Sort of - we moved so that we could have more house and a paid-up mortgage. The downside was that my husband didn't find work in our new community and made a grueling commute for 12 years. We finally moved back and it cost us 100k above what we got for our much larger, much nicer house in the 2nd community. Actually we couldn't come back to the same neighborhood we had been in because that would have cost us 500k more than we got for the 2nd house.

So... what I am trying to say is that once you make the decision to go to a less expensive community - the decision may be permanent because the high demand areas will usually stay high demand and the premium for living there will usually just get worse as time goes on. Be very sure of what you are doing.

We had friends that moved to Memphis from Denver because homes were so much more affordable in Memphis. Unfortunately, the hubby couldn't find a job so they stayed about 8 months til he found a job in the Atlanta area and then they moved there. Atlanta was still cheaper than Denver. So if you're going to try to do this, make sure the job market is good for you wherever you decide to move.

Kind of. We moved because where we were (San Jose,CA) was getting really expensive and my husband's salary being a new grad isn't keeping up with the inflation. And I can work anywhere (nurse). So my husband found a job in LA with a much higher salary, and we bought a house - that was when houses there were still affordable.

Sort of... my husband decided he no longer wanted to be an investment banker. Because of that decision we no longer had to live in the metro NYC area. We moved across state to WNY, got twice as much house for less than half the money, pay about 1/3 the property taxes we were looking at in NJ and he has the same job he would have had if we had stayed in the metro NYC area.

While a job is key (unless you are independently wealthy) the truth is you may not find a job paying you as much in the low-housing-cost-area what you could earn in the high-housing-cost area. However, since it doesn't cost as much too live, you can usually live a lot better on less money. (My husband makes more now than when he was in NYC so we have a win-win situation.) There may also be other benefits such as lower commute times, decreased federal taxes (you make more, you pay more in federal taxes - they are the same all over), etc., etc.

We did. DH works from home and travels a lot so our only criteria was to be close to an airport. We moved closer to family and were finally able to buy a home. (Couldn't do it in CA) We haven't looked back or regretted our decision!

We just relocated but it was so we could afford a house on just one salary instead of two. We were living in SoCal and it took both our incomes to make ends meet. After I had a health scare last year I became very concerned that we would have to sell our house if one of us couldn't work.

We decided that was not a good position to be in, and we'd been thinking of moving to Oregon for a couple of years anyway, so we just did it. Fortunately my husband was able to transfer with his company so he didn't have to look for a job.

We paid off our house in SoCal and are now buying one in the Portland suburbs. It's a great feeling knowing we are not in a risky financial position anymore. I may miss the sunshine some, but peace of mind is worth so much more to me.

xamsx, I'm definitely not independently wealthy...but my feelings have been much like yours, a job may not pay as much in a lower housing cost area, but then it won't have to in order to live comfortably. Housing prices out here (Sequim, WA) are so high and property taxes are insane, and I'm thinking I'm less crazy every day for wanting to relocate so I can have my own home...think I just need a little bit of a positive nudge from those who've done it. I know there are downsides too and I need to be careful, and be sure.

Along the same lines does anyone know of a good website(s) to research cities/towns, that maybe has forums where I can talk with people who live there?

Thanks all for your responses.

whiskerz wrote: Along the same lines does anyone know of a good website(s) to research cities/towns, that maybe has forums where I can talk with people who live there?

Have you tried the one I've linked below? You do have to register to post but it's free. It's divided by state but you can post with questions about specific cities. There are lots of helpful people who actually live (or have lived) in the various locations.

Good Luck in your search!

Here is a link that might be useful: City-Data

Laura, I had not been to City-Data but just went there to check it out, and it's perfect! exactly what I'm looking for. I have not registered yet (but will) but took a look around and the forum is full of wonderful information and nice, helpful people ~ thank you!

For anyone contemplating a relocation, please go to the link below. Average home prices in each city are often quoted as the median or mean price but this is very misleading as the "average" home varies widely across markets.

Coldwell Banker does a nice job of describing a typical house which a corporate transferee might be interested in and then using its agents to report a price for that house in many markets across the country.

I have linked to the home page of the HPCI. If you would like to see the data in spreadsheet format, click the Full Data column.

Here is a link that might be useful: Coldwell Banker HPCI

Yes. I was working in Seattle and just got fed up with the high cost of living on the west coast. I never owned a home before moving here to Ohio.

Sort of, in our case. We actually had a home in NoNJ and after being there five years we just couldn't afford it anymore due to ever-increasing property taxes and my husband getting laid off in 2003 and not finding a full-time job (he got into real estate which helped, but money wasn't steady as he was "new" to it). By early this year we were broke and about to lose our house.

So we put it on the market, sold it pretty quickly (which was fortunate as our market was softening) and moved to South Carolina where I was able to find a job and we found a house within a month of moving here (we were in a rental apartment when we arrived here). We have been blessed and it was the best decision we could have made.

Cost of living is less down here whereas my salary didn't reduce THAT much (I'm a secretary). We had a healthy downpayment on the new house and with lower property taxes our mortgage payment was cut by half due to the move.

If you are able to save for a downpayment I recommend doing that FIRST. Have a NICE BIG downpayment for your budgeted house price. This will make it that much easier when you move to your new area.

I highly recommend Fort Mill, SC, where we relocated. It's close to Charlotte, NC and the beach and snowskiing are within a few hours drive.

Sort of. I moved to florida briefly and couldn't find anything decent for what I wanted to spend for a living structure and plot of land. The quality of life there was not worth the outrageous prices. I also tried to build but nobody wanted to take my money even if I was willing to pay for it. I wanted something a little different than the typical stucco garage mahal and apparently the builders there don't know how to build anything but those. So I moved back to ga where I have a real house that is big enough, and in a nice area close to everything with what I hear are good schools. The same price wouldn't even get me in some inner-city ghetto in florida.