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Due to a new job situation, we are finally in the position to set roots after almost a decade of travelling and moving around. The hard part is trying to match our main lifestyle criteria with quite an overwhelming choice of work locations given by the company (hubby needs to be handy to one of the offices in the following metro areas, but does not need to commute on a regular basis):
1. Texas (Dallas, San Antonio, Austin)
2. West Coast (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver)
3. East Coast (Boston, New York, Baltimore, Washington, Raleigh, Atlanta)
4. Center (Denver, Boulder, Kansas City)
5. Great Lakes (Chicago, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa)
And here our main criteria:
1. Weather:
- not needing to heat or cool at night (minimal windchill or humidex)
- long swimming pool season (don't mind heating it)
- short bright winters (don't mind occasional snow)
2. Proximity to Water (fresh, salt or both)
- enjoy boating on calm waters
- clean/warm enough to swim in it at least part of the year
3. Scenic Nature: green, hilly, trees, rocks
4. Proximity to pedestrian friendly urban areas with character
5. Lower density (easy to take secondary roads vs. congested freeway traffic to get to most things).
Kids/shools are not a concern, but a dog friendly area would be a bonus!
Your preferred weather criteria do limit your choices considerably.
It would probably have to be Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, or Boulder. LA would be the best match for your weather preferences, but walkability is extremely hard to come by and congestion is the name of the game. The adjacent countryside isn't exactly the epitome of verdancy, either.
San Francisco offers greener countryside and less congestion in the northern part of the Bay Area, but winters are significantly cloudier and wetter than in LA. Temperatures do not reach the same summer warmth as the other cities. However, SF is definitely the most walkable of the cities (with tons of character).
Colorado would have drier, sunnier winters, if you don't mind the snow and colder temperatures. The cities aren't as pedestrian-friendly as SF, but you do have many more options of less congested areas to live in.
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