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I’ve gotten to the point in my life where I work from home and can move anywhere in the US. I’m single, have no attachments and my lease is up so I think it’s time to leave metro-Detroit and try something new. While I love the feeling of being able to choose where I want to live, I’m having a really difficult time deciding where to go so I’m hoping for suggestions/advice.
Here is my situation:
• Hetero single male, no kids
• Work in internet field
• Love sports and outdoor activities – soccer, basketball, softball, running, cycling, surfing, kayaking, camping
• Family is in Michigan and Dallas/Fort Worth
• Fairly liberal, friendly, tolerant and open-minded
I enjoy Michigan for about 2/3 the year and am miserable for the other 1/3 because I can’t get out to do the things I enjoy doing. I’m also having trouble meeting a nice girl due to lack of social opportunities
I am looking for a good size metro area in case something happens with my job…I’d say a top-30 metro area in terms of population. My goals for the next five years is to get an MBA, get married and buy house along with continuing to do the things I enjoy. I’m looking for a city where I can buy a good single-family home in the 200k-300k range, has a good singles scene, good league sports and rec. opportunities, better weather than MI, and has a university within an hours drive. I’m not great at meeting new people nor am I a club/nightlife person but I do enjoy pubs and bars with friends.
Right now I’m looking at Dallas/Fort Worth, San Diego, Jacksonville, Tampa and Nashville. I’ve been doing a lot of research so I’m aware of the pros and cons of each place but I’d appreciate any additional information about these cities or others that I have not considered.
Also give Minneapolis, Indianapolis and Columbus, OH a look.
those places have better weather than MI?
San Diego is the best city for being outdoors out of all of your choices since it's pretty much stays between 65-80 most of the year. Tons of adult sports leagues and lots of people always doing things outside. But you're not going to find a GOOD house for $200-300k, although prices are coming down a lot. Average price of a home is now around $370k, but that includes condo's and townhomes.
Define "better weather than MI", because while some places might have a "better" winter, it more than likely means youre gonna get shafted someplace with an ungodly hot summer. Do you like 4 seasons, but light ones? Do you never want to see snow again? Or just snow in minor amounts? Are you comfortable with hot and humid for prolonged periods? Hot and dry?
I say DFW. I went to school in Michigan and know all about the 2/3 nice weather and the 1/3 dreary winter weather. I still vacation up north twice a year. My first thought before reading all of your note was Austin. Lots of great outdoors things to do there. No surfing though. We're pretty landlocked. It is hot in Texas but it doesn't stop people from doing athletic things outside. I'm in a group training for a half marathon and we were doing our thing last night b/w 7-8 when it was in the low 90's...now there's a great place to meet women since those groups are primarily females with lots of cute ones and in shape ones at that. The lake we run around has people running, cycling, kayaking and sailing.
Since you're not into bars, I'd suggest doing some volunteer work wherever you decide to move. Lot's of women volunteer. Most of the things I volunteer for are more than 50% women (which makes it really hard to meet a guy...). But there are men too so you could probably meet some good guys to hang out with.
Depending on where you graduated from, your school might have a decent presence here to help you meet people. There are tons of folks here from the Big 10, for instance.
After moving home from Michigan, I joined a sports league and played flag football and softball with them for years. Many of my friends to this day are people I either met within the league or through friends I knew from the league.
Lots of social opportunities within DFW. Don't listen to those who say Dallas is pretentious. Sure, there are pretentious people here but it's not the majority by any means. I hear all the time that we have a good reputation for being a friendly city. There are jerks here but there are jerks everywhere.
You can easily get a nice house for 200-300K without even having to go too deep into the suburbs. If you're into spectator sports, we have MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL and even MLS plus a couple of minor league baseball teams.
University-wise for your MBA, you can do UT-Dallas which is a state school so not crazy expensive, SMU or University of Dallas or TCU which are pricier but good or online or local exec MBA programs through Baylor or UT. Don't know if Texas A&M has a local MBA program but I suppose they might.
DFW generally has a good business climate. Unlike Detroit, we're much more diversified.
Good luck! It's exciting to have so many options. Personally, I'd love to go to Chicago except for the harsh winter.
Thanks everyone for the replies. I'm leaning toward Dallas or possibly San Diego although I may give Seattle a look.
Lizziebeth, I'm looking at getting an apartment downtown and reading about the area on the Dallas forum. I'm not an uptown type of person so I've been looking at East Dallas. Are there any particular neighborhoods you would suggest? I was originally looking at Frisco/Plano/Addison but now I think I'll be bored up there.
If you wanted someplace in between Dallas and Michigan (to visit family), you could try a place like Kansas City, St. Louis, Memphis, Indianapolis, or Louisville.
And I think would think any of them you could get a decent home for $200-$300k. They should all have warmer weather than Michigan.
Of those I listed, Kansas City has MLB, NFL, and MLS. St. Louis has MLB, NFL, NHL, and hopefully in a few years, MLS. St. Louis also has some nice parks in the city. You will have snow, though not as much as Michigan. Last year St. Louis got about 20 inches. The cities I see listed for Michigan got anywhere from 41 to 129 inches.
National - Average Snowfall (http://www.met.utah.edu/jhorel/html/wx/climate/normsnow.html - broken link)
But if you want a place that's warm all-year, Dallas sounds fine. And you'd have some sports teams there. San Diego sounds nice, but I don't know about buying a home for $200k-$300k there. Would Seattle be too cold?
What about Charlotte, NC? A growing mid-to-large city. Four seasons. Relatively inexpensive.
From your original post, Ft Worth might be a better fit than Dallas for you, but Dallas is a big city so there are all types there. It is definitely not ALL pretentious - yet there is still a lot of it.
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