Feathers in Hair
World's Tallest Hobbit
Come move to Iowa!
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Where to move?
- Thread starter Quiddity
- Start date
Booko
Deviled Hen
CaptainXeroid said:
There are only a few places where housing prices aren't reasonable. Dunwoody, Buckhead and a few of the downtown enclave neighborhoods, mostly.
Honestly, though, CX, with all the amenities Atlanta has to offer and the decent housing prices to boot, I really couldn't recommend it to anyone just because of the bloody traffic. Have we beat out DC yet? I think we may have, and we have zip for public transport.
I'm glad I live in-town, though just barely. If I lived more in-town, I couldn't afford it or wouldn't care to live there.
The housing market has been good for us, because Dunwoody is moving south (predicable 12-15 years ago, which is why we bought here). Our house value has more than doubled in a few years, but still looks downright cheap by SoCal standards. They're setting up to build houses for $500-700K on the edge of my neighborhood. I can't imagine what they're thinking, but hey, it won't exactly hurt my property values, so whatever.
[quoteo]As for climate, we have plenty of sunshine, but we still have decent tree cover so it's not tough to find shade. You wouldn't need snow tires as we seem to average 0.182" of snow/ice/sleet per year, but the few days when they forecast it the whole city shuts down. :biglaugh:[/quote]
Well, it's cheaper to shut the city down than to buy the equipment we might maybe need ever 3-4 years. Though climate change may be taking its toll here -- when was the last winter we had a real ice storm?
Atlanta is very diverse, politically, economically, socially, culturally. The best HS in the state is a mile down at the end of my street. That's why my kids are still in public schools.
Yup, lots of colleges and universities.
I wouldn't buy brand new. They're put together with spit and paper mache. Ah yeah, modern building methods. Pfft.
Our house is a little smaller, 4 bedrooms, and runs maybe $170K. I'm 10 minutes from anything you'd want to go to, whether it's shopping, downtown, parks, museums, or the burbs.
We have actual neighbors in our neighborhood. People are out all the time, always have been. It's no bedroom community, that's for certain.
Plenty of jobs.
The traffic is nasty, though. My husband works over by the "King & Queen" on the North Perimeter, which on a good day is 10 minutes away. If traffic is very stupid, it can take him 1.5 HOURS to get home. He could ride a bike a lot faster, if he wouldn't get killed in the process.
OTOH, if you can move near to the work and the work won't change ever two years (like it did for my line of work), then you're in good shape.
I like the year-round gardening. I would like to be closer to big water, though. The closest we are is 3.5 hours. That's a couple of hours too much for my taste.
otoh, if the Greenland Ice Shelf melts, we'll be sitting pretty.
Quiddity
UndertheInfluenceofGiants
Faint said:
I lived in Florida for about 8 months. That was about the only time in my life where I was hot stuff in high school. They thought I was crazy for leaving. I had students throwing up the "W" down the hall. So I can totally relate to what you're saying.
Southern California is expensive for a reason. I know people want to live here. But for goodness sakes the prices are CRAZY!
I have a lot of thinking to do.
spacemonkey
Pneumatic Spiritualist
Victor, I'm going to have to suggest my hometown of Louisville, KY.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisville,_Kentucky
Cheap real estate, lots of parks, large Catholic population (with many Catholic schools), mild weather, oh and horse racing. What else could you want?
Oooh, and the Lousiville Slugger Museum...you can't miss that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisville,_Kentucky
Cheap real estate, lots of parks, large Catholic population (with many Catholic schools), mild weather, oh and horse racing. What else could you want?
Oooh, and the Lousiville Slugger Museum...you can't miss that.
Scuba Pete
Le plongeur avec attitude...
Florida... we need people who can count!
spacemonkey
Pneumatic Spiritualist
Florida is too...flat. When I was stationed there (Jax) I was always lamenting the lack of hills. One guy told me the highest elvation in Florida is Space Mountain (I think he was joking...). Just keep that in mind for when the icecaps melt.
Salt Lake City. :no: ! Don't :biglaugh:! I'm entirely serious. We have a positively booming economy. Housing is affordable, the quality of life could hardly be better, and there is a strong Catholic community here. Give me your address and I'll send you a whole bunch of stuff from the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce.Victor said:
Shadow Wolf
Certified People sTabber & Business Owner
I've considered moving to Washington state. Home of Boing and Microsoft, high tech industry, low crime rates, and I was told by a coworker that his brother in law makes 15 something an hour doing grunt work at a furniture factory. I was even going to attend Digipen until I learned what video game making consist of. Not to mention you have to submit a piece of original artwork as part of the application.
Victor said:
I love living in Utah. If you love the outdoors, it's heaven. There are kids everywhere and it's extremely affordable. Finding a bad neighborhood in most cities would be difficult. Yes, there are a lot of Mormons, but they are not so bad.
Salt Lake isn't as LDS as everyone likes to think it is. There's also quite a large hispanic population here. Unemployment is low. Wages can also be low, but so is the cost of living.I never thought I'd think this, but I really wouldn't mind sticking around here and raising my family here. Idaho (especially Boise) is pretty nice also.
Victor said:
I grew up in the Portland area. My one complaint about it is that when we moved there (from Idaho) we couldn't run around and be kids as freely as we could before. There was a lot more crime, traffic, etc. There were also very few people our age. Lots of old people, married people w/o children, or single people. For adults, it's a great place. For kids, not so good. Also, the schools in Portland suck (no offense, but they do). Some of the areas are nice on the outskirts (Greshem, Lake Oswego, etc.), but they are also spendy. If you're going to move to Portland, move to the Washington side of the river. The schools are much better. Also, if you work in Washington and shop in Oregon you can get out of paying income taxes AND sales taxes.
lilithu
The Devil's Advocate
kateyes
Active Member
Michigan is a great place--beautiful--nice mix of rural and urban--you can live rural but be within an hour of major cities. BUT no would not be a good time to come here--the job market stinks and is getting worse not better. Its bad enough that urban management guys in 3 piece suits and driving Mercedes are showing up for job fairs in a rural town with a population of 10,000. And we are supposed to get excited and re-elect a governor--who talked Google into opening a location in Ann Arbor that will employ 1000 people. (Somehow I don't think many of those jobs are going to go to the autoworks Ford and GM are letting go).
CaptainXeroid
Following Christ
Um...er...yeah, that is a good point.Booko said:
Atlanta's problem with sprawl is that we have very little in the way of geographic boundaries compared to other cities like DC, LA, Chicago, etc. The advantage is that if you can find work close to home or move close to work, traffic becomes less of a hinderance.
About the 0.182" of frozen stuff, and yes I did go out and measure it
, that's the point I was making...no point to invest in equipment you might use 2 times every 3 years.Normally I would agree, but we were able to see several houses in the community that were in various stages of construction. The build quality we observed was LIGHT YEARS ahead of the condo in which we live now which was slap-dashed togetherBooko said:
in 1987.Anyway...Atlanta isn't all bad.
Capt. Haddock
Evil Mouse
I can sympathize with you because I also live in an area (Washington, DC) where the cost of living and especially housing is really quite outrageous.
But then again, there is a reason why that is so: the economy around here is very strong, there are a lot of jobs and there is a lot of wealth. I'm sure there are any number of places out in the great plains or the deep South where I could move to where houses cost a small fraction of what they do here, but then I'd have to wonder what sort of work could I do in those places and how much money could I earn.
So, there are two sides of the equation you have to look at.
It depends on what kind of skills you have and what kind of work you do or would like to do.
I get the impression that Chicago is a place that offers many of the same advantages as other big cities like New York or LA but at a relatively more reasonable cost. I've also heard good things about the twin cities (Minnesota) and Austin, Texas: good economic opportunities combined with a relatively reasonable cost of living. (key word being relatively)
Warm, pretty places near the coast tend to attract a lot of wealthy people from elsewhere (who are attracted by the lifestyle rather than the opportunities), and that drives up the cost of housing. You tend to get better value for money in places that have cold climates, are far inland, or are in an area with boring topography or lacking in scenic attractions.
But then again, there is a reason why that is so: the economy around here is very strong, there are a lot of jobs and there is a lot of wealth. I'm sure there are any number of places out in the great plains or the deep South where I could move to where houses cost a small fraction of what they do here, but then I'd have to wonder what sort of work could I do in those places and how much money could I earn.
So, there are two sides of the equation you have to look at.
It depends on what kind of skills you have and what kind of work you do or would like to do.
I get the impression that Chicago is a place that offers many of the same advantages as other big cities like New York or LA but at a relatively more reasonable cost. I've also heard good things about the twin cities (Minnesota) and Austin, Texas: good economic opportunities combined with a relatively reasonable cost of living. (key word being relatively)
Warm, pretty places near the coast tend to attract a lot of wealthy people from elsewhere (who are attracted by the lifestyle rather than the opportunities), and that drives up the cost of housing. You tend to get better value for money in places that have cold climates, are far inland, or are in an area with boring topography or lacking in scenic attractions.
Todd
Rajun Cajun
Victor said:
Probably the best place to move IMO is Texas, specifically north Texas. The cost of living is low, and they have plenty of land for expansion. For instance, I have a 2000sqft house and the morgage payment is only 700 bucks per month. Granted, I bought it 5 years ago and the houses have gone up slightly in price. Although it's still low compared to 3,500 bucks for a similar house in California. 3,500 bucks a month buy's a huge house in Dallas. The only problem is that the land is pretty flat, and there is no ocean near north texas like in California. There are quite a few lakes around Dallas though. There are a lot of theme parks in Arlington Texas. There are some wineries that are up and coming in North Texas if you like that kind of thing. The Texas hill country near Austin is pretty. The pay here is probably lower than Southern California, but the cost of living should make up for that.
The main negative part of living in Texas is the heat. It's still in the mid to upper 90's right now. In the summer, you have to expect it to hit above 100 often. Winters are mild, but every few years we'll get an ice or snow storm. A few flurries ususally shuts down Dallas since we don't have salt trucks ready to spread salt.
Smoke
Done here.
That's a consideration, true. I always say my Aunt Nellie lived in Pensacola for 92 years and while she rode out a number of hurricanes she never washed away or lost her house. But everybody's not so lucky, and I know a few people who've just got sick of the whole thing in recent years. Seems the hurricanes are coming harder and more often.Booko said: