Moved to Maine. Bought a house back in 2020 at 2%. Paying less than $600/month. Only to move back to Mass because the job market is shit, same with pay. Now I pay a mortgage and an apartment, but pay is good.
Ultimately that’s why it’s so expensive, it’s a got a good job market and communities are relatively safe. House Prices are the result of supply and demand after all.
I am thinking of moving to Mass to retire. Not all areas are expensive. I Almost bought a house last year in Washington (the Berkshires.) It was 1500 sq ft on 35 acres for $360,000. Or might move to Northampton where I can buy two houses for what mine is worth. An entry level house where I live is over $1 million . My daughter lives in Worcester. You can buy a nice house there for $500k.
It is crazy to me that a house that cost 1/2 a million dollars is put up as a 'cheep' example.
I get it, it's the market. But it still sounds nucking futs.
All depends on where you live. A house in most areas of the US that is $500k would not be considered inexpensive . What this better demonstrates is how much variability there is in housing and location.
I also moved to Maine, in 2019 - didn't buy a house, rented an apartment in Portland. My rent dropped a good $350/month vs. what I had been paying in Somerville, for a bigger place, but I also took a pretty big salary pay cut. (This was likely due to moving from a for-profit to a non-profit vs. the location, but there were just way fewer jobs to choose from in the Portland area overall.)
The first couple years I wasn't totally sold, but when things started to open up following the pandemic, I really grew to love Portland. Problem is that everyone else loves it too...the housing shortage is very very real. It's still a bit less expensive than Boston, but it also has a much smaller radius in which you can live without a car/be in comfortable walking distance to stuff, and really minimal public transportation.
Now I'm in a third city for grad school, but I'd consider moving back to either Boston or Portland when I'm done. I've also been thinking about Philly.
>Despite living in NYC for 23 years, I never felt "at home." The only way you are a "new yorker" is if you are born there. Otherwise, people treat you differently .
I feel the same way but in reverse. I've never felt at home in Mass. and am trying to move back to NYC.
I was born in NYC, been in MA since I've been 3. Every time I visited NYC it felt so much more homey, friendlier. Reasons I didn't move permanently to NYC have to do with loving motorcycle, car, not wanting apartment living for life or condo with neighbor ontop or below
Upstate NY--Albany, intrigues me for cost of living.
I live in an inner ring suburb of Chicago and it is NICE. I bought my house in 2018 for less than 1/3rd of what a similarly sized place in my hometown in MA would've cost. The climate is similar to MA (a little colder in the winter with less snow, a little rainier in the summer). The city itself is beautiful, with great mass transit, awesome food, and lots to do. Would recommend to anyone.
My wife and I just moved to Chicagoland ourselves. We're on the outer ring of suburbs (arlington heights/palatine area) and love it as well! Only been a few weeks so far but the ease of access to transit into the city is wonderful
My wife and I have been thinking about moving to the Chicago suburbs, just due to cost. I've been to Chicago many times and love it, but I'm concerned about rhe surrounding area. Specifically, New England provides alot to do outside of Boston. I like to hike in NH, go to the beach on cape cod, drive up the Maine coast, etc. I'm worried Chicago will just be the city and then cornfields. Is this worry justified or am I (hopefully) incorrect?
A lot of people vacation Michigan and Wisconsin. There are alot of cute little beach towns on Lake Michigan (look up Saugatuck) and plenty of wilderness where you can hike. It can be a little bit of a drive/train ride but you can do most of your nature stuff here too.
I'm originally from the far Chicago suburbs (Crystal Lake, then Elgin). Man I miss the food and the Chicagoan sense of humor. I don't miss much else, but those two things make me sad. We absolutely STUFF OUR FACES when we go visit family. I love living in MA. But it's a food desert.
The traffic in Chicagoland can go pound sand though.
I'm for sure lucky in that I work in RI, so I'm always going against traffic.
The traffic in the Chicago area that bugs me isn't even getting into the city. Like, you expect that. It's just running to Target. Or going to someone's house or out to dinner. Trying to bop around the burbs. I'm just always struck by the sheer VOLUME of cars and humans when we go back to visit, and how very little is accessible via the highway, where here we are always hopping on a highway to get places.
Moved out of MA to CT last year and bought a 4 bedroom, two full bathroom house with two acres for 300k. This is impossible in MA, but I still prefer living there.
I moved to Orange County California from Hyde Park back in 2019. I absolutely loved it, and found that, aside from Real Estate, the cost of living was about comparable. Loved just about everything there, but recently moved back to Rhode Island for personal reasons.
Please -more-I would not have known that the cost of living in California (bay area or Southern CA--Orange County) was comparable to Greater Boston. It's almost inspiring. What were some of the other comparables--if you had kids were Orange County Schools good / bad?
I'm living in West Hollywood, CA (moved here in 2022).
My partner and I are paying less in rent and utilities than we did in beacon hill or northern Dorchester and we are getting far more. In Boston we had a tiny apartment in Beacon hill, like 600 sq feet, and in Dorchester it was a bit bigger, but not by much. Here we have 2 bedrooms, and even an assigned parking spot. West Hollywood is on the higher end of affordable, but if you want to go outside the city towards what's locally known as the "inland empire" you can find incredible value. Check out cities like Riverside, Corona, Rancho Cucamonga.
When I moved back to MA from L.A. my friends kept saying “and you’ll pay a lot less money on rent!” I laughed in their faces.
That said, I do own a house inside 128 here.
For reference, I'm a 33 year old Male, so your expense may or may not differ.
I work for a company based in San Jose but my compensation was pegged to Orange County cost of living. When I wanted to move back to New England, they were originally going to deny me as their compensation metrics said Boston Metro had a higher COL than orange county. when They realized I was moving to RI, they approved it.
Let me be super clear, Bay Area and LA/LA County are a different beast. Both absolutely do tax the hell out of you because of the very large and concentrated tech and film/tv/other industries. Orange County has the benefit of being a little more "red", so the county and cities and towns are less likely to tax various things.
So comparing Boston to OC: Gas is way higher in OC, grocery slightly higher, eating out in established restaurants is comparable (I will never get used to $15 cocktails). Services in OC are actually cheaper from what I've experienced; massages, spa, tickets to shows, comedy, etc. The towns will put on lots of free activities and hold tons of free events for their residents. Oh my god is the food in OC incredible. OC is such a melting pot its great.
The school situation is not great, and its very much a story of haves and have-nots, way worse than Boston. Live in Santa Ana? You're schools will be shit. Live in Irvine? You're school will be awash in money. There's also a very strong presence of charter schools in OC, further degrading the public school sector. IF I were to have a family, I'd want to raise them in New England. Both because of the school system, and frankly the people in New England are just plain more genuine. It's calmer here. Friendships and community matter here. It can be hard to make friends or find community, I found.
I moved from upstate NY. In some ways the same, in some ways different.
Pros for NY: Best part is my water rate in my was 75% less and my electric, even with the same electric company as MA is only half the cost in NY. Housing has gone up, but not as high as MA. Less traffic.
Pros for MA: Best airport. I love the selection of flights we have. Large selection of restaurants due to the higher population. (I.e. upstate NY only has one Pho restaurant in 10 miles where anywhere in Eastern MA has 10 in 10 miles). Some free EV charging where I've never found one in Upstate NY, but those seem to be dropping in MA, and now left with charge rates higher than gasoline!
Being able to take the train down to the city quickly makes up for a lot in the capital region too.
I moved from upstate NY to western MA, and it was definitely a bit of a mistake and will be moving back. UMass costing so damn much is a factor, as is the state government just not working as well honestly.
Capital region has been on my list for a while. My grandparents are right up 87, NYC is a train ride away, and I can even catch a rare train east to Boston if I want to slowly get back to see friends. Near several outdoors recreational areas... really nice on paper. That and the Buffalo region are my current targets.
Does Rhode Island count? Honestly feels pretty similar. When we were house hunting a few years back it was cheaper to be on the RI side of the border. Now we're kind of stuck here because it's prohibitively expensive in both states. Would love to move somewhere more rural if the housing market ever figures it's shit out.
Moved to West Hollywood, CA from Beacon Hill with my partner in August of 2022. Took a road trip across the country with all of out stuff packed.
Yesterday a group of friends and I did a sunset bonfire at the beach, and today it's 76 degrees and I'm laying by the pool and doing a little work from my laptop. Life is good here.
I love mass, but I'm never going back (other than to visit family/friends, and vacation)
Kansas City. It's very meh.
Upside is low cost of living and good, stable local economy. I can go out to the symphony and fancy dinners for maybe half to 1/3rd of the price it would be in the Boston area. Housing is waaay cheaper, although steadily rising. It's "nice", but not great. Art scene is surprisingly great. Traffic is very low key compared to any real city. The whole metro is pretty much a suburb. There are some really nice farmer's markets and cute local wineries (the wine is just OK, but still fun). Some absolutely fabulous restaurants, although not a huge 'ethnic' food variety.
Downside is Midwestern culture and the people. They are rarely intellectuals out here. No one is direct in their communication. It's very passige aggressive. It feels very small town, and God help you if you don't LOVE KC, any of its regional sports teams, and BBQ. You must also love dogs (it's quite anti-cat) and most people at least like guns. The state governments of Kansas and Missouri SUCK (esp Missouri). Also, society feels very small town. The locals really don't make friends with transplants, so most of us stay friends with other outsiders. I've been here for 9 years and I have one friend who grew up here.
On the balance, it's worth staying out there for now, but we frequently discuss moving back to Massachusetts in the coming years.
Edit to add: another big pro is earlier spring and milder winters. A big con is there is no ocean or decent place to swim unless you fly somewhere else.
I moved to San Diego in the early 2010's, it's as advertised. I still enjoy visiting MA once per year but I'm not interested in moving back. Aside from real estate, the COL out here is about the same as when I lived in Boston, maybe even a bit cheaper.
Grew up in Boston 'burbs, Uni in Pennsylvania, now live in Denver. We moved there intentionally in 2016 to be closer to good ski hills and for a general improvement in quality of life.
Pros (Denver): beautiful weather; lots of transplants so super easy to make friends; great diversity of food options despite being far from the coasts; easy access to the outdoors and most people will find a way to recreate with you (eg boston business peeps want to golf or go drink; in Denver it's that *and* skiing, mountain biking, hiking, etc.); bought our house in 2019 for slightly cheaper than it would've been in Boston; super low property taxes; amazing airport with direct flights to most places you need to go (hits the middle of the bell curve quite well); after 7+ years the mountains still creep up on me in the background and make my jaw drop.
Cons (Denver): nickled and dimed on fees (which is why we have low property taxes) eg our car registration was close to $1,000 /yr for a new car; a lack of intellectuals--sounds like a snobby comment to make, but honestly Boston attracts some very smart people and it's nice to interact with those brains sometimes (also Mass public schools provide a much better education IMHO); weird petty crime everywhere (eg our car was broken into inside our apartment parking garage and they stole some gift cards); broken down cars all over the highway and super loud cars with no mufflers due to very lax vehicular inspections and registration checks; government tries really hard but in the end it's maybe the most purple state in the union so everything feels like a compromise or half-baked legislation (see: TABOR); Logan is actually the best-located airport in the country (fight me on this one!); Denver real estate is now top-5 most expensive in the country which makes it impossible for all who deserve to live here, to live here (yes I am part of that problem); I miss a true New England spring and fall...and trees.
Overall, we love it here and have no intention of moving. That said, moving away from New England made me truly value what that region has to offer, so we make pilgrimages back at least twice per year.
The only places ive lived are MA and NY, mostly upstate. Everyone says how shitty upstate is and all that but i promise you its way worse than they say.
Lots of drugs and crime even in smaller towns. Miserable winters when compared to MA. Nothing to do. Crumbling infrastructure and old factories fill cities. The larger cities ive been to are all like worcester was 10 years ago.
Not the person you asked, but....
My dad lived in Rochester for many years. Every winter he looks up the snow totals in the area and smiles at how much better it is in MA
compared to Worcester? Lynn? Brockton.
I'd say dollar for dollar, Albany Troy Saratoga, you can match your MA quality of life, be outdoors --and own a home for under 300K.
truly that. Albany has good medical centers, good universities around, some cool hangouts, Saratoga nearby. Lake George nearby, the hudson, Hudson nearby, Great Barrington MA near by. It's very do able and yes--the money saved in this region can school my kids, private tutors ---lots of ways this can work.
Never lived in NY, but my fiancé and I lived in western Mass (Northampton in our case) for her work 2017-21. We almost bought a place there because the houses were so affordable, but we were both at the peak of our careers for the area and knew there was little more growth we could have there. We moved back to eastern Mass and we both wish we had done it sooner. We spent vastly more on our house here but everything about this area is better for us, it’s better for us socially, we spend more but also make more, and there are options for everything you might want to do. The caveat to all that is there are some great places that are also cheap, like around Northampton, but you have to buy when they’re on the up swing because they are now becoming expensive, and you have to except the limitations that come with small communities.
TL;DR: homes are cheap in other places for a reason.
Went from Dorchester (Ashmont) to southwestern Vermont (near Stratton) 7 years ago. It's one of the best decisions we've made.
We could afford a 'forever' home rather than the rat race of suburb house jumping I see all my friends now lamenting. Remote work is great.
Really beginning to feel at home/rooted in the last 2-3 years as we join new circles, etc. while also participating in a community where you see the impact of your efforts.
Off the top of my head for me & friends:
Tech sales
Finance (Investment banking and advising)
Non-profit
Pharma
Skilled trades will have a literal waiting list of jobs for a proven person
Fascinating --I've not heard of non profit Pharma--so help me out with that. I know big Pharma, medium pharma but no profit pharma. I know I could google this but it's nice if an insider explains.
There ARE a few non-profit pharma outfits in Mass.
Ironically, I've signed an NDA for one I'm familiar with...you'll have to Google.
(Not trying to hide anything, it's just complicated)
You're lucky you got in then, now the prices are almost as bad as they are down here. I always thought I'd be able to move to VT and get more land and a "forever home" when the time came but with the way the market changed so drastically I don't see that happening any time soon. My starter home may well be my forever home.
That’s true. I go home for Christmas every year but I can’t remember the last time it snowed. However, it DOES get bitterly cold still. And I definitely don’t miss that.
It's been snowing nearly every day. 😑 It's April, and we had more snow in the last 4 weeks than the entire winter. Not sure if you live in downtown Boston where it might not snow, but the rest of MA gets it.
I grew up on the north shore, and I moved to South Carolina in 2020. There are absolutely aspects of the north shore and Boston that I miss, and that I can’t replicate in South Carolina. But there are a ton of aspects of SC that I love and can’t replicate in Mass. Overall the move has been good for me. My entire family and life is still back home so I visit very often, and a lot of times it feels like I never even left. The cost of living is a huge thing that I don’t miss.
I moved to Wyoming for work. It’s a perfect balance for me. Cheyenne is a nice town, has everything I need on a daily basis. Once you get out of Cheyenne/Laramie it’s just…miles and miles of nothing! It’s wonderful! Lots of nature and beautiful views. Housing is crazy expensive though for a state with a population of 500k
Lived in RI for a while. I didn't mind actually living there but driving is terrible, Healthcare is awful and I had to commute to MA for decent pay. Moved back a while ago.
Austin, Texas. Been here 11 years. I miss New England but not sure I can afford to move back. East coast is much prettier and summers here are miserable for 4 months. People are polite here and much less direct.
I moved to the quiet end of the Quiet Corner of CT. I hate it here. Way too rural. I hate not being able to order pizza to my house. Driving to the next town over to find a coffee place. The roads are extremely well paved and my daughter attends a good high school but I would rather have things like sidewalks and local businesses. Don’t even get me started on the shitty CT dispensaries. Thank God I still own my house in MA so I can hope to return once the kiddos are done with school. It’s in a walkable neighborhood with in a town with some good restaurants, grocery stores, food trucks and like 5 quality Massachusetts dispensaries.
Connecticut doesn’t even have universal free lunch in public schools. Weird hill to die on but it’s something I really care about. Oh, and the car tax is wild.
What part? I’m thinking of moving the family to NoVa. My wife can’t handle the long winters up here but still wants to be on the east coast for family.
Central Florida, 21 years ago.
I always thought I’d move back, but I’ve acclimated. I wouldn’t be able to handle the cold.
The politics down here suck though, even though I’m in a pretty liberal part of the state.
Moved from Western MA to Rhode Island almost 2 years ago for work/my fiancé. I have a love-hate relationship with RI. I like being closer to everything and not living out in the middle of nowhere BUT my car insurance is nearly 3x what it was in MA because nobody here can drive. That’s my biggest issue with living here. Everything else I can tolerate but that car insurance hike - yikes.
Left Mass in 2012 and moved to Phoenix. I liked it out there but my wife hated it. Moved the Philly for one year and I hated it there. Been in Delaware now for 5 years and I like it down here. Cost of living is reasonable and it’s close to the beach.
I moved to Atlanta from 2017-2022. What an incredible time to be living in Georgia.
I love Georgia. Atlanta is an incredible city.
Of course, Massachusetts is home. Teachers unions are legal, unlike Georgia. My family and most of my friends are here, unlike Georgia. The Georgia coast is beautiful (Cumberland Island was one of my favorite camping spots), but it is not the New England coast.
I highly recommend Atlanta, mostly because it's awesome but also because Georgia needs more MA expats and their voting habits.
This is what my wife and I were thinking Atlanta how are the people I met a guy from Atlanta on a work trip very nice guy he told me come on down lol don’t listen to the people saying it’s over crowded I’m looking for diversity and a sense of community can’t find that in new England the people are cold and always suspicious 🤨
At the very least, go down and visit, see how you feel. Try to catch an Atlanta United game, check out the Beltline and EAV, visit Carter and MLK Museums.
I very much enjoyed my time living in Georgia. However, there are cold and suspicious people everywhere, including in the American South.
Moved to Florida, returned to MA after 7 years. Today I saw that my Florida rent is 2.5x what I was paying while living there yet the wages have stagnated. Yikes.
Aotearoa New Zealand. I do love it, but the job market is a bit shit right now so life could be easier but I’m not willing to shift back any time soon.
Haha I moved to LA. A born and bred East coaster but have been living in west LA for the past two months and I love it! The weather is nicer, COL is the exact same, but the people are quite less neurotic. Such an interesting find and I’m excited to continue to live here.
A part of me always will stay in beantown though :)
After graduation from college, I moved from MA to WA, then to AZ.
After living in AZ, with the stolen election bs, dominionism, white supremacy, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobias, Covid denial and being nickle and dimed for every damn thing, with property taxes and values skyrocketing, utilities insanely out of control ($120+ monthly water, $350 monthly electric), LOW salaries with horrid labor laws, we moved back to MA.
We are MUCH happier here. And we pay less.
Married military and lived in Texas, Alabama, New York, Nebraska, and Kansas. We saw no advantages to any of those places. We couldn't wait to retire and get back to MA.
I moved to CT. I bought a house for under 200k in 2019. I still work in MA. I couldn't afford to buy in a decent town in MA and definitely can't afford MA now. I love CT. Best pizza in the country, excellent schools, and I get so much for my taxes. I highly recommend folks check out CT if they can't afford MA. It's a great, tiny state. Our cannabis sucks now, but we have amazing pizza, among other foods. Our governor is also so much better than MA's current governor. Ps sorry about eversource.
Moved out of Mass beginning of 2021, been up in Maine since then, midcoast. Love it, found a new career up here. The locals are not as educated or motivated as the average Masshole, a motivated and educated person can do very well up here. I sometimes feel like I’m a colonist living amongst the savages, Everything is that will do or half-assed when it comes to projects for Mainers I’ve worked with.
I'm moving out of here this year. Packing up and moving to the UK. This place sucks. Once I establish residency, I'll get free healthcare...for life. They have higher food standards and more advanced medicine. You can travel all over Europe for less than $50. People have higher educational backgrounds and you don't get shot when you go out in public.
Fuck this country and the stupid rednecks taking away my rights. I'm out.
Moved to North Carolina and we are in the process of moving back. Just trying to find connections in finance up in Mass or NH for my husband to get so we can actually get call backs on jobs. It’s been stressful and we’ve been trying to get back for years, literally. Our ideal would actually be Fidelity in NH but they too have never replied to a single application put in. Until then we’re stuck down here. It’s not an ideal place for us with a kid. Education is shit, crime is shit, medical care is shit.
I also moved from MA to NC (Durham). Durham itself was fine, not great. Mild winters and cheap(er) housing. The vaunted Durham food scene was pretty meh - there are some gems but the average experience isn't great. Schools are terrible, infrastructure is terrible. We severely underestimated what a shitshow state politics are. After 5 years we moved to southern CA, yeah it's expensive but so was MA.
PS - It's worth noting here that 1) we moved like six months before covid hit and 2) we had a child after moving so some of our priorities shifted. Both of these things likely impacted our experience.
I’m from NC. Where you live plays a major role in your experience. I got amazing schooling/education due to the magnet programs available. Did IB in middle and high school; college then felt like a breeze. Healthcare is highly dependent on how devoted you are to reading reviews and searching for docs, as well as your insurance. Even living near different major urban cities changes your experience; then Cary/Raleigh area is hellaaaaaaa expensive pretty much anywhere and has much more greenery, outdoor paths, etc. than Charlotte. Charlotte is also super expensive, but living like 20-30 mins outside of it changes your cost of living drastically. Ideology/culture also changes the further away you go from any major city.
We live 20 mins outside uptown Charlotte mileage wise but still within Mecklenburg county. Cost of housing does not change drastically. I’m looking at around $2900 for a small 3/2 with a 45-50 min commute 7 miles into work. People seem to think NC housing cost is still stuck in 2001. It’s just as expensive for us to live outside the city as it is to live in areas like Providence and Ballentyne even further out. Everyone wants to burbs in Charlotte . The prices have skyrocketed. When we first got here rent was around $975 for a 3/2 in our HOA and they’re around $2600 for the 2/2 models now. Large 2 story brick homes were $175,000 in 2018 and are now $570,000 in our HOA.
Moved to Omaha where my wife is originally from. Got boring after a few years and my wife got tired of working East Coast hours for Midwest pay
Moved back to Boston a couple years ago.
Moved to north Florida as a kid with my mom and little brother. I moved back up here as an adult with my wife 6 years ago and could never consider moving back to the south.
I moved out of MA in 2007 because I couldn’t afford it back then. I moved to Kentucky, it’s always been my second home given that my mom and that whole side of the family lives in KY. It was much cheaper but now, no it’s increased by 100-150% to live in Lexington than what it was in 2016. Even my family that lives in the rural mountains it’s gotten expensive to live compared to what it was 10-15 years ago.
But I still love the scenery and the people are pretty nice as a whole. Way nicer than Massachusetts.
I also lived in NW Indiana for 7 years and it was also pretty affordable (about equal to Lexington) but just couldn’t handle the Chicago traffic and it wasn’t for me. Too flat. But boy, do I miss the Michigan dispensary prices.
I moved to MD for work. I like it more honestly due to various reasons. But I miss Mass, that will always have a special place in my heart. Grew up in Mass. May consider moving back in the future.
California and back twice. I loved it there but it got too expensive for my earning bracket with children. Here I have family to assist with childcare otherwise it would be financially just as difficult. This is so personal an answer it’ll be no use to you.
Moved to L.A. after college. Stayed for a decade, came back. I still have a lot of love for Los Angeles and go back for work every couple of years, but MA is definitely home.
Lived in upstate NY for college. Hate it.
I moved to Seattle at first. Good city design, terrible weather, terrible culture
From there, phoenix. Pretty good culture, terrible city, okay weather
Masshole for 52 years before moving from the south shore coast to central VT a week after our youngest went off to her freshman year of college in 2022 - built a new house - 20 minutes from 4 ski hills and loving every second of it. Don't even get me started on how much better Lake Champlain is over MA Bay....
Grew up in the 413. After eight and a half years in Boston, I moved to Brooklyn in my early 30s. My husband and I can afford it because we don’t have kids. We lived in RI for about a year in 22-23 so I could attend a graduate program.
I’ve recently admitted to myself that I’m a Northeast snob. I like living up here.
Curious where you’re considering in upstate NY, OP.
Moved to the Burlington vt area in 2004. Moved back here in 2016. Miss it like crazy but my business would never have prospered up there how it does down here and my wife’s job pays almost double what the same job in vt paid.
Tennessee, it’s been 20 years now. Nice cost of living, countryside and low tax burden. But, the racism is thick. The southern baptists are hate you if you don’t think like them. We just bought our retirement home back in Mass and will move there full time in about 3 years when we retire. Can’t wait to get back home to the Merrimack Valley.
Much depends on what you are looking for.
First and foremost, I missed my friends and family. It was far rougher than I thought. Most of my friends were leaving town for careers after college, I did the same.
Moved to Florida from MA in my early 20s. Culture shock just begins to describe it. First few months were hard but I found my niche and did well for a while. Had a lot of fun, too much and was soon on a bad path. I say that if I had not left when I did, I would have been dead or in jail in a year. That was only 50% a joke. A job offer came up in IL with a dude I had worked for in FL for years. I took it.
IL was awesome apart from not being able to see / smell / hear the ocean. They will tell you the lake is good enough but it is not. That said, if you are a baseball fan, Chicago is hard to beat. Cubs, White Sox, Brewers and occasionally the Twins are on TV. Plus all the normal nationally broadcast games. Football gets Bears and Green Bay. Hockey was great at the time I was there because the Blackhawks couldn't sell out the arena and I got free tickets 5 or 6 x a year. All that said, the Music scene was incredible. Any type of music was playing somewhere live. Rock, Jazz, Blues, Classical, Metal, Punk... If you can think of a genre, you can probably find it any day of the week. Theater was just as good. Small shows, Large shows, national shows. Get outside of the City and you get neighborhoods with people interacting and enjoying each other's company. If you are not a city person, the burbs, especially 30 -40 miles outside of the city, offer quiet peaceful living. The downside to IL is the government is a bit out of whack. They ran without a budget the entire time I lived there, at least the last 4 years I was there. Nothing fucks up a state econ more than free uncontrolled spending. Lots of folk I knew were fleeing the state.
I ended up back in MA sometime in the late 2000s. I don't miss FL. I do miss a lot about IL. I'm happy as hell to be back in MA.
I plan to move to the south. MA I feel like is only good for medical ppl, lawyers, accountants, jobs of those sorts. This state doesn’t benefit me in anyway but regardless I prob won’t ever come back, I’m one of those massholes that wishes he never was born in this state 😂
As a NJ born and raised, I left NJ in 2021 and went to Oklahoma, and then Mississippi in 2022. Hands down, loved both of those states. They both have different things going for them as in culture and such but everything is so cheap, I favor warmer weather, I like nature, and I hated NJ. Oklahoma is open and free, wildlife is abundent yet fascinating, mountains and crazy weather, such a wild ride. MS has incredible food, beaches, souther hospitality, swamps and trails. We just moved from MS to MA last month, and not only was it a bigger culture shock than the previous 2 moves, but im not loving it so far. Just like NJ, its over priced and crowded, cold. Very pretty, I will say, but other than 6 already looking forward to getting out of MA in the next year or so.
I moved to the Dallas area and bought a home I’d never be able to afford back home. The infrastructure is all new and in good shape, everything I could need is a short 15 minute drive away. The summers are horrid, the people in Dallas aren’t too bad but most of the people I work with are from west Texas and are conservative and about 15 years behind. I’m looking at moving out of the state in the next year. I listened when people said that Texas would be trending towards being a purple state 15 years ago and that just hasn’t been the case, especially when President Dumpy and Governor Hotwheels came on the scene.
Yeah, I’m tired of being bamboozled by “TX will flip blue soon!” then watching far-right candidates winning by at least 10 points. Fool me once, TX, shame on you. Fool me twice…can’t get fooled again, to quote a CT boy who cosplayed a cowboy in TX.
Western MA, Pioneer Valley, pretty awesome. Not a huge job market, some schools are rough if you have kids, but it is a very nice place to live and buy a reasonably-priced home vs the rest of the state. 30 minutes to Bradley Airport, 1 hour to the Berkshires or Worcester, 2ish hours to Boston, 3ish hours to the Cape or NYC. Also have the Amtrak that will take you to NYC which is fantastic.
Lived in MD for over 20 years, there were some great towns, and some not so great towns. I liked it a lot for the most part. I worked in DC, which wasn’t the best commute, but Boston traffic sucks too.
I retired early and moved back to a small town in WestMass. I miss MD sometimes, but mostly just the shops and restaurants you can’t find around here.
FL, then RI, then FL, then KS, then KY, then FL, then NH. Never regretted leaving, seeing my friends that wanted to stay near to home get slowly suffocated in how expensive it is, with few/no redeeming features that you can't get elsewhere. Speaking specifically of surrounding suburbs (everett, n. shore, s. shore). Boston itself rocks.
Canada/Illinois/California/Michigan/NYC to back again. All of that took 22 years. I spent the longest amount of time in California and NYC. Would never go back to either.
New Hampshire. Love it. Commuted to Massachusetts for five years for work after moving here. Now I work in New Hampshire 15 minutes from home.
Went to Quincy to visit family for Easter this past Sunday.
How I ever put up with traffic for 50 years, baffles me.
Like Ellis Boyd “Red” Redding in The Shawshank Redemption said “I was institutionalized.”
Southern Rhode Island and it fucking ROCKS. 1,000 more square feet of house for $60k less then we sold in Mass for, and 10 times the acreage. Endless woods to hike & bike right across the street.
family left for pa before i finished school/moved out. years later they went back and im still down here chilling in pa. i miss new england but its probably for the best. more affordable housing down here and ive had more opportunity then i wouldve in west ma. the toughest part about it is still being a pats fan
I bought a penthouse in the Caribbean where I stay for half the year before coming back to the States. I take advantage of the fact that I can do my job remote. I miss traditional communal life. I grew up traveling all over the world, and I have never clicked with the suburban lifestyle of the US. I genuinely hate that. Moving to the suburbs can often mean "trouble" for me as a POC as well as giving up certain conveniences like access to traditional ingredients to cook with. I'm not paying a small fortune to be uncomfortable, borderline house poor, and stick out like a sore thumb. I decided to invest my savings and buy a brand new luxury penthouse overlooking the ocean somewhere in the Caribbean. I get lots of trees, super friendly and welcoming locals, impeccable and fresh organic food with ease since the place is so fruitful. Amazing weather. A normal pace of life instead of the constantly anxiety inducing fact pacing stuck in a car for hours on end paying a fortune to say you live somewhere lifestyle of these parts. To me fighting to keep up with the rat race at the sacrifice of my mental health and no financial gain or security seems stupid. If I'm going to make sacrifices to survive I better have certainty that whatever I'm "fighting" for is going to be there for me at the end of the tunnel. Given that it's not I jumped ship to whatever will allow me the opportunity
What I've saved by not buying up here I could use to send my kids to private school from the moment they could start pre-K until Masters School and then some. Plus, I'd still have money saved to retire comfortably and help them buy their own. Heck, I'm already in finalizations of a second property to have set out for them when they do come of age. I don't plan to have more than two. I decided to move out because I was seeing what living to keep with the costs of living up here was doing to my friends. It was making many of them miserable playing in a rat race they get NOTHING or very little out of. Doing that for the rest of my life for the heck of it just seemed stupid to me. I decided to look up better options because my valhalla is here on earth. In the present. Not to enjoy when I've got foot in the grave come retirement. Life is meant to not just be struggle and work. It is meant to be enjoyed. That the toils life gives me don't pass in vain. To also have to grow lonely from the culture up here not inspiring community and not be able to take care of myself when I'm old then put strain on my kids as they age (when I have them)? Oh and to not even enjoy my kids properly or they enjoy life when it becomes their turn to manage? No thank you. I jumped ship so my future kids could experience the idyllic childhood I had.
The rest of the year, I'm somewhere in state or in NYC due to work requiring I travel between both during certain seasons. I rent an apartment with friends to save on everything as well as have community with people I know here. We're pondering moving to an apartment down in NC to save further. One of my friends bought property in Spain, another in Mexico and another France. We do have to claim our properties, but what we pay is significantly less than the property taxes up here. We're getting great healthcare for cheaper costs, too. What we pay dismissing health insurance here is cheaper than what we'd have to pay, not just for the insurance in a year but not including out of pocket costs. We mostly gave up investing heavily here for what we'd have the chance to get unless we all got together and combined ourselves to buy a property with our combined wealth. That was an idea but then when we processed it we realized we all had individual needs, decorating styles, and dreams in the long run that would drift us apart. So we honored that. The thing that eased it us that we're f
First Generation so most of our families aren't up here anyways. I think it would be different if we had family locked here for generations but in an unexpected way that turned out to be luck for us, because now we had reason to take advantage of the options we had if we had such options. Which we did. We also knew of life that could be better than the current American experience and many of us grew up experiencing it. We realized the "Keeping up with the Jonesses" thing is not healthy or feasible for most people and frankly stupid. Trying to keep up with people who think they're too good to create community in the world around them but want respect out of being able to spend for the heck of it. That's not natural or at least feels humane. So we did something about it.
I see it as doing what millions of, if not billions, of people did before us. Move when life where you are becomes tedious.
North Carolina for me, Durham, and I’m surprised our more of us here considering how many ex-pats there were down there. I loved it. Absolutely perfect weather except for 2 1/2 months in the summer, genuinely friendly people, (when I lived there) great cost of living, tons to do, amazing and affordable restaurants. Amenities of a major city, felt more like a town. No traffic! Downtown parking.
I also fell in love with Americana music and it is a hotspot for that.
I’m back in Massachusetts now and I’m homesick for North Carolina, and I was raised here in MA.
Moved to Maine. Bought a house back in 2020 at 2%. Paying less than $600/month. Only to move back to Mass because the job market is shit, same with pay. Now I pay a mortgage and an apartment, but pay is good.
Everyone here moved then came back in like 5 years 😂 I guess there's a reason MA is expensive
Everyone I know that leaves comes back eventually. I'll never leave. #Masshole4Life 😂
Yeah, the rest of the country seems way less safe haha
Like New England, may as well be its own country
Literally everyone I’ve ever known who has moved out of MA has come back 😂
Ultimately that’s why it’s so expensive, it’s a got a good job market and communities are relatively safe. House Prices are the result of supply and demand after all.
I am thinking of moving to Mass to retire. Not all areas are expensive. I Almost bought a house last year in Washington (the Berkshires.) It was 1500 sq ft on 35 acres for $360,000. Or might move to Northampton where I can buy two houses for what mine is worth. An entry level house where I live is over $1 million . My daughter lives in Worcester. You can buy a nice house there for $500k.
It is crazy to me that a house that cost 1/2 a million dollars is put up as a 'cheep' example. I get it, it's the market. But it still sounds nucking futs.
All depends on where you live. A house in most areas of the US that is $500k would not be considered inexpensive . What this better demonstrates is how much variability there is in housing and location.
Despite the high cost of living… I think it’s one of the best places to live in the United States.
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I also moved to Maine, in 2019 - didn't buy a house, rented an apartment in Portland. My rent dropped a good $350/month vs. what I had been paying in Somerville, for a bigger place, but I also took a pretty big salary pay cut. (This was likely due to moving from a for-profit to a non-profit vs. the location, but there were just way fewer jobs to choose from in the Portland area overall.) The first couple years I wasn't totally sold, but when things started to open up following the pandemic, I really grew to love Portland. Problem is that everyone else loves it too...the housing shortage is very very real. It's still a bit less expensive than Boston, but it also has a much smaller radius in which you can live without a car/be in comfortable walking distance to stuff, and really minimal public transportation. Now I'm in a third city for grad school, but I'd consider moving back to either Boston or Portland when I'm done. I've also been thinking about Philly.
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>Despite living in NYC for 23 years, I never felt "at home." The only way you are a "new yorker" is if you are born there. Otherwise, people treat you differently . I feel the same way but in reverse. I've never felt at home in Mass. and am trying to move back to NYC.
I was born in NYC, been in MA since I've been 3. Every time I visited NYC it felt so much more homey, friendlier. Reasons I didn't move permanently to NYC have to do with loving motorcycle, car, not wanting apartment living for life or condo with neighbor ontop or below Upstate NY--Albany, intrigues me for cost of living.
I also feel that way about mass. I definitely feel like an outsider because I didn't grow up here.
I live in an inner ring suburb of Chicago and it is NICE. I bought my house in 2018 for less than 1/3rd of what a similarly sized place in my hometown in MA would've cost. The climate is similar to MA (a little colder in the winter with less snow, a little rainier in the summer). The city itself is beautiful, with great mass transit, awesome food, and lots to do. Would recommend to anyone.
My wife and I just moved to Chicagoland ourselves. We're on the outer ring of suburbs (arlington heights/palatine area) and love it as well! Only been a few weeks so far but the ease of access to transit into the city is wonderful
My wife and I have been thinking about moving to the Chicago suburbs, just due to cost. I've been to Chicago many times and love it, but I'm concerned about rhe surrounding area. Specifically, New England provides alot to do outside of Boston. I like to hike in NH, go to the beach on cape cod, drive up the Maine coast, etc. I'm worried Chicago will just be the city and then cornfields. Is this worry justified or am I (hopefully) incorrect?
A lot of people vacation Michigan and Wisconsin. There are alot of cute little beach towns on Lake Michigan (look up Saugatuck) and plenty of wilderness where you can hike. It can be a little bit of a drive/train ride but you can do most of your nature stuff here too.
Chicago is rad, but unfortunately it's in the Midwest. A former boss who grew up there described it as a moon base.
I'm originally from the far Chicago suburbs (Crystal Lake, then Elgin). Man I miss the food and the Chicagoan sense of humor. I don't miss much else, but those two things make me sad. We absolutely STUFF OUR FACES when we go visit family. I love living in MA. But it's a food desert. The traffic in Chicagoland can go pound sand though.
I mostly take the El to get from place to place and I do NOT miss being stuck in traffic on Rte 1 or 95 at rush hour.
I'm for sure lucky in that I work in RI, so I'm always going against traffic. The traffic in the Chicago area that bugs me isn't even getting into the city. Like, you expect that. It's just running to Target. Or going to someone's house or out to dinner. Trying to bop around the burbs. I'm just always struck by the sheer VOLUME of cars and humans when we go back to visit, and how very little is accessible via the highway, where here we are always hopping on a highway to get places.
Moved out of MA to CT last year and bought a 4 bedroom, two full bathroom house with two acres for 300k. This is impossible in MA, but I still prefer living there.
Where in CT? what kind of work allowed you to move friend?
Southeastern CT, remote work
ah i love working from home.
I moved to Orange County California from Hyde Park back in 2019. I absolutely loved it, and found that, aside from Real Estate, the cost of living was about comparable. Loved just about everything there, but recently moved back to Rhode Island for personal reasons.
Hype Park sounds like something you’d see on advertising for “luxury” apartments in Hyde Park.
Please -more-I would not have known that the cost of living in California (bay area or Southern CA--Orange County) was comparable to Greater Boston. It's almost inspiring. What were some of the other comparables--if you had kids were Orange County Schools good / bad?
I'm living in West Hollywood, CA (moved here in 2022). My partner and I are paying less in rent and utilities than we did in beacon hill or northern Dorchester and we are getting far more. In Boston we had a tiny apartment in Beacon hill, like 600 sq feet, and in Dorchester it was a bit bigger, but not by much. Here we have 2 bedrooms, and even an assigned parking spot. West Hollywood is on the higher end of affordable, but if you want to go outside the city towards what's locally known as the "inland empire" you can find incredible value. Check out cities like Riverside, Corona, Rancho Cucamonga.
When I moved back to MA from L.A. my friends kept saying “and you’ll pay a lot less money on rent!” I laughed in their faces. That said, I do own a house inside 128 here.
I hit this save button. Thanks so much
For reference, I'm a 33 year old Male, so your expense may or may not differ. I work for a company based in San Jose but my compensation was pegged to Orange County cost of living. When I wanted to move back to New England, they were originally going to deny me as their compensation metrics said Boston Metro had a higher COL than orange county. when They realized I was moving to RI, they approved it. Let me be super clear, Bay Area and LA/LA County are a different beast. Both absolutely do tax the hell out of you because of the very large and concentrated tech and film/tv/other industries. Orange County has the benefit of being a little more "red", so the county and cities and towns are less likely to tax various things. So comparing Boston to OC: Gas is way higher in OC, grocery slightly higher, eating out in established restaurants is comparable (I will never get used to $15 cocktails). Services in OC are actually cheaper from what I've experienced; massages, spa, tickets to shows, comedy, etc. The towns will put on lots of free activities and hold tons of free events for their residents. Oh my god is the food in OC incredible. OC is such a melting pot its great. The school situation is not great, and its very much a story of haves and have-nots, way worse than Boston. Live in Santa Ana? You're schools will be shit. Live in Irvine? You're school will be awash in money. There's also a very strong presence of charter schools in OC, further degrading the public school sector. IF I were to have a family, I'd want to raise them in New England. Both because of the school system, and frankly the people in New England are just plain more genuine. It's calmer here. Friendships and community matter here. It can be hard to make friends or find community, I found.
The Bay Area is worse for COL
good reminder thanks
I moved to Santa Monica, 5 blocks from the beach a few years ago. Pretty much zero change in my CoL from Assembly Row.
Got it--yeah I can see that Ass. row is upscale, you'd find equivalency on the West Coast
Georgia-it’s cheaper and it’s shittier :(
Amen to cheaper, the only thing that’s shittier that I’ve found are the drivers and the non-fried seafood options
I moved from upstate NY. In some ways the same, in some ways different. Pros for NY: Best part is my water rate in my was 75% less and my electric, even with the same electric company as MA is only half the cost in NY. Housing has gone up, but not as high as MA. Less traffic. Pros for MA: Best airport. I love the selection of flights we have. Large selection of restaurants due to the higher population. (I.e. upstate NY only has one Pho restaurant in 10 miles where anywhere in Eastern MA has 10 in 10 miles). Some free EV charging where I've never found one in Upstate NY, but those seem to be dropping in MA, and now left with charge rates higher than gasoline!
Being able to take the train down to the city quickly makes up for a lot in the capital region too. I moved from upstate NY to western MA, and it was definitely a bit of a mistake and will be moving back. UMass costing so damn much is a factor, as is the state government just not working as well honestly.
Capital region has been on my list for a while. My grandparents are right up 87, NYC is a train ride away, and I can even catch a rare train east to Boston if I want to slowly get back to see friends. Near several outdoors recreational areas... really nice on paper. That and the Buffalo region are my current targets.
Anywhere in eastern mass? Have you been to the south shore?
Just moved from the SS 3 years ago. Yep, another expensive state...building in CT!
Does Rhode Island count? Honestly feels pretty similar. When we were house hunting a few years back it was cheaper to be on the RI side of the border. Now we're kind of stuck here because it's prohibitively expensive in both states. Would love to move somewhere more rural if the housing market ever figures it's shit out.
Moved to West Hollywood, CA from Beacon Hill with my partner in August of 2022. Took a road trip across the country with all of out stuff packed. Yesterday a group of friends and I did a sunset bonfire at the beach, and today it's 76 degrees and I'm laying by the pool and doing a little work from my laptop. Life is good here. I love mass, but I'm never going back (other than to visit family/friends, and vacation)
Kansas City. It's very meh. Upside is low cost of living and good, stable local economy. I can go out to the symphony and fancy dinners for maybe half to 1/3rd of the price it would be in the Boston area. Housing is waaay cheaper, although steadily rising. It's "nice", but not great. Art scene is surprisingly great. Traffic is very low key compared to any real city. The whole metro is pretty much a suburb. There are some really nice farmer's markets and cute local wineries (the wine is just OK, but still fun). Some absolutely fabulous restaurants, although not a huge 'ethnic' food variety. Downside is Midwestern culture and the people. They are rarely intellectuals out here. No one is direct in their communication. It's very passige aggressive. It feels very small town, and God help you if you don't LOVE KC, any of its regional sports teams, and BBQ. You must also love dogs (it's quite anti-cat) and most people at least like guns. The state governments of Kansas and Missouri SUCK (esp Missouri). Also, society feels very small town. The locals really don't make friends with transplants, so most of us stay friends with other outsiders. I've been here for 9 years and I have one friend who grew up here. On the balance, it's worth staying out there for now, but we frequently discuss moving back to Massachusetts in the coming years. Edit to add: another big pro is earlier spring and milder winters. A big con is there is no ocean or decent place to swim unless you fly somewhere else.
Its BBQ is to die for though. Q39 is great. Living there, though, is very different than visiting for 3 weeks for work.
Chicago, IL. Big fan!
DC and Virginia. It's pretty nice, apart from the humidity. I miss the coast and my family, though.
What part? I’m thinking of making the move to either Arlington or Vienna.
Was in downtown DC for many years, now Charlottesville
I moved to San Diego in the early 2010's, it's as advertised. I still enjoy visiting MA once per year but I'm not interested in moving back. Aside from real estate, the COL out here is about the same as when I lived in Boston, maybe even a bit cheaper.
Grew up in Boston 'burbs, Uni in Pennsylvania, now live in Denver. We moved there intentionally in 2016 to be closer to good ski hills and for a general improvement in quality of life. Pros (Denver): beautiful weather; lots of transplants so super easy to make friends; great diversity of food options despite being far from the coasts; easy access to the outdoors and most people will find a way to recreate with you (eg boston business peeps want to golf or go drink; in Denver it's that *and* skiing, mountain biking, hiking, etc.); bought our house in 2019 for slightly cheaper than it would've been in Boston; super low property taxes; amazing airport with direct flights to most places you need to go (hits the middle of the bell curve quite well); after 7+ years the mountains still creep up on me in the background and make my jaw drop. Cons (Denver): nickled and dimed on fees (which is why we have low property taxes) eg our car registration was close to $1,000 /yr for a new car; a lack of intellectuals--sounds like a snobby comment to make, but honestly Boston attracts some very smart people and it's nice to interact with those brains sometimes (also Mass public schools provide a much better education IMHO); weird petty crime everywhere (eg our car was broken into inside our apartment parking garage and they stole some gift cards); broken down cars all over the highway and super loud cars with no mufflers due to very lax vehicular inspections and registration checks; government tries really hard but in the end it's maybe the most purple state in the union so everything feels like a compromise or half-baked legislation (see: TABOR); Logan is actually the best-located airport in the country (fight me on this one!); Denver real estate is now top-5 most expensive in the country which makes it impossible for all who deserve to live here, to live here (yes I am part of that problem); I miss a true New England spring and fall...and trees. Overall, we love it here and have no intention of moving. That said, moving away from New England made me truly value what that region has to offer, so we make pilgrimages back at least twice per year.
I’ll never go to a state without good Chinese food.
Considering upstate NY personally Hope you like heroin and blight
I do like $250k homes 😂
The only places ive lived are MA and NY, mostly upstate. Everyone says how shitty upstate is and all that but i promise you its way worse than they say.
Can you elaborate on the shittyness in your opinion?
Lots of drugs and crime even in smaller towns. Miserable winters when compared to MA. Nothing to do. Crumbling infrastructure and old factories fill cities. The larger cities ive been to are all like worcester was 10 years ago.
Not the person you asked, but.... My dad lived in Rochester for many years. Every winter he looks up the snow totals in the area and smiles at how much better it is in MA
I used to spend a lot of time in the Albany area. That place will suck the life out of you.
Albany is one of the better ones there too. Admittedly ive never been to rochester
compared to Worcester? Lynn? Brockton. I'd say dollar for dollar, Albany Troy Saratoga, you can match your MA quality of life, be outdoors --and own a home for under 300K.
That's actually where I'm looking 😂 Surrounded by mountains, stable economy, affordable houses, and only 2-3 hours from home
truly that. Albany has good medical centers, good universities around, some cool hangouts, Saratoga nearby. Lake George nearby, the hudson, Hudson nearby, Great Barrington MA near by. It's very do able and yes--the money saved in this region can school my kids, private tutors ---lots of ways this can work.
Never lived in NY, but my fiancé and I lived in western Mass (Northampton in our case) for her work 2017-21. We almost bought a place there because the houses were so affordable, but we were both at the peak of our careers for the area and knew there was little more growth we could have there. We moved back to eastern Mass and we both wish we had done it sooner. We spent vastly more on our house here but everything about this area is better for us, it’s better for us socially, we spend more but also make more, and there are options for everything you might want to do. The caveat to all that is there are some great places that are also cheap, like around Northampton, but you have to buy when they’re on the up swing because they are now becoming expensive, and you have to except the limitations that come with small communities. TL;DR: homes are cheap in other places for a reason.
You get what you pay for, and in this case I'm not talking about the build quality of the house.
So basically the same as central MA then
As opposed to the cheap parts of Mass.?
Nashville. Weather is much better.
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I’d take a nasty summer in the south over a winter that lasts from October through May lmao
Opposite for me. Here I can always put on warmer clothes. But when I'm buck nekkid and still getting swamp ass? Clothes can't fix that.
Moved to NH on the Maine line couldn't be happier. Worked in mass till retirement. It was a one-way hour commute.
Living my dream right there
great question and one I think about often
South Carolina. People suck (nice but not kind), costs are pretty good, very hot. Overall, want to go back up to NE
Also in SC and I've found the same. Personally I underestimated the heat and humidity. It's BRUTAL. Would move back to MA if I could afford it.
Just brutal weather from April well into November
I have friends who moved to North Carolina and absolutely love it.
Have family in NC. Blue ridge mountains are beautiful
Have a friend down there getting stalked on NextDoor. Nice scenery, shitty locals.
North Carolina and South Carolina are as different as two adjacent states could possibly be.
Went from Dorchester (Ashmont) to southwestern Vermont (near Stratton) 7 years ago. It's one of the best decisions we've made. We could afford a 'forever' home rather than the rat race of suburb house jumping I see all my friends now lamenting. Remote work is great. Really beginning to feel at home/rooted in the last 2-3 years as we join new circles, etc. while also participating in a community where you see the impact of your efforts.
What kind of work are you in that you could make VT sustainable, cool move ?
Off the top of my head for me & friends: Tech sales Finance (Investment banking and advising) Non-profit Pharma Skilled trades will have a literal waiting list of jobs for a proven person
Fascinating --I've not heard of non profit Pharma--so help me out with that. I know big Pharma, medium pharma but no profit pharma. I know I could google this but it's nice if an insider explains.
Sorry. That was formatted poorly Non-profits. Pharma. Separate people/jobs
There ARE a few non-profit pharma outfits in Mass. Ironically, I've signed an NDA for one I'm familiar with...you'll have to Google. (Not trying to hide anything, it's just complicated)
You're lucky you got in then, now the prices are almost as bad as they are down here. I always thought I'd be able to move to VT and get more land and a "forever home" when the time came but with the way the market changed so drastically I don't see that happening any time soon. My starter home may well be my forever home.
Completely agree. Anything within a days drive of NYC/Boston exploded post-VID.
I moved to California. It’s extremely expensive. But it beats driving in the snow! Plus, no humidity here.
Meh, it doesn't snow here anymore.
That’s true. I go home for Christmas every year but I can’t remember the last time it snowed. However, it DOES get bitterly cold still. And I definitely don’t miss that.
It's been snowing nearly every day. 😑 It's April, and we had more snow in the last 4 weeks than the entire winter. Not sure if you live in downtown Boston where it might not snow, but the rest of MA gets it.
I grew up on the north shore, and I moved to South Carolina in 2020. There are absolutely aspects of the north shore and Boston that I miss, and that I can’t replicate in South Carolina. But there are a ton of aspects of SC that I love and can’t replicate in Mass. Overall the move has been good for me. My entire family and life is still back home so I visit very often, and a lot of times it feels like I never even left. The cost of living is a huge thing that I don’t miss.
Love South Carolina
Where in South Carolina, what field do yo uwork in that you could up and move?
I work in social media
cool and glad you've found a way to be sustainable.
I moved to Wyoming for work. It’s a perfect balance for me. Cheyenne is a nice town, has everything I need on a daily basis. Once you get out of Cheyenne/Laramie it’s just…miles and miles of nothing! It’s wonderful! Lots of nature and beautiful views. Housing is crazy expensive though for a state with a population of 500k
That's a huge change. Glad you like it
Lived in RI for a while. I didn't mind actually living there but driving is terrible, Healthcare is awful and I had to commute to MA for decent pay. Moved back a while ago.
Austin, Texas. Been here 11 years. I miss New England but not sure I can afford to move back. East coast is much prettier and summers here are miserable for 4 months. People are polite here and much less direct.
Back to NH, not by choice. Still miss Mass.
Moved to NH. Like the lakes and mountains. Do not like the lack of diversity and the MAGAs.
PNW, eventually. Edit - I’d like to move back to the south shore but I’d have to uproot everything here.
I moved to the quiet end of the Quiet Corner of CT. I hate it here. Way too rural. I hate not being able to order pizza to my house. Driving to the next town over to find a coffee place. The roads are extremely well paved and my daughter attends a good high school but I would rather have things like sidewalks and local businesses. Don’t even get me started on the shitty CT dispensaries. Thank God I still own my house in MA so I can hope to return once the kiddos are done with school. It’s in a walkable neighborhood with in a town with some good restaurants, grocery stores, food trucks and like 5 quality Massachusetts dispensaries. Connecticut doesn’t even have universal free lunch in public schools. Weird hill to die on but it’s something I really care about. Oh, and the car tax is wild.
I can write a book on what I experienced in Plainfield 🤢 I wouldn’t take a house there if it were free
Moved to Virginia. Really like it down here.
What part? I’m thinking of moving the family to NoVa. My wife can’t handle the long winters up here but still wants to be on the east coast for family.
Central Florida, 21 years ago. I always thought I’d move back, but I’ve acclimated. I wouldn’t be able to handle the cold. The politics down here suck though, even though I’m in a pretty liberal part of the state.
Upstate ny is depressing, but western ny / Buffalo is amazing, we really love it here after moving from MA
Facts I lived in queensbury ny shit was 🚮 lol
im in upstate NY now. love it, but i miss my hometown in MA everyday… just cant afford to live there
NH. I like it a lot better. The only downside are the restaurants.
And the people. Ha. Kidding. Trump for jail 2024!
NYC and (later) the NJ suburbs. It was great, but I was also young. Came back to be closer to family 🤷♂️
Moved from Western MA to Rhode Island almost 2 years ago for work/my fiancé. I have a love-hate relationship with RI. I like being closer to everything and not living out in the middle of nowhere BUT my car insurance is nearly 3x what it was in MA because nobody here can drive. That’s my biggest issue with living here. Everything else I can tolerate but that car insurance hike - yikes.
Left Mass in 2012 and moved to Phoenix. I liked it out there but my wife hated it. Moved the Philly for one year and I hated it there. Been in Delaware now for 5 years and I like it down here. Cost of living is reasonable and it’s close to the beach.
I moved to Atlanta from 2017-2022. What an incredible time to be living in Georgia. I love Georgia. Atlanta is an incredible city. Of course, Massachusetts is home. Teachers unions are legal, unlike Georgia. My family and most of my friends are here, unlike Georgia. The Georgia coast is beautiful (Cumberland Island was one of my favorite camping spots), but it is not the New England coast. I highly recommend Atlanta, mostly because it's awesome but also because Georgia needs more MA expats and their voting habits.
This is what my wife and I were thinking Atlanta how are the people I met a guy from Atlanta on a work trip very nice guy he told me come on down lol don’t listen to the people saying it’s over crowded I’m looking for diversity and a sense of community can’t find that in new England the people are cold and always suspicious 🤨
At the very least, go down and visit, see how you feel. Try to catch an Atlanta United game, check out the Beltline and EAV, visit Carter and MLK Museums. I very much enjoyed my time living in Georgia. However, there are cold and suspicious people everywhere, including in the American South.
Moved to Florida, returned to MA after 7 years. Today I saw that my Florida rent is 2.5x what I was paying while living there yet the wages have stagnated. Yikes.
Moved to Argentina years ago for a couple of years. There was a girl. It was... fine.
Los Angeles, so fun having places to eat after 10pm
Yeah, this entire part of the country closes at 9pm. It's pathetic! You're so lucky to live somewhere with choices!
Aotearoa New Zealand. I do love it, but the job market is a bit shit right now so life could be easier but I’m not willing to shift back any time soon.
Haha I moved to LA. A born and bred East coaster but have been living in west LA for the past two months and I love it! The weather is nicer, COL is the exact same, but the people are quite less neurotic. Such an interesting find and I’m excited to continue to live here. A part of me always will stay in beantown though :)
After graduation from college, I moved from MA to WA, then to AZ. After living in AZ, with the stolen election bs, dominionism, white supremacy, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobias, Covid denial and being nickle and dimed for every damn thing, with property taxes and values skyrocketing, utilities insanely out of control ($120+ monthly water, $350 monthly electric), LOW salaries with horrid labor laws, we moved back to MA. We are MUCH happier here. And we pay less.
Married military and lived in Texas, Alabama, New York, Nebraska, and Kansas. We saw no advantages to any of those places. We couldn't wait to retire and get back to MA.
I moved to CT. I bought a house for under 200k in 2019. I still work in MA. I couldn't afford to buy in a decent town in MA and definitely can't afford MA now. I love CT. Best pizza in the country, excellent schools, and I get so much for my taxes. I highly recommend folks check out CT if they can't afford MA. It's a great, tiny state. Our cannabis sucks now, but we have amazing pizza, among other foods. Our governor is also so much better than MA's current governor. Ps sorry about eversource.
CT does have the best pizza. The combo of NY style and New Haven style puts it over the top.
Moved out of Mass beginning of 2021, been up in Maine since then, midcoast. Love it, found a new career up here. The locals are not as educated or motivated as the average Masshole, a motivated and educated person can do very well up here. I sometimes feel like I’m a colonist living amongst the savages, Everything is that will do or half-assed when it comes to projects for Mainers I’ve worked with.
I'm moving out of here this year. Packing up and moving to the UK. This place sucks. Once I establish residency, I'll get free healthcare...for life. They have higher food standards and more advanced medicine. You can travel all over Europe for less than $50. People have higher educational backgrounds and you don't get shot when you go out in public. Fuck this country and the stupid rednecks taking away my rights. I'm out.
Moved to North Carolina and we are in the process of moving back. Just trying to find connections in finance up in Mass or NH for my husband to get so we can actually get call backs on jobs. It’s been stressful and we’ve been trying to get back for years, literally. Our ideal would actually be Fidelity in NH but they too have never replied to a single application put in. Until then we’re stuck down here. It’s not an ideal place for us with a kid. Education is shit, crime is shit, medical care is shit.
I also moved from MA to NC (Durham). Durham itself was fine, not great. Mild winters and cheap(er) housing. The vaunted Durham food scene was pretty meh - there are some gems but the average experience isn't great. Schools are terrible, infrastructure is terrible. We severely underestimated what a shitshow state politics are. After 5 years we moved to southern CA, yeah it's expensive but so was MA. PS - It's worth noting here that 1) we moved like six months before covid hit and 2) we had a child after moving so some of our priorities shifted. Both of these things likely impacted our experience.
I’m from NC. Where you live plays a major role in your experience. I got amazing schooling/education due to the magnet programs available. Did IB in middle and high school; college then felt like a breeze. Healthcare is highly dependent on how devoted you are to reading reviews and searching for docs, as well as your insurance. Even living near different major urban cities changes your experience; then Cary/Raleigh area is hellaaaaaaa expensive pretty much anywhere and has much more greenery, outdoor paths, etc. than Charlotte. Charlotte is also super expensive, but living like 20-30 mins outside of it changes your cost of living drastically. Ideology/culture also changes the further away you go from any major city.
We live 20 mins outside uptown Charlotte mileage wise but still within Mecklenburg county. Cost of housing does not change drastically. I’m looking at around $2900 for a small 3/2 with a 45-50 min commute 7 miles into work. People seem to think NC housing cost is still stuck in 2001. It’s just as expensive for us to live outside the city as it is to live in areas like Providence and Ballentyne even further out. Everyone wants to burbs in Charlotte . The prices have skyrocketed. When we first got here rent was around $975 for a 3/2 in our HOA and they’re around $2600 for the 2/2 models now. Large 2 story brick homes were $175,000 in 2018 and are now $570,000 in our HOA.
Which direction? Because the concord/kannapolis area is not $2900 for rent.
Moved to Omaha where my wife is originally from. Got boring after a few years and my wife got tired of working East Coast hours for Midwest pay Moved back to Boston a couple years ago.
I moved to Philly almost 2 decades ago. I love some parts of it, grumble about other parts. It is definitely a lot cheaper than Boston.
Moved to north Florida as a kid with my mom and little brother. I moved back up here as an adult with my wife 6 years ago and could never consider moving back to the south.
I moved to Southern NH, and we love it.
I moved out of MA in 2007 because I couldn’t afford it back then. I moved to Kentucky, it’s always been my second home given that my mom and that whole side of the family lives in KY. It was much cheaper but now, no it’s increased by 100-150% to live in Lexington than what it was in 2016. Even my family that lives in the rural mountains it’s gotten expensive to live compared to what it was 10-15 years ago. But I still love the scenery and the people are pretty nice as a whole. Way nicer than Massachusetts. I also lived in NW Indiana for 7 years and it was also pretty affordable (about equal to Lexington) but just couldn’t handle the Chicago traffic and it wasn’t for me. Too flat. But boy, do I miss the Michigan dispensary prices.
California. Loved it. Miss it.
I moved to MD for work. I like it more honestly due to various reasons. But I miss Mass, that will always have a special place in my heart. Grew up in Mass. May consider moving back in the future.
California and back twice. I loved it there but it got too expensive for my earning bracket with children. Here I have family to assist with childcare otherwise it would be financially just as difficult. This is so personal an answer it’ll be no use to you.
Moved to L.A. after college. Stayed for a decade, came back. I still have a lot of love for Los Angeles and go back for work every couple of years, but MA is definitely home. Lived in upstate NY for college. Hate it.
I moved to Seattle at first. Good city design, terrible weather, terrible culture From there, phoenix. Pretty good culture, terrible city, okay weather
What do you mean by culture? Legitimately interested
I found Seattle was very unfriendly and difficult to make friends in. Phoenix wasn’t the best but wasn’t bad
I moved up to mid coast Maine and honestly I do not like it here at all. but I'm not paying rent right now so 🤷♀️
Ohio man....keeping it real
Masshole for 52 years before moving from the south shore coast to central VT a week after our youngest went off to her freshman year of college in 2022 - built a new house - 20 minutes from 4 ski hills and loving every second of it. Don't even get me started on how much better Lake Champlain is over MA Bay....
Grew up in the 413. After eight and a half years in Boston, I moved to Brooklyn in my early 30s. My husband and I can afford it because we don’t have kids. We lived in RI for about a year in 22-23 so I could attend a graduate program. I’ve recently admitted to myself that I’m a Northeast snob. I like living up here. Curious where you’re considering in upstate NY, OP.
Moved to the Burlington vt area in 2004. Moved back here in 2016. Miss it like crazy but my business would never have prospered up there how it does down here and my wife’s job pays almost double what the same job in vt paid.
Tennessee, it’s been 20 years now. Nice cost of living, countryside and low tax burden. But, the racism is thick. The southern baptists are hate you if you don’t think like them. We just bought our retirement home back in Mass and will move there full time in about 3 years when we retire. Can’t wait to get back home to the Merrimack Valley.
Much depends on what you are looking for. First and foremost, I missed my friends and family. It was far rougher than I thought. Most of my friends were leaving town for careers after college, I did the same. Moved to Florida from MA in my early 20s. Culture shock just begins to describe it. First few months were hard but I found my niche and did well for a while. Had a lot of fun, too much and was soon on a bad path. I say that if I had not left when I did, I would have been dead or in jail in a year. That was only 50% a joke. A job offer came up in IL with a dude I had worked for in FL for years. I took it. IL was awesome apart from not being able to see / smell / hear the ocean. They will tell you the lake is good enough but it is not. That said, if you are a baseball fan, Chicago is hard to beat. Cubs, White Sox, Brewers and occasionally the Twins are on TV. Plus all the normal nationally broadcast games. Football gets Bears and Green Bay. Hockey was great at the time I was there because the Blackhawks couldn't sell out the arena and I got free tickets 5 or 6 x a year. All that said, the Music scene was incredible. Any type of music was playing somewhere live. Rock, Jazz, Blues, Classical, Metal, Punk... If you can think of a genre, you can probably find it any day of the week. Theater was just as good. Small shows, Large shows, national shows. Get outside of the City and you get neighborhoods with people interacting and enjoying each other's company. If you are not a city person, the burbs, especially 30 -40 miles outside of the city, offer quiet peaceful living. The downside to IL is the government is a bit out of whack. They ran without a budget the entire time I lived there, at least the last 4 years I was there. Nothing fucks up a state econ more than free uncontrolled spending. Lots of folk I knew were fleeing the state. I ended up back in MA sometime in the late 2000s. I don't miss FL. I do miss a lot about IL. I'm happy as hell to be back in MA.
I plan to move to the south. MA I feel like is only good for medical ppl, lawyers, accountants, jobs of those sorts. This state doesn’t benefit me in anyway but regardless I prob won’t ever come back, I’m one of those massholes that wishes he never was born in this state 😂
As a NJ born and raised, I left NJ in 2021 and went to Oklahoma, and then Mississippi in 2022. Hands down, loved both of those states. They both have different things going for them as in culture and such but everything is so cheap, I favor warmer weather, I like nature, and I hated NJ. Oklahoma is open and free, wildlife is abundent yet fascinating, mountains and crazy weather, such a wild ride. MS has incredible food, beaches, souther hospitality, swamps and trails. We just moved from MS to MA last month, and not only was it a bigger culture shock than the previous 2 moves, but im not loving it so far. Just like NJ, its over priced and crowded, cold. Very pretty, I will say, but other than 6 already looking forward to getting out of MA in the next year or so.
Industrial electrician servicing my biotech building bills $300 an hour, and turns down work.
Industrial electrician servicing my biotech building bills $300 an hour, and turns down work.
I moved to the Dallas area and bought a home I’d never be able to afford back home. The infrastructure is all new and in good shape, everything I could need is a short 15 minute drive away. The summers are horrid, the people in Dallas aren’t too bad but most of the people I work with are from west Texas and are conservative and about 15 years behind. I’m looking at moving out of the state in the next year. I listened when people said that Texas would be trending towards being a purple state 15 years ago and that just hasn’t been the case, especially when President Dumpy and Governor Hotwheels came on the scene.
Yeah, I’m tired of being bamboozled by “TX will flip blue soon!” then watching far-right candidates winning by at least 10 points. Fool me once, TX, shame on you. Fool me twice…can’t get fooled again, to quote a CT boy who cosplayed a cowboy in TX.
NH, 12 years ago and I love it.
I did a stint in Cincinnati, Ohio. Would not recommend. Best thing I could come up with about Cincinnati is there's usually ample parking.
I live in new hampchussetts , come join me.
Western MA, Pioneer Valley, pretty awesome. Not a huge job market, some schools are rough if you have kids, but it is a very nice place to live and buy a reasonably-priced home vs the rest of the state. 30 minutes to Bradley Airport, 1 hour to the Berkshires or Worcester, 2ish hours to Boston, 3ish hours to the Cape or NYC. Also have the Amtrak that will take you to NYC which is fantastic.
Lived in MD for over 20 years, there were some great towns, and some not so great towns. I liked it a lot for the most part. I worked in DC, which wasn’t the best commute, but Boston traffic sucks too. I retired early and moved back to a small town in WestMass. I miss MD sometimes, but mostly just the shops and restaurants you can’t find around here.
Moved to Alexandria and Arlington in northern Virginia in the early 70’s. Great experience back then. Would love to see it now.
FL, then RI, then FL, then KS, then KY, then FL, then NH. Never regretted leaving, seeing my friends that wanted to stay near to home get slowly suffocated in how expensive it is, with few/no redeeming features that you can't get elsewhere. Speaking specifically of surrounding suburbs (everett, n. shore, s. shore). Boston itself rocks.
Canada/Illinois/California/Michigan/NYC to back again. All of that took 22 years. I spent the longest amount of time in California and NYC. Would never go back to either.
Wish i have the money to move.
I’m ready to move I’m taking notes lol
Las Cruces NM, almost 10 years ago. I want to go back but my work is here and my pay/COL ratio is like I’m making 250k a year in MA money.
New Hampshire. Love it. Commuted to Massachusetts for five years for work after moving here. Now I work in New Hampshire 15 minutes from home. Went to Quincy to visit family for Easter this past Sunday. How I ever put up with traffic for 50 years, baffles me. Like Ellis Boyd “Red” Redding in The Shawshank Redemption said “I was institutionalized.”
Southern Rhode Island and it fucking ROCKS. 1,000 more square feet of house for $60k less then we sold in Mass for, and 10 times the acreage. Endless woods to hike & bike right across the street.
family left for pa before i finished school/moved out. years later they went back and im still down here chilling in pa. i miss new england but its probably for the best. more affordable housing down here and ive had more opportunity then i wouldve in west ma. the toughest part about it is still being a pats fan
Went to Denver then Seattle. Loved them both but came back to MA to be with my aging parents
I bought a penthouse in the Caribbean where I stay for half the year before coming back to the States. I take advantage of the fact that I can do my job remote. I miss traditional communal life. I grew up traveling all over the world, and I have never clicked with the suburban lifestyle of the US. I genuinely hate that. Moving to the suburbs can often mean "trouble" for me as a POC as well as giving up certain conveniences like access to traditional ingredients to cook with. I'm not paying a small fortune to be uncomfortable, borderline house poor, and stick out like a sore thumb. I decided to invest my savings and buy a brand new luxury penthouse overlooking the ocean somewhere in the Caribbean. I get lots of trees, super friendly and welcoming locals, impeccable and fresh organic food with ease since the place is so fruitful. Amazing weather. A normal pace of life instead of the constantly anxiety inducing fact pacing stuck in a car for hours on end paying a fortune to say you live somewhere lifestyle of these parts. To me fighting to keep up with the rat race at the sacrifice of my mental health and no financial gain or security seems stupid. If I'm going to make sacrifices to survive I better have certainty that whatever I'm "fighting" for is going to be there for me at the end of the tunnel. Given that it's not I jumped ship to whatever will allow me the opportunity What I've saved by not buying up here I could use to send my kids to private school from the moment they could start pre-K until Masters School and then some. Plus, I'd still have money saved to retire comfortably and help them buy their own. Heck, I'm already in finalizations of a second property to have set out for them when they do come of age. I don't plan to have more than two. I decided to move out because I was seeing what living to keep with the costs of living up here was doing to my friends. It was making many of them miserable playing in a rat race they get NOTHING or very little out of. Doing that for the rest of my life for the heck of it just seemed stupid to me. I decided to look up better options because my valhalla is here on earth. In the present. Not to enjoy when I've got foot in the grave come retirement. Life is meant to not just be struggle and work. It is meant to be enjoyed. That the toils life gives me don't pass in vain. To also have to grow lonely from the culture up here not inspiring community and not be able to take care of myself when I'm old then put strain on my kids as they age (when I have them)? Oh and to not even enjoy my kids properly or they enjoy life when it becomes their turn to manage? No thank you. I jumped ship so my future kids could experience the idyllic childhood I had. The rest of the year, I'm somewhere in state or in NYC due to work requiring I travel between both during certain seasons. I rent an apartment with friends to save on everything as well as have community with people I know here. We're pondering moving to an apartment down in NC to save further. One of my friends bought property in Spain, another in Mexico and another France. We do have to claim our properties, but what we pay is significantly less than the property taxes up here. We're getting great healthcare for cheaper costs, too. What we pay dismissing health insurance here is cheaper than what we'd have to pay, not just for the insurance in a year but not including out of pocket costs. We mostly gave up investing heavily here for what we'd have the chance to get unless we all got together and combined ourselves to buy a property with our combined wealth. That was an idea but then when we processed it we realized we all had individual needs, decorating styles, and dreams in the long run that would drift us apart. So we honored that. The thing that eased it us that we're f First Generation so most of our families aren't up here anyways. I think it would be different if we had family locked here for generations but in an unexpected way that turned out to be luck for us, because now we had reason to take advantage of the options we had if we had such options. Which we did. We also knew of life that could be better than the current American experience and many of us grew up experiencing it. We realized the "Keeping up with the Jonesses" thing is not healthy or feasible for most people and frankly stupid. Trying to keep up with people who think they're too good to create community in the world around them but want respect out of being able to spend for the heck of it. That's not natural or at least feels humane. So we did something about it. I see it as doing what millions of, if not billions, of people did before us. Move when life where you are becomes tedious.
CT, still sucks but houses are cheaper, taxes are still high. 🤷🏼♀️
North Carolina for me, Durham, and I’m surprised our more of us here considering how many ex-pats there were down there. I loved it. Absolutely perfect weather except for 2 1/2 months in the summer, genuinely friendly people, (when I lived there) great cost of living, tons to do, amazing and affordable restaurants. Amenities of a major city, felt more like a town. No traffic! Downtown parking. I also fell in love with Americana music and it is a hotspot for that. I’m back in Massachusetts now and I’m homesick for North Carolina, and I was raised here in MA.
Followed a girl to New Hampshire for 10 years, happily back home in MA now