Well, Bye, Kansas City...

[Rain Man]

I'm just going to sit here in high-altitude heaven and watch all of you lowlanders talk up your places.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

I'm just going to sit here in high-altitude heaven and watch all of you lowlanders talk up your places.

Yep.

[Bugeater]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

I'm just going to sit here in high-altitude heaven and watch all of you lowlanders talk up your places.

I actually considered a move to the Denver area earlier this year...until I saw your property values up there. I'll just stick to visiting once a year.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Bugeater

I actually considered a move to the Denver area earlier this year...until I saw your property values up there. I'll just stick to visiting once a year.

We've had some notable price appreciation during my 20+ years here, most definitely. I'd be hard-pressed to afford the house that I live in if I was buying it today.

Most areas probably have similar patterns, but there are huge differences by region within the metro area. Out by the airport, I think the average price is 1/2 of the average price in my central-city neighborhood, or even less. But those people are generally paying a hefty commuting price, even without the Golden Gate Bridge toll.

[Bugeater]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

We've had some notable price appreciation during my 20+ years here, most definitely. I'd be hard-pressed to afford the house that I live in if I was buying it today.

Most areas probably have similar patterns, but there are huge differences by region within the metro area. Out by the airport, I think the average price is 1/2 of the average price in my central-city neighborhood, or even less. But those people are generally paying a hefty commuting price, even without the Golden Gate Bridge toll.

I was looking around the Aurora/Centennial area, because that's where the potential job opportunity was. I could probably get around $180k for my current house here, I can't even touch a fixer upper in that area for that money.

[Randallflagg]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

I'm just going to sit here in high-altitude heaven and watch all of you lowlanders talk up your places.

Indeed. The last time I was in Denver, people were raising hell about all the California people who were buying up the real estate in Colorado.....

[ToxSocks]

Originally Posted by BiStateNo

Indeed. The last time I was in Denver, people were raising hell about all the California people who were buying up the real estate in Colorado.....

I always find it funny how much hate we Californians get, yet our state/cities are overflowing with people from the rest of the country.

[Rasputin]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

I'm just going to sit here in high-altitude heaven and watch all of you lowlanders talk up your places.

I drove nearly 4 hours to get to Denver airport to pick up my daughter and the entire drive was flat. Only got to see the mountains that stretched a great distance but it was still flat coming into Denver.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by KC Tattoo

I drove nearly 4 hours to get to Denver airport to pick up my daughter and the entire drive was flat. Only got to see the mountains that stretched a great distance but it was still flat coming into Denver.

The mountains are only for residents.

[mr. tegu]

We love living in Kansas, but definitely recognize there are some things we love that it just can't offer, mostly related to the outdoor activities, such as mountains and oceans and all that those things entail. But that's why we want to try to purchase a vacation property or two, that would be rented out when we aren't there. Thinking something in Colorado for the mountains, hiking, etc and then something near an ocean. The low cost of living here makes those things very doable.

[Rain Man]

So what differentiates one place from another?

We've got a couple of obvious things:

climate
topography/geographic features

I think human culture is a third. I think people have different life philosophies in different places, though I'm sure you could find different subsets in larger cities. But still, San Francisco is fundamentally different than Nashville. This is not just political, but also religious and even vocational. People in an industrial town may have a different way of seeing things than people who live in a technology town or a college town or a military town.

Perhaps a subset of human culture is food. I was back in southern Missouri recently and the restaurant choices leaned much more classic American than I see in Denver.

I saw a reference to water quality earlier in the thread, and perhaps air quality could fall into that as well.

Architecture is certainly a regional difference. I was in Virginia a while back, and I can appreciate their strong colonial architecture, but I'm not a huge fan of it.

What else differentiates a place to live?

[Bugeater]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

So what differentiates one place from another?

We've got a couple of obvious things:

climate
topography/geographic features

I think human culture is a third. I think people have different life philosophies in different places, though I'm sure you could find different subsets in larger cities. But still, San Francisco is fundamentally different than Nashville. This is not just political, but also religious and even vocational. People in an industrial town may have a different way of seeing things than people who live in a technology town or a college town or a military town.

Perhaps a subset of human culture is food. I was back in southern Missouri recently and the restaurant choices leaned much more classic American than I see in Denver.

I saw a reference to water quality earlier in the thread, and perhaps air quality could fall into that as well.

Architecture is certainly a regional difference. I was in Virginia a while back, and I can appreciate their strong colonial architecture, but I'm not a huge fan of it.

What else differentiates a place to live?

Apparently, the cost of bottled water.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Bugeater

Apparently, the cost of bottled water.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

So what differentiates one place from another?

What else differentiates a place to live?

I don't think that climate, geography and topography can be overstated. The Mean Temperature in Los Angeles is 71 degrees, with only 18 inches of rain per year. When it's sunny 330 days out of the year, it really does affect your disposition, especially in the morning.

Also, where I live, I can hike directly in front of my home or at Lake Hollywood, which is a 2 minute car ride or about a 10 minute walk up a step hill. I can be at the Santa Monica Pier in 45 minutes or less (without traffic, probably 30 minutes) or at my favorite beach, Will Rogers, which is in between the SM Pier and Malibu. I park on Temescal Canyon Road and can ride my bike on a bike path from there all the way to Redondo Beach and back (about a 40 mile roundtrip hike).

I can drive 2 hours to Palm Springs, which is awesome in the Spring and Fall (and not too bad in the summer, if you're at a nice resort), drive 5.5 hours up the coast to San Francisco or 90 minutes down the 5 to Carlsbad, which is essentially the IPA Beer Capital of the World. From there, I can go to Legoland or catch the Amtrack for a few bucks and have it drop me off in front of the Padres baseball stadium, where I can see a game or hit one of the many bars and restaurants, then take the train back to Carlsbad.

I can take a 45 minute boat trip to Catalina Island or take a two hour car ride to Lake Arrowhead in the winter to go skiing and snowboarding. Disneyland is generally a 30 minute drive from my home most mornings and I can hop a 2 hour flight to Cabo San Lucas to hang out and drink in an infinity pool for the weekend, then fly back home without missing a beat.

It's impossible to do these things living in Colorado, Minnesota, Kansas, Missouri, Texas, Oklahoma, et al, which is probably why we have 40 million people living in this state.

[Shag]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

90 minutes down the 5 to Carlsbad, which is essentially the IPA Beer Capital of the World

Carlsbad? I can see saying that about San Diego County as a whole, but curious why you would tag that to Carlsbad specifically...