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I am a 23 year old woman, and in a couple years I want to move out of Texas. I am having trouble finding a place that fits my criteria. It seems like all liberal states are expensive and freezing in the winter.
Here is what I am looking for:
Low crime (this is an absolute requirement)
Not a big city like Dallas, Austin, Chicago, or Boston (this is an absolute requirement)
Weather: mild or warm. Doesn’t get in the teens or below freezing. I can’t physically and mentally handle freezing cold, rainy, windy weather. Especially if it is happening all at once. (This is an absolute requirement)
Affordable for recent grad starting a job in social work. I suspect I will be making between 40i and 60k a year (this is an absolute requirement)
Liberal and/or progressive. It’s okay if the state is conservative as long as there are liberal pockets (high priority)
Small town or small city. A small town should be within an hour drive or less from a big city. Preferably one that had a University or teaching hospital. (High to very high priority)
Good for hiking, walking, lots of scenery like forests, parks, hills, nature trails. Fancy restaurants and nightlife are not important to me. (Mid to high priority)
I don’t plan on raising a family. I would like to get married eventually. So a median age around 35 would be good. (Low to mid priority).
Good public transportation (low priority).
Ah, I miss youth with the pie-in-the-sky fantasies.... too many years witnessing too many things to be able to do that now...
So, you're sticking to southern states, I20 and south along the eastern half, I40 and south along the western half. That's for the weather requirements. Crime is absolutely everywhere, you'll simply be picking more or less... but that's later. You're not going to be in a rural area OR a small town (everyone defines that differently, to me a good sized town is 10k) if you want liberal, it's going to Require a 4-year university to get the young and liberal demographic, so you're looking at about 30~50k pop at the smallest. If you want forests, you're excluding most of the middle of the US, but that's mostly excluded as being conservative anyway (university towns excluded).
I take it you're trying to narrow in on a location before looking for employment? Generally speaking, it sounds like you want to be in CA, NV, NM or FL. Don't you agree? Why not look at the universities in each of those states and see if any of those towns/areas look appealing... and check for employment and crime/demographics while you're at it.
One place that comes to mind is Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, NC. I'm not overly familiar with the area, but it's probably worth checking it out. Sounds like it's in the ballpark.
There's no such thing as an ideal place, with ideal weather, with jobs that pay decently, that's cheap to live in.
Start checking ads on Craigslist in areas you're interested in, where you can get a job and then do the math on how much you can make - by checking the government jobs in that town which show salaries online, usually - and see how much it costs to rent there - and then see if you can make the two work for you.
But, you're going to have to do some serious research on your own, and figure out what you're willing to compromise on, because you'll have to compromise for sure.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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seems like you make a list with your MUSTS / Highly desired, and a 'weighted' spreadsheet and fill in the blanks.
You are well on your way:
... a University or teaching hospital. (High to very high priority) Doesn’t get in the teens or below freezing. (no) freezing cold, rainy, windy weather.(This is an absolute requirement)
Gonna be the south if in USA.
Auburn, AL is pretty nice,
Greenville, SC
and Greeneville / NE TN (but gonna freeze there on occasion)
Sounds like quite a list! AceQueenJacqueline
If I was under age 31... NZ would be HIGH on my list
many places international are a great choice! (And will really help your future resume / wage / assignments / career / personal / arts / social growth. )
It would have been SO much easier without kids, and even easier without spouse. but it was ALWAYS worth it, tho a LOT of effort / time invested.
One place that comes to mind is Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, NC. I'm not overly familiar with the area, but it's probably worth checking it out. Sounds like it's in the ballpark.
Freezes and snows there pretty much every winter. You get freezing temps all the way down to Atlanta every year. Else I would have said Charlotte, NC or Greenville, SC ~ but the weather precludes those too. Heck, I'm about 2 hours south of Atlanta, about an hour from Auburn, AL, and it's the rare year we don't get hard freezing where I need to cover sensitive plants. We had snow 4 times this last winter, though that's a tad unusual.
I am a 23 year old woman, and in a couple years I want to move out of Texas. I am having trouble finding a place that fits my criteria. It seems like all liberal states are expensive and freezing in the winter.
Here is what I am looking for:
...
Thank you!!!
Sooo....
One would assume that your first constraint would be finding work, right? The offers constrain the location? I thought the complainers on Work and Employment say it is difficult to impossible to find a remote positoin these days? I wouldn't know, Tech hires nationally and internationally around here (Seattle) for talent, but that's not your field.
Liberal or progressive, hmm. Yeah, I suppose I get it, as I vaguely consider retirement in Coeur d'Alene, some years from now, for the complete opposite reason: to put as much distance as humanly possible between me and "diversity" and similar. All in good time, I hope.
How about Santa Cruz or San Luis Obisbo, CA? Nice places, both, other than the "homeless" vagrants who drift around and the cops who can't or won't run them out. Neither is "affordable" of course; nothing is that has decent climate and opportunity. Both have major universities nearby.
I'd also say Santa Barbara, Uni being UCB over in Goleta, but that's way over the top in terms of expense. The far Left still runs the town, though, at least in some matters. The millionaire LA transplants who can afford to live there and still hold such ideas, i.e. I have a couple wealthy pals there who live in the real world, and the police quietly deal with vagrancy the way they should: ejection, and / or arrest.
I'd recommend my home, Eastside Seattle, but does not conform to most of your check boxes. Thank God the state is sufficiently Libertarian to mandate Shall Issue on CCW permits, so "safe" isn't a problem if bums are dead-convinced you'll put a revolver into their guys and pull the trigger if they screw with you. Other crazed ideas lurk under the surface, mostly from moms and people working with bums and vagrants (though they eventually wise-up), but few who live in the real world can afford to hold insane ideas about economics and actually earn enough to afford living here. Economic theory strikes again!
Affordable for recent grad starting a job in social work. I suspect I will be making between 40i and 60k a year (this is an absolute requirement)
Based on this statement I have to assume we're either dealing with a spammer or someone completely out of touch with reality.
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