Looking for some city suggestions (fit in, chapel, job market)
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Okay, this is going to be yet another one of those "looking for a place to move" threads, but I would really appreciate some help if any of you have a second.
We are willing to go pretty much anywhere. Any number of suggestions are welcome, as we will have to secure employment in an area before going there.
Good Job Market. My husband hasn't figured out what he wants to do with life career-wise (working on it now), so just a general picture of low unemployment will have to do. He speaks Spanish pretty well, so areas that require that are fine. There are a few government jobs that he is interested in if he can become more qualified, so being within 1-2 hours of a larger city could be helpful. We also have a child who needs regular specialist visits and occasional surgeries, so a decent hospital within an hour or so would be nice.
GREAT schools. We have three young children. We may not have much, but we want them to have the best education we can manage. This one is pretty important to me. (Public or charter schools only. There is no way we could afford private school). Language immersion programs are a plus but definitely not a necessity as that could severely limit our options. (I already have the full list of immersion programs in the country, so no need to research that).
Affordability: Because my husband's jobs are likely to be somewhat entry level in the beginning, we are hoping to find somewhere we can get by on less. We are coming from Southern California, and just can't make it here. At or below the national average for cost of living, particularly in housing/rent, is looking pretty darn good.
Not insane crime. (maybe score of "6/10" or below on the index?) We live in the Inland Empire (CA) and are hoping to not move somewhere more dangerous than where we already are, but it doesn't have to be squeaky-clean.
City size: small-moderate. We don't needs miles of land, but definitely would prefer to NOT be packed like sardines. LA, New York, etc- not for us at all. My husband HATES traffic and long (2 hours+) commutes, which he deals with daily now.
Not Required but nice:
Weather: We grew up in warmer climate. We lived in Utah Valley for 5 years, and the weather was just fine. (Husband didn't really love Utah Valley culture, so that's probably not a place we'll be headed to). Could easily have gone a bit colder than there. We like seasons, but don't love masses of snow and long, cold, dark winters. That said, if Minnesota has everything else we are looking for, we will take the hit in the weather department and go there, but if we are choosing between two equivalent places and one is not freezing more than half the year, we'll go warmer.
Mountains: We really enjoy camping and hiking, so mountains are a plus. Husband enjoys a little bit of hunting. Again, we will totally sacrifice both of these if we can find a great place otherwise.
About us: We are fairly conservative. I don't think that's hugely important as we get along fine with everyone, but maybe we wouldn't fit in in an ultra-liberal area?
Anything I can be more specific on?
Last edited by wanderin; 09-05-2012 at 10:10 AM..
Reason: typo
I'd say areas of the Interior Northeast(think western MA, much of PA, Upstate NY, etc) and Midwest that fit the criteria, minus weather. Perhaps western VA or NC, parts of WV(Morgantown, eastern Panhandle, etc.), eastern KY close to Lexington and eastern TN around Knoxville.
Last edited by ckhthankgod; 09-05-2012 at 11:09 AM..
Hard to figure out a place w/o some idea of work or budget, but my first thought is some of the cities of NC, like Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, or out in the more montainous west, Asheville though I'm not sure of the hospitals in that part of the state). Othersiwe, I think they'd all meet your requirements. Of course you'd have to check out the particular school districts.
Further south and maybe a bit more expensive, depending on exactly where you lived, might be Atlanta, especailly some of its 'burbs, which tend to have better school systems than the city itself.
Further north and I'd look at Baltimore County (not the city itself), which has a reasonable COL, moderate weather, good schools, and access to the DC job market. It would not be a two hour commute to DC either.
There is no reason to pay Asheville prices and deal with that tight job market if you don't require the hippie vibe. Plenty of southeastern cities with a wider spectrum of politics and lifestyle. All of them (besides Asheville) are pretty affordable. I think it will come down to schools and job opportunities.
I usually point people who want a conservative community to Cleveland TN outside Chattanooga.
Thanks to everyone so far. As far as jobs: My husband has a bachelors in Spanish Translation. He doesn't love it. His original intent was to work for the FBI, but that didn't work out (he can try again, but I'm really not counting on it). He put himself through college with construction and property management and is installing commercial audiovisual equipment now. He doesn't enjoy manual labor, but since he has experience in it, he can usually find jobs in it.
He went through police academy and did very well, got hired out of a huge pool, and discovered he just isn't cut out for it. Not aggressive enough with people for his final FTO (but was fantastic in every other way). He also realized that he got tired of feeling like he was hurting people every single day (which he was- it's a busy department). He has a martial arts background and his dream job was teaching defensive tactics to gov/law enforcement, but it seems like you can only enter that field after being a police officer for several years, so I think that route is out now.
Physical therapy (he has some interest in healthcare), FBI, counterterrorism, etc. all still hold some appeal, but he really just doesn't know what route to take in life anymore. He doesn't mind doing paperwork, but enjoys physically doing things more. He likes to feel that he is genuinely helping other people. He wants to be able to support his family. He is much more of a hands-on learner than he is academic, but still performs well in school and will go back to school if we find something we think will work out. As for as personality, he gets along with everyone, but definitely isn't an extrovert. We are doing as much research as we can. As you can see, the job info prob isn't too helpful until we make some decisions : )
Okay, this is going to be yet another one of those "looking for a place to move" threads, but I would really appreciate some help if any of you have a second.
We are willing to go pretty much anywhere. Any number of suggestions are welcome, as we will have to secure employment in an area before going there.
Good Job Market. My husband hasn't figured out what he wants to do with life career-wise (working on it now), so just a general picture of low unemployment will have to do. He speaks Spanish pretty well, so areas that require that are fine. There are a few government jobs that he is interested in if he can become more qualified, so being within 1-2 hours of a larger city could be helpful. We also have a child who needs regular specialist visits and occasional surgeries, so a decent hospital within an hour or so would be nice.
GREAT schools. We have three young children. We may not have much, but we want them to have the best education we can manage. This one is pretty important to me. (Public or charter schools only. There is no way we could afford private school). Language immersion programs are a plus but definitely not a necessity as that could severely limit our options. (I already have the full list of immersion programs in the country, so no need to research that).
Affordability: Because my husband's jobs are likely to be somewhat entry level in the beginning, we are hoping to find somewhere we can get by on less. We are coming from Southern California, and just can't make it here. At or below the national average for cost of living, particularly in housing/rent, is looking pretty darn good.
Not insane crime. (maybe score of "6/10" or below on the index?) We live in the Inland Empire (CA) and are hoping to not move somewhere more dangerous than where we already are, but it doesn't have to be squeaky-clean.
City size: small-moderate. We don't needs miles of land, but definitely would prefer to NOT be packed like sardines. LA, New York, etc- not for us at all. My husband HATES traffic and long (2 hours+) commutes, which he deals with daily now.
Not Required but nice:
Weather: We grew up in warmer climate. We lived in Utah Valley for 5 years, and the weather was just fine. (Husband didn't really love Utah Valley culture, so that's probably not a place we'll be headed to). Could easily have gone a bit colder than there. We like seasons, but don't love masses of snow and long, cold, dark winters. That said, if Minnesota has everything else we are looking for, we will take the hit in the weather department and go there, but if we are choosing between two equivalent places and one is not freezing more than half the year, we'll go warmer.
Mountains: We really enjoy camping and hiking, so mountains are a plus. Husband enjoys a little bit of hunting. Again, we will totally sacrifice both of these if we can find a great place otherwise.
About us: We are fairly conservative. I don't think that's hugely important as we get along fine with everyone, but maybe we wouldn't fit in in an ultra-liberal area?
Anything I can be more specific on?
Check out the I-81 corridor in Virginia and NE Tennessee...(Charlottesville/Waynesboro/Staunton VA, Winchester/Strasburg/Front Royal VA, Harrisonburg VA, Roanoke VA, Blacksburg/Christiansburg/Radford VA and Johnson City/Kingsport TN.
Of that group the college towns would be your best bet in my opinion, which are Charlottesville (University of Virginia), Harrisonburg (James Madison University), Blacksburg (Virginia Tech) and Johnson City (East Tennessee State University) as they tend to have the best public school options (and overall higher educated populations that demand and support quality public education), more cultural amenities/things to do and economic conditions much less prone to decline.
Okay, this is going to be yet another one of those "looking for a place to move" threads, but I would really appreciate some help if any of you have a second.
We are willing to go pretty much anywhere. Any number of suggestions are welcome, as we will have to secure employment in an area before going there.
Good Job Market. My husband hasn't figured out what he wants to do with life career-wise (working on it now), so just a general picture of low unemployment will have to do. He speaks Spanish pretty well, so areas that require that are fine. There are a few government jobs that he is interested in if he can become more qualified, so being within 1-2 hours of a larger city could be helpful. We also have a child who needs regular specialist visits and occasional surgeries, so a decent hospital within an hour or so would be nice.
GREAT schools. We have three young children. We may not have much, but we want them to have the best education we can manage. This one is pretty important to me. (Public or charter schools only. There is no way we could afford private school). Language immersion programs are a plus but definitely not a necessity as that could severely limit our options. (I already have the full list of immersion programs in the country, so no need to research that).
Affordability: Because my husband's jobs are likely to be somewhat entry level in the beginning, we are hoping to find somewhere we can get by on less. We are coming from Southern California, and just can't make it here. At or below the national average for cost of living, particularly in housing/rent, is looking pretty darn good.
Not insane crime. (maybe score of "6/10" or below on the index?) We live in the Inland Empire (CA) and are hoping to not move somewhere more dangerous than where we already are, but it doesn't have to be squeaky-clean.
City size: small-moderate. We don't needs miles of land, but definitely would prefer to NOT be packed like sardines. LA, New York, etc- not for us at all. My husband HATES traffic and long (2 hours+) commutes, which he deals with daily now.
Not Required but nice:
Weather: We grew up in warmer climate. We lived in Utah Valley for 5 years, and the weather was just fine. (Husband didn't really love Utah Valley culture, so that's probably not a place we'll be headed to). Could easily have gone a bit colder than there. We like seasons, but don't love masses of snow and long, cold, dark winters. That said, if Minnesota has everything else we are looking for, we will take the hit in the weather department and go there, but if we are choosing between two equivalent places and one is not freezing more than half the year, we'll go warmer.
Mountains: We really enjoy camping and hiking, so mountains are a plus. Husband enjoys a little bit of hunting. Again, we will totally sacrifice both of these if we can find a great place otherwise.
About us: We are fairly conservative. I don't think that's hugely important as we get along fine with everyone, but maybe we wouldn't fit in in an ultra-liberal area?
Anything I can be more specific on?
Texas sounds like it would be the best fit. I would probably say somewhere in the Texas Triangle.
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