Hi everyone, I’m Donna Taylor with Living in Central MS. Today, I’m here to talk about the pros and cons of Living in Madison MS...a town that I've lived in for nearly 20 years!
So, first, let’s talk about the ugly. And when I say ugly, my perspective is that of someone that lived in a large metropolitan city of Denver for 3 years, then moved back to Mississippi as a 40 year old…which, even though I was born and raised here, it was still eye opening. The biggest adjustment for someone moving to a small town like Madison, where our population is about 30,000 people was the lack of things to do. We don’t have any professional sports teams in the state of Mississippi….which is why most Mississippians are Saints Fans! Who Dat?!? New Orleans is a quick 3 hour drive from Jackson! Our pace of life here is much slower than most big cities…so, if youre a person that likes the hustle and bustle, and enjoys being able to get take out at your favorite restaurant at any hour of the day, Madison might not be for you. In fact, most restaurants are closed on Sundays here…and a lot of them on Monday too!! There’s not much nightlife here either…sure there’s a few bars here and there…but they are far and few between.
Another thing that some of my clients are bummed to find out is that there are no OLD homes in Madison. When I say old, I mean before the 1960’s. Most of the homes in Madison started were built after the 1980’s…so if finding a super old home is important to you, you’ll be disappointed with Madison.
And the last big Negative on my list is the lack of rentals. As I’ve mentioned in previous videos, 95% of people living in Madison own their homes. That is very much above the national average. This is also what keeps our home values increasing year over year. There are no apartments in the city of Madison and never will be…well, never say never I guess?? Bottom line, if you need to rent, Madison is going to give lots of obstacles in that regard!
Ok, enough of the gloomy list…let’s talk about the positives. Why are people moving to Central MS? I definitely have some insight on this, as I’ve helped several people move here over the last few years, and honestly, I’m always to surprised when I hear the #1 reason they move here…it’s because of our conservative values. A lot of people just like me grow up in the south and then move out West and realize what I mean when I say “conservative Values”. There’s so many things in our county over the last few years that have made people realize that living in a “liberal area” is not all it’s cracked up to be, especially when raising a young family. I knew the second I became pregnant with my child in 2013 that living in a huge liberal metropolitan city was not the way I wanted to raise a family. To each his own of course, I’m saying, that’s the #1 reason I moved back to Mississippi.
Another reason that makes Madison so desirable is our cost of living. And, I’m mainly refering to housing costs. The median house price in Madison is $373k. Home prices have been very stable here for years. So many of our clients are shocked at the quality of home they can get for under $400k. Even our homes that are “spec” are great quality homes, because that has become the standard here. Most of my buyers that are new to MS are pleasantly surprised when they see the caliber of our newer construction homes in the area. Most have brick exterior, granite counters and all those things that make a home not feel like a lot of the cookie cutter neighborhoods that they are used to seeing.
And Last but definitely NOT least on my list, are the things that are quantifiable that make any city great. These are things that get graded on sites like https://www.niche.com/places-to-live/madison-madison-ms/ , here you can easily see things like crime rate, schools, jobs, commute, etc. As a REALTOR, I have to be careful of the things I saw on most of these topics, so that’s why I point people to sites like Niche.com where opinions are taken out and it’s all about the facts and numbers.
MS gets a bad wrap sometimes, but it’s really an unfair judgment. In today’s world where so many people are working remotely, but paying a small fortune for housing in a crowded, congested, over priced city, and looking for a better option, there’s good news. I encourage you check out some of the neighborhood specific videos one my YT Channel
