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Hi, I have a couple of friends with 2 small children. We were talking about which place would be best for them to move. I had the idea to use here and know the opinion and help from you on the subject.
As I said is a young couple with two children under 10 years, income from 120K. Your options are transfers Illinois / Southern California / Florida.
Their biggest concerns are finding areas that the neighborhood is nice and friendly, safety and leisure areas.
As for the time, they are aware that Illinois is totally different from Florida, so the weather is not the determining factor in their case.
If you can help with your opinions with which state and city you choose and why?
We really would appreciate the help, thanks!
Hi, I have a couple of friends with 2 small children. We were talking about which place would be best for them to move. I had the idea to use here and know the opinion and help from you on the subject.
As I said is a young couple with two children under 10 years, income from 120K. Your options are transfers Illinois / Southern California / Florida.
Their biggest concerns are finding areas that the neighborhood is nice and friendly, safety and leisure areas.
As for the time, they are aware that Illinois is totally different from Florida, so the weather is not the determining factor in their case.
If you can help with your opinions with which state and city you choose and why?
We really would appreciate the help, thanks!
I would probably pick Florida if I had a guaranteed job. It's the cheapest out of three and there is a lot to do, the downsize is the heat. I can't really base my decision on hard facts simply because I don't know a whole lot about Florida or California. So things like economy, education, crime etc. you'll have to wait for some natives to chime in.
I don't know which part of Illinois they are looking at but, I would still avoid it. People seem to think of Chicago when Illinois is mentioned but, I am here to tell you that most of Illinois is nothing like Chicago. A lot of Illinois is very rural so I hope they like looking at farms and miles of nothing in some areas. Also, I don't know where they are coming from but, the weather will probably be an issue if they are coming from the south. I know you said they don't have an issue with the weather but, that's what they all say.
I agree with Chandro that if it's not Chicago, then you'll want to avoid Illinois. Southern California on average is the most expensive option there. Not sure what part of Florida, but if we're comparing to Chicago then it's a mixed bag. Florida in the cities is probably cheaper than Chicago in the city to buy a SFH, but there are parts of Chicago where SFH's aren't as expensive as one might think. Suburbs of Chicago can be very reasonably priced on par with many smaller cities' metro areas.
Florida and SoCal have year round watersports activities and Chicago's is really only active in the summer/late spring/early fall. There are ski areas within an hour or two drive of Chicago in Wisconsin too.
My personal deal here is that there's not enough information yet. If we're talking about Chicago, it's much different than both SoCal and Florida and each location has its pros and cons so it's hard to give a good opinion.
You can find perfectly nice and safe places to live in any of them. I personally don't care much for Florida (my sister lives there and we visit frequently), so it would be my absolute last choice to live. Illinois or Florida are going to be less expensive in general than S. CA. Clearly Illinois will have the most drastically different weather among the three. It's hard to say without more information as to which cities you are interested in given the relocation possibilities.
Illinois is too cold in the winter/early spring/late fall. Southern California, while nice, is too expensive. Florida is the warmest out of the 3 (well, NoFla has cooler winters than SoCal) and has some beaches that beat SoCal's, plus, it's cheapest. I would choose FL. It's so beautiful there, I hope to live there someday.
Illinois is too cold in the winter/early spring/late fall. Southern California, while nice, is too expensive. Florida is the warmest out of the 3 (well, NoFla has cooler winters than SoCal) and has some beaches that beat SoCal's, plus, it's cheapest. I would choose FL. It's so beautiful there, I hope to live there someday.
The OP established right away that weather is not a huge factor here, so..
Two kids on 120k in So cal? For get it, unless you want to live in the dusty, redneck IE.
Or cramp your family into a condo/townhouse/rental on the coast.
I'm surprised they even have 120k jobs in Florida. That economy is a joke that revolves around tourism. But you can eek out a decent living on that in Florida.
For Chicagoland it will be pretty par the course. A reasonable starter home in a solid upper middle class burb, a sizeable house in a middle class burb, or a McMansion in the outskirt burbs on that income.
Two kids on 120k in So cal? For get it, unless you want to live in the dusty, redneck IE.
Or cramp your family into a condo/townhouse/rental on the coast.
I'm surprised they even have 120k jobs in Florida. That economy is a joke that revolves around tourism. But you can eek out a decent living on that in Florida.
For Chicagoland it will be pretty par the course. A reasonable starter home in a solid upper middle class burb, a sizeable house in a middle class burb, or a McMansion in the outskirt burbs on that income.
You seem to be upset that middle class people have a variety of choices in Chicago. Hurts, don't it? And yes, most of our outskirts are centered along the bucolic fox river, where as LAs outskirts are in a dusty desert-with homes on postage stamp lots.
I'm pretty sure you'll find more confederate flags in East County SD, than all of Chicagoland. We actually had to send sons to fight the civil war, we did not sit back and watch. So confederate flags are as common in Chicagoland as they are in Boston. California on the other hand, has them all over the place. Which is odd. And with two children on 120k you'll likely be in an area of CA where they are common.
That picture was probably taken in Lakeside, Ca. That must be the "lake".
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