Perfect Balance of All Things to Consider.
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4/14/2020
I've been traveling here for approximately 1 year, about 6 times, and have lived here for 3 months. If you are looking for a small to medium sized town with a lower than a high cost of living with options for what to do within the town (bike, hike, gym, shop, eat out) or travel to nearby St. Louis or Kansas City or hop on a short flight from the town or St. Louis or KC as airports, it's a great place to be. With a remote job and travel as a part of my work I am enjoying my time here. A major university and very good medical facilities/services are added benefits. If you want to compare Columbia, MO to NYC, SF, ATX, Denver, Dallas, etc. - ??? - not realistic - but I wouldn't live there either (I just left ATX after 20 years - it is crowded and quickly becoming "The Bay Area of Texas". But if you were to compare - there is no traffic, the cost of living is very reasonable, and there are things to do. For the next 5 years or so I think it's a great choice, a great balance of pro's and con's. FYI, you have to factor in that this only 1.5 hrs. north of Ozark the Netflix series but then again, the show exaggerates to sell viewership. :-) If you are looking for the very best in the U.S. in terms of dining, nightlife, shopping, traffic, crime, high cost of living with a challenge to get to the great outdoors because of overcrowding en route or at your destination, you should look at the other cities I've named in this review. I consider them great places to visit (been to all many times) but not to live unless you are banking $500k or more annually on a consistent year over year basis, and even then it's a poor spend of how far your money will take you.
Eric | Austin, TX