Very conflicted on where I want to go? (living, best, cost)
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I've posted in this forum about a thousand times and maybe I'm just crazy but I cannot decide where I want to live!
Early 20s, HATES the cold, not insanely liberal (SF, Portland, etc. however I live in NY so I can somewhat tolerate it), and good for health care jobs.
I've considered basically all of Florida, San Diego, Phoenix, Houston, Dallas and Atlanta.
Which do you think would be a good option and why? Thanks!
Atlanta. It's a good balance of slightly left but not extremely liberal and is a young city population-wise with a thriving economy, a decent cost of living where you won't be sweating out an existence and enough of a four season climate (short/mild winters, nice fall and spring) to not make you go crazy with "all summer, all the time" like most of your other options. Also salaries are competitive in Atlanta versus here in Florida for instance where they're well below the national average and the cost of living in no longer cheap like it used to be.
I've posted in this forum about a thousand times and maybe I'm just crazy but I cannot decide where I want to live!
Early 20s, HATES the cold, not insanely liberal (SF, Portland, etc. however I live in NY so I can somewhat tolerate it), and good for health care jobs.
I've considered basically all of Florida, San Diego, Phoenix, Houston, Dallas and Atlanta.
Which do you think would be a good option and why? Thanks!
Being from New York Atlanta might be a better fit, similar culture. People from the east coast get culture shock when they go to the west coast. And Atlanta > Florida for quality of life.
I love Phoenix and San Diego, but you got to get used to the west coast mentality.
And Texas is Texas, you have to live in Texas to understand, you either love it or hate it, I didn't care for it.
Being from New York Atlanta might be a better fit, similar culture. People from the east coast get culture shock when they go to the west coast. And Atlanta > Florida for quality of life.
I love Phoenix and San Diego, but you got to get used to the west coast mentality.
And Texas is Texas, you have to live in Texas to understand, you either love it or hate it, I didn't care for it.
I can say I wouldn't mind the west coast mentality. Sometimes I get very tired of the constant "rat race" feel of all the big east coast cities like New York, DC, etc. I feel like it wouldn't be as rat racy in ATL because it is a southern city and not as cramed as NY, but you are right the adjustment to the lifestyle would probably be better.
That's a pretty vague statement don't you think? Maybe there's a reason why Florida's population is more than double Georgia's, and is growing at a much, much faster pace.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kyle19125
Atlanta. It's a good balance of slightly left but not extremely liberal and is a young city population-wise with a thriving economy, a decent cost of living where you won't be sweating out an existence and enough of a four season climate (short/mild winters, nice fall and spring) to not make you go crazy with "all summer, all the time" like most of your other options. Also salaries are competitive in Atlanta versus here in Florida for instance where they're well below the national average and the cost of living in no longer cheap like it used to be.
This link below says Florida's median household income is only $1700 less than Georgia's, and thats before state income taxes. It says Florida's per capita income is $1000 more than Georgia's also.
The next link shows the Miami metro having a personal income of $49,000, while the Atlanta metro shows $45,000. It shows the Atlanta metro income growing at a slower rate than the Miami metro income. The OP also said they're job is in the healthcare industry, and Florida, let alone South Florida, is one of the best places in the U.S. for that job industry. The OP said they hate the cold, and Atlanta definitely gets cold.
I've posted in this forum about a thousand times and maybe I'm just crazy but I cannot decide where I want to live!
Early 20s, HATES the cold, not insanely liberal (SF, Portland, etc. however I live in NY so I can somewhat tolerate it), and good for health care jobs.
I've considered basically all of Florida, San Diego, Phoenix, Houston, Dallas and Atlanta.
Which do you think would be a good option and why? Thanks!
You might want to think more about just liberal or conservative and having good healthcare jobs. You might think that's all you care about but I can attest to the constant "comparisons to home" people make after the relocate to my hometown of Phoenix that go well beyond just those 2 basic things.
So, my advice, think about what you like about where you live day in and day out. How important is it to have lakes/rivers/streams nearby, what about trees and big canopy of green do you care or not? How about mountains, would living around mountains and taking up hiking/mountain biking be of interest or not? Do you like having snow in the winter or will you not miss it at all, a lot of people seem to struggle with less seasonal variation here then in their hometown. How about things to do do? Sports, culture, arts, urban lifestyles what else is important to you?
A lot of cities have good healthcare jobs, it's a growing industry and usually in demand in almost every sunbelt city, Phoenix included. But whether you realize it or not that's not the only thing you'll care about once you actually relocate, so think about things a little more thoroughly and that will probably help make the decision easier. None of us can answer these things for you but as someone who left my hometown at 21 and took on what has now been my new hometown for 13 years I can tell you these things will matter and think it through in more detail.
Phoenix could be a good fit for you but you do need to think about how much different it will be. Instead of trees we have cacti and other desert landscaping (although the neighborhoods themselves are pretty well tree-lined, still not like east coast standards). Our main outdoor season is Oct-May (or so). It can be 100 or close to it as early as March and as late as October, but the evenings are almost always nice minus the hottest part of the year. We have a lot of variation in our state, you can go from snow covered mountains to sun bathed deserts within a few hours, nowhere out East has anything close to the variation of the West. Our mountains and outdoor activities dominate a lot of people's lives here, we love being outdoors and you'll find meetup groups, magazines, and even newscasts talking of outdoor events taking place just about every week.
You'll want to learn as much as you can about your possible new cities before you commit, you're not going to know what side of town is good, you won't know where you'll meet friends or find hobbies you like, so think about temporary living arrangements before you commit to buying or long term rental contracts. get to know a place and what you like and don't be afraid to try to do things different then most, for example in Phoenix most people move to the suburbs like Scottsdale or Gilbert or Mesa but downtown Phoenix is growing like crazy and presents an opportunity to live in a big city environment for a fraction of the cost of most other major cities in the US.
Anyways, that's probably way more info then you were looking for, but you've got to do some digging to find something that fits you and just having a job and a political environment you can stand is definitely not enough to decide if a place suits you.
You might want to think more about just liberal or conservative and having good healthcare jobs. You might think that's all you care about but I can attest to the constant "comparisons to home" people make after the relocate to my hometown of Phoenix that go well beyond just those 2 basic things.
So, my advice, think about what you like about where you live day in and day out. How important is it to have lakes/rivers/streams nearby, what about trees and big canopy of green do you care or not? How about mountains, would living around mountains and taking up hiking/mountain biking be of interest or not? Do you like having snow in the winter or will you not miss it at all, a lot of people seem to struggle with less seasonal variation here then in their hometown. How about things to do do? Sports, culture, arts, urban lifestyles what else is important to you?
A lot of cities have good healthcare jobs, it's a growing industry and usually in demand in almost every sunbelt city, Phoenix included. But whether you realize it or not that's not the only thing you'll care about once you actually relocate, so think about things a little more thoroughly and that will probably help make the decision easier. None of us can answer these things for you but as someone who left my hometown at 21 and took on what has now been my new hometown for 13 years I can tell you these things will matter and think it through in more detail.
Phoenix could be a good fit for you but you do need to think about how much different it will be. Instead of trees we have cacti and other desert landscaping (although the neighborhoods themselves are pretty well tree-lined, still not like east coast standards). Our main outdoor season is Oct-May (or so). It can be 100 or close to it as early as March and as late as October, but the evenings are almost always nice minus the hottest part of the year. We have a lot of variation in our state, you can go from snow covered mountains to sun bathed deserts within a few hours, nowhere out East has anything close to the variation of the West. Our mountains and outdoor activities dominate a lot of people's lives here, we love being outdoors and you'll find meetup groups, magazines, and even newscasts talking of outdoor events taking place just about every week.
You'll want to learn as much as you can about your possible new cities before you commit, you're not going to know what side of town is good, you won't know where you'll meet friends or find hobbies you like, so think about temporary living arrangements before you commit to buying or long term rental contracts. get to know a place and what you like and don't be afraid to try to do things different then most, for example in Phoenix most people move to the suburbs like Scottsdale or Gilbert or Mesa but downtown Phoenix is growing like crazy and presents an opportunity to live in a big city environment for a fraction of the cost of most other major cities in the US.
Anyways, that's probably way more info then you were looking for, but you've got to do some digging to find something that fits you and just having a job and a political environment you can stand is definitely not enough to decide if a place suits you.
Thanks for the feedback! You make a good point, however, I don't have much of a preference between lush vs desert landscape, I could adapt to both as I think both are beautiful. I'd prefer to be near the beach, however, I'd take Phoenix into consideration because the state of Arizona in general is stunning to me, and has palm trees which in my book is a HUGE plus.
I also don't like the change of seasons, I hate how cold/brisk weather makes me sick, tons of allergies and I hate hate hate spending money on cold weather clothes, shoveling, etc. I would be 100% fine living in a hot climate year round
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