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My husband and I live in San Diego. We're 41 with no kids (childfree by choice), and my parents are in northeast Texas. I grew up there, but have lived in Philly and San Diego since I was 18 (aside from a short stint in Austin).
I have found this forum unbelievably helpful as we plan our next life move. Apologies if some of my questions have been answered in previous threads; if so, please feel free to direct me there (or delete this post if needed)!
We are strongly considering a move to Fayetteville for a number of reasons:
- Proximity to my aging parents. (I consider them my best friends, aside from the cats...oh, and my husband haha). My folks live about 6 hours away from Fayetteville, which is within my "8 hours driving requirement" of wherever we move.
- Natural beauty. (We LOVE creeks, streams, rivers, mountains, and forests. Hiking is a huge passion.)
- Cost of living. (San Diego is great, but way too rich for my blood! Someone I know just mentioned getting "illegal botox" during COVID, which...well....come on LOL!)
- Mild 4-season climate. (I am one of the weirdos who consider the San Diego climate to be very "meh." I miss Mother Nature's wild mood swings )
- Slower pace of life. (I planned to stay in San Diego for 4 years, and have been here for 17. I'm ready to get somewhere smaller and more laid back. Husband is on board, having grown up in Los Angeles and enjoying the "slower" pace of San Diego...he's ready for even slower!)
A bit about us:
- We both work full-time, but we're remote and can work from anywhere.
- We LOVE cats, and have 3. We love all animals, really
- We have no kids, but have plenty of friends who do. We don't want any of our own, for various reasons.
- We do lots of indoor rock climbing, but haven't gone outside much.
- We love biking, and we love these dorky kick scooters even more than bikes!!
- We love horror movies and recording music (we made an entire rock opera about our cats haha).
- We love the outdoors, and we love anything green
- We are politically left-leaning moderates. I was never really into politics til Trump, and now I lean decidedly left. But I also grew up in a super conservative area and don't need all my friends to share my views. My husband is quite far left, but does not care what people's political opinions are, as long as they're nice people who can live and let live.
- We are religiously unaffiliated. My husband is agnostic. I was raised Jewish, but would probably just drive to my hometown for services a few times per year and leave it at that That said, we would be open to joining a Jewish or Unitarian congregation if there's not too much pressure to start a family!
- We are not the types to show up and rave about how great it was somewhere else, or to try and be saviors or make Fayetteville into anything but what it is. That said, we're passionate about equality and kindness, so we would probably be getting active in the social justice scene
- Friendships are very important to us. We are tired of having so many friends move out of San Diego, and are ready to make lifelong friends who plan to stay put and call a city home.
My questions for you all are as follows:
- Will be be able to make friends at our age (40s)? It sounds like NWA is great for young singles, young families, and retirees, but a scouring of the forum hasn't told much about weirdos like us, who are middle-aged, yet active and fun-loving, and don't have or want kids. We have friends way younger and way older than ourselves in San Diego, but I know when I go back to my hometown, people look at me like I have 3 heads for not having kiddos I just want to make sure that being childfree isn't gonna make us social pariahs or something!
- Is it a somewhat walkable city? I saw that it's considered "car dependent" on Walkability and I must admit that I have been spoiled by many years of getting places on foot. I don't need much; a restaurant or two in walking distance is great by me!
If there are some walkable neighborhoods, which would you suggest we explore? We love a foresty feel with some privacy, and typically prefer older neighborhoods closer to town vs. ones that are farther out. We're super flexible about all of this, and these are just our ideal scenario
We haven't been able to visit b/c of COVID We would appreciate any resources you have that showcase a walkthrough or bikethrough of the city.
TL;DR:
Friendly, open-minded, and cat-loving couple wants to make sure being childfree in Fayetteville wouldn't keep us from making true friends. We are so excited to visit, once the pandemic ends!!!
Make Friends - Certainly. Many groups for the activities you enjoy. May need to be willing to travel to Benton Co for some of the stuff though. Fayetteville still has the more active nightlife if you are into that. My wife and I had considered not having children. Sure, you will find people who think it is weird to actively decide to not have kids but most people won't think about it either way.
Walk able - It can be depending on what part of town you live in and how far you are willing to walk/bike. When I attended the UofA I would bike everywhere even though I had a car. Even would bike to the mall for work from the school if I had enough time. Most of the larger towns have decent sidewalks around the core part of town. Otherwise, we are certainly a motorized vehicle oriented area.
Locations - We need to know a price range first. Rent/Own?
Fayetteville sounds like a good fit for you. AS for anyone choosing to be childless, this is more common everyday I think. Our younger daughter choose that route. They are now in their 50s, do not regret their choice as far as I know and give their love to their nieces, nephews and mommy and daddy.
Now, back to Fayetteville, there are walking trails, a great city square, fun things to do for everyone.
Politically Fayetteville would be a good place for you as it is more liberal than most of NWA: this goes with you religious views as well. Some of the more liberal religions have large congregations in the area.
There are plenty of bike trails, places to hike and out door life to enjoy. If you choose to live close to a few restaurants you are probably going to what to live near downtown. Of course the price for housing will be a bit higher but coming from So. CA this should not be a huge concern.
BTW hubby and I are grads from SDSU and agree with you on the weather. We found So. CA weather boring most of the time.
Thank you so much for your replies, snaple4 and nmnita!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by nmnita
Fayetteville sounds like a good fit for you. AS for anyone choosing to be childless, this is more common everyday I think. Our younger daughter choose that route. They are now in their 50s, do not regret their choice as far as I know and give their love to their nieces, nephews and mommy and daddy.
Now, back to Fayetteville, there are walking trails, a great city square, fun things to do for everyone.
Politically Fayetteville would be a good place for you as it is more liberal than most of NWA: this goes with you religious views as well. Some of the more liberal religions have large congregations in the area.
There are plenty of bike trails, places to hike and out door life to enjoy. If you choose to live close to a few restaurants you are probably going to what to live near downtown. Of course the price for housing will be a bit higher but coming from So. CA this should not be a huge concern.
BTW hubby and I are grads from SDSU and agree with you on the weather. We found So. CA weather boring most of the time.
Nmnita: That is so great to hear about your younger daughter! That's the approach we've taken, too; I love showering my parents, nieces, and friends (and their kids) with love, rather than having my own littles
That's so funny you went to SDSU! Is that how you met? Totally agree with the boring weather.
Politics are very unimportant to us in the grand scheme, and I'm a registered independent, so I do think we'd be fine and fit in anywhere. I tend to avoid talking politics in general, but don't mind a chat here and there, as long as it's civil and thoughtful, which is exactly what Fayetteville seems to be!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Snaple4
Make Friends - Certainly. Many groups for the activities you enjoy. May need to be willing to travel to Benton Co for some of the stuff though. Fayetteville still has the more active nightlife if you are into that. My wife and I had considered not having children. Sure, you will find people who think it is weird to actively decide to not have kids but most people won't think about it either way.
Walk able - It can be depending on what part of town you live in and how far you are willing to walk/bike. When I attended the UofA I would bike everywhere even though I had a car. Even would bike to the mall for work from the school if I had enough time. Most of the larger towns have decent sidewalks around the core part of town. Otherwise, we are certainly a motorized vehicle oriented area.
Locations - We need to know a price range first. Rent/Own?
Snaple4:
We run into people who think we're weird for choosing to not have kids, even here in SoCal, but I get it 100%. It's still not a very mainstream choice
I definitely like the idea of a solid urban core (like a few square blocks with restaurants, bars, etc. to give that community feel), but also like the idea of more space beyond that. Sounds like that is Fayetteville!
Regarding neighborhoods:
Our biggest priority is privacy and greenery/woodsiness. We like homes with lots of light, and the ability to look out the window and see trees and nature. We also tend toward older homes b/c they seem to have more character. We are fine if we can walk even to a single coffee shop or the like. We're fine walking up to about 1.5 miles just to get that precious cup of coffee, too For me, there's just something about being able to stroll out for a coffee or pastry, though we rarely would even do so. We'd be happy to hop on bikes and ride up to a few miles to have that experience, too! But in a perfect world, we'd have the walking option.
A few neighborhoods we've considered include: Huntingdon (love the look, but not sure it's at all walkable), Wilson Park (prob too expensive), Walker Park (is it safe?), Mount Sequoyah, etc. We don't even know actual neighborhood names, which is making it a bit harder to do our research. We'd like to avoid flood zones! If you have a few official neighborhood names we could explore, that'd be great!
Regarding budget:
We're still working that part out. Ideally, if we were to buy a place, something in the 300-500k range would probably work. We prob would want a 2/2 or 3/2. I'd rather have a smaller place a bit closer to the action, as long as it's still private with some trees.
This house would probably work for you. It's a few blocks from Wilson Park, and within walking distance of the Fayetteville square. Lots of restaurants and shops within range.
This house would probably work for you. It's a few blocks from Wilson Park, and within walking distance of the Fayetteville square. Lots of restaurants and shops within range.
WOW! Thank you so much! That place is incredible! We have these three cats who are all senior citizens, so we want to minimize the trauma to them from renting, then moving again if/when we buy. It's so tempting to just jump right on this place, but that feels a bit silly since we haven't even visited NWA yet But everyone on here is so friendly, and that's our #1 priority...kind people! It's tempting to just move, sight unseen! Anyway, this is very much what we would LOVE when we do move.
We're a cat-loving couple with similar political views who, albeit a generation older than you, moved to Fayetteville 4 yrs ago from NTx (I grew up in NE Tx) - for many of the same reasons you listed, notably the moderate climate, 4 seasons, natural beauty, friendly & welcoming people who are tolerant of diverse religious beliefs & accepting of "outsiders" coming from other states. For us a big factor is the theater & arts community. We don't bike but we appreciate that the area is full of opportunities for those who do.
We live within (steep) walking distance of downtown, several blocks from UofA & we love, love our neighbors. Last year we went through a traumatic family experience & they were so supportive.
Be aware that houses don't last long on the market. When we found our 3-2 craftsman bungalow, we jumped right on it. Near as we can tell, that's still the situation today. When searching, stick with zip code 72701. This listing is just up the street from us, the style is not everyone's cuppa but it's an example of the diversity you'll find here, it's surrounded by older historical homes: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/8...72852145_zpid/
edit to add: worth mentioning that we have a world-class public library. Also the traumatic event we experienced was a critical accident sustained by our son who spent a month in the hospital. And as seniors, dh & I have had experience with many health care providers. We've been beyond satisfied with the health care. In our experience, it's been better here than when we lived in DFW.
Last edited by biscuitmom; 08-31-2020 at 11:45 PM..
Half mil for a thousand square feet in Fayetteville....
It's in the historical district, within walking distance to the Fayetteville Square, Dickson St, Walton Arts Center, numerous restaurants and shops. Those amenities come at a premium.
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