Sell me on a city to relocate to

A little background first. My wife recently lost her job and it got us thinking about where we're headed and where we currently are. Not looking for sympathy or anything (she's already got some work lined up, anyways), we've got a decent pile of savings stashed away and I can cover most everything in a given month but it still took away a solid chunk of our monthly income and we started to crunch numbers and wonder, why are we still here? With my credentials, experience and field I can make similar money to what I'm making now in just about any major metro area in the country and her work is similarly flexible. We'll have zero problems finding work. We're young, don't have children, no mortgage, no debt. My mom's in NYC, my father's in Hawaii. Her parents (and my brother) are still here but are in a position to travel as much as they like so it's not like we're leaving a ton behind in that respect. Outside of that our families' are spread throughout creation. While I love my career it has its limitations in terms of income potential so the conversation we've been having is why are we here, where it costs so ridiculously much to live, when our income will be largely the same anywhere? I think we're at the point of acceptance with the reality that we'll never truly get ahead in this town, especially when we decide to add kids to the mix and start a family. Additionally, I've lived here my whole life and have very limited travel experience and quite frankly, I'm ready for a change. The "where Northern hospitality meets Southern efficiency" thing is starting to wear on me. At present the choice to stay here seems to be between struggling to make a decent living or spending 3 hours of every day commuting so we can live somewhere moderately affordable.

So, all that said, where would you go if this was your situation? We have some top of the list kind of places but I'll go into those later as I'd like to get as many opinions as possible. Cost of living will definitely be a factor as that's a large reason for any move to begin with, to make our money do more for us but it will be far from the only factor. We want to live somewhere that's worth being and is a nice place to live. Outside of that, we're open to anything. So what you got ES?

Austin-Roundrock is a decent pick

http://www.kiplinger.com/tools/bestcities_sort/

bit cold for my bones,I would extol the wonders of the Bayou city...but there are already too many damn Yankees moving in

Nashville. Low cost of living, everything you'd ever need in a city, and genuine flair that only a few cities in the US have. All that and you can buy a nice house for 150k. Oh climate is decent too. Never too cold but you get all 4 seasons

Also, Volkswagen just built their North American plant in Chattanooga (2 hours). Nissan NA is headquartered in Nashville. For a car guy like you, lots of opportunity.

Did I mention no state income tax?

Also, don't think you can do bad in most Midwestern cities

It's too general to say. I've lived in a number of different states and could make fantastic recommendations, but you need to know fundamental things first:

- How low are you willing to go on education ratings for your children, because Montgomery, Fairfax and the like are among the nation's best.

- What is your definition of a city/area in which you would be willing to live? Is a requirement for your lifestyle to live in an urban, suburban, or rural area? Are you the outdoors type, do you want to be near a lot of natural beauty? Are you a citygoer who must be around interesting cultural areas, or large & open public spaces (i.e. the smithsonian museums, national mall, parks, etc.)

- What type of people are you willing to live around? If you're from Silver Spring or the north in general, would a move to the south be unbearable? Accents, confederate flags, etc. Also, this is a Washington Redskins forum. Are you prepared to live outside of their broadcast area, rarely attend games, and be surrounded by people from other teams?

-What type of climate/seasons do you enjoy? Are you a winter person who would be bummed out by a snowless and luke-warm January-February spent in Georgia? Are you a summer person who would be freezing to death in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Upstate NY and the like? Do you like Desert, plains/grasslands, forests like the D.C. area, places near water- on lakes, rivers, or the coast? Do you like the mountains or would you prefer to avoid high elevations?

-What local laws in a potential area would affect you in a positive and negative way, how important is it that the area you're looking at aligns with your political viewpoints or is financially advantageous to you (not just in finding a job, but tax codes, etc.)?

Only you can answer questions like this, and until we know some of the answers, it's a shot in the dark.

I will say I thoroughly enjoyed living in Flagstaff, Arizona for a few years. It's beautiful, central to a number of amazing outdoors locations, not too large of a population center but not small either, lots of snow in the winter, moderate heat in the summer. A 9% local sales tax was a bummer, but having a shooting range in the desert off I-40 open to the public at all times, and where you could take anything- old vehicles, bottles, tv sets, broken this and that and shoot it up was a bonus to me. If I had to raise children in the 50th ranked public education system in American however, I'd probably home-school them.

Zoony mentioned Nashville. I've heard fantastic things about that area and Tennessee in general. It also wouldn't be my first choice of places to live since I like snow, bitter cold, and lots of it. For others it would be paradise. For my cousin who just moved to Florida, it's a paradise. To me it would be like living in a sweaty purgatory where you never get over a case of swamp ass.

I'm in PA right now. Can't say I would recommend it, and it isn't by choice so much as by necessity. The sooner I make it out of here and into the Shenandoah the better.

NY Times has declared Nashville is America's newest "it" city.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/09/us/nashville-takes-its-turn-in-the-spotlight.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Titans, Predators, Vanderbilt U, Sony music, and a corny network show.

Boulder Colorado:

http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_14404187

Boulder rated happiest, healthiest city in U.S. in new Gallup poll

Happiness is living in Boulder, if you believe the results of a new Gallup-Healthways poll made public Monday.

The new massive study of Americans' attitudes and lifestyles concludes that Boulder is the prime U.S. location for general well-being and quality of life.

"The fact that Boulder is up there makes a lot of sense when you're looking at what we know of happiness," said Tim Wadsworth, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Colorado. "For example, health is huge, and Boulder is known for its high level of health."

The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index asked more than 353,00 Americans in 2009 about their jobs, finances, physical health, emotional state and communities when calculating the rankings.

Jobs everywhere. Micro Brew capital of America. Young people. Every band tours through here or somewhere close. 30 minutes from all flavors of major professional sports. The women are beautiful.

We moved here from Virginia four years ago and never looked back.

Boulder Colorado:

http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_14404187

Jobs everywhere. Micro Brew capital of America. Young people. Every band tours through here or somewhere close. 30 minutes from all flavors of major professional sports. The women are beautiful.

We moved here from Virginia four years ago and never looked back.

I was just in Boulder/Denver visiting friends and family of my wife over New Years. I rented a house right off of Pearl Street. It was very, very, very, very cold - but still awesome.

When folks asked where I lived I told them Austin and multiple people said "Oh, Austin, that is South Boulder." Austin is obviously way bigger, but they share a similar feel and vibe. I met a lot of people in Austin that have moved from Boulder, and I have friends who have moved from Austin to Boulder.

My dream is to have a Colorado and a Texas house and live part of the year in both.

Oh yea, and the Breakfast Pot Pie at Snooze is goooooooood.

Fortune magazine and other popular web sites like msn.com often do ratings of top cities to live given various factors that you might rate highly. After many years on the East Coast, I moved to the West Coast because I wanted good weather year round.

Some cities in parts of California are cheaper than other cities when you look at housing for example. There are people who are also retiring and choosing to leaving California. Many locals in Northern California are moving to Oregon and Washington State due to cheaper taxes.

My sister lives in Houston and the housing prices are very cheap compared to the D.C. area. I have a buddy who lives in Atlanta and he is considering moving to Austin Texas. Good luck with whatever decision you make.

Well, I grew up in a small town in the foothills of NC. Me and the wife (met in high school) moved to Charlotte, NC for college (UNCC Represent!) and we love the area. The key to living in Charlotte is.........not to actually live in Charlotte You can, but taxes in Mecklenburg county are higher than the surrounding areas and you are literally just 10-15 min drive from anything you need should you live in a surrounding city.

We got NFL, NBA, minor league hockey and they are in the process of moving minor league baseball downtown (Charlotte Knights AAA play in Fort Mill, SC.....go figure). Also, if your into racing, there is Nascar and the drag races.

Weather is typically nice all year round, we go 1-2 sometimes up to 3 years without getting snow/ice. Summers can get really hot sometimes, especially lately, but thats the dirty south for ya. We moved outside of the University Area in Charlotte, takes us about 10-15 mins to get right slap dab in the middle of it, but we get the "country feel" where we live and access to everything you would need from a big city.

Depending which city right outside of Charlotte you live (or where you live inside Charlotte city limits) downtown is not a long haul at all. It takes me about 25 mins to get in the middle of downtown if going out clubing/drinking/fancy resturants/etc. is your thing.

We love it here and dont plan to move anywhere soon. We were thinking about moving to Houston, TX a while back for my wifes line of work, but after thinking about it for a while, we know what we have here and don't feel like uprooting our family just yet (daughter is 4 yo). Plus, our house is 2 blocks from where my daughter will start kindergarten this year and I work from home, so I get to be there to take her to school and pick her up

Austin-Roundrock is a decent pick

http://www.kiplinger.com/tools/bestcities_sort/

bit cold for my bones,I would extol the wonders of the Bayou city...but there are already too many damn Yankees moving in

Austin is definitely in consideration, had a great time there for the F1 race. Don't know much about Houston.

Zoon, Nashville is not one I'd thought of or had mentioned to me, definitely going to give that a harder look. You make some compelling points.

It's too general to say. I've lived in a number of different states and could make fantastic recommendations, but you need to know fundamental things first:

- How low are you willing to go on education ratings for your children, because Montgomery, Fairfax and the like are among the nation's best.

it's a good question for the future but I'd say we're flexible on it.

- What is your definition of a city/area in which you would be willing to live? Is a requirement for your lifestyle to live in an urban, suburban, or rural area? Are you the outdoors type, do you want to be near a lot of natural beauty? Are you a citygoer who must be around interesting cultural areas, or large & open public spaces (i.e. the smithsonian museums, national mall, parks, etc.)

Definitely yes on liking the outdoors and natural beauty. Not much of a city goer although work dictates that we be near a larger metro area. At the same time, it'd be ideal if wilderness can be found without going very far from home.

- What type of people are you willing to live around? If you're from Silver Spring or the north in general, would a move to the south be unbearable? Accents, confederate flags, etc. Also, this is a Washington Redskins forum. Are you prepared to live outside of their broadcast area, rarely attend games, and be surrounded by people from other teams?

Everyone's got their ups and downs, no one's perfect. Probably prefer a more laid back culture. For the most part though, I think leaving the East Coast would be the most likely scenario. I'll find ways back for a few games and find ways to watch them but that's not a factor. I've been to FedEx so many times in the last 8 or so years it's probably time I had a break, for my liver and heart's sakes.

-What type of climate/seasons do you enjoy? Are you a winter person who would be bummed out by a snowless and luke-warm January-February spent in Georgia? Are you a summer person who would be freezing to death in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Upstate NY and the like? Do you like Desert, plains/grasslands, forests like the D.C. area, places near water- on lakes, rivers, or the coast? Do you like the mountains or would you prefer to avoid high elevations?

Split decision. Wife prefers warm, I prefer cold, snow, skiing, ice hockey, mountains. We could go either way, more important to find a compelling area. I'd lean towards colder with the caveat that the wife will kill me if I take her somewhere where it's -4 degrees for months at a time.

-What local laws in a potential area would affect you in a positive and negative way, how important is it that the area you're looking at aligns with your political viewpoints or is financially advantageous to you (not just in finding a job, but tax codes, etc.)?

Local laws aren't a strong consideration, no real consideration at all in regards to political viewpoints.

---------- Post added January-10th-2013 at 08:08 PM ----------

Denver area is actually holding the top seed at the moment and has been since we started talking about it, keeping our minds open for now at the same time.

From your description Boulder sounds like a good bet. Also check out Charlottesville VA (or surrounding areas) as somewhere closer but not in a major city.

Vancouver, WA. No State income tax and you can cross the border to Portland where there's no sales tax.

FWIW, I went to the Skins/Titans game a few years ago. Nashville is easily one of the coolest towns I've ever visited with some of the nicest people. I would move there in a heartbeat if my type of work was there and I didn't have any family ties in the DMV.

San Diego, California

San Diego, California

Very nice city if you make $500k. One of the nicest

I was in a similar situation a few years back.

Rather than making a MAJOR move, we stayed inside VA and actually moved to Roanoke, VA from Sterling. Been here 8 yrs now and really love the area. Cost of living vs NOVA was DRASTIC less.

In NOVA, both my wife and I were working full time jobs and were still living outside our means.(She's been able to be a stay-at-home mom since we moved here) The biggest thing I noticed when we moved here was the difference in real estate pricing. Now granted, we moved before the market crash, but here is what we were able to do:

Sold our 1230 sq ft 3 bedroom townhouse on a tiny little spit of land, and bought a 2600 sq ft 4 bedroom house on over an acre of land for about 1/2 the price we sold the townhouse for.

Gas prices are pretty good down here as well. Right now I'd say we're sitting at about 3.04 a gallon.

I found after moving here that most of the stores and restaurants I was used to in NOVA were for the most part here (although in most cases there is only 1 of them here). And nothing is more than 15 minutes from our home really.

And traffic? Doesn't exist as far as what you'd be used to up there...

Depending on what you're into, we're smack dab in the middle of the mountains so lots of great outdoorsy things to do here.....

AND THE BEST PART: Redskins are always on TV down here! With cable you can even pickup the CSN Pre and Post game shows....

Yeah, no. You don't want to go to San Diego (or San Francisco) if cost of living is your first priority.

Portland Oregon seems like a really nice place. I always thought that if I were to downsize I would look there first.

In general, I'm a big fan of University towns. Ann Arbor MI, Madison WI, Bloomington IN, Charlottesville VA, Burlington VT, Eugene OR, Chapel Hill NC (and of course Boulder and Nashville too). These are fairly small places with culture and amenities far larger than their size.

Agreed on San Diego zoony, trying to avoid the few places in the country that match this area for insane cost of living.

I've spent some time in NC, not that much in Charlotte though. Mixed feelings about that state. The Ashville area would be intriguing but I don't think work would be as easy to find.

I'll have to look Vancouver, WA up. The Pacific Northwest in general seems that it would a lot of what we like but I know nothing about any of it. The extent of my knowledge is that it rains in Seattle and they have a space needle there. Edit: AND I HATE THEIR ****ING FOOTBALL TEAM!

I envy you. Having the freedom to move pretty much anywhere is damn cool.

If I had my druthers I'd live pretty much anywhere in the desert southwest. I love that dry heat. I especially liked Taos, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Tucson and Phoenix. Seattle is really cool too but the weather does kind of suck. San Diego is just amazing but as Zoony pointed out, you'll need to be Bill Gates to move there.

I live in the Atlanta area now and I have a love/hate relationship with it. I love the friendliness of the people, the southern sense of humor and the weather isn't bad compared to the DC "Uhrea". You can also still find a halfway decent place to live at a reasonable price. On the hate side of the equation, traffic can be a little rough (though nothing like DC gridlock) the education system sucks (hey, it is the south), you'll probably take a loss in pay (did I mention that this is the south...the "right to work" south that is) and if you don't like people telling you to "have a blessed day" you're not going to like living here or anywhere in the south for that matter.

Good luck!

Agreed on San Diego zoony, trying to avoid the few places in the country that match this area for insane cost of living.

I've spent some time in NC, not that much in Charlotte though. Mixed feelings about that state. The Ashville area would be intriguing but I don't think work would be as easy to find.

I'll have to look Vancouver, WA up. The Pacific Northwest in general seems that it would a lot of what we like but I know nothing about any of it. The extent of my knowledge is that it rains in Seattle and they have a space needle there. Edit: AND I HATE THEIR ****ING FOOTBALL TEAM!

You can buy a country home, and be only 15-30 mins away from the actual city if thats your thing. Charlotte is a great city imo. Your like 2.5-4 hours from the beach or mountains. I dunno, I guess Im biased cause I live here lol. At one point in time we were looking to move and honestly thought about moving to Canada. We could get a home with 5 bedrooms, 2 acres on a lake with a boat dock for what we paid for our home now lol. Only thing that stopped us back then was there is litterally no work up there in our fields. I could have been a canuck.......damn it eh?

You can buy a country home, and be only 15-30 mins away from the actual city if thats your thing. Charlotte is a great city imo. Your like 2.5-4 hours from the beach or mountains. I dunno, I guess Im biased cause I live here lol. At one point in time we were looking to move and honestly thought about moving to Canada. We could get a home with 5 bedrooms, 2 acres on a lake with a boat dock for what we paid for our home now lol. Only thing that stopped us back then was there is litterally no work up there in our fields. I could have been a canuck.......damn it eh?

Interesting thought. As long as I could get a work visa I could find a job there.

Interesting thought. As long as I could get a work visa I could find a job there.

We were looking on the eastern side above New York. Its beautiful up there and all the peeps I know from there tell me they are miles away from neighbors in most parts. I would love that.

Whatever you do, just stay the hell away from Memphis. Lived there for a year my first year of music school (Univ of Memphis), place is a dumpster fire in every way.

If you are starting a family, and the cost of living/commute time/school system is a tradeoff is a big factor/I'd probably scratch off California from my list. Oregon and Washington state are probably better bets but the weather isn't quite as good obviously, though you will find the summers to be much milder than anywhere in the US.

I will add in a vote for the Charlotte Area. It is seriously the cleanest city I have ever lived in. Everywhere has some bad areas, but here the population still hasn't made too many of them. After living in the DC metro area...you should be able to figure out where they are and when to avoid them.

You can get a really nice, spacious (over 2000 sq ft, with garage), new home for about 160, an older home with more land for about the same. You can get around pretty easily and traffic is nothing compared to DC. It takes a little adjusting to after living up north...it's a tad bit slower. Sometimes I enjoy it other times its annoying.