There is a children’s book called, “If You’re Not From the Prairie” by David Bouchard. Throughout the colorful pages, the author praises the beauty of living in the Midwest. The sky, the wind, the grass, even the flatness and snow all have a particular and even sometimes brutal, beauty in the Midwest. Living in a Midwestern city is warm, friendly, and personal. Strangers wave and smile to strangers along country roads, farmers share their harvest with their neighbors, and small communities band together to help one another when natural disasters of floods or wicked winds strike.
The Midwestern city of St. Joseph, Missouri, shares this spirit. When the banks of the Missouri River have spilled over into small towns nearby, residents of St. Joseph are there to lend a helping hand. The community of St. Joseph spreads out into the Heartland. St. Joseph doesn’t just refer to the house next door as their neighbor. Their neighbors are also the residents of the small towns that depend on St. Joseph for more amenities, services, shopping, educational opportunities, and entertainment. And St. Joseph watches out for its neighbors, offering them what they need for the farm and a city to play in during leisure time.
Those who have always lived in a Midwestern city may not realize how good they really have it. For those who relocate to a Midwestern city, they often realize right away the many benefits of living in the heart of the United States. When shopping for a new home in the Midwest, someone from the coast may recognize their first benefit. An average home on the East coast starts around $275,000, while in the Midwest an average price house is about $125,000. Not only are the mortgage rates lower, but the property taxes are much lower as well.
For the price it costs someone to rent a small apartment in a big coastal city, they could easily invest it in a brand-new very spacious home in the Midwest. It is easier to find an apartment and much less expensive to pay for one in a Midwestern city, too.
Once new residents are settled, they will start realizing the other benefits of living in a Midwestern city. The cost of living is much lower than on the coasts. According to the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center’s (MERIC) first quarter report of 2013, Missouri was ranked as having the 12th lowest cost of living in the United States. Just because the cost of living in Midwestern cities is lower, salaries are not necessarily lower. Jobs in some professions are even higher in the Midwest.
If you’re not from the Midwest, you might not realize its calm beauty or its advantages for living so affordably. Money from the coasts go a long way on the open prairie and jobs in medicine, research, journalism, business, marketing, education, sales, and more are continually growing and blooming out in those Midwestern fields.
