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My wife, 6-year old daughter, and I are looking for an alternative to Orlando, where we have grown tired of the general snobbery and false fronts that people put up here. Ideally, the new location would have great schools, be super kid and parent friendly, have a decent climate and a low crime rate.
I know those are rather general criteria, but if someone else has found the ideal city/town, please clue us in.
Location: Concrete jungle where dreams are made of.
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Long Island, NY. Is known to be one of the safest areas of the country and has been for quite a while, and schools are known to be the best in the country.
Portland, OR absolutely fits the bill. However, can you tell us a bit more? Are you looking to stay in a general area (e.g., Southeast)? Are you looking for a certain climate? What about city size? If you can provide me a little more information, I can tell you a thing or two about the places I have lived.
Boulder, Colorado, hands down the utopia of America.
You have skiing, hiking, rock climbing, VERY bicycle friendly, some amazing scenery, and sunshine 300 days a year for recreational activities.
It has been consistently ranked as the happiest city in America, the cleanest/greenest, and the smartest (more Phds per capita in Boulder than anywhere else in the country).
You have easily one of the strongest economies in America. Boulder's housing market has been GROWING in the recession due to a cap the city has put on housing expansion. Job market here is extremely strong as well. For small businesses, there may not be a higher per capita rate of small businesses in America, most of the companies in Boulder are localized and generally smaller than 20-30 people (which makes for very unique products and stores). In addition alternative energy companies have come to dominate the economy as well. The more alternative energy grows in America, the better the Boulder economy becomes.
But even if you cannot find work in Boulder, downtown Denver is 30 minutes away.
The people in Boulder though can be very strange. But if its utopia you're looking for, you'll have to come to accept their odd ball behavior. Plus the University of Colorado is in the city which offers a ton of activity for the residents (Conference of World Affairs just ended here last week, which is a conference attended by some of the top scholars in America discussing hundreds and hundreds of topics).
Check it out, you may like it, you may hate it, but it fits what you are looking for.
Overall (both the ones that made the top 100 are in the Orlando Metro, not all States have a single city on the top 100 let alone 2. You can check previous years to see Orlando consistently has cities in the cut): Best Places to Live 2009 - States: Florida - from MONEY Magazine
You are right Florida as a whole is bad in Foreclosures... The Top 25 Foreclosure Cities - The Home Front (usnews.com)
However of the worst it is the only one with every single city showing marked improvements. Not to mention the obvious benefits for first time buyers in today's market.
While Orlando didn't make the cut in top 25, Jacksonville, Miami, and Tampa all did for best places to buy Real-Estate in 2010. Miami and Tampa are both making improvements as indicated by the top 25 foreclosure page, I have to believe Orlando isn't too far behind In Depth: Best Cities To Buy A Home - 1. Denver, Colo. - Forbes.com
As for Unemployment Orlando is far from the best but we're far from the worst as well 288/372 metros. (Higher number is worse) That means there are almost 100 metros worse off than Orlando. Unemployment Rates for Metropolitan Areas
There's no real list but Florida is about to be what many consider the first states with Highspeed Rail and the first Phase includes Orlando (as does the second, and third). Some consider it the second in US. Either way if there was a list, we'd be in either #1 or #2 http://www.floridahighspeedrail.org/
Let us not forget the long overdue http://www.sunrail.com/ that is accompanying it. Far from the first Lightrail, and long overdue, but still long before most MSA have a lightrail system.
Last edited by EndersDrift; 04-15-2010 at 12:01 AM..
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