Help Figuring Out Where to Move (home, school, university) - General U.S. - City-Data Forum

Bing147 · 06-28-2010, 08:49 AM

Well, me and my fiancee will be moving in September. We've both long wanted to get out of our little city and start something for ourselves somewhere and we're going to do it. We've been leaning towards Albuquerque, NM for awhile for a variety of reasons. Decent sized, warm weather for the most part, good hospitals and school (we're both still doing college and she's going into medicine, right now as a medical assistant but she wants to ). But we're not completely sold on it, we might like something a bit different and we've love suggestions. I also had a lot more to do with picking the place and I want more input from her, she's left it a bit too much to me and I don't want us getting there and her feeling like she didn't have a say in the thing.

Our biggest criteria are above. Warm weather with little snow fall would be ideal. A few inches a year is okay but not much. A college town, good sized because we enjoy the arts, with a good hospital and medical school. Doesn't have to be HUGE but good sized town. Low cost of living is a HUGE plus, we're going out with around 7,000 dollars and we want it to stretch. Ability to get around without a car would be great too, I like to bike places and public transportation would be good too.

Here's the cities we currently have on our list:

Albuquerque, NM
Vancouver, WA (Or Portland, OR as they're right by each other)
Chicago, IL (doesn't fit our warm weather goal, only on the list because its fairly close to home and we'd still be able to see friends and family often)
Oklahoma City, OK

We're young (I'm 22 and she's 20) but we're not big on the night life scene so that's not really a concern.

ckhthankgod · 06-28-2010, 03:40 PM

Austin TX or the Raleigh NC area.....

Westerner92 · 06-28-2010, 06:07 PM

Don't quote me on this, but I think cost of living crosses Vancouver and Chicago off your list.
That being said, I would like to make a plug for my city, Lubbock, Texas. It's about 225,000 and has Texas Tech, a university of about 30,000 students with a good medical school. It has the most advanced hospitals between Dallas and Phoenix, and healthcare is the largest industry here behind higher education. (There is a Level 1 trauma center here; not even ABQ, El Paso, and Tucson, cities 3X Lubbock's size, have that.) It's a little bit warmer than ABQ and Oklahoma City, and it has a great cost of living. It's rather car-centric, but it is possible to get around without a car. I occasionally ride my bike places, and one of the fads among the college kids here is riding long boards. The bus system isn't all that extensive, but if you time things right, it's a viable option for getting to certain places in town. I think it's a very nice place to live, and I think it might be worth your while to look here.

knrstz · 06-28-2010, 09:08 PM

Knoxville, Tenn.

Bing147 · 06-29-2010, 10:25 AM

I appreciate the comments. Chicago and Vancouver aren't expensive compared to most bigger cities. Vancouver WA is cheaper from what I've seen than Portland and only ten minutes away. That said, they may not be perfect. But nowhere is PERFECT.

The Texas ideas might be nice except I don't really like the idea of my vote not counting...

Westerner92 · 06-29-2010, 01:49 PM

^^^ Would you guys consider yourselves to be of liberal mindset? If you do, you'd probably want to cross Lubbock and OKC off your list, and you'd get along pretty well in Austin. If you're worried about your vote not counting, New Mexico and North Carolina are swing states that have been suggested.