I live 35 mins from downtown yet it is rural as all fuck here. The neighbors' windows are about 70 feet from mine. I'm five mins from the expressway; the entrance to said expressway has three big box stores, one in each quadrant, and if I want to not deal with that I drive 10 mins the the grocery store which has a better meat department. 20 mins in the other direction I can go to an Amish butcher and get better food than you can anywhere outside of a good restaurant for about what you pay at the normal store. Yet, there is a thriving art scene, lots of culture philanthropy, a good symphony, two decent colleges, several hipster-style coffee chains, tons of restaurants, and they just announced we have an unemployment rate of about 5.5% and are worried that there are not enough people to hire in the skilled positions that need to be filled.

According to the Census Tracts, I live in the City, and am technically in the suburbs. My mortgage is, including escrow (taxes and insurance) $502 a month. Car insurance is higher here do to weather being a factor, and some utilities out here are more than I expected, notably electric. I'm not going to see any art movies in a theater, nor are niche music acts going to play every year. But my quality of life is so much better than when I lived in California, the commute is easier, there are places to go and things to do, there are actual honest seasons out here. If I was not in the Ohio Valley, I'd be looking at Upstate New York as well, as upstate seems to be the exact same place I just described, only in New York and not the Ohio Valley.

I hate to sound like a paid shrill, but my opinion is that the coasts and the "hot beds" are becoming over rated and are ready to peak, then burst hard. Paying $72,000 a year to rent a two bedroom apartment is not sustainable. My house may only go up in value 2-3% a year, but I'm also not going to crash 30% like my parents will when the SoCal real estate bubble pops. I'm hoping more young smart people move out here to the second and third tier cities to help push out some of the ancient old people who don't want to deal with the world changing around them. And two people earning $25,000 a year ($12-13 an hour) puts you in the $50K a year category, or in better terms, over the median household income for Kentucky. Remove NYC and that is roughly the median for Update New York as well. A couple can live very well out this way if they are willing to.