I live in a dense urban area of ~1 million, on a tropical island. My 550 sqft apartment is ~$520. Hardwood floors, natural gas range and hot water, structure is proof against typhoons up to Category 5 (already experienced several), as well as earthquakes. Gigabit fiber optic internet @$35/month Speedtests around 550MB. Daily flights to practically every major city in Asia.
HOUSES, however, are insanely priced. The mortgage rates are low (1-3%, slightly less than 1% if you are a government employee) but the principal is stratospheric for the size of home and land you are buying.
I'm actually pretty familiar with Buies...my mom's family all lives in Sanford and used to drive through there.
I work for a company that does rental listings so I look at these numbers a lot.
Its less about population size and more about distance from the urban center. Coulee City is a 2-hour drive from a major city (Spokane), while Buies Creek is maybe a 40-minute drive from a major city (Raleigh).
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From MY perspective, both Buies Creek and Coulee City are rural.
But from the perspective of someone who lives in Coulee City, they probably think Buies Creek is suburban (since it is commute-distance from a city).
Yeah - for a person who is adjusted to only living in big cities then sure. However, Buies Creek is 30 minutes away from the downtown of a city. It is not rural by almost anyone else's definition.
It'd be like saying Atherton, CA is rural because it's a "smaller" town of 7k people. Ignoring that it's within a 8 million population metro and within 30-45 minutes of a 1 million population sprawling city (San Jose) and another 800k+ densely populated one (San Francisco).
I've never lived in any big city. Literally never. Not even close, always 20+ minutes away from the major city.
The thing is: suburbia itself is a network of smaller cities. Buies Creek has no "smaller city" near it. Buies Creek IS the city.
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To continue your Atherton example... Atherton is a suburb of ___Palo Alto___, not a suburb of San Fran. It is a brisk 4-mile bike-ride from Atherton to Palo Alto and back, you don't even need a car if you live in Atherton and commute to Palo Alto.
There's NOTHING walking or biking distance to Buies Creek, NC. Rural is more about "distance from nearest metro".
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Buies Creek NC is 40-minutes to Raleigh. This is rural by my experience. True, Buies Creek NC is "less Rural" for people who are used to 2-hour drives (Coulee City to Spokane), but a 40-minute drive away from a big city is Rural by most people's definition of Rural.
lol - this is so disconnected from how anyone who lives a truly rural lifestyle would think of it.
20 minutes is a joke! Living multiple hours away is considered more standard.
99% of the rural population isn't Eastern Montana.
Rural is mostly about being far away from urban centers. Buies Creek NC is 30+ miles from its nearest population center (10k+ citizens). While Atherton is 4-miles away from its nearest population center (60k+ citizens in Palo Alto).
Lets just say... Buies Creek, North Carolina. I've been to smaller towns, but I'd say population of 2,942 is small for most people. EDIT: Seems like prices may have gone up in recent years: I'm seeing $800 to $1000 on Rent.com, but there's still a listing or two for $600/month. Or maybe "word of mouth" is still king there.
Buies Creek is still reasonably close to the Raleigh metropolitan area. So this is still "somewhat suburban". I've visited my cousins in Coulee City, WA (Population 562), so I know what "actually rural" looks like too.