Why do you live in the town you live in and what keeps you there?

I was transferred here (Spring, Tx) in 1981. We live about 25 miles north of downtown Houston, and when we moved here we were almost in the "country". Pastures and fields were nearby, and the area was pretty darn nice.

Today, I'm still in the same house, but the area around is inundated with strip centers, apartment complexes, and tons of people and vehicles. We even tend to stay home on Saturdays because of all the idiots out there driving crazy.

That said, we would move (Texas hill country?) if we were ten years younger and didn't have the close ties with so many doctors and facilities.
 

JustBonee said:
That ^, and it’s comfortable, like a pair of old shoes. :)
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The trouble comes in--my situation--when where you live is comfortable for your spouse/partner but not yourself. Was talking to the wife of one of huzz's friends a few days ago about how I wish my huzz would consider moving since we need to downsize badly and she just shrugged and said, "Why should you move? He's comfortable where he is." I thought, "What about me?" (Story of my life, chopped liver, that's me.)
 
hollydolly said:
Did you know that you could fit the UK into Texas almost 3 times... ( that's with 70 million people as well)... and did you also know that we could fit 10 European countries into Texas with room to spare.. ?

I would Love to live in a State that is so huge it's 3 times bigger than my whole country... :ROFLMAO:
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It is a very long drive going across from one end to the other. Always enjoyed a stop in San Antonio.
 
officerripley said:
The trouble comes in--my situation--when where you live is comfortable for your spouse/partner but not yourself. Was talking to the wife of one of huzz's friends a few days ago about how I wish my huzz would consider moving since we need to downsize badly and she just shrugged and said, "Why should you move? He's comfortable where he is." I thought, "What about me?" (Story of my life, chopped liver, that's me.)
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My friend found herself in that situation too. She moved to a teeny, weeny, dusty, minuscule town in southern Alberta that had zero amenities but her husband grew up there and his aging mother was there. Eleven years of hell is how she describes it. Now she lives in her 'spiritual home' Chilliwack, BC. She was an American who left for Canada when she was 17. I'm sure she would sympathize with you.
 
Interstate 10 runs the width of Texas, from Louisiana to New Mexico. Living in the Houston area, I've driven that route east to Louisiana a number of times and its only a couple hours.

But the first time I drove it west (to California), it was quite an experience for the state just went on and on. For better or worse, Texas has all the climates and variations of culture you can imagine, and it is in many ways a country in its own.

I transferred to Dallas in 1977, which was the "Texas heyday" with the Cowboys, the TV show Dallas, and later on Urban Cowboy. Of course you had to see the movie "Giant" to get the feel for the oil based culture back then.

Today, it's a whole different Texas, and its not for the better (IMO).
 
Debrah N. said:
My friend found herself in that situation too. She moved to a teeny, weeny, dusty, minuscule town in southern Alberta that had zero amenities but her husband grew up there and his aging mother was there. Eleven years of hell is how she describes it. Now she lives in her 'spiritual home' Chilliwack, BC. She was an American who left for Canada when she was 17. I'm sure she would sympathize with you.
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Yep, I keep hearing about more and more people in this situation; found out I'm a member of a very large club. I read an article the other day about how part of the reason that affordable housing is so scarce in the U.S. is because "these old Boomers are refusing to downsize out of their too-large-for-them-anymore houses." I felt like leaving a comment that it's usually not us old Boomer women, it's the stubborn old Boomer husbands!
 
I'm only in my town because I gave up my career to stay/work at home with our three children. We followed my ex-husband around to several states as he worked his way up the ladder at his federal organization. Then he walked out on us in North Dakota, which has virtually no publishers (I'm an editor), when I was in my late 40s. I couldn't bear to make the kids move yet again—my daughters had already been in seven different schools. So I reluctantly stayed here.

Thank God I kept freelancing all those years, so I could stick with that. But it's an extremely competitive field, and the going's been tough.

I grew up on the East coast and miss it. Last summer I had planned to move back to mid-Missouri, but some enormous medical bills, which I'm still paying off, killed that idea. I can no longer afford to move, so I'm stuck. I do hope to someday be able to afford a good laptop so I can at least travel and work while I do so. I'll never be able to retire. I'm really not a fan of North Dakota, though.
 
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KSav said:
I'm only in my town because I gave up my career to stay/work at home with our three children. We followed my ex-husband around to several states as he worked his way up the ladder at his federal organization. Then he walked out on us in North Dakota, which has virtually no publishers (I'm an editor), when I was in my late 40s. I couldn't bear to make the kids move yet again—my daughters had already been in seven different schools. So I reluctantly stayed here.

Thank God I kept freelancing all those years, so I could stick with that. But it's an extremely competitive field, and the going's been tough.

I grew up on the East coast and miss it. Last summer I had planned to move back to mid-Missouri, but some enormous medical bills, which I'm still paying off, killed that idea. I can no longer afford to move, so I'm stuck. I do hope to someday be able to afford a good laptop so I can at least travel and work while I do so. I'll never be able to retire. I'm really not a fan of North Dakota, though.
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There must be some way to get a good laptop. One of my housemates just acquired a free one.
I wish you the best.
 
Alizerine said:
There must be some way to get a good laptop. One of my housemates just acquired a free one.
I wish you the best.
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Thank you! I'm getting there. My desktop is nearly 5 years old, so it will soon be time to replace it, anyway. My contracts specify that I must have the latest versions of software, etc. I have my fingers crossed that I can get one in the next year or so. 🤞
 
officerripley said:
Yep, I keep hearing about more and more people in this situation; found out I'm a member of a very large club. I read an article the other day about how part of the reason that affordable housing is so scarce in the U.S. is because "these old Boomers are refusing to downsize out of their too-large-for-them-anymore houses." I felt like leaving a comment that it's usually not us old Boomer women, it's the stubborn old Boomer husbands!
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In our case it is solely my 'boomer' wife that will not move out of this massive house with a massive yard we live in. The work to keep it up is killing us both physically and financially...we have been together for a lifetime, and I would not leave her for anything...but this is not what I pictured in retirement! I am now using "gentle pressure, relentless applied" but it is like moving a battleship with 5hp engine...slow but sure!
 
It has a decent year around climate, the people are diversified,
when I look around the mom-and-pop shops so much different stuff.
The costs are OK depending on where I choose to shop. Some things
about a gestapo state are well worth leaving from. I agree!
 
OneEyedDiva said:
I was born and raised here. What keeps me here now is that my immediate family is here. Also I'd be hard press to find a two bedroom, garden apartment comparable to this one and only pay $644 a month, including heat and hot water, which is what we pay now. It was $594 until a year ago; increases are usually by $50 and don't happen often. I have owned this unit for going on 52 years.
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Do you live in a walkable area of New Jersey? I'm thinking of relocating when I fully retire but I don't drive. Your garden apt. sounds lovely..
 
OneEyedDiva said:
I was born and raised here. What keeps me here now is that my immediate family is here. Also I'd be hard press to find a two bedroom, garden apartment comparable to this one and only pay $644 a month, including heat and hot water, which is what we pay now. It was $594 until a year ago; increases are usually by $50 and don't happen often. I have owned this unit for going on 52 years.
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Where do you live in New Jersey? It sounds lovely. Is it walkable to shopping?
 
Things are changing here and the locals are fleeing.

We're seeing once-preserved wetland areas turned over to developers. They drain and fill and put up walled communities of McMansions. The business district has seen our quaint long-term businesses forced out, and high-rise high-density housing has replaced it, paving everything in sight and putting up cracker boxes after chopping down trees:

American-House-Meridian.jpg

No more croaking frogs and fireflies at dusk "down town" any more.

The home prices and lease rates are beyond what locals have any hope of affording. New occupants seem to be arriving from the coasts carrying in bags of real-estate profits from cashing out of their former anthills.

As demand for new services goes up, the tax rates keep on climbing. Long-standing dirt trail pathways are now paved and hand-railed and generally gentrified with night-time lighting and disruptive traffic signaling at road crossings. Roads seem to be constantly closed to put in new water, sewer, and natural gas lines to meet expanding demands.

Everything feels hot and dry and bleak and growingly sterile. Despite the fancy trails, we see fewer and fewer families and people in general walking out and about as traffic density grows worse and worse. Crime is on the rise as one could predict with the arrival of a highly transient population.
 
Candi1 said:
Where do you live in New Jersey? It sounds lovely. Is it walkable to shopping?
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Candi1 said:
Where do you live in New Jersey? It sounds lovely. Is it walkable to shopping?
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I live in a northeastern city. It is a city, so it has it's issues with crime, like other cities. But I do live in the business district, so it's a decent area. and I don't feel unsafe here. Yes, I'm within walking distance to the downtown area where there's plenty of stores.
 
Our cabin is in escrow. We're already hooked into our new town. Everything is just a 12 min drive.

✶ Good Bible Church. Weekly Free meal after. Just $30 for us to feed the entire church every 6 wks (monthly Costco trip, think $5 chickens)
✶ Community Center. Weekly organic meal for $10-$12 ea. Donations+ fundraising help fund the meals. Food is to die for
✶ Longer growing season. We'll grow mostly "staples" (which are almost FREE to grow) Potatoes, Pole beans (green beans) garlic & onions
✶ DIY Solar system to power the house,car & bicycles. An inverter generator the rest of the year
✶ Health Food store. Reasonably priced. Should fulfill roughly 65% of our food needs (+ a monthly trip to Costco+ food we grow)
✶ Free Water (Spring+ year-round creek) We'll develop a small pond for ducks in our fenced backyard+ outdoor waterfall shower to stay cool
✶ Outdoor kitchen. Helps preserve the indoor kitchen. Easier to cook outside, less cleaning and we like to can food.
✶ Nice neighbors. Current town is ok but we do not fit in. We're already enjoying friends in our new town, great neighbors too.
✶ Food Bank. We like to volunteer at the food bank. Sometimes take home what they toss into garbage. Our current compost is filled with old/grimy organic vegetables from the food bank. Compost is what mostly feeds our hens and possibly, our new ducks.
1-2x a year in winter, we use their just expired milk to make batches of cheese & freeze. They also always have a ton of just expired eggs they toss out too. I take and make home-made dog food (I only feed our dog this 1-2x a week, it's not safe otherwise)
✶ Weekly Produce Swap. Fee is only 10% to a max of $20 to participate. Will Grow food listed above, make homemade maple syrup & batches cheese & homemade dog food we can swap out. Last week we brought an ice chest with ONLY samples of our homemade farmers cheese. No pressure, we just told them to let us know if they want to swap so went to sit down. All came to us to swap. We left with: A dozen free range eggs, 2 batches of Kale, 1 batch of Red Beets, and one booth gave us two plates of 3 cooked tacos which were delicious for 3 batches of our cheese. They liked it so much they are thinking of offering cheese on their tacos for .75 cents more. We valued 16 ounces of cheese at $6.

Summary- We'll be poor in retirement yet we'll have a little savings like 100k. But our income will be at poverty level after covering Part B.
This new off-grid cabin & location allows us many "luxuries" such as "eating out" 2x a week, growing healthy food, cycling, and having animals such as pet ducks & hens. We'll be with our eternal family & great neighbors. This is living in paradise for us
 
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LauraLoo said:
Our cabin is in escrow. We're already hooked into our new town. Everything is just a 12 min drive.

✶ Good Bible Church. Weekly Free meal after. Just $30 for us to feed the entire church every 6 wks (monthly Costco trip, think $5 chickens)
✶ Community Center. Weekly organic meal for $10-$12 ea. Donations+ fundraising help fund the meals. Food is to die for
✶ Longer growing season. We'll grow mostly "staples" (which are almost FREE to grow) Potatoes, Pole beans (green beans) garlic & onions
✶ DIY Solar system to power the house,car & bicycles. An inverter generator the rest of the year
✶ Health Food store. Reasonably priced. Should fulfill roughly 65% of our food needs (+ a monthly trip to Costco+ food we grow)
✶ Free Water (Spring+ year-round creek) We'll develop a small pond for ducks in our fenced backyard+ outdoor waterfall shower to stay cool
✶ Outdoor kitchen. Helps preserve the indoor kitchen. Easier to cook outside, less cleaning and we like to can food.
✶ Nice neighbors. Current town is ok but we do not fit in. We're already enjoying friends in our new town, great neighbors too.
✶ Food Bank. We like to volunteer at the food bank. Sometimes take home what they toss into garbage. Our current compost is filled with old/grimy organic vegetables from the food bank. Compost is what mostly feeds our hens and possibly, our new ducks.
1-2x a year in winter, we use their just expired milk to make batches of cheese & freeze. They also always have a ton of just expired eggs they toss out too. I take and make home-made dog food (I only feed our dog this 1-2x a week, it's not safe otherwise)
✶ Weekly Produce Swap. Fee is only 10% to a max of $20 to participate. Will Grow food listed above, make homemade maple syrup & batches cheese & homemade dog food we can swap out. Last week we brought an ice chest with ONLY samples of our homemade farmers cheese. No pressure, we just told them to let us know if they want to swap so went to sit down. All came to us to swap. We left with: A dozen free range eggs, 2 batches of Kale, 1 batch of Red Beets, and one booth gave us two plates of 3 cooked tacos which were delicious for 3 batches of our cheese. They liked it so much they are thinking of offering cheese on their tacos for .75 cents more. We valued 16 ounces of cheese at $6.

Summary- We'll be poor in retirement yet we'll have a little savings like 100k. But our income will be at poverty level after covering Part B.
This new off-grid cabin & location allows us many "luxuries" such as "eating out" 2x a week, growing healthy food, cycling, and having animals such as pet ducks & hens. We'll be with our eternal family & great neighbors. This is living in paradise for us
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It does sound like Paradise. Too bad there aren’t more places like that (that are affordable anyway).
 

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