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I'm in Morgantown, West Virginia. A university city (cities don't get very large in West Virginia, the state only has 1.8 million people; it has seen zero population expansion for 90 years). Sold my house not long ago, moved to Morgantown, and I'm renting now. My rent for around 900 sq ft is sub $700. Electric + water + Comcast is a combined $100, that covers all of my utilities. I'm under $800 for rent + utilities and under $1,000 for rent + utilities + food. Crime is low, as is the murder rate; I don't think there has been a murder here in roughly five years. The Internet is great (Comcast goes up to 1.2gbps here for $80/month, but I don't have a use for that). There's a decent bus system that goes to most parts of the city and is cheap to use. The area, and really the state in general, is overwhelmingly green; drive a short distance in any direction and you've escaped civilization. There's skiing an hour away in the Winter, and a few popular lakes within that distance as well. Oddly housing prices are higher than they should be for the income levels of the region, and it has been that way for a long time, so that's a downside (but this is relatively speaking, as you can buy a nice house here for under $400k; for anyone working in tech remote it's not expensive). It is a boring, docile, quiet region, and that's not everyone's cup of tea; the restaurants are lacking, and there's no consequential nightlife; the nearest relevant city, Pittsburgh, is 80 minutes away. In the US, university cities - which the US has a lot of - are often the hidden gems of combining safe (low crime, low murder rate) + a relatively low cost of living. |