As a long time lover of this wondrous Superior Peninsula, I worry what the future may bring. The slower pace of life and the gentle rhymes of the land are part of our being. Will visitors or prospective immigrants embrace the whole experience of living in the Upper Peninsula and add their enthusiasm, creativity and skills to the community, or will they come with other, more material values and attempt to alter us as well as the land? Will we morph into a venue, not a place—a backdrop for activities and ways of living that one could do anywhere?

I offer only this plea:
Please don't come to the Upper Peninsula and try to alter the land or our way of life. Don't set about to change this place into the place you have just left (or fled).

It is what it is, and we like it that way.

Rather, approach our beloved north country with reverence and awe.

Tuck yourself in here and let the land change you.

I'm giving this guy my weekly pay

Th Daily Poor. Lol

> Be Dollar Tree
> Have ~6,000,000 stores in the U.P.
> Still don't put it on US map
> Based, they're aware that you shouldn't openly display secrets

Man, that $1,500 a month rent sure is "ridiculously low."

I take this as God telling us that skyscrapers are evil

So, I looked into this. $1500 is literally above 2022's average rent for a 3BR apartment by a bit.

Rent usually goes up by something like 2 or 3 percent per year. Consequently, this guy says a rent that's just a touch above the current expected average is "ridiculously low."

So, there's a bit of an issue in looking at small town data. That is, they usually only have 5 year estimates. So, we have to do a bit of guesswork.

The most recent data available is from 2021. From that dataset, the national average for a 3BR is $1301. 2022 nationwide data from the single year says $1449. Multiply that by 1.03 and we get an expected average of $1492 per month for 2023. As such, we can expect that the values for the 2023 would be about x value multiplied by 1.15. It's a guess, but an informed guess.

Will see what we can find regarding specific places later. But for now, I need to run to the market.

I wonder what the urban/rural split looks like on the rent price

Just ran this. Ran correlation between urban % of population on the county level and median gross rent total, for just studios, and for each BR count. All had about a 0.56 correlation, except studios, which was at 0.4.

Visual of correlation between urbanity of a county and its median rent price

Pretty funny that the U.P. place known for being expensive is still about $100 cheaper per month for a 3 BR than his dream $1500 scenario.

And note, also, that this is just 3 BR as a metric; meaning, it'll show up here whether you rent a 3 BR apartment or home. So, the reality is probably that this is overestimating the price when you compare it to his fantasy price for a 3 BR APARTMENT.

So true

Is it normal for people to label such ludicrously exorbitant spending as $1000 a month for vacations as tenants of the "middle class lifestyle"?

I bet the average Daily Poor subscriber can spend a tenth of that on vacations and still enjoy them a hell of a lot more

Happy Thanksgiving from The Daily Poor!