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I'm currently residing in Orange County, CA, have been born and raised here. I've previously lived in L.A., Santa Barbara, and New York City. I've gotten a brief dose of the East Coast from my time in NYC, but ultimately felt like it was too fast-paced and too expensive for my liking.
I currently work from home, so finding a job isn't an issue. I just need some good wifi.
What I want to avoid:
- Traffic
- Plastics (you know, the people who are just obsessed with their looks and spending $$$)
- Super conservative culture
- Anywhere that's really, really humid like Florida (I prefer colder weather)
- year-round warm weather (like my current location or Arizona)
- crazy real estate prices
What I want to find:
- scenic town, with preferably at least 3 real seasons. somewhere that's surrounded with natural beauty, but not too isolated as I'm a young woman (27 years old) and single.
- I'm not your typical club-going, nightlife type of person, but I would like to be able to go to a wine bar or enjoy some good music at a restaurant/cafe in town where there are people in my age group.
- more affordable than where I currently live (which I believe gives me a lot of choices!). Ideally would like to invest in a home.
- Good restaurants and eateries
- Artisanal food shops: cheese shop, bakery, quaint coffee shop, farmer's markets, etc.
- Liberal, open-minded community. People who travel abroad that are not pretentious or snotty, but are definitely classy and sophisticated.
What is considered to be affordable to you? I'd say to possibly consider select places in the Finger Lakes Region of NY State. Places like Ithaca, Canandaigua, Skaneateles and perhaps even places such as Auburn, Geneva and Corning may work for you. It is a pretty big wine producing area as well.
I'd say that Ithaca would be the best fit in terms of an immediate community due to the college presence and popularity. It is also a top 5 area in terms of educational attainment, has a "liberal" vibe and you can find a mix of people in various ways. I will say that the further from the city center, the more affordable it is.
What is nice about Canandaigua, Skaneateles and Auburn is that they have their own little scenes, but are minutes from bigger cities with more(Rochester or Syracuse).
Corning may be a sleeper due to having Corning Incorporated, a Fortune 500 company, HQed there. It doesn't have a mid sized/big metro nearby, but Ithaca is less than an hour away and Rochester is about an hour and a half away.
I'm currently residing in Orange County, CA, have been born and raised here. I've previously lived in L.A., Santa Barbara, and New York City. I've gotten a brief dose of the East Coast from my time in NYC, but ultimately felt like it was too fast-paced and too expensive for my liking.
I currently work from home, so finding a job isn't an issue. I just need some good wifi.
What I want to avoid:
- Traffic
- Plastics (you know, the people who are just obsessed with their looks and spending $$$)
- Super conservative culture
- Anywhere that's really, really humid like Florida (I prefer colder weather)
- year-round warm weather (like my current location or Arizona)
- crazy real estate prices
What I want to find:
- scenic town, with preferably at least 3 real seasons. somewhere that's surrounded with natural beauty, but not too isolated as I'm a young woman (27 years old) and single.
- I'm not your typical club-going, nightlife type of person, but I would like to be able to go to a wine bar or enjoy some good music at a restaurant/cafe in town where there are people in my age group.
- more affordable than where I currently live (which I believe gives me a lot of choices!). Ideally would like to invest in a home.
- Good restaurants and eateries
- Artisanal food shops: cheese shop, bakery, quaint coffee shop, farmer's markets, etc.
- Liberal, open-minded community. People who travel abroad that are not pretentious or snotty, but are definitely classy and sophisticated.
Ithaca is a good choice when it comes to smaller cities. Going further up in size, Pittsburgh is a good option and then Philadelphia when you want to go even bigger. If you really like the cold, then the Twin Cities and Chicago are also options.
Denver might also be an option. The Pacific Northwest cities of Seattle and Portland can also fit the bill, though traffic is heavy in Seattle which is somewhat offset by having a decent mass transit system and real estate is fairly expensive.
Some wildcards I can think of are downtown Detroit, Louisville and Providence.
Well, if you think that the smaller Finger Lakes communities aren't big enough, then look into the Rochester or Syracuse areas themselves, as they have nice, walkable villages outside of the cities that may fit more of what you are looking for. That way you can also go to these communities as well, while being near/in a decent sized city/area. Canandaigua and Geneva are actually in the Rochester metro and Skaneateles is in the Syracuse metro(Auburn is in Syracuse CSA).
Some villages that come to mind area Brockport, Fairport, Webster and Pittsford outside of Rochester and Liverpool, Baldwinsville, Manlius, Fayetteville and perhaps North Syracuse in the Syracuse area. There may be some others as well. East Aurora, Hamburg and Williamsville in the Buffalo area would also fit.
I'd say for the Detroit area, Plymouth due to its proximity to both Detroit and Ann Arbor and Farmington are a couple of smaller cities in the area that you may like.
Last edited by ckhthankgod; 05-02-2017 at 11:13 AM..
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