Beauty, Affordability, and Culture
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9/6/2018
Wow, I can't believe how much Asheville bashing there is here. I'm a glass-half-empty guy, easily finding fault with every place I live, but I can objectively say that Asheville is a very nice place to live. I moved here four years ago from the NYC suburbs with my girlfriend. Our criteria for a new location were: affordability (houses under 350K), moderate weather, natural beauty, open space, cultural offerings, and progressive politics. Asheville was the only place we could find that satisfied all. The other desirable places we looked at were either too expensive or had extreme weather.
Four years in, we are still happy with our decision. We live a few miles outside the city in a former farming community; the combination of rural beauty/serenity and easy access to a small, vibrant city is ideal. The mountains bring daily joy, and the people in Asheville are interesting, creative, and free-spirited. Asheville is big enough to attract national acts (e.g. Jerry Seinfeld, Dave Chappelle, The Punch Brothers, Steely Dan, Venus/Serena playing tennis) but small enough to feel manageable and community-oriented.
As with any place, there are things I'm dissatisfied with:
1) Outside of the health field, the white-collar economy is bad. They call Asheville a BYOJ town (bring your own job). I work remotely as a computer programmer, and my girlfriend is in the health field, so we're fine. But most people will have a hard time finding a good-paying job here.
2) It's wetter and more humid than I like. Statistically, Asheville gets slightly more rainfall than the national average, and, like the entire East Coast, it's humid. But being 2100 feet above sea level, the temperatures are 5 -10 degrees cooler than the flat parts of the state, so that helps.
3) Coming from NY, I'm used to sophisticated people: i.e. Those who read books, attend jazz/classical concerts, go to graduate school, etc. In Asheville proper, there are those people, particularly the thousands of transplants who have moved here the past couple of decades. But the regional culture in general is on the simple side. That has been my biggest complaint. But, hey, I knew that going in. This isn't NYC, Chicago, or San Francisco.
Overall, Asheville is a great choice if you don't need a big city and enjoy the mountain life. I can't think of an affordable place I'd rather live.
Dodd | Leicester, NC