Wisconsin, maybe.....

[ekg56]

I am from Chicago and find the prices much cheaper in WI. Houses. taxes and groceries are all less then Chicago.

[escapetacoma]

Originally Posted by Signora

I just moved to Wausau this past summer and we have had a completely different experience from bettyboopster, though I totally understand how that can happen as everything depends on where you end up and personal preferences.

Yep, our experiences here in Waupun have been very good. It's been easy to meet people and they've been friendly and welcoming. The pace of life is much slower here, which has taken a little getting used to but it's a wonderful change from Tacoma.

I'm sure that there are areas of the state that have a much higher cost of living than where we're at and there are parts of the country that have a much lower cost of living than Waupun. What we end up comparing it to is where we lived before and the general cost of living is much lower here - particularly housing.

While the property tax rate is very high the values that the tax is applied to are so much lower that we figure it to be a good deal. We pay about the same property taxes as we'd be paying on our old place in Tacoma - the difference is that the place we're in now is approaching twice as large and much, much nicer than the one we left.

This is not to say that Wisconsin is for everyone. Taxes here relative to income are much higher than they are in most states, so if you're vehemently anti-tax then this is not the place to be. This winter has been pretty severe where we're at - at least from the snowfall standpoint - so people with an allergy to the cold or snow might not be well served moving here. Summer's will be muggier than much of the more arid west. Driving drunk seems to be considered a sport around here

[susancruzs]

I'm surprised that someone goes from Wisc. to Illinois to shop that is a new one on me.

Living in NE Illinois everyone I worked with (myself included) shopped in Wisconsin instead of Illinois seeing as we were less than 10 miles from the state line.

I was worried with everyone telling me don't go to Wisconsin you can't afford it, I just don't see where it is so expensive compared to Illinois. I am paying less to live here than I was in Illinois and that's including the fact Wisc. deducts from my pension. The utilities are quite a bit less that is for sure.

Electricity skyrocketed in Illinois once they took off the freeze on rates and I had an all electric place, not fun in terms of bills. I'd much rather be here Two Rivers is a great town.

[Tennesseestorm]

My uncles wife has relatives in Appleton, Wisconsin and at one point, they thought about moving there from here (northeast Tennessee), but the winters were just to harsh for them. Waaaah.

I would love to visit there someday, but I do not think I could take the cold... its even too cold around here for me at times and we do not often drop below 20 or 25° for winter lows and we are in the northeastern part of the state in higher elevations. Snow, well we "normally" are supposed to get 12 inches per year on average, but over the past 10 years, we have been lucky to have seen 25 inches total in all of those years. We have only seen one dusting this year, but we have been as cold as 13° twice for lows and that about killed us, so no, I could not take the winters and someone from Georgia may want to be sure they are ready for the change. You can always bundle up though! We have friends that live in southern Minnesota and even they have not gotten used to the bitter cold winters... they actually move to southern Arizona in the winter!

Good luck with your move and have a safe trip back from Iraq!

[spieker]

I love the cold and the snow, but I grew up in WI. I'm actually planning on moving back there in a couple of months. For me, it's the heat and mosquito's I'm worried about. So I plan on living in a town (Sheboygan, Port Washington, etc) that is on Lake Michigan. I've heard the mosquito's are much less because of breeze that there usually is, and cooler for the same reason. Of course it's probably colder in the winter.