Looking To Settle Down Somewhere

    My wife and I used to imagine where we would like to settle down.  Starting with a move from Glassboro, (NJ) to Muncie, (IN), we moved five more times in six years. We bought our first house in Granger (IN) but knew it wouldn’t be our permanent home. 

   We were looking for someplace more “interesting” that had mountains or water or maybe both.  With that in mind, we moved our young family to Allen, Texas.  It was lacking in waterfront lots or mountain views but it also lacked in ice and freezing temperatures – most of the time.

   Twenty years later, Allen is clearly our home but the question of where to settle down still lingers. A better question might be “have we settled down?”  That question is still on the table but we got a good taste of some interesting places this summer with trips to both coasts. 

   Hoping to officially decide if we had settled down, I decided to compare Allen to New York City and Seattle. 

   Thanks to the Zillow phone app, we quickly learned that you pay a price for “interesting” on both coasts.  A new high rise in Manhattan called One57 is selling its basic condos for $16 million each.  The penthouse sold for $100 million.  For the regular folks, the median price of a condo in NYC is currently $1.7 million. The median home price in Seattle in June was $504,000 compared to $242,000 for Allen. (Allen +1)

   There are approximately 1,600 pizza restaurants (pizzerias to the locals) in New York City.  If there are  restaurants in Seattle, they are probably located behind coffee shops.  Seattle claims 2.5 coffee shops for every thousand restaurants.  That figures up to 1,600 coffee shops.  Allen’s restaurant count is about 200. (NYC +1)

  Most would agree that scenic views on the prairie are probably not Allen’s best selling point. NYC high rises offer great views at night but the daytime views of New Jersey or Queens can’t compare to Seattle’s views of water, islands and Mount Ranier.  (Seattle +1)

   The down side of islands and water views are bridges and tunnels. Therefore, commuter  traffic is predictably bad in NYC and surprisingly worse in Seattle.   My morning commute in Allen is 1 mile and requires no tolls.  (Allen +1)

   New York City has Broadway, Seattle has grunge music and Allen is still searching for its musical identity. (NYC +1)

   Seattle wins for romantic weekend getaways but New England is a close second.  Pontooning on Texoma just doesn’t have the same romantic charm although some might argue that point.(Seattle +1)

   One final category would be sports bragging rights.  Seattle earned bragging rights for the 2014 Super Bowl but lost some cache with this past year’s super loss.  For all of its sports history, New York City has been quiet in the past ten years with two Super Bowl wins but no hockey, baseball or basketball titles. Allen on the other hand has seen its football team win three consecutive state titles and four in the past seven years. Our Allen Americans also claimed three consecutive hockey titles.  (Allen +1)

   For the moment, Allen is leading for places to settle down…and that’s not such a bad thing