Why I moved to Raleigh-Durham instead of New York City

The past two weekends have been really fun for me. I spent the Easter holiday in Columbia, SC, where my best friend Josh lives. The weekend before, four of my friends from college and I had a reunion in Harker’s Island, a small coastal community on the NC coast where one of my buds lives.

Spending time with them on their turf helped me notice that my closest college friends made similar choices for finding a place to start our careers. We moved to small-to-medium cities after college.

Many people in our college cohort, including my girlfriend, had an innate desire to move to the big cities (namely LA, NYC, and DC). But when I had to make that big decision, I turned down a job offer in NYC to work in North Carolina’s Research Triangle (pop. 1.5M).

It’s been one of the best decisions I’ve made, and here’s why:

It’s allowed me to save money. During college, I spent a summer interning in NYC. I spent $1250 for half of a room near Columbia University, which only left me about $800 for living expenses from my non-profit intern stipend. Subtract a few nights out per week — to keep up with my investment banking and law roommates — and I was eating off of the dollar menu at fast food chains to make ends meet.

I didn’t want to be broke like that again, and I didn’t have any parental resources to rely on like many twenty-somethings. My NYC job offer paid only $2,000 more than my Triangle offer, but the cost of living was roughly $13,000 more expensive.

I chose the more affordable option. My rent during my first year out of college in the Triangle was $1500/mo (split among three guys), and with lower entertainment costs, I’ve been able to save an average of 15% of my income.

It’s allowed me to buy a house. The housing crisis has created a buyer’s market in the Triangle, and there are plenty of affordable housing options that don’t exist in the larger cities. I left the apartment life last June and bought a townhome in downtown Durham. My mortgage for a 3BR townhome is the same as my DC friends’ rent for half of a room, the tax benefits of home ownership are incredible, and I have an appreciable asset at an early age.

I won’t stay in this area forever — probably for only 3-4 more years — but when I leave, I’ll hopefully be able to get a great return from selling my house to support a move elsewhere.

There are also state and federal programs that reward young professionals to buy (more details on those in a later post).

It allowed me to have excellent work experience. I’ve been fortunate enough to work in smaller shops that have allowed me to get a lot of experience I wouldn’t have gotten in the big firm I would have worked for in NYC. In the small offices, I have served as a catch-all and have learned about things outside of my area of specialty. Also, because of the smaller flood of twenty-somethings, the demand for young non-profit professionals is high in the area as well, so finding a job is a bit easier.

Living in smaller city isn’t perfect, though. There’s a lot of entertainment here but nothing compared to the bigger cities, though, and I don’t have a large concentration of college friends in the area, like my DC and NYC folks. Having a long-distance relationship is tough, too. I’m on the road a lot to visit people, especially in DC, and I have to make the effort to meet new people in the Triangle.

However, moving to a small-to-medium city is something I’d recommend to twenty-somethings, especially those in the non-profit community or those who don’t have parental support and need to build financial stability. It’s worked well for me and my friends.

Check out Kiplinger’s Seven Cool Cities, which include Raleigh, as places to start building.

March 24, 2008 | Filed Under Blog, Career

 

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One Response to “Why I moved to Raleigh-Durham instead of New York City”

  1. Balling on a Budget: Five reasons twenty-somethings should buy a home now : Fifth Quarter on April 28th, 2008 1:39 am

    [...] a home saves money long-term. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had no parental support during or after college, so I’ve had to earn and save every dime [...]

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