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I agree with that - one should not be concerned about where a job is located. Choose the best job that you can find, wherever you can find it. Once you get good experience, that you can have more choices on where to live.
There are a lot of variables that go into whether or not one needs to be concerned with location.
Some people are in a great position to cast a completely open net, and have the flexibility to go absolutely wherever a job prospect may lead them. Others (most others, really) have real factors at play that define where they need to/want to locate for the long term. Not everyone has the same flexibility.
I do agree that a person is best served by being as open to opportunities as possible. But the fact that limiting factors do exist, to some degree, for most people, is just simply reality.
I wonder what it's like where you live now.. I would think carefully about what you like and what you'd want around you people wise. As others said, crime is everywhere and there's a lot of it in rural areas/small towns these days with the scourge of opiate addiction..
If you want to be in a liberal area, you pretty much can blow off small city or rural areas outside of the NE. Also, $40k-$60K in social work is not easy to find as starting salary in small rural places.
Earnings from the National Study of Licensed Social Workers
Of the respondents who graduated with a MSW in 2000 or later,
1% earned less than $20,000 48% earned between $20,000 -$39,000
45% earned between $40,000 -$59,000
5% earned between $60,000-$79,000
You must realize that nearly half earned between $20,000 to $39,000 and less earned between $40,000 to $59,000 with some having 18 YEARS of experience.
These averages factor in high salary locations like New York City and Los Angeles with very low paying locations.
I browsed "MSW" search results quickly and it seems like your best job opportunities in terms of salary, also factoring in your lifestyle preferences, might be in California. That means probably picking a residence in a suburb or outskirts of a city. Somewhere away from the coast might be affordable.
How about Santa Cruz or San Luis Obisbo, CA? Nice places, both, other than the "homeless" vagrants who drift around and the cops who can't or won't run them out. Neither is "affordable" of course; nothing is that has decent climate and opportunity. Both have major universities nearby.
I'd also say Santa Barbara, Uni being UCB over in Goleta, but that's way over the top in terms of expense. The far Left still runs the town, though, at least in some matters. The millionaire LA transplants who can afford to live there and still hold such ideas, i.e. I have a couple wealthy pals there who live in the real world, and the police quietly deal with vagrancy the way they should: ejection, and / or arrest.
I'd recommend my home, Eastside Seattle...
All of these places are going to involve poverty-level living on $40K.
How about Las Cruces, NM, College Station, TX, Oxford, MS, Auburn, AL, Gainesville, FL?
There's no such thing as an ideal place, with ideal weather, with jobs that pay decently, that's cheap to live in.
Yep! If such a place did exist, we'd all be moving there... and then you could kiss the jobs and affordable COL good-bye within 10 years.
If not for the weather requirements, I'd recommend western Oregon or Washington. They don't get too cold in the winter, but you'll be dealing with the rain rain rain allllll winter long. You kinda get used to it, though. At least I did when I lived up there, but I'm not a huge fan of the sun anyway.
Liberal area together with low crime ...GOOD LUCK!
San Jose CA (where I live - thereabouts) is one of the most liberal cities in the US, and also has among the lowest crime rates of any big US city. Also included within the top 10 on most "safest big cities" lists: NYC, San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Ana, and Boston. Want to try this again?
One place that comes to mind is Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, NC. I'm not overly familiar with the area, but it's probably worth checking it out. Sounds like it's in the ballpark.
Probably more affordable than some areas, but this is a super popular destination for re-locators, especially from the North East these days (see the NC forum).
You will get what you pay for in those areas. Job opportunities are good, but the influx of transplants has made the job market more competitive, and has driven up housing costs and rents around the desirable areas.
Also, while our winters are "moderate" and normally mild in North Carolina, our summers are super hot and humid.
Still, they do say that Raleigh/Durham is a good area for younger professionals.
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