue, would you ever move back? There are lots of variables, of course. I recently spent time in my hometown. It went through a slump in the 90's and early 2000's but it's come back up in the world and is really nice again - even better than before (except my high school now looks like crap since they took out all the beautiful trees). I might move back if the opportunity arose but I wouldn't want to go back to the traffic. I do miss the mountains, deserts and beaches and that would be a major draw.
Would i move back? After i get PhD.. maybe. The jobs are the best on the East Coast and the livability/access to amenities destroys any city or metropolitan area Ive lived in. However, the city closes up shop earlier and can be boring. It has the chance to be better but doesn’t.
Ideally, id like to live in a better part of NJ but we will see.
Location: Miami (prev. NY, Atlanta, SF, OC and San Diego)
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Long Island—great place to grow up when I did but too suburban and car centric for my tastes while my body has become acclimated to year round warm weather. I will return when it’s time to be buried.
Last edited by elchevere; 11-07-2021 at 10:56 AM..
No plans to. All my old HS friends have left. Only reason I'd move back to Chicagoland is if the economy tanked again, I lost my job and couldn't get another one, and I couldn't find any local friends to stay with and had to stay with my parents.
My brother still lives with them, but he's increasingly interested in looking for jobs in other cities, and has even floated Seattle as a place he wants to look (though he seems to want a warmer climate, the Carolinas or something). So it's more likely that our parents will move to one of our cities than that we'll move back. Not that that'll happen anytime soon. They're in their early 60s but very dedicated to their careers and aren't planning on retiring until their 70s or even their 80s.
I do have a lot of fondness for the Chicago area. If I ever have kids, I'd like to raise them somewhere like it, a big and diverse metro area where they can take public transit/walk/bike places instead of their parents having to drive them everywhere.
I’ve said that I hope to retire back home even if for only part of the year. That won’t be for many decades. I love my city and that part of the country more than anywhere else. I am rooting for a resurgence, but I don’t know if I’d be happy living there at this stage in my life. The stagnant economy, lifeless downtown, poverty, segregation and fleeting population are incredibly discouraging. I’m in Atlanta now and, while I’d probably be happier a bit further north, the feeling of living in a prosperous major metro at the prime of its existence is worth it. The opportunities are beyond anything my home can offer. When I no longer need these opportunities, returning could be an attractive option.
Northern NJ. Lived all over but ended up back home. Not my hometown as that's about 30 min away but the same general area. Got the best views in the world here on the Gold Coast and pop in out of Gotham in 15 minutes by bus or ferry. Convenience and location personified.
Last edited by BigCity76; 11-08-2021 at 06:12 AM..
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