ISO Seattle-type city with better weather and cheaper houses (chapel, public schools)

[sarananda]

My husband, young son, and I are thinking about leaving Seattle, although there are many things we really like about this city. Can you suggest a place for us? We love the liberal, humorous, diverse culture of Seattle, and it's beautiful here, but the long, dark winters are becoming too depressing for us and houses are too expensive.

We're looking for:
- house under $300k
- mild winters, more sun than Seattle, prefer summers that aren't too hot (but I'd rather be hot than cold)
- easy access to nature
- good schools (esp. alternative type schools like Montessori or other progressive schools)
- liberal, educated people (we've always liked college towns)
- ok public transit would be nice
- medium sized - maybe 300-500k people
- within an hour or two of a larger city
- job prospects don't matter - we are self-employed and can work anywhere

We spent 15 years in the southeast before moving to Seattle 6 years ago. I'd be ok with going back to the SE (but not Asheville), although culturally I think we're more in tune with the west coast. Most of the midwest and Texas are out of the running for us.

Thanks for your insights!

[portlanderinOC]

I'd suggest Albuquerque. Also Medford, OR, could work if you'd like to stay within the PNW, but may be too small or conservative for you.
Since Asheville isn't an option, may I suggest Durham or Wilmington?

[TheseGoTo11]

Eugene has cheap housing and being 250 miles due south of Seattle, gets about 1/2 hour more daylight in the winter. It's a college town with a liberal, arty culture. Probably a good bet if cost of housing is your top priority.

If you'll trade some home price for winter light, Davis, CA. College town, and 70 miles from San Francisco.

East coast will be tougher to find these kinds of places, but you might like Charlottesville, VA. Unlike Davis and Eugene though, it's a liberal island surrounded by more rural, conservative areas, which will be true of any warm, southern college town. However, Charlottesville is just 2 hours from DC.

[kyle19125]

Originally Posted by sarananda

We're looking for:
- house under $300k
- mild winters, more sun than Seattle, prefer summers that aren't too hot (but I'd rather be hot than cold)
- easy access to nature
- good schools (esp. alternative type schools like Montessori or other progressive schools)
- liberal, educated people (we've always liked college towns)
- ok public transit would be nice
- medium sized - maybe 300-500k people
- within an hour or two of a larger city
- job prospects don't matter - we are self-employed and can work anywhere

I'd recommend Chapel Hill-Carrboro, NC which is part of the Raleigh-Durham CSA. The Durham-Chapel Hill MSA is the 4th most educated metro area in the US, with the neighboring Raleigh-Cary MSA coming in 10th. The Chapel Hill-Carrboro public schools aren't just good, they're excellent. The overall SAT score is 200 points higher than the national average and 92% of the district's graduating classes go on to college. Montessori education is quite popular in the area with several options to choose from. A very good transit system serves Chapel Hill and Carrboro, which is also fare-free! It's a beautiful area (largely wooded with gentle elevation changes) that has lots of hiking/bike friendly options such as the Duke Forest. The weather is pretty equally distributed between the four seasons, with milder winters. Summer can be hot and humid but is at it's worst usually around 4 weeks of extreme (around 90 or more with high humidity)...typically in late July/August.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

If you want more sun, you will have to get East of The Cascades.

I don't think any city is like Seattle. Portland is the only one even vaguely similar and it gets pretty much the same type of rainy weather.

Taos New Mexico might suit you, but I don't think you can get a house for 300K and the population is much smaller than you are looking for. The reason I suggest Taos is that it is very artsy.

Perhaps Santa Fe New Mexico would do it.

[sarananda]

Thanks for your suggestions! We lived about an hour from Chapel Hill, NC for many years and that area is at the top of our list, but we want to make sure we're not excluding any great areas that we just didn't know about, before we head back to NC. The grandparents will be thrilled if we go back to that area.

I will definitely check out some of these other areas and see if they can work for us.

Cheers!

[knucklehead_vol]

What about Chattanooga?

[natininja]

Your weather desires are sort of vague, but you convey that they are important (so there is some underlying specificity). What exactly do you consider a mild winter?

San Diego, Berkeley, and Oakland come to mind for the West Coast. DC and Baltimore are fairly far south. Cincinnati, Columbus, Louisville, and St. Louis might be far enough south for "mild" winters. Austin, New Orleans, Athens GA, Miami all have hot summers but mild winters.

[Inkpoe]

I am from Seattle and this has to be the first time I ever heard anyone associating/pairing humorous with Seattle. Seattleites are actually known for being humorless and sarcasm is often lost on them.

Anyways... back to the OP, my husband and I are in the same shoes as you. Definitely at this point we do not want to deal with another Seattle winter. Some of the areas we're looking at that could work for you as well is the Colorado front range cities, and Minneapolis-St Paul (which does have the cold winters, but at least the summers are way warmer than Seattle).