Would you live in a rural area?

Grew up in the middle of nowhere. No bus. No shop. No pub. It was hell. Left home for the city at the first opportunity and will never go back. I don't want to be dependent on a car ever again.

I'm torn between affordable land and going to ideological war with rural neighbors.

I would and do. It's quiet and peaceful, I have forest all around me, no traffic, cost of living is lower.

I grew up rural, lived in a few cities as an adult, and currently live in the biggest town near the area I grew up. I can get to most anything I need within 10 minutes, with more options an hour away, and three major cities within two hours.

I was able to buy a three story (7 bedroom) house for less than 100k.

The biggest downside is that most people in my area are racist homophobic Christian Republicans. I can blend in well enough as a white man, but I can definitely see why many people would not feel welcome here.

Rural meaning wilderness, yes.

Rural meaning farming communities, no.

I currently live in a small city surrounded by wilderness. Transit could be better, but there's tons of culture I can walk to and I can escape to solitude in 15 minutes and it's divine.

This weekend I'm going to PAX. Last week I saw Japanese Breakfast. Next week I'm seeing John Oliver do standup. Went to a Mariners game last week too. Got Sounders tix coming up, and hockey starts soon.

Rural is nice for a weekend. Urban is where the action is.

Absolutely. The beauty of nature is incredible, and being able to enjoy it is important to me. Not to mention there’s not as many people around to mess things up, make things loud/dirty, or be crowded by.

I do and have for most of my life. I lived on an island where my SO and I were the only permanent residents for 8 years.

I have lived in the suburbs of a couple of large towns/small cities for some years too - and in the centre of an all-but-city and although there is some convenience in those, I'd choose rural any day. The peace, proximity to nature and the ease of getting out for enjoyable walks beats convenience every time for me.

Just to clarify, I'm from a European country

Nah, I'd rather just live in towns that are well connected to cities (like bus stops going to that city) while also having rural areas not too far from there

There are a lot of aspects of it that really appeal to me, but I'd miss the shit out of using a bicycle as my primary means of transportation and having everything relatively close.

I live in a town of about 2000 people. It has a grocery, a liquor store, and a hardware store. It's rural enough. I would never live anywhere I can't walk to get a bag of chips. Rural sounds good until the power goes out in a snow storm and your lane way is 7 miles long and the plow guy ain't coming.

No, I've done it before. It's awful being dependent on a car to go anywhere, there's less to do.

I grew up in what was a rural area that suburbanized as I got older. Even then, it would still be around 15-20 minutes to get anywhere by car, including the grocery store. There wasn't much to do that didn't involve church, so if I wanted to do something like go to the movies it would be about a 30 minute drive with good traffic. Where I'm at now is in the middle of a moderate size city, where I can walk to restaurants and bars, and I can get to several grocery stores or movies or the mall within 10 minutes. I like living in the city better, I don't want to live far away from stuff anymore.

Contingent on fiber internet and having a four-wheeel-drive vehicle, yes.

Snow's a removed and so is DSL. Other than that, the solitude would be rad.

I currently do, I can't stand larger cities. Too much traffic and pollution. Too many people and crime.

I live where people go to vacation, to get away and relax. Nothing better than this.

Prior to her posting at Fort Knox, my wife was stationed in Queens, NY. We spent 3.5 long years living in Long Island. We now live in a town of about 3K people, and it's lovely and rural and I live it.

If money isn't an issues I will leave the city and bought a nice house in a rural area somewhere because I hate everyone

I already do, I live on a back road that sees maybe 20 cars a day. I have a beautiful view. I’m an hour away from a large town with everything in it, so I’m close enough to any of that when I want it, yet I’m far enough that my cost of living is low. The town with a school, grocery store, hardware store, bars, clinic, etc is less than 10 minutes. 4 bigger towns with more jobs and more store options are 30-35 minutes with hospitals as well.

I can walk out of my house and be in nature almost instantly. I don’t have to drive anywhere.

Yeah I can’t call and have food delivered and I can’t walk to any shops but I consider myself in the perfect balance of remote and having access to what I want/need. Unless I go to a nursing home, my only move from my current house will be from it to six feet under.

Give me good public transport and good internet on the country side and I'm all for it.

I live there now and want to go back to the city but also the nature is gorgeous around where I live.

Hell no! I wouldn't survive there.

Personally, no. I grew up in a megacity where everything is conveniently close and accessible via walking or public transportation, but you could also drive if you wanted. I prefer the urban life.

Only if I can get fiber internet.

If I was a straight white men, married to a straight white woman with stra white children, I would definitely consider it.

Only if its in a blue state. I dont want desantis or some other nutbar trying to turn the state into a shithole.

I'd love to. Just need to find a rural area with decent weather and internet. Not having neighbors in line of sight is an amazing thing.

I live in a small city (40k population). It's the worst of both worlds. The grocery stores are shit, there's nothing to do, and it's built up just enough to be ugly as sin with no good nature access. As long as I can get reliable internet, I'm open to rural.

Nope. I won’t even live in suburbia, which I consider a rural area, let alone somewhere even more remote. 

I do and I don't regret it.

People talk about the peace and quiet, but...

My grandparents used to live out in the country. Simple little house on a lake. When I'd visit, it wasn't actually quiet -- I'd always hear at least one neighbor across the lake mowing lawn, running a weed whipper, etc.

Maybe you'd get some true quiet in a more isolated part of the country? I'm not sure anymore. Motor sound carries.

For me, I recently moved from a busy city to a rural-ish town to help take care of my grandparents. Since they’ve now passed, I’m taking care of their house/land. I love learning new things and being independent. I really enjoy mowing the lawn, splitting wood and running a wood stove!

I’m about 45 minutes from a huge city/trauma hospital/ big Mall… but I’m only 10 minutes from my kid’s school, the grocery store, and primary care physicians, and 7 minutes to my job (which is actually on my road too).

What I don’t miss from the city is the noise. My goodness, sirens and people and horn honking traffic, jackhammering construction etc. It was never actually dark outside. Couldn’t really see the stars in the sky and had to keep my blinds/curtains closed most of the time for privacy.

I’m close enough to emergency help if my family needs it, but far enough from the bustle of the city. I’m content.

Nope, I was very happy to move to the city, not planing on ever going back.

Absolutely. I can't stand having people constantly on top of me. Sure shopping is more convenient and the restaurants are great, but give me 5 acres to homestead and you'll barely see me again.

I grew up in a small town, i love the countryside and the relatively tiny amount of humans ruining the natural landscape. But that's also my biggest worry: most people want to "get away from it all" ("it all" being other humans and our structures and tech that stand in opposition to the natural world); when someone moves out into the middle of nowhere, it's only a matter of time until they start bringing others and others start bring buildings and roads and commerce and power plants and water treatment facilities and cars and transportation and pollution and littering and housing developments and deforestation and...

I think it's much better the more we can stick to the human zoos and leave the natural world for the rest of this planet's inhabitants, at least until we learn to live in harmony with the ecosystem around us instead of in defiance of it.

Yes, on god, yes, I hate crowds and large cities...

I've lived in a city all my life. I dream about the day i can retire/ find a remote job that allows me to work in a place surrounded by nature, in a house with a basement and my own backyard and ample space.

Absolutely not, I love living in the city. I walk everywhere or take public transport. Maybe if I had a train station near my house in a rural area, I would consider it.

I actually like rural areas, but, in the US, I would never consider living in a rural area for political reasons. Sole exception would be some rural parts of New England.

I think so. I used to live in a rural area, with no neighbours for miles. It was lovely.

On the other hand I think I might've grown used to the comforts of small-town living. I'm moving to a town with a population of about 15k, and it's really well balanced. It's nice and sleepy, with modern amenities and services like grocery deliveries and whatnot. Plus the cost of living is super low.

I work from home so it doesn't really matter where I am so long as I have an internet connection.

Yes i love being in the countryside

No.

Public transit is ass compared to anything less rural.
A bus at the morning/evening vs a bus every 20min and a great connection to downtown.
Yeah no, fuck that as a trading argument. It has to be a very good and big property/house and cheap car for me to trade that.

• I dislike driving.

Over a city? Easy.

I prefer some population, but as far as I'm concerned cities are unlivable. I have to have space.

Yep it's nice to be able to afford to buy a house and land, and have room to do whatever you want. No crackheads wandering by looking at what we have sitting out available to steal. No noisy neighbors waking me up with parties or drums or other loud noise. No city pollution and summertime garbage dumpster stenches. No traffic congestion on my road, ever. 5 minutes from the grocery store and liquor stores and a local dispensary. It really can't be beat, unless you're wealthy and can afford an even better spot.

Ideally I'd have access to both- i.e., a 'home base' in the city, plus a small place to stay out in the woods somewhere, preferably less than 20 mins on foot from a commuter train. Continuing to avoid driving would be great

My ultimate goal is to live in the middle of nowhere with nobody else around, cut off from most everything.

I’m over dealing with how this world has developed. I want to live out the rest of my life in the quiet as far away from other people as possible.

I have family who live in a rural area. It's very nice to visit because the landscape is beautiful. The locals are also quite nice and helpful if you ever need it. But I don't want to regularly spend an hour each way to the nearest supermarket or pharmacy. I don't like driving that much. It seems to me a lot of the money you save on real estate you spend in time and convenience. I see the appeal, but it's not for me.

I already do, it might be a bit more challenging to make new friends, but also many upsides like less noisy and more relaxed living environment, usually more nature

I grew up in one and am currently trapped there. It's my personal hell.

Yes, happily. I grew up in a rural area and would much prefer to go back.

I grew up rural (largest town I lived in by far was ~15K) and probably not tbh. I've been living in big cities abt 10 years now, basically my whole adult life.

1. I fucking hate driving
2. I have finally basically entirely escaped small town gossip, I'm not going back, I love my privacy too much
3. It's hard enough to make friends with a big pool of options, let alone like 1000 people who already know your whole family lol

On the plus side, the sense of community can be good in some small towns. It's nice when most of the town shows up to community events - what else are they gonna do, stay home alone on the rare day somethings happening? It felt easier to form community groups like bands etc in that way.

I would consider moving to a smaller city, but probably nothing under 100K, and it would need transit too.

I've lived in towns with populations from 2000 to 6500 that aren't quite the middle of nowhere but you can see it from there. I now live ina city of 750k people and I hate it. I would move back to a small town in a heartbeat.

Don't particularly like bars where the main topic of conversation is who the patrons would like to shoot/put in camps. Granted I live in a small town now, but it's a bit different vibe when it's a resort town.

If the internet is good, and I’m not too far from town (like within 30 minutes driving) then hell yeah I’d live in a rural area. I’m more of a homebody so apart from buying groceries and going out on weekends I wouldn’t have to drive too much. The only thing is I’d need a home gym to avoid going back and forth every day

I would if given the chance, I really don't like people.

I’ve been living in Paris for 3 years, I do enjoy the city life and activities. But I come from the south of France (coast of le Var, french riviera) and even though it’s not that rural, I wasn’t living in a city either. Best is a mix of the two : sometimes I work in Paris, sometimes I go back down south for a few days/weeks.

I'd rather live in a suburban area. It's the best of both worlds - you got selective access to what you want from the city, but you're still far enough from that demographic fuckery. Property is cheap enough to get an actual garden, where I could plant my peppers and lemon tree.

It depends on how rural. I certainly wouldn't want to live like Courage the cowardly dog.

As a foodie, no way. I couldn’t stand having my choice of foods to be “the Chinese place” or some random diner. Besides, diversity is the spice of life!

Yes, if they didn't catch fire all the time.

I grew up rural, and I'm watching both of my parents get repeatedly hit with increasing demands from their insurance companies. First it was 30 feet of fire clearance, this year it went up to 100.

I get it. It's necessary. I'm just not interested in spending my retirement clearing brush.

No, my wife came from there and won't go back. We live in a small town near big towns. When my kids were growing up the neighbors knew them and they couldn't get away with anything.

We do struggle with the Trump flags but have almost as many pride flags and when my youngest hosted our towns first ever pride parade we only received one piece of hate mail which included an anti trans book.

No. I grew up on a farming area (not as a farmer just in the area) and it was boring as hell.

It might have actually been ok if we had any land to farm because then we'd have had something to do but it was just a farmhouse on a farm that we otherwise didn't own.

Very picturesque, but the internet was terrible, it was like a 2-hour drive to the nearest town, and that was hardly a metropolis, all the shops used to close at about 2:00 p.m. on a Sunday. No nightlife. The local newspaper once ran a major story because somebody had thrown a firework in a lake, the coverage was as if world War 3 had been declared, it was the most interesting thing that had happened in decades.

I don't need to live in a major city but I like to live somewhere where if you want to get some corn flakes it doesn't become a great expedition.

Hmm, probably not. I enjoy things close-by. Just not too close.

I would rather taste the sweet release of death

I did for 8 years. The land in the area was beautiful. Lots of wonderful hiking and mountain biking trails. People were nice. It was hard seeing family, since it was an eight hour drive. Real estate prices were lower. I'm really into music, and I went without seeing bands play for most of the time we lived there. I'm back in a city and happy. See concerts multiple times a month now. Living in a rural area was a nice experience, but I don't think I'd want to do it again.

I tried for 2 years, but with long work hours I didn't have much time to meet new people and since I'd just moved there for work, I didn't know anybody. Cost of living was great and I loved the friendly people and pace of life. I just couldn't handle the loneliness and isolation. I would do it again, but with a better work life balance and a stronger intention to meet people and make new friends.

I kinda already do. Drive 5 minutes in any direction and it's farmland.... Maybe not as rural as some, but I'm kinda out there compared to every other place I've lived. I'd go more rural.

The only real down side I'd have is that the internet would suck donkey balls, and I like having good internet.... Assuming I can overcome that, then 100% I'd go further rural than I am.

I'm not living in the brush or anything, I'm in a tiny suburb type area, in-between large farmlands. About ~5k people in my little township, and I happen to be in those suburbs. Internet here is pretty decent, no fiber, but it's decent. We have "city water" and sewer, natural gas and electricity from the grid.... Given enough money, I'd live further out with well water, septic, and off-grid power.... No hesitation. Only the internet (or rather, lack of any internet) would give me pause.

I live in a small tourist town (Ashland, OR), so I'm kinda in a mix where everything is compact and in one place, and services are common and very handy, whilst also having a lot of that beauty that living rural comes with, my only real issue here being the expense of everything.

My father lives in a "country roads" kind of environment as of recently, and I can personally confirm that I prefer being in a population of people in general, it's beautiful there, but I definitely felt "isolated" of sorts.

I used to live in a rural part of the UK and I hated it. It's so boring. I like having things to do.

Yeah I'd be fine with it. My biggest obstacle would be getting to work. I order most of my stuff online these days and internet is easier to come by

Rural rural yes. Suburb masquerading as a village/town? Hell no.

I moved away from a rural area and I would really prefer to go back.

I grew up rural and I'm glad to be a city boy now. I don't want to move back. Maybe if I get older and can't stand the bustling city life anymore?

I do. It means peace and quiet. It means a reasonable price for housing. It means learning some skills to maintain your place yourself. It means being more self-sufficient. It means you have to plan ahead because shopping is a 1x a week event, not a daily thing.

It also means people visit less and either are amazed at how much you have "out here," or are astounded you can live "out here."

Yeah, I used to, then moved to the city... Kinda miss it now, despite all the urban services

I don't really want to, but the cost of things is going to eventually drive me out there. I don't like being away from great dining choices, decent coffee roasters, good transit options, and most importantly, nearby hospitals for emergencies. I also really hate the red / right political bent of the rural areas.

I went from living in a small city to a very big city and the change was so drastic. Restaurants downstairs. Grocery store in the same building I'm in. I can walk from my door to a subway station in less than 3 minutes. My doctor's office is 10 minutes walk. I can't imagine needing to use a car to just do regular things like going to a mall.

Yes, less assholes around.

Yep! Rather rural now and shopping for land in the middle of nowhere as we speak!

I grew up in a major Midwest city with over 1 million people in the metro area and if I've learned 1 thing it's that random people suck. Now I know half the people I see on any given day. My daily commute is 4 minutes. I can drive 5 minutes the other way to hunt deer and elk.