Looking for Warm and Affordable Area (real estate, chapel, new home)
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Hi Everyone! I'm a single 20-something looking to escape the absurd cost of living of the Bay Area. I'm a math teacher with a master's degree and a couple years experience (but not enough experience to make me expensive,) so I'm not too worried about finding a job. I don't have much family, and my friends are all spread out, which puts me in awesome but strange position of being able to move anywhere, but not really knowing where to go.
Here's what I'm looking for:
Cost of Living: I'm leaving the Bay Area because it's way too expensive for me, so this is number one. Ideally, I want to be able to purchase a nice 3 bedroom home in a good area for under $400,000 (with maybe less nice homes in good areas for 100,000-200,000).
Weather: I'd like to be warm more often than it is cool. I've lived in Houston, Austin, Buffalo, and the SF Bay Area, so I can handle both extreme summers and extreme winters, but if I'm going to pick one, I want it to be warm.
Size: I don't want a "huge" city. And I know huge is relative, so that's a problem. But after consulting a nice list of metropolitan area sizes, I'm going with anything over 3 million is probably too large. I'd consider small towns as well, as long as there is decent proximity (less than an hour) to a larger city.
Less Important Things:
Politics: I'm moderately liberal, but I spent a considerable amount of time in Houston, so I don't anticipate culture shock moving from the BA to somewhere that leans red. I actually think it'd be really, really nice to be somewhere that is politically diverse enough that people don't just assume you agree with them when you start waxing poetic about Bernie, or comparing Obama to Satan.
Education: I really like learning new things, so I'm almost always taking some sort of class for fun. So far, I've taken classes in aerial fabrics, cake decorating, figure skating, real estate, construction, and interior design. Basically, are there community colleges nearby, how many, and do they offer more than just core classes?
Area: I am not opposed to South in general, but would like to avoid the Deep South, Texas, and the "hip" cities where people are flocking right now and costs are rising (Austin, Nashville, Denver, etc.)
I'd love any suggestions and ideas you have. Don't feel pressured to check all the boxes. Thank you so much!
North Carolina could definitely be a fit. Specifically Raleigh & the suburbs/towns are there. It would definitely be doable within your $400K budget, plenty of jobs, decent amount to do, plus you wouldn't be too far from the mountains & ocean.
A good friend of mine just bought a brand new home, in a very nice neighborhood for $275K. And he picked a lot of custom options since it was a new build.
I get why you're leaving the Bay Area, my wife and I live in Pleasant Hill (East Bay) and will only be here until about this time next year, and we are relocating as well!
I too would suggest NC but rather than Raleigh, would opt for the Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro metro just thirty minutes to the west. it has more of a smaller town feel than Raleigh which has evolved into more the Sunbelt suburban sprawl type of place which doesn't offer up the character/soul in my opinion that exists in Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro, if that matters at all to you. I lived in Chapel Hill-Carrboro for several years and found the lifestyle pretty hard to beat with a friendly, well-educated population that's largely into the outdoors and passionate about the arts/music, local food/farmers markets and supporting great local restaurants, bars and shops. The Chapel Hill-Carrboro school district is among the top two in the state of NC but could be difficult to land a spot, however Orange County Public Schools or Durham County Public Schools should offer up options less than 30 minutes away.
Fayetteville, Arkansas. Metro 525k. Start-ups, hill-country, growing fast. Outdoors lifestyle, great culture.
#5 on Forbes Best Places this year. #3 in 2016.
In some ways, it is Austin 25 yrs ago.
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