Best Place You've Ever Lived? (condo, crime rate, mortgage)

[Champ le monstre du lac]

I've lived in..

Newburyport, MA
Salem, MA
Seattle, WA
Santa Fe, NM
Albuquerque, NM

Possible things you can comment on:

Food: Seattle, big enough city to find every kind of food, excells at seafood and Thai food which is among my favorites. but also the produce locally grown around the west coast is the best. I miss Pike Market

Traffic: Worst traffic? Salem being within metro Boston where traffic is attrocious, I hated it.

Rent/mortgage cost: Albuquerque has a very resonable cost of living. The rest were fairly expensive but doable. The quality of the homes that are attainable within my income go much further in Albuquerque.

Taxes: They'll get you one way or another pretty much anywhere. If I had to say what was the best tax staructure I'll go with WA. They had high sales taxes in Seattle but no state income tax. I prefer to pay voluntary taxes over involutary ones.

Roads/construction: ABQ has excellent roads and freeways. Seattle's are OK, Massachusetts has sh**ty and attrocious roads and infrastructue.

Businesses (local vs corporate): Seattle mostly, but I love downtown Salem, Newburyport, and also Santa Fe has a lot of great small busineses and restaraunts. ABQ not as much.

Attractions: Salem is cool, lots of museums, history, nice beaches on the outskirts and close to Boston. Santa Fe was pretty cool too, both draw in lots of tourists and very uniqie little cities with loads of history and character.

Weather: I love the weather in Albuquerque, abundant sunshine with seasonal changes but not too hot or too cold. Nearly perfect. I'll probably stay in the Southwest for a long time, I can't see myself living in the dreary and cold climates of New Engalnd or the Pacific Northwest again. Sunshine affects my well being, I feel pretty good here.

Crime: Haven't really been affected by it much so I won't characterize any of the cities as higher or lower crime as I've managed to avoid it for the most part in spite of what statistics might say.

Nature: Seattle by far for the combination of all the bodies of water, evergreen forests, and nearby mountains. I miss Newburyport, Mass the most for the sandy beaches on Plum Island. But Santa Fe & Albuquerque are great for for nature also as I love the colors, rock formations and mountainous landscapes of the high desert. Right now I live 3 miles up the road from trailheads at the base of the Sandia Mountains and that is fantastic. Definitely the closest I've been to such a natural superlative.

City-scene: Seattle is my favorite for urban ammenities. Big walkable city with a very urban downtown but still plenty of elbow room and lots of beautiful trees in the surrounding neighborhoods, kinda urban/suburban hybrid but not sprawly. For a city layout it's not too dense or sprawly in the Goldilochs sense.

Best one I've ever lived? Can't sum it up in one place, I'll just say which ever one I'm living in at the time. I love them all and I miss the ones (even pine for them at times) I use to live in for different reasons though very content with where I am now.

[takuriver]

Juneau. Really love it here. I grew up in the South and moved here sight unseen just for a change about 18 years ago and it's home. Coastal town, mountainous, glaciers, and just enough of a sense of isolation to feel real cozy. Winters are a tad too mild for my taste but we still get quite a bit of snow, but do have occasional thawing spells and even rain

[KathrynAragon]

Hmmmm. Let's see - I've lived in New Orleans LA, San Francisco CA, Knoxville TN, Yokohama Japan, Groveport OH, Norfolk and Newport News VA, Phenix City AL, Columbus and Fortson GA, Fayetteville NC, Abingdon Maryland, Copperas Cove TX, Aschaffenburg Germany, Clemson SC, southwest Arkansas, and finally Kilgore and Tyler TX.

I am pretty sure I've left some places out.

Anyway, out of all those places, I have three favorites. They are the Chesapeake Bay area of Virginia (and Maryland), Germany (Bavaria to be exact), and east Texas.

For each:

Chesapeake Bay Area:

food - Fantastic seafood and also terrific southern cuisine.
traffic - terrible on the major roads, but the rolling countryside is not too far away to get to and relax in
rent/mortgage cost - very high
taxes - fairly high
roads/construction - overall, good roads, but often ongoing construction due to congestion and heavy traffic on major thoroughfares
businesses (local vs corporate) - lots of suburban sprawl and chains, but also many locally owned businesses as well
attractions - CANNOT BE BEAT - the Bay, quaint villages and towns, the Historic Triange of Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown, beaches galore including Virginia Beach, natural reserves, rivers, so many historical landmarks that I can't name them all - it's an amazing area.
weather - Four seasons. I really like the weather there. Gentle springs, lush and long summers, gorgeous autumns, and appropriately blustery winters
crime - highish in city centers, moderate overall
nature - Nature's showcase! The bay and rivers and ocean are amazing. Beautiful farmland and nature reserves. Absolutely gorgeous.
city-scene - Something happening all the time. Close proximity to DC, Philly, even NYC.

Aschaffenburg, Germany:

food - I love German food but it CAN get monotanous after awhile. However, I never got tired of German breads, cheeses, and pastries! Also, they have the concept of outdoor cafes and coffee shops down pat!
traffic - pretty bad on smaller roads and through city centers, good autobahn system though
rent/mortgage cost - extremely high cost of living overall. nearly impossible to actually buy an affordable home.
taxes - very high
roads/construction - roads very well maintained but LOTS of ongoing construction - all the time.
businesses (local vs corporate) - a few chains but predominately locally owned businesses. Loved shopping there.
attractions - Too many to name! Castles, cathedrals, concentration camps -the three German Cs. Unbelievable history and breathtakingly beautiful villages, mountain vistas, and countryside. One of the most beautiful places on earth.
weather - Nice summers with lovely long evenings, rainy springs and autumns (but gentle rain, with nice mild days interspersed), and very cold winters with significant snowfall.
crime - extremely low
nature - breathtaking, clean, well protected
city-scene - vibrant, lots of festivals and art events

East Texas:
food - some of the best in the world. A great mixture of authentic offerings - Tex Mex, Southern, "soul food," and Cajun dominate the food scene, but there are lots of authentic ethnic restaurants locally, such as Thai, Vietnamese, Mediterranean, Italian, Korean, Japanese, etc.

traffic - not bad at all - laid back

rent/mortgage cost - very low. Affordable housing is everywhere. My husband and I currently live in a home that would be triple the cost on either the west or east coast - basically living in the lap of luxury with every amenity at our fingertips.

taxes - no state income tax, moderate property taxes

roads/construction - well maintained, some construction but not bad

businesses (local vs corporate) - lots of chains, but growing emphasis on local business development and "shopping local" - resurgence of small town centers with many locally owned businesses, due in part to many successful "Main Street" projects

attractions - many beautiful lakes and state parks, lots of charming small towns filled with antique and junk shops, close proximity to several large cities such as Dallas/Fort Worth, Shreveport LA (casinos), Austin/San Antonio and the central Texas Hill Country which is amazing.

weather - beautiful mild, pleasant and mostly sunny winters, lovely springs and autumns, though there can be some pretty spectacular storms during the late spring and early summer, and long, hot, dry summers (that's what air conditioning is for!).

crime - outside urban areas, it's low, though there is a growing meth problem

nature - Green, rolling hills (that's right - NOT desert and cacti!), lots of trees including pine and oak, beautiful farms, lots of livestock and horse farms, many very well maintained and lovely lakes and rivers (lots of water sports)

city-scene 0- D/FW and Austin have a very vibrant city scene.

I love these three locales and would gladly live in any of them for the rest of my life.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by coffee_drinker62

Your post helps me look forward to my move to Missouri glamatomic, I wont be moving to St Louis, but I wont be far from it ether. St Louis and Kansas City are good cities.

I prefer the mentality and culture of St. Louis to KC. KC has a strange personality to it and the social culture there is odd for a larger metro. KC is very suburban oriented and many people live in an insulated bubble.

[dalparadise]

I have lived in Houston, Dallas and San Francisco.

food: San Francisco is my favorite, by a long shot. Everything, from high end to cheap street food is outstanding. Locals take pride in locally-sourced ingredients and fresh preparation. Even basic burger joints offer range-raised elk burgers, for instance, among high quality grass-fed beef, AMAZING produce and more. Chefs are world-famous and many offer multiple outlets to test their creativity. The influence from Wine Country also plays a major role. People travel to this city just to eat.

Houston had a nice restaurant scene and I almost never found a bad meal there, but it is vastly overrated by its boosters. There are very good ethnic and regional options in Houston, but overall, creativity is lacking compared to food centers like NYC, SF, LA and Chicago, in my experience.

Dallas was terrible in comparison to SF and Houston and seemed more geared to tourists tastes in most places I tried, meaning restaurants lacked a critical regionalism and sense of creativity that would have defined a Dallas style.

traffic San Francisco traffic is quite good in the City. In the East and South Bay areas, it's a different story. I live and work in SF and take public transportation, so I don't have to worry about it though. Houston traffic always seemed bad, but for the volume of cars they move, they do a great job. Same with Dallas, though its spread-out (DFW) layout means you always seem to be about 30 minutes away from wherever you need to be in DFW.

rent/mortgage cost Houston wins this easily. Dallas is good, too. SF is terrible, but the intangibles that come with living in this city make it worth it.

taxes Everyone knows about California taxes. Texas hides theirs in property taxes, though. It's not exactly a wash, but the lifestyle differences like transportation costs, utilities, pay, etc. tend to balance things out more than most would like to believe for people who don't have kids. If you have a family, yeah, Texas is a better place.

roads/construction In this regard, California is better designed. Texas is better built...which is to say it's newer.

businesses (local vs corporate) San Francisco loves local businesses. Locals go out of their way to patronize local places. Dallas and Houston are always grousing about which out-of-town-places they don't have or bragging about which city will "get" a place first. for instance, the only In-N-Out in SF proper (there are many throughout the Bay Area) is in the tourist part of town that is avoided by locals like the plague. No one seems to mind.

attractions SF is one of the best cities in the world for attractions and sightseeing. Dallas is not bad for attractions. Houston should be ashamed of itself in this regard.

weather San Francisco by a Texas mile. It is basically Spring followed by Fall. In between, there will be a few days of either Summer or slight Winter, but it's so nice here all the time that I don't even have AC in my apartment and only have a radiator for heat, which I negate by leaving my windows open year-round. Houston is next, with oppressive humidity, allergens and crappy air quality, but nice (though really short) Springs and Falls and mild Winters. Dallas has some of the worst weather I've heard of, with storms, ice, intense heat and heavy rain.

crime Not sure what the real stats are, but Dallas probably felt the safest of the three. SF in the city feels very safe, but vigilance is recommended in many areas and I find my "City Sense" tingling more than it ever did in Houston or Dallas. Houston seems like there is always something sketchy going on, but it is pretty easy to avoid it, in general.

nature San Francisco, naturally.

city-scene San Francisco by a wide margin. It's in another class than the other places I have lived. Dallas and Houston don't really feel like cities at all in comparison. Both seem more like the suburbs--more like the South Bay. That said, Houston trumps Dallas for my tastes. Dallas is just too spread out. It seems like this might be a good formula for owning a home, as the places far away from Dallas are still nicely developed and offer a lot of amenities -- more than comparable places in Houston, in my opinion. But, for living in and enjoying the city, Houston's centrality and layout seem to make it a more enjoyable place overall.

So, I guess my favorite is San Francisco. I have traveled quite extensively and I would go so far as to say it is among the top 3-4 places in the world I would like to live and easily my favorite in the US.

[tsmw47]

Asheville. NC - Great outdoor opportunities with beautiful scenery, climate is good with 4 seasons, wonderful autumn color but summer somewhat humid. Good restaurants, vegetarian friendly, super dog friendly, progressive politically, variety of types ages of people only downside is lack of racial/ethnic diversity, walkable downtown with wonderful architecture.

Brownsville Oregon- quaint town with great community spirit, nice people, not far from Eugene which has many of same qualities as Asheville but substitute humid summers with grey winters. Haven't lived there in many years so may have changed hope not. State comparisons Oregon hands down!

[Lamplight]

I've only lived in two places.

1. Murfreesboro, TN. Hated it. There's no need to go into details since this is a thread about places we actually like.

2. Bellingham, WA.

Food: I don't eat out in restaurants very often, but I like the food I buy better than what I had in TN. The vegetables are fresher, there are a lot more local products available, and the deli at my neighborhood grocery store is fantastic.

Traffic: I don't own a car so it's not easy for me to comment on the traffic, but my impression is that it can be heavy but it's not exactly terrible. Drivers are slower here and much more attentive. I still see people doing stupid things, but not nearly as often. There are also a LOT more cyclists and pedestrians, which is one of the things I love about my town.

Rent/mortgage cost: Rent is a little high for a town this size, but not horrible. Home prices are fairly high, but that doesn't really affect me.

Taxes: The only tax I pay is sales tax, and it's high. It's also the same as it was in my hometown, so I'm used to it.

Roads/construction: Since I don't drive it's hard for me to compare the roads to those in TN, but they seem a little worse here. Not sure about construction. There are a lot more bike lanes, trails, sidewalks, and just pedestrian and cycling infrastructure in general.

Businesses (local vs corporate): A little of both. There do seem to be a lot more small, locally owned businesses here. But there's no shortage of big box stores, too.

Attractions: Not really sure what to write here. To me, nature and scenery are attractions, and there's a seperate listing for that.

Weather: 40-55, cloudy, damp in the winter. Sunny, low humidity, and rarely over 75 in the summer. Five to ten degrees cooler in the summer and it would be absolutely perfect.

Crime: Seems to be more property crime than my hometown, but less violent crime. Overall I've never felt unsafe here.

Nature: Pretty much incredible. I've spent more time outdoors here in the last year than I did in ten years in TN. I've also taken thousands of pictures because there's actually stuff worth taking pictures of.

City-scene: Not sure what you mean by this.

[bchris02]

Charlotte from 2009 to the summer of 2012. Unfortunately I have never had the opportunity to live in one of cool, hip cities like Austin, Seattle, Portland, etc.

[20yrsinBranson]

Originally Posted by drzafi8v

What's the best place you have ever lived and why? I'm just interested to see everyone's opinions of what they liked about where they moved.

Possible things you can comment on:
food
traffic
rent/mortgage cost
taxes
roads/construction
businesses (local vs corporate)
attractions
weather
crime
nature
city-scene

and anything else!

This is a terribly hard question to answer.

For me, the best place I have ever lived is a tie between New Orleans and Corpus Christi, Texas.

Corpus for the beach, 'nuff said.

New Orleans for everything else except the "minority element" which I did not like *at all*. Yes, there were minorities in Corpus, but they were hispanic and I never felt threatened. I have not been to New Orleans after Katrina, and I expect it has improved somewhat, but even so, as much as I loved the place, I'd never go back.

20yrsinBranson

[ExNooYawk]

I've lived in:

Westchester County, NY
Long Island, NY
NYC
Weston, Ct
Wilton, CT
Nassau, Bahamas
Thousand Oaks, CA
Ashland, Oregon (present locale).

My favorite place was Thousand Oaks. California is a great place to live, if you find the right place. We are retired now and CA is not very hospitable to retirees, so we are in Oregon. We like it here and love visiting Portland. Portland has everything.