So confused about where to live. What would you do?

[famlife]

I have raynaud's so it's more than just my arthritis. It's a little complicated with the raynaud's.
We stay in Tucson sometimes so I know what you mean by trading miseries. But it gets hot and sticky and miserable in WI, too, but I can deal with it a little better than cold or even dry heat with scorching sun. The bugs are ridiculous in WI, too. Ticks, Mosquitos, gnats, you name it. Bleh.
I'm still so torn. I guess if I can't make up my mind, the money will win out. I just know I'll regret it for half of every year of my life LoL

[LauraC]

Find jobs then look for nearby places that meet your needs.

[Bluefox]

Originally Posted by famlife

Missouri. Maybe the winters are a bit better. We'd have to be within an hour of St Louis though, as that's where we have a church. St Louis, I'm not sure if it's somewhere I'd want to frequent. I haven't heard or seen a whole lot of good there. Plus not fond of the frakking in S Illinois, if that's where we'd find a place. Don't really want to live in the city proper. The only things I like about it is it's proximity to so many other places, being so centralized, and the fact that winters aren't as bad as WI, and we have a church.

The winters in St. Louis are definitely warmer than Wisconsin. It still snows, it just doesn't stick around nearly as long. I spent my first winter in MO this past year and even with the infamous polar vortex it didn't seem nearly as cold nor as snowy as winters I have experienced in the Great Lakes region. You definitely get cold snaps - it can dip into the single digits - but it's more like 1-2 days of cold followed by a few days of fairly mild temps (for me at least - 40s, sometimes into the 50s). It never seemed to be freezing cold for days on end. And even winter is pretty sunny much of the time. This is the KC area, but St. Louis has similar weather, in fact it's a bit warmer.

The drawback though is that you pay for it in the summer. This summer has been pretty nice but it normally gets hotter down here in the summer than in the Great Lakes.... it's not Texas or the Deep South, but it's not entirely pleasant either. People down here keep saying that it's been a cool summer but I have a low tolerance for heat and humidity so for me, it's been unpleasant.

I'm not sure how much you know about the socioeconomics of the St. Louis area, but it's not all dangerous. There are plenty of safe areas surrounding St. Louis.

[8to32characters]

If church is THAT important to you, then avoid the West, including Colorado.