Dream of Small Town Living? Move to Iowa.

I was reading the Des Moines Register online the other day, and found this great article:

Welcome to a place where strangers say hello to one another while walking down main street. Where a lost child can be safe, bad manners are reproached and whistling a happy song is not considered crazy.

There are places for all of us to remember, places and people that sing the song of our lives back to us.

Iowa will do this.

Read the entire article here.

It’s very true. And I’m reminded once again why I live in Iowa. My family has had the opportunity plenty of times to move to other states; but we stay in Iowa by choice. And for good reasons.

It’s a safe place to live. The schools are great. We actually get four seasons here (Fall is awesome!). People are friendly here. I sometimes call Iowa “Old Reliable” when it comes to real estate because it’s always a slow and steady increase in values. Your property value doesn’t double in price in 3 years, like the last several years have been for other states, but because of that, neither is there a “bubble”.

But just because Iowa is a slow, relaxing place to live doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty to do. We frequently go to the Science Center with my boy. There’s art, fine dining, clubs, and much more.

I love this job. Not only do I get to help people with the biggest financial decision of their lives, but I get to express to them how much I love living here. Remember the movie Field of Dreams? One of the taglines was:

“Is this Heaven? No, it’s Iowa.”

I don’t blame anyone for not being able to tell the difference.