The cost of living is the big selling point for Mississippi. That and not dealing with the traffic of a larger city. However, you can barely drive on some of the roads because of potholes, so there's that.
Brain Drain, In-State Job Opportunity, and... Jackson...
- Thread starter Maroon Eagle
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The cost of living is the big selling point for Mississippi. That and not dealing with the traffic of a larger city. However, you can barely drive on some of the roads because of potholes, so there's that.
I moved to NWA 14 years ago, and it would take A LOT for me to move back to anywhere in MS. But, we get to Starville enough for my son to love state and not UA. As long as I can continue to do that, I'm good.
Having different tastes from everyone else is great on things that are expenses or will more or less fully depreciate (i.e., cars). For housing, it is helpful for initial affordability, but also tends to cut down on (or even eliminate) appreciation. Some people I grew up with saved a lot of money on housing by living just ten to fifteen minutes away in a dying town. Their parents tended to end up with housing that was worth about what they paid for it after 20 years, which is pretty brutal compared to inflation and when housing elsewhere has kept up with or beaten inflation. The people that bought in the "big" town (that was just stagnant or maybe dying more slowly) at least kept up with inflation or a little more.
Of course, the same type people that made the same type decision ( say, somebody that chose Madison over Jackson proper 35 years ago because of affordability and probably public schools) have done incredible on their home appreciation.
For me:
- Water access. At least big enough to ski in but preferably big enough to "explore".
- I don't care for shopping, but I do like having a walkable area, preferably one that lets you carry a drink.
- I don't care about going to a bar as in going to a bar at night, but I do like the option of going to listen to live music (preferably in the afternoon or early evening; doesn't even have to be good music, just not bad) and I do like having some happy hour place options where it's reasonable to expect people will be there, and likely people you will know.
- I also want to be able to go have a drink and not have to worry about driving. Walking distance is best but at least want an uber available and it not be a 20 mile run.
- While I don't care about shopping per se, it is nice to have stuff available locally. Not nearly as important as it used to be with internet retail, but it's nice to be able to pop out to a home depot or lowes or Best Buy or look at furniture in person before you
- It is nice to have more than a handful of non-chain options when eating out.
- Some people want concerts. I don't care about them, but I get other people do. Same with professional sports.
Now with the exception of the concerts and professional sports, you can get more or less all of that in Mississippi, just not most of Mississippi. I would say the Coast, then Hattiesburg, then Jackson are your options (not sure about Desoto or Tupelo; they may offer the same but without the downsides of Jackson).
I think when people say there is nothing to do, they are typically people under 35 and single, which I would agree with them that no where that I know of in Mississippi has a scene for them that is particularly good. Memphis and Birmingham are going to be better, and then be blown out of the water by a Nashville or Atlanta. For me personally, I think the tradeoffs for those places after you are married is significant, but obviously I'm in the minority on that.
I think the bigger issue is just jobs. In most places in Mississippi, if you have a good job (outside of things like banking, insurance sales, healthcare, etc.), if you lose it, you will be lucky if there is a signle other employer that might hire you. A lot of places, you can't realistically leave your job unless you are willing to take a major cut or are willing to relocate. That potentially adds a lot of stress. And gets worse when you have a two income family. ON the flipside, while I don't think Birmingham or Memphis is that great, it would be nice to be able to have both earners active in the job market and looking for better opportunities that don't require relocation. Maybe more remote options will help with this.
For me, the biggest difference is the disparity in quality of people doing the lower paying, menial jobs. My gosh. I’d let the people working at Taco Bell here do my taxes. The baseline is so much higher, and that makes a huge difference in quality of day to day life. You get your errands done with minimal hassle which is amazing
This is highly dependent on where in Mississippi you live. Awful in Jackson and the Delta. But have had good experiences on the coast and Desoto. Very limited experience in Tupelo but seems ok. Stone County is apparently a mecca for scholarly Gentlemen and Ladies that work in low paying retail jobs.
I keep seeing people reference " I wouldn't move to Jackson" . My question is what's your point of even mentioning this ? Living in Jackson in my mind would be comparable to living in Chernobyl so why do you feel it's necessary to discuss living in a place that has basically become uninhabitable ?
Semi-OT - Looks like MS was undercounted in 2020 census.
https://www2.census.gov/programs-su...ted-states-by-state-and-census-operations.pdf
Shows a 4.11% undercount. Haven't looked through to see if that's of the entire population (which would be almost 118k people).
https://www2.census.gov/programs-su...ted-states-by-state-and-census-operations.pdf
Shows a 4.11% undercount. Haven't looked through to see if that's of the entire population (which would be almost 118k people).
This. The non-tangibles experienced in everyday life in a well-run state are too much to pass up. The standard of living increases dramatically.
Wouldn't be surprised if there was a significant undercount. If not, the state sure lost some ground. I suspect the same is true for the city of Birmingham (dropped 12K to barely break the 200K mark). For some reason, some people fear the census or just refuse to cooperate.
The cited document also states that some states has an overcount. An undercount I can understand - but how do they do an overcount?
The cited document also states that some states has an overcount. An undercount I can understand - but how do they do an overcount?
You haven’t been to anything east of Jackson on I20, have you? You’d think you were inconveniencing people by wanting to do business transactions with them.
About to move to the Starkville area with my family after 9 years in Texas. Biggest reason is cost of living. The company I work for has a manufacturing facility in the area otherwise it wouldn't be an option for me. My parents also retired there a few years ago.
that house is going to appreciate and hold value at a much higher rate than in Mississippi. Real estate in Colorado has grown by 7-10% annually since the '08 bubble burst.
We've been seeing an influx since COVID also. Not sure how much pressure they've put on prices but definitely had a few small cottages I know of sell for eye popping numbers per square ft. It's amazing to me that they don't do more due diligence. They see how nice the house is and the price and check a couple of listings near by (apparently not noticing that those listings have been on the market for a long time because they're overpriced; the reasonably priced stuff is pending in less than a week) and pull the trigger. They may just feel like they have to overpay since they're not pounding the pavement everyday, but I think it's likely part of it is their buyer's agent isn't cluing them in to just how much they are overpaying by.
Like I said, but that doesn't help you unless you're willing to relocate somewhere cheaper. It does help your children which is certainly something.
I'm not advising against higher cost of living areas. Just pointing out that Cooterpoot complained about making $15k less, but it doesn't take much to eat up an extra $15k of gross pay when you're moving to a high cost of living area.
I don't know how reliably these cost of living calculators are, but the bankrate one says $100k in Jackson is equivalent of $110k even just in Birmingham Metro. Says it's 120k in Atlanta metro. $140k in Chicago $173k in Boston Metro.
Jackson has nice museums and some great restaurants, beyond that it's a place that has been forgotten for decades. Downtown Jackson looks like a postcard of downtown from 50 years ago, and that's all you need to know. Still, there more to do in metro Jackson than anywhere else in Mississippi north of the coast. Rankin and Madison counties are at least growing and coming into the 21st century. But Jackson is worse off than anywhere it's typically compared to.
I think that this has been addressed since it is the only true "metro" area in MS. A dubious distinction at best.
Most people who would say this are not or were not able to pull off private schools. Because they are by far the best in the state. And please do not confuse athletic success with more than exactly what it is. It is hilarious to me that people in the burbs think there is some large barrier to entry. You can get a cookie cutter in Madison for about 200k. That can’t be said about the good areas in Jackson. Just saying. Who cares where other people choose to live. Clearly there is some jealousy involved.
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