I've been so frustrated lately in Southern California...my rent just went up again, and all this political crap here going on is making me feel financially threatened, at least potentially. And we're half-heartedly considering moving out-out-state.

So I figure I need to know the economics in YOUR area! (Either I'll be humbled cuz I don't have it as bad, or when I'm bummed about finances I can tell myself, "that's it. I'm moving to (blank city/state) !"

Here's what I want to know:
What's the average price of rent around your parts? How's public transportation? Safety factors? Average commute? Economics in general?

Here in North Orange County, rent for a one bedroom is averaging about $950. I've seen it as cheap as 650 in bad parts of town and 1500 for luxury places. Public transportation sucks but is improving, I hear. It's a relatively safe place to be...but we always lock our doors. Most people around here commute probably an average of 20 miles or so. The economics SUCK. I won't even get into it but let's just say that the state tax I pay is helping a lot of other people than it is me.

Can you guys clue me in as to how much greener your grass is?

[This message has been edited by Drea D (edited 09-10-2003).]

- *almost* decriminalized pot
- legally recognized gay marriage
- free healthcare (if you become a citizen)
- gun control
- the cost of living ain't bad, but American $$ is nearly $1.50 to our $1!
- rent can range between $450(burbs)-1500(luxe DT) for a one-bedroom (CDN$)
- average commute would be about 30mins if you live in a suburb.
- it's pretty darn safe. The only violence that really happens here are gang/drug related, and they still don't happen very often at all. Stay out of gangs and don't deal coke, and you should be fine
- really mild weather. It rarely snows during winter, and doesn't get blisteringly hot in the summer. (i.e. yearly temps range from about 32F-90F)
- it's darned gorgeous here.

I know it's unlikely that you'd be willing to move to another country, but I thought you might want to know, for interests' sake

Here are the results of Atlanta's March 2003 Citizen Satisfaction Survey for you to look at, a link to good information about moving to ATL, including the cost of living, etc. and finally, a link to transportation info in ATL.

A personal note: I pay $760 for my one bedroom apt., and I think that's phenomenal considering what I've seen friends pay for in more costly areas, such as Boston. I do love my apartment, but I'll be honest with you, the buyer's market is so good right now that "desirable" tenants are moving out of rentals, and buying, making the rent rates go down, and changing the demographic in rental communities. My community, for instance, is changing on a daily basis, and I plan to move in March when my lease is up. There are still fantastic rental communities in which to live, however, and I plan on moving to one of them!

Public transportation: Atlant has MARTA, which is an acronym for Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority. There are rapid transit vehicles (it's like a subway, minus the "sub" part), and busses. The rapid transit is limited because it only travels a "cross" across the city. (The way the highways work here, there are several main ones, and then I-285, which is a bypass, and makes a circle around the city. We call it The Perimeter. If you look at a map, you'll see what I mean. Inside the perimiter is "In-Town", and outside is "metro-Atlanta"). It goes north and south, and east and west. Then, to get closer to your destination, you would take a MARTA bus. Really, this city isn't hip to public transportation like NYC, or San Fran. Most people have cars and drive, and those who don't take public transport. I've never been on a MARTA bus, but rapid transit is convenient when going to a concert down-town, a Braves game, or to the airport, which is south of the city. Again, just for honesty's sake, I've had two bad experiences on rapid transit when by myself, but for the most part, it's fine. Gets you where you need to go, you know. Atlanta isn't a city conducive to walking, unlike San Fran or NYC. We're far too sprawling.

Safety? Aside from those two instances on MARTA, I've never felt threatened, and even then, it wasn't as though someone pulled a gun on me. (Once I was heckled, and the other time some guy whipped out his you-know-what!) I don't venture into the notoriously "bad" neighborhoods, though. There are some, but I just stay away from them.

Okay, so this is a long @ss message. I'm sorry. I just always have a lot to say about ATL. I LOVE it here. If you're interested, I'd be perfectly happy to recruit you!

Keep'em coming, y'all. Because hopefully if I read enough about other people's more reasonable economic situations, I'll get the guts to pick up and do something about it, instead of just complaining.

That said. It is a university down so the downtown is lively but safe. I'd probably like Madison more if I weren't so far away from all the action. Everything outside of downtown is ugly sprawl with little heart or soul. =(

I've lived in Cincinnati and Dayton. Don't know rent prices in Cincy, but in Dayton I had a pretty nice 1-bdrm apt for $310 that was in the city but not a bad neighborhood (though there were kids who liked to smash car windows--not to steal anything, just to do it). I had a little sunny porch area where I could put my plants--it was SWEET. I've seen rent as low as $250 and as high as $1000s for a "loft," but for about $6-700 or less you could rent a HOUSE. I was 15 mins away from Wright State University (where I went to school) and 10 mins from downtown. Public transportation wasn't that good at all--busses seemed to run every hour/2 hours and I lived on a major street! You need a car there, but gas prices I KNOW must be better than in Cali (highest this summer was like $1.75/gallon).

In Cincinnati, the bus lines are much better, you probably would wait about 10-15 minutes for a bus in most areas. Cincy has a lot of cute little neighborhoods (Hyde Park, Walnut Hills, Rookwood) that feel like suburbs but are pretty close to "civilization." Supposedly a mid-class person from a big city can live like royalty anywhere in OH.

And as far as "you want to live where I live": oh, no you don't. I don't even want to live here. The benefits (I'm in Omaha, Nebraska):
-it's cheap
-not much traffic
-there are a few really nice bars/restaurants
-it's super cheap - my friends bought a 2 bedroom house with a finished basement in a decent neighborhood for under $100k. Our 2 bed, 1800 square foot, very cool apartment is $725 a month, and that's expensive for this city cause we're in a "hip" neighborhood.

the drawbacks:
-winter sucks (very cold & windy, lots of ice)
-summer sucks (very hot & humid)
-everyone drives like they're on sedatives or 95 years old
-because cost of living is low, pay scale is really low
-it's incredibly conservative & republican
-you can't find arugula anywhere

I have also lived in Ann Arbor, MI; the upper peninsula of Michigan; and near Atlanta, GA. Of the three, I loved the U.P. the most for outdoorsy stuff, cost of living, and atmosphere. However, lower Michigan has some great things to offer. Ann Arbor is a beautiful city and it's a college town (U of M) so there are a ton of students around year-round. Shopping is pretty nice, cost of living is high, traffic kinda sucks, lots of nice parks, etc. There are pros and cons that balance each other out in my eyes.

I've paid $1172 for a 1 br in a high rise with 24-hr doorman; $1025 for a "convertible" in a high rise with a 24-hr doorman (both a sneeze from the 'loop'); $925 for a 1 br in Lakeview (by Wrigley Field); $680 for a 2 br in Logan Square which used to be an awful neighborhood, but is improving and now I pay $849 for a 2 bedroom in Andersonville, which is a lovely neighborhood, there are only 3 apartment bldgs on my block, everything is well kept and has easy street parking. If you're interested in looking at average apartments in chicago, you can go to www.chireader.com and go to the "spacefinder" section and it has all the apartment listings as well as a neighborhood guide. There are a lot of neighborhoods that are changing rapidly and have a lot to offer, but there are also ones that I wouldn't live alone in. You can find studios in nice neighborhoods for approx. $525, but don't expect to put more in there than you could fit in your car. Parking generally is a b!tch or expensive or both. Our public transportation, CTA is really good. Of course it is often smelly or late, but it generally gets you where you need to go pretty quickly. There are busses and the "el" for the suburbs there is METRA and SOUTHSHORE which are regular commuter trains. There are a lot of people who drive into the 'loop', our main business district, but for the most part people take one of those forms of transportation, otherwise you could end up paying upwards of $300 a month for parking alone.

As far as makin' a livin' here it really depends on what you do. Lawyers are a dime a dozen here (approx. 5 law schools in a 20 mile area), but there are other fields that have a pretty easy time of it.

The social life is great, there's always something to do regardless of what it is that interests you.

I lived in Iowa City for 5 years. The rent there is incredibly cheap, but TYPICALLY the landlords are a short cry from slum lords (dealing with college students breaking stuff constantly I think has that effect), the neighborhoods surrounding the campus tend to be loud but the further you get from the campus you can find some really beautiful houses and condos.

I grew up in Atlanta and have seen it change very rapidly. I don't really know what the apartment market is like now, but I do remember there being some very beautiful communities as well as some very kid friendly communities.

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Originally posted by Drea D:
Ooooooo! I'm 5 MINUTES from Brea!!

When exactly will you be here? For how long?

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I will be there tonight, Sunday, my plane lands at 4:30ish, then I'm taking one of those very exciting but overly expensive shuttles from LAX to the Embassy Suites on Birch Rd. I'm going to be there until Thursday AM when I have to get my tushie back to the airport by 8:00ish (urgh...lovely shuttles...really...). If you have time, I'd love to get to together for dinner or something (rumor has it there's a mall across the street...so far that's all I know). You can email me at the address in the profile...

Bye-e...have to go finish packing...have to leave in an hour....I hope I get to see you!

The public transportation is allright. We're getting light rail soon, which might make it better.

When the economy was good, we had one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country. Unfortunately, the economy sucks everywhere, including here. I have lots of friends looking for jobs.

There's lots of stuff to do here- good theater, lots of shopping (biggest mall in the country), music, bars, restaurants, etc.

I would say it's a very safe state. There aren't too many bad neighborhoods, and you usually feel pretty safe everywhere.

Another nice thing is it's really pretty. Trees and lakes everywhere. Mississippi running through the two cities. And you can drive a couple of hours and be in very natural, unpopulated areas.

The only drawback is the weather. While spring is lovely and autumn is just gorgeous, summer is humid and icky, and winter is usually freezing and very, very snowy.

Although I'm currently a student further north I grew up in an almost-suburb of Lansing and am currently looking for a house there with my fiancé and think it's a pretty good place to be, overall.

Michigan is a car state. Period. There are busses in Lansing (CATA) that run all over the city, including East Lansing (home of MSU), but I've never personally used them. Because everyone has a car here, (or 2 or 3), gas prices can get a little high (average of $1.60 lately) and the driving is fast and aggressive (yee-ha!), and commutes can be from 5 min. to an hour, depending on if you want to live in the city or the country.

As far as safety goes, I think it's pretty safe here for the size of the city. The city's been making an active effort to clean up the downtown area, which is getting better every year, but there are still scary areas.

Job opportunity ranges from okay to zero, depending on your field. If you're a nurse, you better find a big stick to knock back the job offers! The place to be is a stateworker- but a lot of them are getting laid off right now.

Rent runs from $400 to $1500 depending on the side of town and size, but my cousin was paying approx. $650 for a nice 2BR townhouse in a good neighborhood 2 years ago, and I don't think they've gone up much since then, unless you want to live near MSU.

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Originally posted by Drea D:
Where in California are you from originally, SLourdes?

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Originally posted by Drea D:
Does anyone know the conversion for pw=American dollar?

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Originally posted by Drea D:
Does anyone know the conversion for pw=American dollar?

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Originally posted by ravensong9:
God. I'm a New Yorker and I'm just salivating over the rents you guys are talking about. If Only.

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Ha ha, didn't think there would be any posts about New York. :P (Fellow NY'er here.)