I want to move, just not sure where to...

My wife and I (plus daughter, now) tend to be fairly nomadic and have moved all over the country every couple of years. We seem to have the itch again and will be moving on from the beach life of South Jersey before too long... but we really are not sure where we want to go next.

Do you like where you live? Dream about moving to somewhere specific? Maybe just hate some place really passionately? Please, I am all ears.

Our thoughts are that this would be a good time to have fun with our 3 year old and introduce her more to some culture and such. Perhaps a smaller city with good food and arts. Maybe west Coast beach bums somewhere fancy in soCal? Down in the heat of big Texas? I really am open to ideas and would be thankful for any input.

Some criteria:

Must be near to a major airport (so much flying)

High quality of living without breaking the bank (low taxes!)

Nothing too cold; done enough of that

Good cultural scene; we like museums, theater, dining out and walkable neighborhoods

Family friendly and all that

Denver is awesome, and not quite as cold as Chicago or Boston... Malibu seems like to easy answer to all of life's questions, right? Houston - too close to New Orleans? Charlotte sounds awesome but is it just too deep into the south?

Thanks

Tulsa. You got Tulsa Raceway Park for drag racing and Hallett for road racing, and a fair amount autocross around the area. And COL is definitely on the low end of the scale.

Edit: You also have Woolaroc, Philbrook, (both of the Phillips brothers fame), the Thomas Gilcrease Museum, baseball, hockey, and a bunch of other cultural things, too much to think of all at once.

definitely Texas but probably not houston. 

St. George Ut or therabouts. Nice quiet *safe* town, good for raising kids. Less than 2hrs to Las Vegas for airport and social needs. If you like the outdoors this is the place to be. 2 hours from the grand canyon, two and a bit to lake powell. Tons of small lakes and scenery. Mountains and ski resorts. It's january and I didn't check the thermometer but I'd say it is ~50*f.  I like it.

Malibu...  yeah. 

When I dream its the pacific northwest. Moss covered things.

In reply to WildScotsRacingCampbellCougarSeed :

Excellent example of someplace that was not on my radar yet. I will check it out, thanks. How are the winters?

In reply to MazdaFace :

Fair enough, any suggestions? I think that it isn't really that high on my list anyway...

That sounded like florida to me. Food, flying, racin, we have all of it. Come on down and leave the snow shovel behind. 

In reply to barefootskater :

Sounds beautiful but all of that would be lost on my wife and I am too disable now to enjoy the outdoors much. I'm definitely going to bring it up in the discussion though.

In reply to 8valve :

I'm a beach bum at heart, what can I say?

We really love Oregon; Portland and Ashland are awesome. It just feels so far away from the rest of the country and a little too small for my tastes.

In reply to Mndsm :

Yeah, you are not wrong. I know a ton of people that have done just that and are very happy. My concerns are the culture, or lack thereof! I visit FL often enough but just never fell in love with it...

MazdaFace said:

definitely Texas but probably not houston. 

Austin?  Or maybe the suburbs of Austin (Round Rock, Pflugerville, Cedar Park).  Texas has no state income tax.  Cost of living is relatively cheap if you stay away from downtown.  Huge in the tech industry and they like to advertise that it's not anything like the rest of Texas.  You can still see cowboy hats and ranchers and big trucks.  Still lots of Tex Mex, but definitely more laid back than the other big Texas cities.  About the only things that Austin seems to lack in my opinion are a major sports team (although, Texas Longhorn football comes pretty darn close) and major museums.  Traffic can suck, but there are ways around it.  The hill country is beautiful for hiking and exploring.  It does get really hot.  And, when we have .002" of ice or more the city shuts down, but that's more because we're not prepped for it.  Although COTA is just down the road, still not a huge motorsports location.  But I think that's just related to size.  Not sure what your job is, but South Austin is nice with both older and newer homes, but most of the tech industry sprouted north of Austin, so the commute is bad.  However, the airport is down south, so that might appeal more. 

-Rob

I live in Chicagoland. I've spent enough time in enough places to know that this is not where I'd choose, although I do love the city. 

My choices would be somewhere in Wisconsin, Minnesota, or the Upper Peninsula, followed by some areas of Texas, Florida, and the Carolinas.  I've never been to Colorado/Montana/Etc., so I suspect that they'd be up there. 

The parts of the Northeast that I've been to (parts with lots of people) would never be on my list, but I also suspect that I'd like the rural parts of it.

For starters, IMO, everything costal west is pretty ridiculous for housing prices. 

I'd go with Salt Lake or Boise over Denver. Denver aint exactly cheap. 

Reno over Vegas, mostly because I think Reno is closer to more cool outdoors stuff (Tahoe). 

Albuquerque is pretty reasonably priced, very mild. Downside is it's airport isn't as high traffic so not as many direct flights. 

Santa Fe is awesome, and only 45 minutes from Albuquerque. Probably my favorite "low snow" mountain town. 

Palm Springs/Palm Desert is still reasonably priced and only 2 hours from most of Southern California's beaches. 

Tucson and Phoenix are both dirt cheap, Tucson has less traffic, Phoenix has one of the best airports in the nation.  I'd probably pick Albuquerque over both, just because of love NM style.

Austin is a nuthouse right now. San Antonio is getting some of it's overflow, which isn't bad. The key in Austin is living and working close together as it's traffic is terrible. Housing is pricey in Austin.

I've heard that Tallahassee FL is underrated, Tampa and Gainesville are both hip. That being said, it's still Florida. 

My current target is Chattanooga or Asheville. For me, having family in Florida and Pennsylvania, I figure I could drive to both places rather than fly. 

barefootskater said:

St. George Ut or therabouts. Nice quiet *safe* town, good for raising kids. Less than 2hrs to Las Vegas for airport and social needs. If you like the outdoors this is the place to be. 2 hours from the grand canyon, two and a bit to lake powell. Tons of small lakes and scenery. Mountains and ski resorts. It's january and I didn't check the thermometer but I'd say it is ~50*f.  I like it.

Come back in six months and read us that thermostat again St George is gorgeous but a little toasty come summertime.

I'd volunteer Grand Junction, CO but every flight out starts with a hop to Denver or SLC and we're a little too small town to have real culture other than local culture. And we don't want any more people here anyhow

Malibu and not breaking the bank?  Anywhere within an hour drive of Malibu is going to be severely overpriced..  its nutty how much so.

I've thought about Austin, Henderson, Phoenix, CO, OR, WA.. all the usual Los Angeles escape routes.  Some of those places the prices are getting driven up pretty high too.

tb said:

In reply to Mndsm :

Yeah, you are not wrong. I know a ton of people that have done just that and are very happy. My concerns are the culture, or lack thereof! I visit FL often enough but just never fell in love with it...

That's totally fair. I'm just now starting to find "local" E36 M3 to do, and I've been here 2.5yrs now. I think the biggest problem is my location. If you fly into Orlando, you might as well go straight to disney, do not pass go, do not collect anything other than overpriced souvenirs. Maybe others can chime in, but it seems that the Floridian culture flavor is a lot more present at the coasts. Local food, beer, spirits, etc. 

Disability that does not allow a good enjoyment of the outdoors certainly can narrow things down a bit if you don't need to see mountains. 

There are lots of places in the NC/SC/GA/FL lowlands that have plenty of culture. St. Augustine, FL. for example. 

Likewise, San Antonio is an old city that is still affordable and not quite as a crazy as Austin and not as big as Dallas or Houston. 

Salt Lake would still be high on my list, given the criteria. That being said, it's somewhat isolated from the rest of the country, as is Boise. 

It's certainly not a place I'd mark myself as passionate about, but Des Moines, Iowa actually has a pretty good food and arts scene, and actually has appeared to have cultivated enough hipsters to be past the "before it was cool" phase.  Growing residential downtown too, cost of living is reasonable.

It's definitely four seasons though-- there's a winter.

Without heading too far into flounderville though, I can't say for sure that our state government isn't trying to follow the same path that Kansas went down though...

Rapid city SD.

Raleigh durham triangle?

Savanah? 

Pensacola? 

Keep a close eye on where Amazon is going to land it's HQ2.  That could quickly rule out a choice since there will be a giant spike in quality housing.  Or, it make make the place more desirable to you if you want to follow along with what Amazon will bring.  

pheller said:

Salt Lake would still be high on my list, given the criteria. That being said, it's somewhat isolated from the rest of the country, as is Boise. 

SLC being a Delta hub makes the rest of the country a lot closer if you fly instead of drive.

Keith Tanner said:

barefootskater said:

St. George Ut or therabouts. Nice quiet *safe* town, good for raising kids. Less than 2hrs to Las Vegas for airport and social needs. If you like the outdoors this is the place to be. 2 hours from the grand canyon, two and a bit to lake powell. Tons of small lakes and scenery. Mountains and ski resorts. It's january and I didn't check the thermometer but I'd say it is ~50*f.  I like it.

Come back in six months and read us that thermostat again St George is gorgeous but a little toasty come summertime.

I'd volunteer Grand Junction, CO but every flight out starts with a hop to Denver or SLC and we're a little too small town to have real culture other than local culture. And we don't want any more people here anyhow

As someone whose DD has had the AC removed, I think I am qualified to say that the heat isn't *that* bad. Especially in a thread where Phoenix is another suggestion.  

Austin isn't bad. Fort Worth area is great. I'm not a Dallas type of person though. If you move down here you'll see what I mean. Very distinct cultural differences between fort Worth and Dallas but I suppose it's all about what works best for you