Berk winter, spitballing relocation

I live in the Bay Area. I have been here 18 years. Everything said about how nice it is true. Everything said about how expensive it is also true. It has gotten much more crowded and more expensive in the last 5 years. Unless you you and your SWMBO have skills where you can both earn near six figures and have the patience to deal with traffic so bad that it can take 90 minutes to go 40 miles, don't come here. You are going have a hard time doing much more than just getting by.

After being a long time supporter/defender of this place, I am thinking about leaving. There has been change in culture and attitude that is disappointing. This place used to pride itself on being an open accepting meritocracy. When I got here in the late 90's, if you were smart, willing to work hard and keep learning, you didn't have to have a specific degree or college in your background to find somewhere who would give you a shot. That has changed. First Google decided that your college GPA was a good proxy for whether you were worth talking to. Then Mark Zuckerburg and his cohort of ivy-league smug-tards arrived. With them came an elitist attitude that I specifically wanted to get away from when I moved here from Boston. A lot of the people that built the technology that you are using to read this would have a hard time getting anything other than a low level job today.

Winter is chipping away at SWMBO. Fingers crossed. If I do move to FL, I promise to use my new found Florida Man powers for good.

Winter chipped away at us too. After spending 42 years in Pennsylvania, much of it within 90 minutes of the Pocono Mountains...and my wife a lifelong NJ/PA resident too...we decided we had enough winter. There were other factors driving our decision too, but winter was definitely a factor. Now in Atlanta. Not going to lie, I miss home, but I unquestionably do not miss winter. It's supposed to be sunny and 75 today, and it's January 15th. Hard to complain.

Mitchell wrote: I have lived in Florida (Jacksonville area, Gainesville, Orlando) and Southern California (Los Angeles and San Bernardino). I currently live in neither.

I notice you're in Jersey now. Sorry to hear that.

Living in Flagstaff I have made (and purchased) a home in a place that is as expensive as California (aside from taxes) without the same strong job market. We've got family in Napa, and the amount of money needed to purchase a sub-par home is just ridiculous. You can't dilly-dally from an income standpoint anywhere within 60 miles of the Bay, you've gotta hit the ground running with good jobs, or else you'll just never get off the ground.

The thought of living in flat Florida scares the crap out of me. I like Florida, but I like vacationing there, in Winter, specifically, but I don't have much interest in living there. If Florida had mountains, I'd be there in a heartbeat, but it doesn't, so Puerto Rico or Costa Rica seem more appealing. That being said, there are places in Florida that seems bareable. Gainesville (college town with a hip "downtown") seems nice, so does anywhere in the Keys. I'd also be ok if I could live on the Cross-Florida Greenway, somewhere around Ocala. In general, if I could build a rental dublex with a huge garage and private living space someplace with decent rental prices (and tenants) in Florida, I might be ok, but in general I want hill and/or mountains.

If I had my way, and I had to raise kids within driving distances of grandparents and extended family, I'd choose Southern Appalachia, preferably one of the hippy towns like Asheville or Chattanooga. Mountains, warmth, no snow, good long growing season, cheap land. But that's only if the wife and I could find jobs equal to what we have now in Arizona.

If I had to move to California, I'd be looking at Lake County.

I say move to Florida, experience it, determine if it's worth it, and go from there. You really have got nothing to lose, and everything to gain.

If all winter days were like yesterday why would I want to be anywhere else ?

Lower Adirondacks

I’m about to wander slightly off topic.

I said something similar upthread, but pick where you want to live as soon as you can in life. I moved here to America when I was 25. I never intended to stay past 6-12 months, but I love it here in Michigan so I applied for a Green card, then met my wife etc. I could never have made that move once I was married and had kids, or at least it would have been magnitudes harder. I'm now at the stage in life where retirement is probably the next easy opportunity to relocate somewhere unless life throws us a serious curveball and a move is forced on us for some unexpected reason. With a wife, kids and involved in the care of aging family members (in-laws, my sister pulls double duty back in the UK as I'm here) and very importantly social life. In and around here we have half a dozen people (well groups - singles, couples and families) who we see almost weekly. Another dozen we see every 4-6 weeks and the same again we see 2-4 times a year. That close knit group we call our family and friends have been built up over the last 20 plus years. I can’t' imagine having to start over on forming our social tribe again, it would be massively wrenching and that’s something that gives us pause on considering retirement locations in another 20 years. I know of one group of family and friends who all retired to the same condo complex in Florida. Suddenly they are 10-15% of an entire community, so naturally they have a strong presence in all things that happen there. In some ways that sounds ideal, but we (spousal unit and I) haven't managed to convince any of our friends and family it's a good idea.

Free stuff = stuff you can sell.

Not sure why people don't suggest that.

See if you can sell the house in Florida.

In reply to Adrian_Thompson:

We're fortunate in that aspect - I have no immediate family left, SWMBO doesn't care to see any of hers for more than an hour or two annually, and we generally try to avoid people.

In reply to petegossett:

I hear you can get cheap real estate in Antarctica then :)

In reply to Adrian_Thompson:

To cold. We're happy to be near the beach. Cost of living & property is comparable to downstate IL too, but gas, utilities and taxes are cheaper.

In reply to Adrian_Thompson:

I wish I had thought of that back then. I could have moved south with some friends right after high school. They are living better on far less money and enjoying their free time. I'm working every hour I can to pay for a house that's worth far less than I owe and all the other expense that come with staying in New York. There are days where I look forward to my life insurance paying this clusterberkeley off so my wife can go relax someplace warm.

In reply to Wall-e:

Ouch, I hope life isn't as bad as it seem. Keep smiling dude.

22 years in suburban NYC followed by 22 years in Michigan. I hated winter as well. I packed up and moved to Las Vegas.

Don't do that. I had to, because it was where my trade took me, but it's really not a nice place to live.

My life seems to go in 22-year cycles. I've been here 10 years. In another 12 years, I will retire and relocate.

I'm thinking Tennessee, most likely, or perhaps western NC. They do get a touch of winter, but I can cope with that in exchange for the lush greenery that it brings, which Vegas decidedly lacks.

It won't hurt that I'll be retired. Those areas are reasonably cheap to live, but generally lack in income opportunities.

In reply to Adrian_Thompson:

I've moved regions of the country every 3-4 years due to job choices.. It is an incredible amount of work trying to find my wife friends every 3-4 years and the depression. Ohhh the depression... But hey it's a living.