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I'm currently in college and doing research on where I would like to live after college. I enjoy lots of warm weather and sunshine, and this one of the most important factors in my search. What I've seen from the research I've done is that generally there are few cities with this kind of weather that offer good job markets and other positive factors. Anyway, here's what I'm trying to find:
Weather: Lots of sunshine, generally warm, little rain, little to moderate humidity.
Job market: I will have geography degree so cities with lots of government jobs and colleges is a plus
Cost of living: I will be on a modest budget, so it should be reasonable
Crime: I just don't want a high violent crime rate.
Walkability: I would like a place that's walkable and has good public transport, but this is last on the list.
Any matches for cities, or region(s) of the country I should look in?
Sounds like Southern California to me though the reasonable/modest budget set of criteria is open for interpretation not knowing what your salary will be. Millions live comfortably in Southern California on salaries similar to yours so it should be fine.
Sounds like Southern California to me though the reasonable/modest budget set of criteria is open for interpretation not knowing what your salary will be. Millions live comfortably in Southern California on salaries similar to yours so it should be fine.
Southern California would be one of, if not my top choice. The only thing that worries me is the economy and cost of living. I will certainly look through some different places in the region though.
The warm weather thing means you are limiting yourself to the Sunbelt and the LA/San Diego area sounds perfect for this. But there is that cost of living thing in these areas.
Houston and Dallas will have a lower COL and strong economies, but can be extremely humid and both are relatively weak in mass transit and walkability. (I don't know about San Antonio, El Paso, and Austin) In fact all the bigger cities in Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and the Carolinas, will have stretches of near unbearable humidity during the summer. There's a reason the Deep South didn't blossom until the advent of cheap air-conditioning.
So check out Phoenix, Albuquerque, Tuscon, Vegas, and other arid and semi-arid areas. They're hot, but not humid. And they'll have a lower COL. You'd probably need a car in all those spots. But the job picture for government I do not know. Frankly speaking, government jobs--local, state, and federal--are rarer everywhere because of years of budget cuts. For a greater choice of government jobs you might head to the DC Metro, but it doesn't have the wather you want and it has a high COL.
It depends on what you want to do with your geography degree. If you're coming from an environmental mindset, I'm thinking SoCal. If you're wanting to work for industry (oil/gas/coal/forestry)look at New Mexico.
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