David from My Two Dollars wrote a post last week about how his new neighborhood is much easier-going than where he used to live in the city of angels. In his words, his new neighbors “don’t give a crap what kind of car we drive.” I felt very at home reading his post. My husband and I live in a great little neighborhood where people don’t seem to care at all about what the Joneses are doing, much less try to keep up with them. In our city, the median house price is $449,000. But our house is worth less than half of that, and it fits perfectly into our neighborhood. Our next-door neighbor drives a Geo Metro of about the same vintage as our early 90′s cars. People mow their own grass and work on their cars in their driveways. We know all of our neighbors, and feel happy to be raising our son here. There are so many things about this town and this state that make us glad we live here. The best part about living in one of the lowest-priced areas of a relatively high-priced city is that we still get all the benefits of living in a nice town (great library, tons of parks and open spaces, great rec center, etc.), without sending our whole income to the mortgage company every month. Our neighborhood has had a bit of a face lift this year. The HOA lit fires under a lot of us to paint, re-roof, fix fences, etc. So things are looking well-cared for around here. I love our neighborhood. It’s quiet and peaceful, the houses are small and cozy, and there’s nothing pretentious around here at all. And it’s nice to live among people who don’t give a crap what kind of car we drive.
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