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I am in the process of trying to figure out where to move and would sincerely appreciate any advice or suggestions you could offer.
Ironically, I have a great deal of freedom in choosing where to go, which in ways seems to have made this search much more difficult. I am 28 years old, single, and own my own business working online. I have been fortunate to be successful with it financially, and at this point my budget is not really limited (within reason).
In general, I prefer a warmer climate, am relatively moderate politically, and pretty easy-going. A city tending towards the extremes politically probably would not be my personal preference. Ideally I would want to move to a city with a relatively large younger population and an active nightlife. If it makes any sense, I would hope for a "friendlier/warmer" population and culture overall - I have spent alot of time in the Northeast and it seems the vibe is often a little cold in general. The weather is also a bit too cold! I currently live in a high rise apartment building and would preferably move somewhere with that type of housing available.
I am leaning against California because the tax rates are so high and this would be a pretty large issue for my business. It does seem that both the LA and San Francisco areas are often recommended though so I have not completely ruled California out.
Geographically, other than California, it seems the weather in the south is probably closest to what I am hoping for. I visited Miami and liked the city overall - the very strong Hispanic vibe to the city is probably not quite what I am looking for though.
Other places I have thought about include Charlotte, Raleigh, Charleston, Austin, and Dallas.
Anyway, I know this is quite general and broad - I apologize. I'm hoping to narrow down the search in the next month or two. Any advice would be very much appreciated.
Look at employment opportunities in your select cities. For example, you might want to live in Key West, but no employment opportunities. You might not want to live in Houston, but the best employment opportunities might be there.
I haven't included Phx/ Tucson because the state has a political extreme climate, though otherwise it would give you hot weather and active night life. Heck, you'd get a ton of night life and fairly hot weather in Las Vegas, NV.
It's best to get all the viable options on the board at the start, then whittle it down. Since you didn't like Miami because of the hispanic culture, I'm leaving albuquerque off the list. The night life there may not be lively enough anyway. I'm seeing a trend towards the night life you want being connected to enormous city populations. You might decide to add New Orleans, LA to your list. The biggest drawback to New Orleans is the nepotism, but with your online business that shouldn't be an issue. You may want to add San Diego to your list if you include anything within California, or you might have ruled it out for the heavy hispanic influence. Personally I love hispanic culture, but to each their own.
If you are factoring in taxes and COL, San Fran and LA should probably come off. Both are extremely high COL areas with high taxes and living in them requires working in that environment for substantially higher wages than you can get in other cities. Since your online income is not related to where you live, lower cost of living areas will offer you a higher standard of living. That means the highest standard of living you could find is definitely going to be Texas.
You may find Raleigh's climate to be almost as hot as Texas in the summer and significantly too cold in the winter. So I would move it towards the bottom of the list. Then your list probably looks something like this:
Texas (Houston / Austin / Dallas - order within the state unknown)
Florida (Jacksonville/Orlando) / Georgia (Atlanta)
New Orleans
Charlotte/Raleigh (only ranked down here due to weather from inland sources. Check out the weather patterns for the area, if you like them, move this ranking up)
Charleston - At the bottom because the 700,000 MSA population is unlikely to provide the nightlife you requested.
You'll need to rank your priorities in regards to how important each are to help you make a final determination. I encourage reading the wikipedia pages.
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