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Lahaina is incredibly beautiful, but there is nothing to do there except go to the beach. If you're going to move to Hawaii, at least go to Honolulu unless you want to retire in some beach side cabana and be dead to the world.
If you don't want big swings in weather during the day, I do not recommend Tucson for you. Dry weather is NOTORIOUS for big swings in weather. Here in the desert you can need a jacket in the morning, a tank top by afternoon, and jacket again by night. This is sort of a normal thing here. If you don't like that I strongly suggest looking in more humid places.
Tucson also has terrible roads. One of the worst I've ever seen, actually.
But if you think you can move past those then Tucson may be a great option.
I wonder if Las Cruces NM would be a good fit, as it fits or comes very close to the population criteria, has NM State University and fits the climate criteria.
Does it meet the other criteria? Seems a bit sleepy to me. Does it have good restaurants? I assume it has good Mexican food, but anything else? It's slightly under 100K so not really qualifying for my criteria, but it's on the cusp.
Lahaina is incredibly beautiful, but there is nothing to do there except go to the beach. If you're going to move to Hawaii, at least go to Honolulu unless you want to retire in some beach side cabana and be dead to the world.
Actually Maui sounds better to me than Honolulu. I don't like the super touristy areas and I'm an introvert so having a beach side cabana all to myself is a dream come true.
If you don't want big swings in weather during the day, I do not recommend Tucson for you. Dry weather is NOTORIOUS for big swings in weather. Here in the desert you can need a jacket in the morning, a tank top by afternoon, and jacket again by night. This is sort of a normal thing here. If you don't like that I strongly suggest looking in more humid places.
Tucson also has terrible roads. One of the worst I've ever seen, actually.
But if you think you can move past those then Tucson may be a great option.
I didn't say this, I said "day to day swings". Let me explain. In Austin, it was a high of 80 one day (with a low of 70) and then the next day it didn't get above 39. I don't think Tucson has that kind of weather.
I actually like diurnal differences. 55/95 is really nice for a day, but 95 one day and then 55 the next day (with a low of 35) is too much. We get that in Texas quite a bit.
There are other days that the morning is 70 degrees and humid in Texas and then the temp *drops* during the day to 40, where the low for the day was overnight.
Does it meet the other criteria? Seems a bit sleepy to me. Does it have good restaurants? I assume it has good Mexican food, but anything else? It's slightly under 100K so not really qualifying for my criteria, but it's on the cusp.
It appears that the 2014 estimates shows that it is a little over 101,000 and the metro is 209,000. It is a part of the El Paso-Las Cruces CSA.
Outside of climate and perhaps events due to NM State, I'm not sure what else it would fit.
As much as I love Austin, it's starting to become too big for me. I've come to realize I prefer a city with around 300K people maximum. Also, although I like the no income tax of Texas, the property taxes take a large bite because of the increasing prices.
These are my requirements:
* city population between 100K-500K, metro between 150K-1M
* average winter highs above 50 during January (I hate cold weather)
* fairly consistent weather (I hate the day to day swings here)
* low property taxes
* nice restaurant scene (I like to eat out)
* theaters with food/beer/wine (like Alamo Drafthouse)
* high percentage of females to males (I'm a single male)
* either near the beach, mountains, or both
* fairly close to a big city for excursions
* good roads, low traffic conditions
* unique culture
* some festivals throughout the year
Right now I'm considering these cities: Albuquerque NM (mountains & dry weather), Lafayette LA (low property taxes & culture), Tucson AZ (mountains & dry weather), & Charleston SC (beach & culture)
But I'm open to other ideas.
I'm basically trying to find the "next Austin," what Austin was circa 1990.
All these areas fit well for you, but the biggest problem in all of them is good paying jobs. I would start applying in all 4 and see where fate takes you
I didn't say this, I said "day to day swings". Let me explain. In Austin, it was a high of 80 one day (with a low of 70) and then the next day it didn't get above 39. I don't think Tucson has that kind of weather.
I actually like diurnal differences. 55/95 is really nice for a day, but 95 one day and then 55 the next day (with a low of 35) is too much. We get that in Texas quite a bit.
There are other days that the morning is 70 degrees and humid in Texas and then the temp *drops* during the day to 40, where the low for the day was overnight.
Ahhh, this is more clear now. Tucson doesn't have varying weather day to day very often.
Also, I wouldn't worry about an explosion of growth there. It boomed for awhile with the real estate stuff, and it's generally growing, but it's not a boom city that will be really different in 10 years. This is because of the anti-development sentiment that is rampant in the city. In order to really grow, huge employers would have to move there, and that's not happening IMHO. Raytheon is the biggest employer that isn't the U of A, and that's been there awhile already. Half my neighbors worked at Raytheon, it seemed.
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