Dear Claire: The City vs. the Country – Which Should I Choose?

The Urban vs. Rural Dilemma: Exploring the Pros and Cons

Of course, you already know there’s no right answer to this question.

So, what’s on the city side? Well, first off, clearly more people have chosen the city because 80% of the US population lives in cities. Why did they make that choice? You probably already know that restaurants, coffee shops, and bars are available in the city. However, in a pandemic, none of those things are the case. The arts, sidewalks, transportation – those things are all great reasons to live in a city, but what are the downsides of the city or the upsides of country?

The upside of the country is that if I have acreage, it’s far, far away from my neighbor and I don’t have to look at them. Whereas, in my city house, I look out my window and there’s my neighbor in their kitchen fixing dinner. So, you know, there are pros and cons for sure.

I’ve had plenty of clients, even in the last six months, move to the country to buy acreage because they wanted farms. I have had people that were cultivating bees, alpacas, chickens, or moved to the country because they just wanted a small farm. You can do all kinds of things. I even have somebody who had a tree farm, which was so cool. However, it takes a lot of work. It’s a lot of effort and a lot of work so it’s something that you’re going to want to commit to before you do it.

Another nice thing about living in the country is that, typically, the property taxes are going to be significantly lower. Especially if you’ve got farming on your property because that also creates a lower-than-normal property tax.

I’m interested to hear what you think specifically, and why you’re in the city or why you’re in the country and what you would or wouldn’t change about it. Also, what do you think the pros and cons are? Reach out to me at [email protected]. I’d love to hear from you. Take care.

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