Jump to content

Menu

If you could live anywhere in the US, where would you choose?


Spryte
 Share

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 101
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

I actually really love where I live right now.  It is not a big city but close enough to Baltimore, Philly, D.C., and New York for a day trip.  It is close enough to the beach and mountains for snowboarding for a day trip. My entire family, minus one sibling, lives within an hour.  Dh's family lives within 30 minutes.

The only thing that would get me to move from here is if my entire family all moved close by to the new spot because being near them is most important to me.  But if that was a possibility, somewhere with either a beautiful beach in walking distance or in the mountains.

  • Like 3
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, we chose based on wanting to be near our grandsons in our retirement. Alabama was not our first choice by any stretch. But they are settled in Rocket City. Thankfully, we found a wonderful home on the just right amount of land a reasonable distance from Rocket City, and in the mountains with a marvelous view. I feel very content every time we go there, so I am looking forward to Dh's retirement in 4 years, 5 months.

But if choosing based on just scenery, weather/climate, pure want/desire only, Astoria, Oregon or some where a little south of there on the coast would be our thing. Early in our marriage, we lived in Newburg, Or, and spent nearly all our weekends camping/car camping along the coast line. Tillamook was a favorite place along that route. Many, many fond memories, and just enough of a seasonal change to make it not boring.

  • Like 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, plaidpants said:

As much as I'd miss the ocean/coast, Wyoming or Montana. Open space and skies and a homestead. Mountains and lakes. Clear dark for astronomy.

I can't leave family though, because no one will pick up the slack.

 

I can totally get on board with this, too!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Anna Maria Island, Florida. It is my favorite place on earth.  I’m trying to convince my investor dad to buy some condos on the island as a real estate investment and hire me as the property manager, but DH won’t move and Dad doesn’t want to invest in travel related industries until it’s clearer what long term impacts Covid will have.

So here I am where it’s -22 degrees tonight.

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would stay where I am. Politically I'm in the minority here and I'm a rarity as an atheist. My county had a high number of people involved in the insurrection and that bothers me. However, my loved ones are here and won't be moving. The place I want most to live is where my family and friends live. That happens to be where I am and where I'll stay.

If I did choose to move it would not be anywhere that has a conventional winter. I hate being cold and I define cold as anything below 60 degrees F. Also, Florida does in fact have 4 seasons. You just have to change your expectations of what a season is and know what to look for. 

  • Like 4
  • Haha 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

We retired from the IL/WI border to the Athens, Georgia area. It’s perfect for us.  In an hour we can be in the mountains, by the river, at Lake Lanier or Hartwell. An easy drive to Florida beaches.  Asheville is an easy weekend trip, as is Charleston. We have the university nearby, which offers affordable entertainment, tons of live music, lectures and performances that a town this size normally wouldn’t have. The weather is excellent- no more shoveling snow, but we do have four seasons even though winter is short (which I am grateful for). 
I’d love the perfect temps in Santa Barbara, but could never convince dh to live in California. 

  • Like 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

For being close to family and the mild climate and geography where there is a bit of almost everything in driving distance, I would say where I am now in southwest WA.  However, I would like to live in a bit more rural area.  I dream of a little cabin in the woods with a trickling stream nearby. 

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

We’re actually choosing this year and we’re moving to Chicago this summer. We love big cities! We also hope it helps our youngest(ASD and POTS). Youngest really enjoys Chicago, so hopefully with public transportation and being so walkable they can become fully independent. We’ve lived on both coasts, in the South, and the Midwest and we enjoy our time in big cities the most. We don’t live that far from Chicago now so the weather will pretty much be what we’ve had the past seven years. Even Ds and his fiancé are making the move with us so I’m really excited!

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I really love living where I actually do live (within ~2 hours of all our extended family; plenty of space/access to outdoor stuff; halfway between easily-manageable small-city New Haven and more of a hassle real-city New York, with all the cultcha and food and specialist doctors and etc of both); and I also love *having* four seasons and the space for a proper garden and etc.

It's just that one of those seasons goes on a little longer than I find optimal, LOL. 

If we had unlimited resources we'd keep our main house here, and also have a small condo getaway someplace warm, close to a good beach, and in an urban area with *enough* and *different* stuff to do than NY offers us.  I've just never quite worked out what that urban area is.

  • Like 1
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, East Coast Sue said:

There’s no place like home… Manhattan, Kansas or anywhere in Kansas, also just north of San Antonio, TX.

When we were stationed at Ft Riley about 10 yrs ago, we lived in Manhattan. Loved it!! Such a beautiful location amongst the Flint Hills, nice people, small town feel with everything you could want. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Faith-manor said:

Well, we chose based on wanting to be near our grandsons in our retirement. Alabama was not our first choice by any stretch. But they are settled in Rocket City. Thankfully, we found a wonderful home on the just right amount of land a reasonable distance from Rocket City, and in the mountains with a marvelous view. I feel very content every time we go there, so I am looking forward to Dh's retirement in 4 years, 5 months.

 

Not that you're counting or anything... 😉 

  • Like 1
  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Spryte said:

And why?

Outside the US answers are fine, too!

 

(Assume WFH, no job impact at all.)

We have the same question, and it seems like there are so many amazing choices, but when you start to narrow things down based on things like needing excellent health care nearby, those choices start to dwindle pretty rapidly. 

  • Like 4
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

In the US, I love where we live. Small, liberal, classic New England town in coastal Maine, surrounded by endless natural beauty. It was an ideal place to raise DS and for us to settle down for awhile.
 

We’ve wondered if we'll always stay (the winters, admittedly, are getting a bit much even though they are mild compared to some places we’ve lived, and the summers are too humid and hot) but I can’t imagine where we would go. We loved living in Corvallis, Oregon, but I don’t like feeling trapped on the west coast so far from everything else (I grew up in California and felt that way even as a kid, I know it’s weird). Anything south of Massachusetts is too far south, Vermont could work except it’s too far from the ocean. I love the wide open views of Utah, but there are many reasons I could never live there. 
 

If I’m dreaming and moving overseas was possible, Ireland checks all our boxes plus DS is there. I’d leave in a heartbeat if it were an option. 

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

39 minutes ago, Catwoman said:

We have the same question, and it seems like there are so many amazing choices, but when you start to narrow things down based on things like needing excellent health care nearby, those choices start to dwindle pretty rapidly. 

Yes. Exactly. 

We want that excellent healthcare nearby. And we have some other requirements, some nice-to-haves, and some pie-in-the-sky dreams that would be bonuses but aren’t necessary. 

 

 

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd be perfectly happy (I think) right where I am if my area were a little more liberal--or at least a little more purple--and if the summers were less humid. My ideal place would lean blue or be purple, have four distinct seasons but a mild summer, plenty of greenery (no desert for me), reasonable COL, and have easy access to quality health care.

  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, JFSinIL said:

Daughter lives there now....very different from nw Chicagoland suburbs!  For one thing...bears!

I was always more worried about mountain lions. Had some run-ins. Bear run ins, too, but they were less ominous for some reason!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Faith-manor said:

Well, we chose based on wanting to be near our grandsons in our retirement. Alabama was not our first choice by any stretch. But they are settled in Rocket City. Thankfully, we found a wonderful home on the just right amount of land a reasonable distance from Rocket City, and in the mountains with a marvelous view. I feel very content every time we go there, so I am looking forward to Dh's retirement in 4 years, 5 months.

But if choosing based on just scenery, weather/climate, pure want/desire only, Astoria, Oregon or some where a little south of there on the coast would be our thing. Early in our marriage, we lived in Newburg, Or, and spent nearly all our weekends camping/car camping along the coast line. Tillamook was a favorite place along that route. Many, many fond memories, and just enough of a seasonal change to make it not boring.

We live 10 minutes from The Rocket.  We’ve been here about 8 years and while we like many things here, it’s not my dream home.  My dream home is a small cottage on a warm beach.  Not in a crowded area.  Nowadays there’s probably nowhere in the US to live my dream unless I suddenly find myself in possession of several million dollars.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

25 minutes ago, MEmama said:

In the US, I love where we live. Small, liberal, classic New England town in coastal Maine, surrounded by endless natural beauty. It was an ideal place to raise DS and for us to settle down for awhile.
 

...Vermont could work except it’s too far from the ocean....

 

Ireland checks all our boxes plus DS is there. I’d leave in a heartbeat if it were an option. 

Concur on both points.

 

re proximity to family

11 minutes ago, BlsdMama said:

..in the end? I love the Midwest and all my family is here. 

Yeah, in the end, that's the kicker, isn't it.  Having the immense good fortune of having lived virtually all my life with virtually all my extended family within 3 hours... it's very, very, very hard to imagine the glories of *any* place inducing us to move permanently outside that 3-hour circle.  A second/vacation home in a warmer clime -- sure.  An pied-a-terre in a charming historic district of a vibrant city -- sure.  But we're currently ~1 hour north of NYC, and I can't honestly see us picking up and moving our primary residence much farther than ~1 hour south of NYC. Which barely gets me to a one-level-warmer garden zone; certainly doesn't get me to 12 month beaching.

  • Like 1
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Right where I am.

I picked TX out of a map because I could not do snow  and a variety of other factors.

But TX is home now for half my life. 

DH and I plan to have a house in our country of origin and go back and forth. It is a dream right now and we are trying to make it a reality. That is my idea of perfection.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd split my time. Winters in the SW, probably New Mexico. Summers probably not too far from where I am now, so the midwest. I really hate snow and ice and the cold. Basically, I want to live somewhere I can wear sandals all year long while not overheating in the summer. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hot Springs AR

 

Specifically on Lake Hamilton.

 

Edited---I forgot to say why.  It is a medium size city near a large city.  It has decent health care but anything they don't have you can get in LR.  The area is gorgeous all year imo.  The lake is fabulous and sits in between 2 other lakes that are also fabulous.  And it is not far from a lot of my family and dh's family.  In fact, we plan to retire there.

 

Edited by Scarlett
  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share


×
×
  • Create New...