This subreddit will be joining in on the June 12th-14th protest of Reddit's API changes that will essentially kill all 3rd party Reddit apps.

I need to get this off my chest. I moved to MSP from the East Coast and at first, I loved it. The cities were so beautiful and clean, with flowers everywhere and friendly people. But that honeymoon phase only lasted so long. I've found the locals to be cold towards outsiders, even sometimes downright mean. It's not just me, I've made friends with other transplants who have felt the same way. People here don't travel much and can't fathom why someone would want to leave their HCOL area for something more affordable, nor do they truly care to learn. "Minnesota nice" is also a very real thing. You may sense that someone doesn't like you, but they won't let onto how much they don't like you. Minnesotans really only seem to give people from neighboring states the time of day.

I would also like to touch on the strong xenophobia/racism that exists here. Someone told me this state ranks dead last in racial segregation and I believe it. I've made friends with immigrants here who say I'm one of the few people who even gave them a chance. The difference between the neighborhoods is dramatic and very noticeable. The crime rates here also make sense in this context. In my opinion, conservatives tend to think MSP is a war zone, and liberals don't take it seriously enough. I think the truth is somewhere in the middle. I haven't explored this city as much as I have others because of the crime rates. I was nearly car jacked just driving to an appointment. I've heard countless stories of this happening to people and then nothing is done about it. And more often than not, the ones committing these crimes are children.

I have not felt safe nor welcomed here and once my contract is up I will be leaving. Until these issues are addressed, I can't in good faith recommend this place to anyone.

Edit: By "here" I meant Minnesota. People here in Minnesota can't fathom why anyone would leave a HCOL area to come to the Midwest.

My partner and I make ~300k in Austin and honestly have a great life here. We have a large single family home in Austin proper.

Things I like about Austin:

• Access to nature. I can walk a few minutes from my house and be in a 300 acre park/greenbelt. I don’t think this is possible in NYC unless you’re wealthy.
• How green the city is. Sorry but NYC has nothing on our tree canopy. It’s something special.
• Laid back attitude of the city
• Good tech jobs
• Relative affordability. I get it’s not affordable for everyone, but we don’t have to worry about money here and can generally do what we want whenever we want. While putting away a large amount for later.
  • The weather. I’m a weirdo and generally love the heat. No one likes 100+ days, but it’s not that bad.

Things I dislike about Austin:

• Terrible walkability and public transit. This is a major one for me. Every time I visit New York I’m amazed by how connected I feel just by walking around. In Austin, everything is done by car and it just feels sad.
• Lack of cultural activities. We don’t have museums, theaters, galleries, etc.
• The drinking culture. I don’t mind grabbing a drink or two on the way to a show. But in Austin, drinking IS the activity. I don’t love spending an entire Saturday afternoon drinking at the outdoor brewery.
• Lack of diverse food options. Austin food is just… ok. I grew up on Tex Mex so I’d miss that, but otherwise I don’t find it to be anything special.
• How young the city is. This is a wildcard, I know. I loved this in my 20s and it’s still fine. But I wonder how sustainable growing old in Austin is. In New York it’s pretty cool to see older folks still living their lives and being active. In Austin people seem to just sort of give up after a certain age, or they move away.
• Lack of seasons. I know I said that I liked the heat, and I do. But I hate not being able to layer and wear interesting clothes. I don’t like the cold, but this would be a nice perk.

I think that New York checks most of my boxes, but it’s a big decision! We’d certainly have to budget a bit, and we probably won’t be buying a brownstone. But I think we can live comfortably here (we’d likely increase our income to 350-400k). I don’t think I have a romanticized idea of New York in my head; I’ve visited enough to have good and bad experiences. Please tell me why I’m wrong!

Where do I begin? Oh, and it’s not the weather. Why would it be the weather.

• if all the other reasons weren’t here, there is literally one reason alone why I hate this place : Polite passive aggressiveness. Unflinching white Midwestern passive aggressiveness has been way worse than anything I’ve ever experienced anywhere else in North America. I’m talking about Getting fired from small jobs for asking a question directly. People using the silent treatment, gossiping, guilt tripping in these offices…..I’m talking just …you know, bullying. Midwestern bullying in a way that’s just polite. I swear to god, Hoosiers just can’t handle directness. Btw, those toxic Hoosier managers who did this made like 80k per year in the Hoosier state. My current salary is now far higher and only growing.

• Mealy mouthed “niceness” that’s supposedly all about avoiding discomfort and avoiding confrontations , when all I’ve seen is politeness used to weaponize and hurt others. It’s probably worse than Minnesota.!

• status quo, status quo, stick to the status quo. Don’t try to be different. We’re too normal. We can’t handle differences. I’m not even talking about racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. I’m know if I moved to LA, there’d be plenty of that stuff. It’s a Hoosier type of status quo. It’s also not politics. It’s not about indiana being a red state or trying to stay in blue areas like Indianapolis.

• “it’s cheap.” This is misleading. Indiana’s lower wages do not offset the prices. Also, many really nice cities like Zionsville, Carmel, etc., are expensive .

• literally no incentive to do anything . No incentive to change, no sense of regulations of businesses (which might make it ideal for business owners.,,,. But that’s for the wrong reasons!) once again, we’re cheap. And the value is cheap, too. You get what you pay for. I work remote for companies in the west coast. My god, do those companies in California pay a lot mroe and have to maintain strong regulations but , the value is astronomically higher. Educated people just leave.

Let’s have this debate. What cities have the most bang for your buck value in terms of quality of life and happiness, stability, things to do?

I’m not talking value in terms of cheap cities. A valid answer could be a city where houses cost 1M plus but what you get is worth more than the million. Where do you think you get the most value for your dollar in the US?

It's in every thread on here.

No matter what city you talk about, there's always people saying people only like or dislike it because of some reddit bias when 99.9% of the time the opinions expressed are normal ones and the people who think they're weird need to touch grass. They seem to not realize a lot of people can like and hate a city at the same time and it's not one or the other.

Think Phoenix is a sprawling oven? Typical redditor. Don't think every city with snow is a hellscape only crazy people live in? Redditor. Recommend a city that hundreds of thousands or more people live in that isn't as popular to people not from the region? Live in a city with crime but don't act like you're in an active war zone? Wow, reddit is so weird.

I get the feeling many people on here are chronically online and in denial of it. Dismissing opinions they don't like as chronically online nonsense is their way of proving they're not chronically online.

They easily out themselves. It's kind of funny but it does derail discussions.

And people always try to make it political when this sub dislikes as many blue metro areas as it likes. People shit on LA for heat, car-centricity, and traffic? Crickets. Shit on Houston, Austin, or Dallas, for the same thing, and it's political now.

In many of the north side neighborhoods of Chicago, it can be shockingly conformist for a city where people pride themselves on how "real" they are. This even shows up on reddit via the way people act. It feels like a popularity contest where acting how you're supposed to act get you brownie points but acting in ways that are seen as different or controversial gets you shunned from the light. If you want "real" Chicago, go to Uptown or even sections of Wicker, you'll find a much better vibe.

Now this isn't to say those areas aren't diverse. They're extremely diverse. But they're diverse AND conformist all at one.

As much as I love it, sometimes living in the "good" neighborhoods of Chicago feels more like living in Black Mirror's Nosedive Episode, just less pretty.

And a lot of people in this city, especially on reddit, LOVE to boast about how amazing it is, when they have only experienced 1/4th of it, usually the north side.

I feel like I’ve never seen this asked before!

Sometimes bedroom communities can be mixed up with suburbs and vice versa. According to the Google machine a bedroom community is a place where people live and sleep, commuting elsewhere for work and/or amenities. Whereas a suburb is on the outskirts of a city but has its own employment and amenities.

Given that, what are some standout bedroom communities? What are some awful bedroom communities that are literally just housing and a painful commute?

THE RAGE ROOM IS OPEN FOR BUSINESS!!!!!!!!!

Here's some music to help you RAGE:

https://youtu.be/DZyYapMZSec?feature=shared

(Don't actually RAGE IRL)

Those of you that are close with your family and family is one of your biggest personal values in life, how do you handle not living in the same city as them?

I live 2.5 hours away from my family and hometown and I still struggle with feeling like I should be closer to them. Yet, when I think of moving back to the small hometown vs the huge city I live in now, I know I would be sacrificing so much (things to do, job opportunities, etc). I’m also single in my mid 30s and feel like moving back to my hometown would be the worst idea for a single mid 30s female 🤣

My fiancé and I have lived in NTX our entire lives (25F / 25M) and we are wanting to get out. Some of our stats & wants below. Where should we move, if a place like this even exists?

• We make roughly $103k/year
• No kids or pets, but would love to have both someday
• HATE the Texas heat. Want to move somewhere with a more mild climate. Ideally somewhere that gets a decent amount of snow each winter, but we would also be fine with little snow as long as the summers are mild.
• Lean very liberal. That’s something that’s important to us when choosing a new community.
• LOVE nature. We visited the PNW last fall and absolutely fell in love. In a perfect world, we’d move to Seattle in a heartbeat. Only thing holding us back is COL.
• N TX is lacking in hiking and biking trails. We would love to move somewhere with access to those
• Big foodies, somewhere with ideally a good food scene
• Walkable to restaurants, shopping, bars, etc

We’ve been toying with either the PNW or Colorado, but extremely open to other ideas!

Let’s say you could fuse two cities together into one ultimate place to live — borrowing the best parts of each. Maybe it’s the food scene from one, the cost of living from another. The social vibe of one city + the nature or climate of another.

What two cities would you combine to create your personal version of perfection? And what specific things are you pulling from each?

Curious to see which combos people come up with — and what that says about what we actually value in a place.

I’m currently based in Philly but hate the city (personal reasons). I’m looking to move to another place in the states, don’t mind where as long as I can walk, there’s theatres, museums and art around as well as nature. I have an annual salary of $40,000, single and 30 so looking for places where there are similar aged people around.

We want to get the hell out of South Dakota for a number of reasons, but if we bail we'd like it to be a blue state if possible. We'd really like to go somewhere with a lower cost of living and decent schools.

I don't know if there's anywhere that tick more than one of those boxes, but it's worth asking.

Any ideas?

Hoping this resourceful sub can help as I don’t know if I will be able to visit in person before moving. I am returning to the DMV area for 2 years, first time with a child (single parent). I need to be in office 100% in Penn Quarter (Metro Center stop). My child will go to school in Bethesda and will take the school bus whether we live in DC or Bethesda. Would Burleith be impractical (bike to work)? Does it make more sense to live in Bethesda or are there other locations I should consider?

I have not lived in DC with a child yet and it’s hard to imagine what life will be like. Would like somewhere with a library, playground/park, basic grocery shopping within 10 minute walk and it seems like the area around Bethesda metro would fit that. Would prefer not having a car, but not sure if that’s possible for activities/sports. I lived in Georgetown before my child and loved it but not sure how child-friendly it really is. Looking to rent townhouse or SFR, no apartments.

Long story short, was dating someone I thought I was going to end up with. We were talking about moving together and where we could go together but never came to a solid conclusion. I live. In Kansas City, and while I love the city, the winters kill me and the dating scene is… it’s awful. I’m looking for a mid size or large city with distinct neighborhoods with lots of outdoor activities and a lively mid 30s populations. Mild winters preferred. I work remote so my options are pretty limitless. For note, I spent a month in Greenville, SC and absolutely loved it. Somewhere like that would be amazing and it’s still in the running.

Hello! I'm a 24 y/o F from Washington state, where I grew up and currently live. I'm applying to medical school this cycle and (hopefuuly) plan to start in fall 2026. That gives me about a year to live somewhere fun and just enjoy post-grad life before going back to school!

I love being outdoors - running, hiking, skiing, and I love CrossFit. I’m also into cute coffee shops, dive bars, and country music. I don’t have a partner or any pets, and I'm pretty open to going anywhere in the US I think would be a good fit. I just want to find a city that's safe, somewhat affordable, and has a good vibe for this kind of "gap year."

There are so many options I don’t even know where to begin. I’d love any advice or suggestions from you all! Cheers.

Hey all!

Born and raised in NYC Metropolitan area. Where I’m from (as far as my immediate circle of friends/family) it’s extremely rare to move out of state. I never really thought much of it and was content living here until i took a spring break vacation with some college buddies to Miami when I was 19. Fell absolutely in love with the weather, vibe, and people. I would say this kind of opened my eyes to how other places live as I was so jaded to my immediate area - and made me understand why people actually DO leave behind their whole lives and move somewhere else.

This would kickstart a yearly trip down to SoFlo for me; especially when it started dropping to single digit Fahrenheit’s over here. More often than not I would extend my stay a few more days because I just dreaded going back home. I’ve been working remote since I completed my undergrad so working from hotel rooms/airbnbs were no problem at all. I would even argue these are my most productive days! Couldn’t tell you exactly why - my guess would be I was surrounded by sunshine and great people vs the NE’s shit attitude and bipolar weather.

Fast forward now to my later 20’s: I’ve been traveling to Bay Area/SoCal 10-15 times a year for my job. Cali’s great. I could see myself living there as well. Although - I’m not sure that it’s such a drastic change in environment from NE that it constitutes a 2,500 mile move. I will say it KIND of makes most sense for me to go there instead of FL just because my line of work - and god forbid I get laid off (not in danger or anything but you never know with these greedy companies) it would be a night and day difference of how much faster I’d be able to secure a new position in Cali vs FL.

Also have been laying over in Vegas a lot on my way back and all I can say is what an insane place lol - not even considering this though because I would prob go broke or sustain liver failure. Nonetheless though it’s an awesome, unique place and I recommend it to anyone to visit

Blessed to mention financials are definitely not my biggest worry in this situation; I just want to pick somewhere I will not regret down the line. FL is ideal for me but Cali makes more sense cause my industry and professional network. Parents are used to being within an hour or less drive from me and all my siblings. The news will probably break them as none of my immediate family has moved this kind of distance.

The other part is rebuilding some kind of social group to what I have now. I’m 100% an introvert inside and out - I will say though, I do like getting a chance every 2 weeks or so to meet up with everyone, drink some beers, and blow off steam. I’m used to living alone/being alone, but not in a new city thousands of miles away.

Lease ends beginning of Winter so I wanted to start taking this seriously now

Has anyone went through this before and can give me some advice?

Hey guys. I currently live in Georgia and am about to join the coast guard but I think I’m gonna drop out and carve my own path. I’m just so sick of my life as it is I’m taking this huge risk no matter what. Not gonna have a place to stay by may or a job so I’m gonna have to tough it out while I get a new start. Not sure what I wanna do with my life but knowing where to go is a good start.

Edit: places preferably in the north east

I left Denver for El Paso when my job went remote. I can see how Denver is worth it if you're going into the mountains every weekend (and braving the I-75 rush of a million likeminded people), but I went hiking and skiing so rarely that it made no sense to pay $2600/mo for a 3BR apartment in an otherwise unremarkable city.

i (26F) am recently single. i want to get out of the state im in now (florida), and always have. i’m planning on saving my money up for the next year and moving somewhere solo. and for the first time im excited instead of scared. hardest part is picking where to go. Any ideas?

important to me - i need to be able to live on my own. i can’t have roommates anymore. it’s driving me crazy. studio or 1 bedroom. relatively affordable. under 2k - somewhere where i could easily live with or without a car. nothing packed like new york city but still a walkable area - i have a dog so dog friendly - young people. 20s and 30s - im gay so. lgbt friendly. like where are the hot masc women. - artsy town. galleries. cute coffee shops. shit like that - coastal or near some nature would be nice. coastal but not BEACHY like florida - more liberal area
- I don’t mind the seasons or winters.

places i’ve been considering - seattle - portland (oregon AND maine) - other maine cities - burlington - massachusetts’s

Me (32M) and my girlfriend (34F) are trying to decide whether to stay in the south Bay Area (San Jose) or move to Salt Lake City, and I'd love any help with the decision, cause I'm really stuck.

We moved here from Austin Texas about 7 months ago. My girlfriend is from there and I'm from the bay. We lived in Texas for 5 years and left because of the heat and the lack of access to nature. We both love climbing and hiking outdoors, and there were very few options for us there.

We decided to move to Bay Area because my family is here and we thought it was the rational thing to do because we are hoping to start a family soon and we'd heard from friends that having family nearby is super important. However we both regretted it immediately. While the nature here is awesome, There's very few climbing opportunities near us. Also we are priced out of buying a home and the rent is high. We just think the cost of living is too high, too much traffic, and honestly I feel like my parents and sister are driving me crazy and we have no friends to see.

So: Salt Lake City. We have visited a couple times and love it, the climbing and hiking, and most importantly we have a couple of friends there. Since we are really starved for friends right now that is the main draw. Also of course our money will go way farther towards rent/mortgage. This is important because my girlfriend's mom wants to come live near us eventually so we want it to be affordable for her. We are confident we can find remote work that pays similar to what we make now.

Basically the question is whether to live near family, but not be able to buy a house or do our hobbies; compared to live near friends and hobbies. We're both leaning toward the latter, but it's scary since we hope to start a family in the next year. Also, I have a ton of guilt and fear towards telling my family. They were so excited when we moved back here, so I feel like I am breaking their hearts by leaving. Hopefully I'm not breaking my own 😢

Currently in Charlotte and ready to get out.

Trying to decide between Tampa area or Phoenix, I’m 100% leaning towards phoenix with its beautiful vistas, mountains to hike and snowboard and camp. Yes I’ll miss the ocean but there is only so much to do with the ocean.

The only problem i have is everyone is advising me against it because of the heat, lack of seasons, and greenery. I think I can handle the heat and I LOVE the desert and the vistas. What do you guys think?

This is for both new construction and resale homes. What is the catch? I know Iowa has cold winters, but these prices on Realtor dot com and Zillow for single family homes in Iowa are insanely low. Some of these Iowa home prices look like 2008-2012 style pricing when compared to prices in other parts of the country.

Can be big or small. You know the type. The lifted trucks, the small sports cars flying up on your tail and dodging and weaving, the people who ride a foot behind another car in heavy traffic. The type who pull out right in front of you, who run stop signs. My vote goes to Miami. Felt like I was fighting for my life on the road when I visited

As the title suggests, I'm looking for places with the following:

• Moderately affordable SFH (let's say <= $500K)
• trails, forests, or off-lease dog areas
• At least a decent economy

Optional but desirable:

• Anywhere center to left on the political spectrum for the city/surrounding area
• No 4+ months of gray winter skies

We're looking to settle down in the next 1-2 years so trying to curate a potential list. Thanks for your input!