Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I have lived in Omaha, Nebraska for the past two years, now, and I'm really looking for a place to relocate. Omaha is simply not the place for me, and even if it takes a while to take the definite plunge into a new area, I'd like to at least have an idea of where to look.
So, the things I'm looking for:
- A better climate. Here, there's very little spring or autumn weather. We transition from blistering summers to frigid winters over the course of about one week, and I hate it. The winters are bitter, which I wouldn't mind if not for the snow. Omaha gets over 30 inches of snowfall a year, compared to my hometown (Plainsboro, New Jersey) getting about 8 every year. The summers aren't especially humid, thankfully, but the tornadoes are my big issue. Omaha is pretty much in the heart of tornado alley. I'd definitely like to avoid that. So in short, a place with moderate-low (or even no) snowfall, and somewhere without destructive storms. (Again, I know every place has its bouts of bad weather, but we're right in a red zone here.)
- Low crime. I know, original, huh? I want to feel safe and secure where I choose to live. Simply earth-shattering. Omaha is divided fairly well. In our area (Southwest Omaha) things are pretty quiet. In North and Northeast O is where you can run into some trouble. But still, every now and then someone will wander onto this side of town, and something will happen a little too close to home. There's very little sense of security, the police (at least from my observation) seem to be more concerned with setting up speed traps then cracking down on gangs. So yeah, I'd like to live somewhere that doesn't have a distinct reputation in the area for being bad in crime.
- Low cost of living. Another shocker, right? My fiancee and I aren't exactly well-off, and if we were to move from a relatively cheap area (like Omaha) across the country, we probably couldn't stray far from the rent range we're dealing with here. For comparison, our rent in a newer, two bedroom, one bath apartment in (as I said) the "good" side of town runs us $680 a month. I'm fully prepared (in fact, even expecting) to have to pay a little more to live in a better area, but if my first two points are resolved there, then we can stretch the budget a little more.
Now, onto things like parks, recreation, arts, theaters, etc. Really not a big issue. I completely understand the merit of those communal amenities, but it's really not a big selling point for me. Same with sports stadiums. It'd be a neat feature of a town, but I'd take a small, boring, do-nothing town with better weather, lower crime, and cheaper costs over a bustling cultural hub with living expenses through the roof.
For background on my fiancee and me. We're both young, and without any deep-seated career ties. I work as a general clerk, and she works as a collections counselor for a medical billing office. I'm interested in going back to school, but not out here, where I could potentially be held back here longer than I'd like to stay. (I'm studying to be a pharmacy technician, by the way.) So the industry size of a location isn't a gigantic deal, just another something to consider.
I moved from the Quad Cities to the Harrisburg, PA area, and it's both less hot in the summer and less cold and windy in the winter. Crime is concentrated in only some small pockets, such as much of the very small City of Harrisburg itself (occupies much less proportionally of the metro, than Omaha does of its), we just ended weeks with no knob to even lock on our exterior entry door, with no issues. I don't know that there's less snow on average though, it just tends to come in the concentrated coastal storms. Rent's probably a little higher than in your area, but considerably lower than the I-95 corridor.
I have lived in Omaha, Nebraska for the past two years, now, and I'm really looking for a place to relocate. Omaha is simply not the place for me, and even if it takes a while to take the definite plunge into a new area, I'd like to at least have an idea of where to look.
So, the things I'm looking for:
- A better climate. Here, there's very little spring or autumn weather. We transition from blistering summers to frigid winters over the course of about one week, and I hate it. The winters are bitter, which I wouldn't mind if not for the snow. Omaha gets over 30 inches of snowfall a year, compared to my hometown (Plainsboro, New Jersey) getting about 8 every year. The summers aren't especially humid, thankfully, but the tornadoes are my big issue. Omaha is pretty much in the heart of tornado alley. I'd definitely like to avoid that. So in short, a place with moderate-low (or even no) snowfall, and somewhere without destructive storms. (Again, I know every place has its bouts of bad weather, but we're right in a red zone here.)
- Low crime. I know, original, huh? I want to feel safe and secure where I choose to live. Simply earth-shattering. Omaha is divided fairly well. In our area (Southwest Omaha) things are pretty quiet. In North and Northeast O is where you can run into some trouble. But still, every now and then someone will wander onto this side of town, and something will happen a little too close to home. There's very little sense of security, the police (at least from my observation) seem to be more concerned with setting up speed traps then cracking down on gangs. So yeah, I'd like to live somewhere that doesn't have a distinct reputation in the area for being bad in crime.
- Low cost of living. Another shocker, right? My fiancee and I aren't exactly well-off, and if we were to move from a relatively cheap area (like Omaha) across the country, we probably couldn't stray far from the rent range we're dealing with here. For comparison, our rent in a newer, two bedroom, one bath apartment in (as I said) the "good" side of town runs us $680 a month. I'm fully prepared (in fact, even expecting) to have to pay a little more to live in a better area, but if my first two points are resolved there, then we can stretch the budget a little more.
Now, onto things like parks, recreation, arts, theaters, etc. Really not a big issue. I completely understand the merit of those communal amenities, but it's really not a big selling point for me. Same with sports stadiums. It'd be a neat feature of a town, but I'd take a small, boring, do-nothing town with better weather, lower crime, and cheaper costs over a bustling cultural hub with living expenses through the roof.
For background on my fiancee and me. We're both young, and without any deep-seated career ties. I work as a general clerk, and she works as a collections counselor for a medical billing office. I'm interested in going back to school, but not out here, where I could potentially be held back here longer than I'd like to stay. (I'm studying to be a pharmacy technician, by the way.) So the industry size of a location isn't a gigantic deal, just another something to consider.
Thank you for your help!
..you would be looking for a small town or city in the South, if your conditions include a low cost of living and a lack of snow. You can probably rule out both coasts, especially California and the Boston-Wash DC corrider; as for the cost of living, a comparable 2BR apt would likely be at least double what you're paying now. ( you're most likely living in one of the cheapest urban areas in the country).
^Yes. But I'd say mostly the upper south (states like Kentucky, Tennessee, western North Carolina, as well as maybe southern Indiana and southern Ohio), since the OP is looking for spring and autumn weather and no place "especially humid".
I have lived in Omaha, Nebraska for the past two years, now, and I'm really looking for a place to relocate. Omaha is simply not the place for me, and even if it takes a while to take the definite plunge into a new area, I'd like to at least have an idea of where to look.
So, the things I'm looking for:
- A better climate. Here, there's very little spring or autumn weather. We transition from blistering summers to frigid winters over the course of about one week, and I hate it. The winters are bitter, which I wouldn't mind if not for the snow. Omaha gets over 30 inches of snowfall a year, compared to my hometown (Plainsboro, New Jersey) getting about 8 every year. The summers aren't especially humid, thankfully, but the tornadoes are my big issue. Omaha is pretty much in the heart of tornado alley. I'd definitely like to avoid that. So in short, a place with moderate-low (or even no) snowfall, and somewhere without destructive storms. (Again, I know every place has its bouts of bad weather, but we're right in a red zone here.)
- Low crime. I know, original, huh? I want to feel safe and secure where I choose to live. Simply earth-shattering. Omaha is divided fairly well. In our area (Southwest Omaha) things are pretty quiet. In North and Northeast O is where you can run into some trouble. But still, every now and then someone will wander onto this side of town, and something will happen a little too close to home. There's very little sense of security, the police (at least from my observation) seem to be more concerned with setting up speed traps then cracking down on gangs. So yeah, I'd like to live somewhere that doesn't have a distinct reputation in the area for being bad in crime.
- Low cost of living. Another shocker, right? My fiancee and I aren't exactly well-off, and if we were to move from a relatively cheap area (like Omaha) across the country, we probably couldn't stray far from the rent range we're dealing with here. For comparison, our rent in a newer, two bedroom, one bath apartment in (as I said) the "good" side of town runs us $680 a month. I'm fully prepared (in fact, even expecting) to have to pay a little more to live in a better area, but if my first two points are resolved there, then we can stretch the budget a little more.
Now, onto things like parks, recreation, arts, theaters, etc. Really not a big issue. I completely understand the merit of those communal amenities, but it's really not a big selling point for me. Same with sports stadiums. It'd be a neat feature of a town, but I'd take a small, boring, do-nothing town with better weather, lower crime, and cheaper costs over a bustling cultural hub with living expenses through the roof.
For background on my fiancee and me. We're both young, and without any deep-seated career ties. I work as a general clerk, and she works as a collections counselor for a medical billing office. I'm interested in going back to school, but not out here, where I could potentially be held back here longer than I'd like to stay. (I'm studying to be a pharmacy technician, by the way.) So the industry size of a location isn't a gigantic deal, just another something to consider.
Thank you for your help!
Check out the Tri Cities area of Northeast Tennessee/Southwest Virginia (Bristol TN/VA, Kingsport TN, Johnson City TN). You've got three towns of about 50,000 each (well, Bristol is actually two towns separated by the state line) with a metro population of about 500,000.
Very mild summers, mild winters, much lower humidity than the rest of the South, low cost of living, low crime, absolutely gorgeous mountain views, and a pharmacy school at ETSU in Johnson City.
Thanks for all the responses everyone! Tennessee and Pennsylvania are two states that have frequently come up as having cities that match what I'm looking for. (Along with West Virginia and New Mexico.) As far as Omaha being a cheap urban area, absolutely. That's one of the draws of this place, but what you pay in taxes and other "intangible" factors makes it not worth what you save, in my opinion. So to pay a little more is understandable, and a sacrifice I'm totally willing to make. And there's really nothing on either coast I'd be too keen on, anyway. So I have no problem staying a little landlocked.
I agree with Pennsylvania. I would say my home state of New Jersey but the cost of living there is pretty high.
Crime wise it's a very safe state unless you're in Philly. There's gonna be crime in every city, unless you prefer living in a suburb far from everything. Which, in my opinion, is kind of boring when you're young. I'm 21 and would rather risk living in an exciting city than a suburb, but you said money is an issue so that's understandable.
I think PA has all that you're looking for. Cheap rent, safe, lots of educational options. I would choose eastern PA over western PA. Eastern has a better economy, better weather since it's close to the mid-atlantic region, and you're really close to NYC, Philadelphia, DC, etc.
However my opinion is pretty biased as I wouldn't really want to live anywhere other than the northeast. I'm sure there are some nice southern, western, or midwestern cities that fit your needs.
PA sounds right. Places in the south are plagued with tornadoes, too, and the humidity is atrocious in most areas. PA can get humid, too, but not for the ridiculous longevity that the South experiences. Winters in PA are more mild than Omaha, but less than most Southern cities. But the payoff is that Eastern PA is close to about everything in the world that you can think of.
PA. I can't add anything new except to agree with what has already been said.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I sounds as though..
