[Misty Panda]

Hello folks,

Hopefully someone can share some advice. We are looking for a new place for this point in our lives. Seems everyone is moving everywhere these days. We aren't set on any particular city or region, just floating the idea out.

Things we love and look for, tech centers (lots of tech geeks), very diverse people, real mom & pop shops everywhere, unusual restaurants, very low crime, excellent school system, excellent cost of living standard, a young-minded populous.

We would choose a quaint locally owned organic grocery over a supermarket, a real hometown hardware store over Home Depot or OSH, a m&p general store or wacky thrift store over Costco or Walmart. We want a place with "real" values not "showy" values. A city with a physically active outdoors scene would be very important, running, biking (good bike lanes), volleyball in the park or beach, many unusual places to take walks.

We aren't really interested in new developments, cookie-cutter tracts, McMansions, stripmalls, etc. We're looking for an older home (Bungalow or possibly Victorian) that would be outside of the downtown or historic districts, maybe even something a bit out in the countryside surrounded by other similar homes or open spaces and farmland.

Now that property values are dropping across the country things are looking more promising for buying something nice and getting good value. We aren't interested in overpaying, but we don't mind spending a very good amount.

Thank you and we look forward to your response.

[harry chickpea]

Geeze, don't want much, huh? I've got to be blunt here to make the point, so please don't take this personally. Step back and be a little more realistic. You probably know where the tech centers are. If you don't, just look up a few major corporate addresses like Citrix, IBM, Google, and the like. NONE of them will be in an area with an "excellent cost of living standard." You don't find high-end entrepenuers looking for masses of geeks in the hinterlands. You might find a small company that does, and is very successful, but the local Starbucks won't be overflowing with them.

Those bike lanes don't come cheap either, especially if they are located in municipal areas where the land prices are high. Older classy homes outside downtown and historic districts? That request flies in the face of the way that cities develop. Old homes clustered together in the core of a town, and newer homes had to build further away, which was a detriment before cars. You MIGHT stand a chance of finding a trolley park community that somehow has maintained intergity and has some older homes outside of a core, but don't hold your breath.

Try to modify your list and quantify how much you want different qualities in a community, and then list them in order of importance. Focus on the top three or four, and then hope that some of the others fall into place. Your current list of wants is just too self-contradictory and extensive to fit any real place.

[KoZmiC NinJa]

Pa or Jersey forums

[Misty Panda]

Thanks for the ideas.

Well we have most of the things on our list here where we live but were looking for a different place. We thought Vermont might be a good place to look since you seem to have a independent attitude and tend to oppose big box stores and overreaching development as much as we do.

Thanks KoZmiC, we'll check PA and NJ.

[goatwoodward]

Check out Burlington, VT: near enough IBM & sustains a computer gaming bar downtown, but not "overflowing" per se. Lots of Victorians, though most are in town, most of the older out-of-town houses are old farmhouses. We have a mix of corporate stores (Old Navy, Gap) and locally owned (too many to name, but includes a food co-op - City Market - and a locally owned hardware store). I don't think you're going to find a place that has the amenities you want without at least a few corporate-owned stores, but Burlington has enough options that you could buy mostly local if you prefer.

Oh, and there are a *lot* of outdoorsy types here. We're wedged between the Green Mountains and Lake Champlain so we have access to a lot of options. Hiking, biking, snowshoeing, skiing, kayaking, scuba... you name it...

[christoforest]

Hi Misty Panda,

I think New England, particularly Vermont, and maybe western Massachusetts are you best bets. New Jersey and Penssylvania are sprawlville, and have some of the worst air in the country.

I like Burlington VT area and the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts for what you are looking for