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I'm looking for some perfect town/city that doesn't exist, but wanted to get some feedback.
What I want:
1) summers that aren't ridiculously hot and humid
2) close proximity to outdoor leisure opportunities (mountains or coastal preferred)
3) less than 2 hours from a major city (for dining, airport, concerts, etc)
4) low crime and good schools
What I have:
1) central Florida, so unbearable summers, but I have no clue how to survive an actual winter (willing to learn)
2) 2 hours from Orlando and Tampa
3) currently in a small town but looking for more culture, diversity, and outdoor adventures
What's your rent/buy budget? Can you handle snow? Would you mind living in a city that's next to (but not in) the mountains? What kind of mountains do you prefer - lower, but heavily forested, like the Appalachians & the coastal ranges of the PNW or the wide open vistas of the Rockies, Cascades, Sierras, etc? Answering those questions will help focus the responses.
Some mountain-adjacent cities that come to mind:
Denver
Colorado Springs
Albuquerque
Salt Lake City
Provo
Boise
Seattle
Portland
Asheville
For a budget, anything at or below $450,000. I've never lived someplace it snows but willing to give it a shot. Living outside the mountains would be fine (probably preferred). I've been to the Appalachians and the Cascades and love both.
Perhaps the Albany-Schenectady-Troy area of NY. 2 hours or so from NYC and Boston, multiple mountain ranges nearby, middle of the road overall COL, 3 diverse center cities with some smaller cities/suburbs/towns with a visible degree of cultural diversity, it has a low crime rate for a top 100 metro(58th biggest in the US), there are good schools/SD's throughout the area and more. Some options may be Scotia, Delmar, Ballston Spa, Niskayuna, Colonie(including the village of Menands) and East Greenbush, among others.
Just to throw it out there, but Menands is a very diverse and high achieving school(district, goes up to 8th grade) just north of Albany that has the option of 3 high schools that they can go to, may have the right mix of what you are looking for
Hartford CT and Amherst/Northampton MA are a couple of areas that may be worth a look. Same with some towns in between the areas mentioned like New Paltz and Saugerties in NY for a couple of examples.
Last edited by ckhthankgod; 10-27-2016 at 01:00 PM..
Charlottesville VA (get to Dulles near Washington in about 2 hours) and Asheville NC (get to Charlotte's airport in about 2 hours) would be good choices.
What I want:
1) summers that aren't ridiculously hot and humid CHECK
2) close proximity to outdoor leisure opportunities (mountains or coastal preferred) CHECK
3) less than 2 hours from a major city (for dining, airport, concerts, etc) CHECK--LOS ANGELES
4) low crime and good schools CHECK
Right here in Huntington Beach, CA:
You can still get a condo in your price range (there are two for sale in our complex around that price)
Excellent Schools
We are less than 1 mile to the beach / 1/2 mile to the harbor.
Plenty of things to do without getting bored
Less than 40 minutes to downtown LA, 90 minutes to San Diego
1.5 hours to the Mountains and Desserts. (Mountains can get very cold and snowy in the winter, and you can return to 70 degree weather within an hour)
Mild summers and winters
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