Good food, yard space, job market, affordable housing? (transplants, home)
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As (hopefully) noted in the title, I'm trying to get ideas on where to look for jobs when I finish my masters later this year.
I'm looking for places that:
1. Have at least a decent selection of restaurants -- at least some ethnic food, along with solid American cuisine.
2. Have some neighborhoods, within the city, that have decent yard space -- I'd like to have space for a garden in my backyard.
3. Have an overall favorable economy and/or job market
4. Aren't overly expensive, and don't have an absurd demand for housing (where I currently live, there are so many transplants moving in that any decent housing is snatched within hours -- I had to check craigslist several times a day for months to find the place that I currently live in).
Ideally, I'd like to live in a place with a metro of 500k-2mil people, but I can be flexible on that.
Given your criteria I would recommend Durham NC. It has a great selection of quality restaurants, lots of options in terms of in-town neighborhoods with yards, a decent growing season versus areas in the north, a good economy with the presence of multiple major employers (Research Triangle Park companies, Duke University, Duke University Medical Center and just down the road UNC/UNC Hospitals), a cost of living right around the US average, a metro population of just over 500K and if factoring in Raleigh (separate MSA) over 2 million.
Perhaps Columbus OH, Nashville TN or Louisville KY, among some others, may work. Like it was mentioned in the second post though, it may be a matter of the other criteria you are looking for.
Minneapolis has all of that, but recently the good single-family home neighborhoods are becoming more and more expensive, and rightfully so. Still, if you want to live IN the city and still have some grass to play with, it's a good, affordable choice.
I'd have to imagine Denver and Seattle have very similar neighborhood structures but may be more expensive (Seattle esp.). Madison and Des Moines are two other Midwestern metros with booming economies and nice little urban enclaves that you can enjoy in a single family house. Grand Rapids is another, but it was already mentioned.
Is this the case for the whole city or just in certain parts?
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