why do people move to the country, but have a job 50 miles away in the city? gas prices weren't going to stay low forever. i can understand if you're family is based there, but other than that, what would motivate a person to live that far away, when clearly they prefer city life (shopping, working, etc in the city)?

Well, employment is harder to find out in the country, so some country dwellers have to work in town. Out here in the Midwest, a lot of people grew up on farms, but can't make a living at that in today's world. So they work in town, but live on a small farm/acreage because that's what they love. A house with 5 acres where you can have chickens, pigs, a large garden and maybe pasture a cow just isn't do-able in town. I can't tell you the number of professionals dh knows who live out in the country and have livestock and acreages. This includes the VP of the company he previously worked for.

As far as shopping the city- there just aren't many affordable stores out in the country. It just makes sense to do your shopping in town while you are there for work anyway.

Also, there's a peace and quiet out in the country that you just can't get in town. That can be priceless.

Some want their privacy, but I understand the point you're trying to make. I don't understand why people will move to the country and then complain about the lack of restrictions -- neighbors having farm animals, unsightly yards, etc. If that person wants to live in a restricted type area, then why did they move to the unrestricted country?

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Michele
Member of the Welcome Wagon
http://mommysavers.com/boards/how-navigate-mommysavers/

Ok! I can answer that question! We lived in Staten Island, moved there when we got married from middle New Jersey. After 9-11 I could not live there anymore, so we moved to Pa. Right where the border of NJ and NY meet Pa. My husband still works in Staten Island. He drives to work twice a week so it is not bad for us. Its not everyday driving. Sometimes he stayes overnight. We live in the woods, its a great school system for my girls, great neighbors. For us it was a no brainer to move. We have a bigger house and everything is cheaper here...except for the gas! Once in awhile DH can carpool with other people.

There are some families around me that move here and both parents still work in the city everyday.

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I have lived in the city and now live in the country, so I can tell you the pros and cons on both.

Living in the city is closer to all of the stores, movies and other activity. We walk almost everywhere. But the property taxes were higher, the sales taxes on items higher. But the insurance premimums on my house was lower due to the fire station being owed and maitain by the city. But I didn't have a yard.

Now we live in the country, I have several acres of land that is ours to do what we want with it. We can have a garden, we can have pets and we have our privacy. Our property taxes are lower and so is our sales taxes. Our insurance premimum is based on the rating of our local volunteer fire department.

Over all we have a more simpler and relaxing life in the country than the city, due to the hussle and noise of the city.

We hate the city. Too bright, too noisy, too loud, too smelly, too many rude drivers, too dirty, too hot in the summer, too little privacy... and too expensive to try to buy a house!

Had we known that gas/heating oil prices would double, prices on everything else would skyrocket, and that DH wouldn't get the position he was working so hard for, we probably wouldn't have bought a house out here. And now we wouldn't be able to sell it if we tried. But despite the financial burden, we absolutely love living out here. It is beautiful, quiet, peaceful, green, and fresh. It is worth it to carefully plan our excursions for shopping and errands.

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Trust God. Whatever risk there is in doing so, the risk of not trusting in him is far greater. - Spurgeon

When we lived in the "city" (around 40K) we livedn on the busiest street and anytime a cop or the fire dept were called the lights were shining in our living room. I didn't feel incredibly safe. It was our 'starter' home and wasn't in the best neighborhood and definitely not the worst. The schools were ones that I wouldn't want my children to go to. Not because they were bad but because they were too big and children get lost in the shuffle. I worked in a connecting town so it took me 30 minutes to get to work.

We started looking for a nicer/bigger home in a nicer/smaller school district. We found if we moved "just" out of county the taxes and house prices were much cheaper. Dh changed from driving 5-10 minutes city driving to aabout 35 (mostly country driving) and my driving didn't change. That was almost 6 years ago. Dh now has a job that he drives 10-15 minutes ALL country driving. We are in a good school system where we can get really involved and our children will have a name for themselves (think if they do something as teens that they shouldn't it WILL get back to us). Altho we live in a subdivision, it is small w/large lots and surrounded by corn fields (or soy beans depending on the year). Crime rate is much lower here - almost non existent. I love seeing the green fields around here.

We have been a commuting family for many years. For one thing, we could never afford a house in the cities!!! When we first moved out in the boonies, we bought a house on a large lot (4 bedrooms) for $68,000. It would have cost us well over $200,000 for a house near my dh's work. We stayed there for 5 years and decided that we really did need some place a bit bigger with more opportunities for the kids, but we are not big city people, so we moved to our current town,(aprox 10,000) people where we got our house for a steal compared to the big city prices (it was considerably more than our previous one though). Dh is also closer to work now than he used to be, though he still drives 60 miles each way. He drives a fuel efficient car. He has been with his company for more than 15 years and there is no way he could start over somewhere out here and make comparable money. For us, the commute is totally worth it. Obviously, the gas prices hurt, but we will deal with them. I think we are still saving over what it would cost us to live in the cities and we are much happier than we would be.

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~Happiness is a large family~

When we moved out to the suburbs of Atlanta it was because DH worked here. The company he worked for was about 3 miles from our house. He came home everyday for lunch. He worked there about three years. Then he got a better job and it was also local to our home -- about five miles away. He worked there about five years. His company eliminated his position. He worked in the city for a year HATED it and then found another job this time NORTH of where we are now -- which is even further from the city -- his communte from our home, which is North of Atlanta by about 20 miles, is an additional 30 miles!!

When we moved here I worked about 15 miles away -- not too bad a commute and I worked at "off" times so traffic wasn't so terrible. Now I work about 37 miles away from our house in the opposite direction of my husband's work. I only go in twice a week though and work from home the rest of the time.

I LOVE where we live. The schools are great, the property taxes relatively low, we have a very large home for a modest price, its safe for the kids to go out and play. There are some very modern city convieneces where I live too, except it is suburban set up and you must drive everywhere. I live less than 5 minutes from the interstate as well as the biggest mall in the Southeast. I have tons of shopping and entertainment right around me so I don't have to drive far. I am not in what I would consider the "Country" our county has over 775,000 people in it -- I live outside the incorporated cities but the two closest to me have about 25,000 people each in them.

I don't think I would like to live in the city even if my husband worked there, but for now our house is between both of our places of work.

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Grace

Wife to Stoney

Mommy of Sarah (8.5), Hannah (7), and John(5)

We NEVER would have been able to afford a house near my DH's office - houses were selling for about $150,000 MORE than what we paid for our house, and they had no land at all. Even with the high gas prices, it is still cheaper to live out where we are and commute. We have a fairly fuel efficient car, but even if we didn't the cost of gas doesn't come anywhere near what we would be paying in mortgage payments and property taxes if we lived somewhere else.

As far as shopping, I am able to do 90% of my shopping within 5 miles of my home, so I'm not way out in the country. I work locally, so I only have to fill my tank about once every three weeks. If I lived in the city I would be fighting traffic to run my errands, so I would actually be using more gas.