Is Albany a good place to live Reddit

Hi everyone, I’d just like to some advice on what it is like living in Albany.

I’m thinking of moving down there and having a fresh start. I’d like to know what the housing market is like for both rentals and sales and what opportunities are there work wise? I’m a gardener but I’m happy to start a new career. My partner is a venue manager in hospitality so I’d imagine she’d be able to find work quite easily.

Also I know it’s cold down them but being from the UK I think I’d adjust fine, what’s the weather generally like and do you get many thunderstorms? And finally do you guys have a decent amount of wildlife down there?

Thank you

As a european, I sometimes spend time by trying to find out what the "perfect" american city to live in would be. This time, my mind have stopped at Albany.

From my desk view, Albany seems nice cause it's in a northern state. I imagine you have quite stable weather with four seasons. I imagine the costs of living is not super high since Albany is not a big city like Chicago etc.

So it would be cool to hear what you folks who live there has to say. Is it a good place to call your home?
How is the crime situation? Culture? Architecture/coziness feel of the city? Any cool stuff to do? Cost of living? Nice joints? etc :)

Thanks for replies!

Heya mate, lived in Albany for years and might be able to help a bit more than some of these comments.

Lockyer is the Armadale of Albany. A quick drive through there and you'll see pretty quickly why I say so, but trust me when I say it's by far the worst suburb in the town. As an extension of that, Orana (the neighbouring suburb) is at times just as bad and it's proximity to Albany highway makes it another spot I'd avoid altogether.

Yakamia is split into a new development mostly behind the school, and the older one that's built where the school is facing. That older area can be a bit rough but it's considerably nicer nowadays than it used to be. The new area is real nice and it's full of young family homes.

Spencer Park around the IGA isn't very nice but it's not as bad as people make it out to be. It's a pretty normal spot.

Bayonet head is about 15 minutes out of town and it can be a pain the arse to get about, even though there is a new woolworths out there. It might do your head in eventually and most people I know that moved out there eventually decide that the drive becomes a pain. This is 1000% worse out in Little Grove that can be as far as 25-30 mins from the CBD.

If you get any choice in where you live then the Mira Mar / Middleton beach areas are wicked. Most of the houses are great, the views are good and they're close to the main beach. They can be a bit pricier though, so the newer areas in Yakamia, Spencer, and anywhere around Mt. Melville are your best bet.

Albany is a very quiet town and very quickly you'll find out where you should / shouldn't eat etc. The Venice, Dylan's, Rustler's, the Three Anchors are the go to places for meals. For beer you have Due South for business casual, Liberte for something fancier, and the White Star for your average pub. 6 Degrees is around too an it fits somewhere on the middle of that spectrum. The nightclub is fucking awful and won an award for the worst in the southern hemisphere.

Any other Q's you might have let me know!

Hello!

My girlfriend and I are currently living in Brooklyn but looking to move out next year. We both love Hudson Valley but unfortunately the area doesn’t seem to have stores we like such as Trader Joe’s, Costco, Whole Foods, wegmans, etc.

We’re looking for a place that has a community and overall the people are nice and outgoing. We are from NH and figured Albany is a good spot to be near family and also be central to Boston, Ny and even Montreal, while also being near the Catskills and Adirondacks.

How is the food scene? I know it won’t compare to Brooklyn in this aspect but are there a lot of bakeries and cafes? I’m a baker/pastry chef, so this will definitely be a factor.

I figure Albany to be a similar size to Manchester, NH, along with weather so we’re already used to the dreadful winters.

One last thing is how safe Albany is. We both are used to the city and taking the MTA early in the morning so I guess this would be subjective, but in terms of crime how is the city overall?

Thank you!

Albany is beautiful. If you're into lifestyle stuff like diving (I am) then it has TONNES of awesome spots. I assume the fishing is good too. It's got great hikes and stuff like Bluff Knoll and it's literally the tail end of the Bibbulmun and Munda biddi (the bike one) so it must have some really good hiking.

Honestly though? You may feel some serious issues with isolationism. Me personally, I live in Byford, Perth, which is basically as far south as housing development goes along the foothills before it turns into all cattle land. I live amongst the horse people and although I'm literally 2 minutes from Tonkin highway, a major route, I feel very serious feelings of isolation anxiety quite often. Mind you I also work nightshift construction and have next to zero life because of it and due to that and other factors, the 30+ minute detour to go anywhere or do anything before work makes it unrealistic.

But I digress. I'm sure Albany has everything you need. There's a BCF, there's a Bunnings, there's plenty of supermarkets like Coles and Kmart. Like, you wouldn't really need to go to Perth for anything and even if you did, it may be a once a year thing.

So Albany is a solid place to work with some breathtaking nature, but I'd also personally weigh up the possibility of isolation depression.

You mention mining as a career. Unless you're already in the gig I wouldn't rely on that, but if you are almost all of the jobs are point of hire Perth. That means that if you are an eccentric and somewhat wealthy individual you could look at getting your private pilot licence and flying yourself between Jandakot (Perth city) and Albany. I've looked into it, I think it would be an awesome lifestyle. Bunbury has a small airport too. Failing that maybe there are charter flights? 🤷‍♂️

Speaking of Bunbury, it may be a better choice than Albany, especially tying in with FIFO. I know the Kemerton lithium project is kicking off. Boddington is always looking for people I hear and it's only 2 hours away from Bunbury. Similarly, Greenbushes (the largest hard rock Lithium mine in the world) is only an hour away. Also being in Bunbury also puts you right next to Margaret river, the beautiful cape to cape hike, Busselton & Dunsborough, and a few other awesome things. It's still only a few hours from Perth (if that's important to you) and only an hour from Dwellingup, Pinjarra and Mandurah.

In a way, Bunbury is a lot closer to and a lot more centralised to some cool shit than Albany is. Don't get me wrong, Albany is absolutely breathtaking and I wouldn't even mind living there for 6 months just for the diving, hiking and exploring, but it seems that if it's Albany then that's all you're getting. For example, you may look at a map and think that it is half way better Esperance and Bunbury/Margaret river. It is, but Esperance is almost as far from Albany as it is from Perth (7 hours vs 5.5 hours) and Bunbury is 2 hours closer to Perth than Albany (1 hour 40 vs 3 hours 40). The only benefit to Albany, at least from a crazy person like me, is that it is closer to the Nullarbor and thus more convenient for cave diving, + being in the backyard of some awesome diving.

If you're looking to live somewhere for 6 to 18 months Albany could be an awesome spot for you, but if you're looking to buy a place, the Bunbury area may be more strategic for several reasons. Albany is a very isolated 'settle down and retire' type area.

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