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My friends tell me I want the impossible looking for nice weather all year around (warm, sunny), good cost of living, plentiful jobs, great schools, low crime - AND somewhere you don't have to worry about things like wildfires, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes or earthquakes. Apparently, you can only get about 2/3 of what you want.
Hoping for:
*Good/great public schools
*Low(ish) crime
*Low to average cost of living
*Low to average unemployment
*Lots of sun and not a lot of snow
*No home owner’s associations (rules, fees)
*We prefer space. We have a little over 2 acres and are surrounded by neighbors with 10-20+ acres as well as farms. We moved out here from the suburbs and love it out here away from the congested concrete jungle.
*And finally, since we live in Michigan where we don’t to worry about natural disasters (it seems to be one of few such states) I’d like to feel fairly safe.
Hoping for:
*Good/great public schools
*Low(ish) crime
*Low to average cost of living
*Low to average unemployment
*Lots of sun and not a lot of snow
*No home owner’s associations (rules, fees)
*We prefer space. We have a little over 2 acres and are surrounded by neighbors with 10-20+ acres as well as farms. We moved out here from the suburbs and love it out here away from the congested concrete jungle.
*And finally, since we live in Michigan where we don’t to worry about natural disasters (it seems to be one of few such states) I’d like to feel fairly safe.
Check out Alamogordo NM as it seems to fit your criteria.
The biggest thing I'm worried about when it comes to some place to live would be the distance from cool things to do. After living out in the sticks for the past, five years, having to deal with Draconian speed limits placed upon the vastness of empty fields out here just make the 200-500 mile drives out to my destinations a real bore. Not so much people getting into accidents because of speed, but dozing off due to the dust-bowl like quality of the flatscape!!
My friends tell me I want the impossible looking for nice weather all year around (warm, sunny), good cost of living, plentiful jobs, great schools, low crime - AND somewhere you don't have to worry about things like wildfires, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes or earthquakes. Apparently, you can only get about 2/3 of what you want.
Hoping for:
*Good/great public schools
*Low(ish) crime
*Low to average cost of living
*Low to average unemployment
*Lots of sun and not a lot of snow
*No home owner’s associations (rules, fees)
*We prefer space. We have a little over 2 acres and are surrounded by neighbors with 10-20+ acres as well as farms. We moved out here from the suburbs and love it out here away from the congested concrete jungle.
*And finally, since we live in Michigan where we don’t to worry about natural disasters (it seems to be one of few such states) I’d like to feel fairly safe.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
Jen
This sounds like you just described Michigan, except that we do get colder winters and not enough sun during the December-March stretch. Where we live in Michigan, we have only had two snowfalls this year that were enough to even think about getting the shovel out for, and they were only about four inches each time.
We went through an "anywhere but here" thing about eight years ago because we had both always lived in this area and it took a move to Phoenix and back to appreciate what we refused to see before. I'm not saying that's you, but that was us.
I hope you find what you're looking for, best of luck to you!
Last edited by canudigit; 03-24-2017 at 03:31 PM..
It is always the hope to find a place like this, but everyone's tastes are different. I think that no matter where you go, there will be positives and negatives. I'd say just find the place that makes sense to you that meets the most positives with the least amount of negatives. Like Hemlock140 said above, if such place existed, it wouldn't be long until the utopia becomes costly and overcrowded.
I'm currently playing with the idea of moving out of Wisconsin (I don't like the cold/snow at all, but somehow the almost complete lack of sunny days in the winter I find to be even worse), and my list of what I'm looking for is similar to yours. For me, I like to weigh the pros and cons of a number of cities based on my preferences. Then pick the place that most appeals to me, that only has cons that I feel I can adjust to and deal with. I bet you can get at least 7/8 of what you want. Best of luck to you!
I think I can at least help with the climate/natural disasters part. Your other criteria are going to change from city to city for the most part. Keeping in mind that "perfect" doesn't exist anywhere, I think your options aren't so limited if you're willing to give a little here and there. Also, don't judge an area on a one-time crazy weather event.
Central Florida: Hurricanes die very quickly once they hit land. After that, the housing in Florida is built to handle the remnant storm pretty well, so wind damage isn't a major concern in my opinion. The only thing you would have to worry about is flooding, which may not be so bad either depending on where you live. It's also not as likely to be a rushing water scenario given the flat topography, which is the most dangerous part of a flood situation. Tornadoes aren't as big of a threat as you might think either. I'll reference this map: http://icons.wxug.com/graphics/wu2/Tornado_Alley.gif
GA/SC/NC/VA: Referencing that tornado map again, parts of Georgia would be the biggest concern. I wouldn't be as concerned with hurricanes in this area either since they tend to not be as strong as the ones in Florida or the gulf states, though coastal storms still do occur. Central areas away from the coast may still be a better option. Virginia is as far north as I would ever go if you want to stay away from snow. Maybe even no further north than southern VA. Ice storms could be a factor in VA/NC, not as much in SC/GA.
AVOID ARKANSAS, LOUISIANA, MISSISSIPPI, AND ALABAMA LIKE THE PLAGUE. I've seen some of the most heinous tornadoes go through those states. It's really another tornado alley with all year round tornado potential.
Tennessee: Eh, I think they are going to have more tornadoes than you are comfortable with, but it just doesn't seem as active as other places. Maybe you should consider it.
San Antonio (and nowhere else in Texas): Literally only San Antonio. There aren't as many tornadoes that far south. In fact, I think michigan is more prone to tornadoes than san antonio, and its far from the coast. Flooding and wildfire potential is also relatively low. Cost of living is decent, as far as I know job outlook is decent, and it's sunny. Put a big circle around this one because I think it hits a lot on your list.
Colorado (excluding denver): Winters are manageable as long as you aren't in the mountains. I'm thinking more along the lines of colorado springs area. I'd be concerned about cost of living going up in colorado in general, however. But as far as natural disasters, I think this place is fairly low key.
Add in Arizona and New Mexico for low natural disasters criteria. I'm not particularly familiar with these areas though so I won't go into too many details. I'm also going to add Nevada into the mix, though I can't speak for any of the cities there. Let's leave california off of the list for cost of living, high unemployment, and earthquakes. I think I've covered just about everything though.
San Antonio -- I don't know if the public school system there is any great shakes, but there may be possibilities in an outlying district, an outer suburban township. Texas public schools are not typically considered "great" thanks to chronic underfunding and overcrowding issues, to say the least. And the teaching profession turnover rate in this state is, I think, around 20% a year -- poor retention rates speak volumes for the quality of teachers here.
San Antonio definitely has crime, and some poor areas. The COL is lower but so are the wages. The city is booming, so beware of future affordability concerns, as prices go up. You didn't mention anything about traffic or congestion; San Antonio is not as bad as Austin, but getting there. And it's definitely HOT most of the year, whether too hot is up to you.
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