What is the future of your city? (Lima, Oregon: condo, house)

[bjimmy24]

Originally Posted by ohio_peasant

Having gone back and forth recently between Ohio and California, my personal impression is that the winter cold and doldrums make a staggering difference, especially if your lifestyle and accouterments aren't equipped for the cold. For example, my daily-driver is a 2-seat convertible. Much easier to drive that in January in Los Angeles than in Ohio.



A likely trend is that the principal cities in the Midwest will sustain themselves, if not exactly flourish, for three reasons: (1) local migrants leaving the villages and small-towns, for better jobs; (2) foreign emigrants who seek to settle in lower-COL places, than the likes of NYC and SF; and (3) the work-from-home trend, where residents of the costliest cities decamp to second-tier cities, where costs are much lower but the lifestyle isn't enormously different.

This means that Chicago, St. Louis, Minneapolis and the like, will continue to do well. But smaller cities, like Dayton or Toledo, likely not.



I'm in the process of moving from Ohio to CA. But I'm not "blue collar" and don't have any family connections. The reason for the move is primarily work-related, but there are cultural and emotional reasons too.

Ironically, the pandemic contributed. How? Because with the lockdowns and social-distancing and so forth, my network of Ohio friends converted to Zoom, more or less shutting themselves in, to their respective bubbles. If there are no more dinner-parties or drinking sessions on the couch, and everything has converted to internet-based communication, does it matter if one lives 3 miles away, or 3000?



My emerging opinion is precisely the reverse. It felt silly to heat a full house, when I only really resided in a fraction of it. So, I didn't really heat it... and was shivering and miserable. With a smaller abode one can live more efficiently, more economically, and thus more enjoyably.

Ok. You're in the vast minority. Have fun though. I'm sure you're thrilled to finally be away from the awful midwest. I'm sure you're going to be saving all kinds of money by buying a 500 sq ft place in California instead of heating a 1500 sq ft house in Ohio.

[GraniteStater]

The weather in the Ohio Valley is annoying in the winter, very little snow, but very little sunlight or consistent precipitation. At least with Pacific NW weather you have snow covered mountains in your backyard to compensate for the cloud cover. I actually take my vacations north for winter sports in the Lake Superior Snowbelt, unbeatable quality of life in that area, I would consider moving there if I can find a position that allows me to work remotely 100% of the time. You might say, but the Lake Superior Snowbelt is cloudy in the winter? Yes, but you actually have snow cover the vast majority of the time which makes a big difference.

[dustin183]

Originally Posted by bjimmy24

Ok. You're in the vast minority. Have fun though. I'm sure you're thrilled to finally be away from the awful midwest. I'm sure you're going to be saving all kinds of money by buying a 500 sq ft place in California instead of heating a 1500 sq ft house in Ohio.

Sounds like he is young and single. He'd be fine in a small place. But if you're a couple with a dog and a kid or single parent with a couple kids, etc, you simply need the space. That's when you start to value things differently than when you were single w/ no kids. You start to value space. You start to be more pragmatic. Priorities shift

[dustin183]

Originally Posted by ohio_peasant

I'm in the process of moving from Ohio to CA. But I'm not "blue collar" and don't have any family connections. The reason for the move is primarily work-related, but there are cultural and emotional reasons too.


Ironically, the pandemic contributed. How? Because with the lockdowns and social-distancing and so forth, my network of Ohio friends converted to Zoom, more or less shutting themselves in, to their respective bubbles. If there are no more dinner-parties or drinking sessions on the couch, and everything has converted to internet-based communication, does it matter if one lives 3 miles away, or 3000?

I've moved from Ohio to CA twice. My main tip is make sure you have plenty of cash to transition.

I think the pandemic will cause more people to move from NYC and LA back to "home"... ie where their parents are / or near there. I saw some data months ago where lots of people left NYC and went all over, and Ohio was up there; back when there was the double whammy of Covid shutdown and the riots/looting.

What happens demographically is that a lot of people graduate from college (or high school) and want to get the hell out of dodge so they go to LA or NYC or Atlanta, etc... and then they get it out of their system and then they end up back in Ohio (or wherever home was). Some do stay but many get jaded by the high cost of living, especially if they have a baby. And then some just don't make strides in the dream they were pursuing (eg, moved to LA to be an actor or to NYC to be a fashion designer or the next Wall St hedge fund genius allstar).

[bjimmy24]

Originally Posted by dustin183

Sounds like he is young and single. He'd be fine in a small place. But if you're a couple with a dog and a kid or single parent with a couple kids, etc, you simply need the space. That's when you start to value things differently than when you were single w/ no kids. You start to value space. You start to be more pragmatic. Priorities shift

I'm younger and singler than most people on here.

[TheYO]

Does anyone have an estimate of how much of Columbus's growth is from intrastate moves vs out of state? I know a lot of people who have moved there from other parts of Ohio, but none who moved from a different state.

Ohio State is about 30% out of state students. I wonder how many of them stick around after they graduate.

[dustin183]

Originally Posted by TheYO

Does anyone have an estimate of how much of Columbus's growth is from intrastate moves vs out of state? I know a lot of people who have moved there from other parts of Ohio, but none who moved from a different state.

Ohio State is about 30% out of state students. I wonder how many of them stick around after they graduate.

That's a good point. I don't know the answer. But Ohio's growth overall has been paltry, so it would make sense that there's been a lot of intrastate movement to Cbus, and just from the anecdotal accounts I hear (from friends in Cbus who have migrated intrastate) it seems to be quite common. But I also know some that have moved from out of state. I also know people who moved from Ohio to [insert big coastal city] and later moved back, namely to be closer to family & afford an actual house.

Columbus has a lot of big companies that draw in people from all over the state/country/world. For ex, there are a bunch of designers from Europe who work in the fashion in industry in Cbus. And then you have these Federally-supported migrations from places like Somalia (and that goes for other cities too like Minneapolis that get large swaths of immigrants.)

Also - Cbus has annexed a bunch of land, so that skews the true population growth numbers.

[gobucks86]

Not sure about where I live (Akron area). I, myself, love it in this area. I don't think population numbers have increased, rather decreased, but I really hope things improve and such. As a 34 year old guy who just got married and eventually wants to have kids, I love this area, and I really hope Summit County thrives.

Actually, I hope all of Ohio does. Although I never want to see Ohio become a hot spot for people to move to, and I doubt that would ever be the case, I just always hope Ohio comes out in front and such. I grew up in Canton and although not great, they have made improvements in the past 10 or 15 years, so that's good.

I love Ohio. I want it to thrive. Jjjuussttt don't become a place like California haha. :-P

[WRnative]

See post 16 and my subsequent posts in this thread.

https://www.city-data.com/forum/cleve...-travel-2.html

My considerations to some degree apply for all Ohio cities and the state in general, and I don't consider population growth and development of rural areas as positives. I would hope Ohio preserves the character of the state through policies discouraging sprawl.

[greenvillebuckeye]

Originally Posted by bellhead

I grew up in Lima Ohio, & the OP asked about the town, it's slowly dying, population is around 35k to 38k, & loosing almost all of the college graduates. The last mall is about to die once Macy's closes in a few months.


As for people moving & migrating out of high cost areas, I currently live in North Atlanta. We are seeing a huge influx of people from the NE & Cali, to the point where there is less than 30 days of inventory on the market. There has been about a 10% increase in housing prices since the start of covid. To give you an idea the day the house 2 blocks from me went on the market there were 6 offers & 38 showings in one day. People are looking for 3500 square foot houses because they need 2 offices due to both the husband & wife working from home. Almost all of my neighbors are work from home.

Born and raised in Lima as well. Moved away in 2004 to South Carolina. From what I've read and been told from parents back home in Lima is slowly becoming an education / healthcare hub for the area. Something that has been in the works for a while but is now on the fringe it seems from actually happening. 43 Town Square (the tallest building downtown) has recently been turned in to nice looking apartments for low income renters. Several new restaurants downtown that are doing well. The population continues to decrease however.

Lima has always had this problem with accepting the fact that those unskilled manufacturing jobs just ain't coming back. I'd hate to see what Lima (the whole area in fact) would look like if Husky, General Dynamics and Ford all split. Heck, even if one of those 3 split.

I still remember being in high school when Sunstrand left town and their was talk of the refinery shutting down. Those were stressful times. Almost lost quite a few friends who had parents working at those places.

Indoor malls across America are dying. Lima is not alone in that regard.

The one really good thing about Lima is the cost of living. I could sell my condo in South Carolina and use the profits to drop cash money on a decent home in Lima. In fact when I do retire in 10 years I may be the only person in South Carolina to retire back North haha.