This essay is based on a conversation with Will Bishop, a 32-year-old software developer who returned to his hometown of Columbus, Georgia, and took $5000 from or city program THE attract remote workers. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
The Move to Columbus program was sent to me by maybe three family members and four friends. I just got a bunch of texts.
I was born and raised in Columbus, Georgia. Before moving back, I lived in Nashville for seven years and spent two years in Tucker, Georgia, outside of Atlanta.
Columbus is a very different place than when I left nine years ago – it has grown a lot. It’s blooming.
It’s the familiarity of home, but it’s also new and exciting because we didn’t live in the same area we moved to – so that has an added benefit.
A lot of people knew that we were already considering or at least considering moving to Columbus, so the timing was kind of weird. We were trying to buy a house in Atlanta and it was quite a depressing experience.
This was the impetus for the start of research in Columbus. This program just matched the timing and also speeded up our process. It can help with some of the moving costs.
My family and my wife’s family are still in Columbus and we wanted to be closer to family. We thought we still wanted a bigger city, so we thought Atlanta would give us some of what we wanted in Nashville, and then we’d have the benefit of being two hours from family.
We couldn’t afford to buy a house in Atlanta
Real estate was definitely one of the most important drivers for this decision.
We have no buying experience but just bought our first home here in Columbus for $295,000.
Bishop’s House in Columbus, Georgia. Courtesy of Will Bishop
We were renting in Nashville and in Atlanta.
We shopped for maybe a year in Atlanta. It’s definitely tough right now, with interest rates being what they are, but the price per square foot there is definitely more than double the average here.
We were looking at homes in Atlanta that were maybe 1,000 square feet and were pushing our budget.
In Atlanta, we paid $1,700 a month, which was a really good deal. We actually made a deal with the owner: I would cut the grass and he would shave $200. It would have been maybe 1,000 square feet.
In Columbus, we bought something that’s 2,200 square feet and we’re excited and proud of it. Your money just goes a lot further in what you can buy here.
Our mortgage in Columbus – with insurance and everything you have to put in escrow – is about $2,500.
If we had bought Atlanta, it would have been either the same and we would have had a smaller house – or it would have been more, still with a smaller house.
We wanted to buy a house that we could be in for 10 years – that was our thinking. We couldn’t afford to do that in Atlanta.
Amenities in Columbus reinforce strong community
This is probably silly, but I grew up playing on these really nice clay tennis courts, and one of the memberships included in the program is a one-year membership to those tennis courts. It’s hard to find really good clay courts and they’re really fun to play.
It has a ton of benefits, but it’s also access to things. There’s a lot to do in Atlanta and Nashville, but they’re not necessarily accessible and affordable to live near here.
A waterfront in Columbus, Georgia. SeanPavonePhoto/Getty Images
I can actually afford to live near this amazing public resource. It’s a really great park that I’m a block away from that I could never have lived near in Atlanta.
Part of the reason I really appreciate this program is because it has these community building components.
It’s really important to me as a remote worker – because you can just move to a city and be really confused about how to really meet people without that network of colleagues.
This program has several built-in things to do, such as meet other people who are part of this program, or meet the mayor — just hang out with other people and network. That was really exciting too.
We wanted to be closer to family and we’re glad we did
I feel like we’ve done as much socially in these two months as we did last year in Atlanta.
In Atlanta, because of the drive and because it was just harder to make friends, it felt like this formal invitation: You set everything up two weeks in advance, then drive 45 minutes to get there. It was just such an event.
Here, I think we’ve been really lucky that some friends have taken it upon themselves to introduce us to some bands. It feels like a few nights a week, we’re just running into friends and then something comes of it.
Everything happens much more naturally here, because you’re closer to people, and that’s really nice.
The bishop and his wife. Courtesy of Will Bishop
We’ve actually come across a dozen people who have moved to Columbus as well.
Being around my family has been so sweet. We lost my grandmother in February, and this is how we are I am spending more time with my grandfather who is here at this time when he is grieving.
We went for lunch the other day and got ribs, and that’s something I didn’t get to do remotely that often. I could call and sign up, but to take him somewhere and hear him open up about his time in the Navy and stuff like that—just being there for him right now is so important.
And showing your grandparents the first house you bought is, for some reason, really great for your confidence. It’s just the sweetest experience.
I’m coming back to Columbus a very different person than I was nine years ago. I’m more forward-looking and have different priorities, and Columbus is in line with us, fortunately.