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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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'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.

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'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.

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.

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

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.

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!

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

I would rather taste the sweet release of death

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.

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

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.