If you were able to ESCAPE (err move out) from NJ...Where would you move, and why? (Washington: property taxes, living in)

[tallguylehigh]

I would consider moving to:

Phoenix (Scottsdale area)
Denver (300 days of sunshine ain't too bad)
Texas (Austin or Dallas appeal to me)
Virginia (where I was raised)
North Carolina (seems like it has a lot to offer)

[colleeng47]

Originally Posted by tallguylehigh

I would consider moving to:

Phoenix (Scottsdale area)
Denver (300 days of sunshine ain't too bad)
Texas (Austin or Dallas appeal to me)
Virginia (where I was raised)
North Carolina (seems like it has a lot to offer)

Some tips:

I lived in Phoenix for about a year. The summer is BRUTALLY hot, and don't believe the "it's a dry heat" thing. Hot is hot.

Lived in Denver: Strange weather. Our first snowfall was on Labor Day weekend, and the last one that year was on Mother's Day, but we held my daughter's birthday party in the backyard in shorts in February. Also, it rains every day in the afternoon in the summer time.

Texas: We travel to the DFW area to bring my kids to the airport there when we want a direct flight back to the east coast. The traffic in DFW makes NJ traffic look like downtown Mayberry.

Don't know much about North Carolina or Virginia.

[jacopol]

We moved to Colorado Springs over a year ago never look back!!!

[gagaliya]

Originally Posted by NarniaLady

If this is the case, where would you suggest?

BTW Shanghai is a very interesting option

unfortuantely i havent found a good one yet.

You would think it be easy, just pick any countryside spot and wola! but it's actually not. The ideal countryside/beach spot has to be:

1) close to modern infrastructure (hospitals, supermarkets, etc.), otherwise it is just not practical long term.
2) very cheap living cost
3) actually nice with good relaxing views/living/neighbors, not a shack in the middle of the woods!
4) safe, especially outside of the US

[Astrolaura]

We're escaping while we still can.

We're looking mainly in the Austin, TX area. Why? Well, much as I hate the sun and the heat, it has everything we're looking for. Much lower cost of living, much lower property taxes, nice modestly sized houses on nice (meaning: BIG) pieces of land and most importantly, work, lots and lots of tech work.

We figure we'll be able to make our escape just before the Middletown property tax hike (of 10-12% depending on who you ask) goes into effect.

If money were no object (like if I hit the lottery) and we didn't have to worry about working for a living, it would either be coastal Maine or Montana. Love the colder weather and scenery in both of those places.

[Obrero]

Originally Posted by gagaliya

i would move to shanghai china (no i am not kidding) if i could. Great city, no property tax/condo fees, excellent cheap food, lot of brand new luxury condos, no neighborhood divides the whole city is safe you can walk anywhere anytime, good public transportation system, and great medicare/hospital system for when you get old....

I think of it this way, i could retire at 45 and live in shanghai china comfortably, or i could work my ass off till 65 paying those high taxes just to own a house in the us....

note: this is assume one wants to live in a big city, if u prefer somewhere more vacational like the countryside/beach, then it's a different story.

All good until you try to breathe the air.....

[soontoretire]

The coastal area of SC. Definitely. Great people, great food, beautiful surroundings, and cheaper lifestyle!

[UrbanQuest]

The only areas I might move to are;
Boston
Washington D.C. (Northern VA or Maryland)
Chicago

Alot of quiet and/or tons of sunshine or rain gets old fast imo and being near an ocean or very large lake is a must. Culture is good also...

[diva360]

For people thinking of moving to Austin, TX, it's a great town, as I'm a recent transplant. Some things that I have noticed that are different and that might annoy lifelong New Jersey residents about Austin are as follows, based on what people have posted here. I'll post the pros first, because I'm an optimist:

Pros:

• Property taxes are lower, there's no argument there, but zoning laws in TX are crazy. You may find yourself thinking you're moving in to a residential area, but there might be businesses all around you.
• You will have access to really good Mexican food, but you should still avoid the tourist trap places with terrible Mexican food and go where the locals go, which, depending on who you are, could mean bad tourist trap places. The best Mexican food can be found in transitory taco trucks which may skeeve some of you out. You will have to look for these, but you can find absolutely delicious food. Knowledge of Spanish will serve you well here.
• Places like Barton Springs and Hamilton Pool are absolutely lovely--cool natural spring pools where you can cool off in the summer. The first time I went to Hamilton Pool to swim there were armadillos swimming next to me--how cool is that?
• Hippie Hollow has long been a refuge for nudists who want to hang out in a cool environment without a lot of harassment. I'm not one of those people, as I think most people look better with clothes on, but there it is, and it's Austin at its best.
• I didn't know how to categorize this, it's a con to me but a pro to some: There are a lot of cool shops and restaurants, but you have to be willing to drive. Public transportation sucks, and the buses will mostly take you north and south rather than east and west. You have to have a car
• The people here can be really cool. A good friend of mine stopped on a highway to let a turtle family cross, and no one honked. In fact, someone stopped to help all the turtles cross the highway. Then business proceeded as usual. In my book, friends of turtles are friends of friends.

Cons:

• Property taxes are lower, and this goes without saying, but see below--I taught at the University of Texas at Austin and I am teaching in NJ now--the students are so much better prepared here. I don't have children myself, but the differences have been so astounding that I really think you get what you pay for. If I had kids, you couldn't pay me to live in the South--secondary education sucks there. People fight over whether creationism should be taught and whether it is appropriate to teach HS juniors and seniors about birth control. TX has one of the highest rates of teenaged pregnancy in the nation as a result, in my opinion.

• Interstate 35 is super ugly: there are billboards everywhere and they are ugly.
• Short, stubby live oaks aren't as good as maple and elm trees, IMO. (Short, stubby live oaks are what you get in TX). The soaring trees here remind me of my childhood in Minnesota.
• The best restaurants in Austin are in ugly strip malls. If anyone here actually moves to Austin, I'll tell you where to get the best ethnic food, although its quality will pale in comparison to what you can get in NY and NJ.
• The "suburbs" in TX mean soulless towns without down towns. There is nothing cute or quaint about the suburbs in the Sunbelt. Think miles and miles of interstate punctuated by nothing but Sam's Clubs, Applebee's, and Chiles. There may be an IHOP here and there to interrupt the boredom, if that appeals to you.
• Forget good Italian food. It does not exist here. There are maybe two places in Austin that even approach the quality of Italian deli in NJ. If you are not at Austin's whole foods, no one will even know what fresh mozzarella is.
• In most places in Austin, there are no regulations, which means that your neighbors may do things that annoy you, such as change their oil in the middle of their street or driveway, leave junked out cars all over the place, or replace their transmissions on their days off. None of these things really bother me, but I can imagine that they would bother people from NJ. All I'm really trying to say is caveat emptor: having lived in a lot of regions in the U.S. and being highly adaptable myself, I am thinking that a lot of the people who ***** about NJ really wouldn't be happy anywhere else. From what I've seen and where I've lived, I really don't see such people fitting in elsewhere.

[Schizoid2k]

Originally Posted by tallguylehigh

I would consider moving to:

Phoenix (Scottsdale area)
Denver (300 days of sunshine ain't too bad)
Texas (Austin or Dallas appeal to me)
Virginia (where I was raised)
North Carolina (seems like it has a lot to offer)

We left NJ for NC lastg year and we love it down here (near Charlotte).
I must advise that work here is somewhat hard to find, but I was lucky and relocated.

Great place to live... glad I did it. I was originally looking to move to ME or NH, but I couldnt find a adequate paying job in IT. Luckily, we had a data center down in NC and made the move.