Hi all! Long-time lurker and first-time poster here.
My DH and I have been struggling to decide what to do with our housing situation and where to live.
We recently started looking to buy a house, and we realize that with the Bay Area prices, houses that will fit our needs, and in a safe neighborhood, walkable distance to my work, and large enough to have a home office for DH to see clients in, would cost us upwards of 650-750K . We are not handy and are busy with our work, so prefer to buy something that is move-in condition. Right now, we live within biking distance to my business so we are a 1-car family. We can look for somewhere cheaper but to me that means an extra 45 min.-60 min. at least 5 days a week, farther away from friends and family and a second car.
When we look at prices in other parts of the country that we may be interested in, let's say the Boulder-Denver corridor, we can get a very nice house for 300K (probably not in Boulder or Denver itself), and in a place that is close to nature (we both would love to be able to live 10 min. away from trails, mountains etc) . Neither of us are making the "Bay Area income", or do a lot of city things to justify the premium it cost to stay here. Frankly, DH works so much that we barely have time to enjoy what the Bay Area has to offer anyway. The main thing holding us back is that our entire lives is in the Bay Area, (friends, family, my business, etc.), which makes it hard to just leave.
We are both self-employed. DH is located independent (sort of, he flies all over for work, and he would have to fly to SF 4 times a year for work, but work will pay for his travel), I have a thriving small alternative health practice. If we move, it means I will have to restart my practice somewhere, and as with many small businesses, that means it would take at least 2 years to stabilize. The move will probably cost us 60-80K (moving cost, loss of income). Also, in most places in the U.S., we may need a second car. We will also have to fly back to visit family. But once we settle in the new place, our income would not be lower than what it is now.
We can put down 300K as down payment for a 650K house in the Bay Area, and still need to pay $1800 in mortgage+ interest, or we can leave for another part of the country, pay 300K cash for a house, and no mortgage! Property tax will be half as much as well.
In the long-term, we can probably save $17,000 a year by living somewhere else.
We keep going back and forth about this whole situation. The thing about living in the Bay Area is that neither of us see ourselves retiring here anyway, why not just find another place to move to now...
Anyone living in an expensive area in the same boat? Do you find yourself being able to achieve financial independence much sooner because you moved to another part of the country? I would love to hear your story.
-annod