Play a moving game with me

[librarychica]

Where would you live if you could live anywhere and why?

What do you like/dislike about where you live?

What are your criteria for your perfect spot?

[waverly]

I swear we did this before. I keep asking myself this, but in reality there are no perfect places, right? Just pros and cons to each place.

Right now, we are happy where we are. If we stay in IL, we would not move our house because of the kid's friends/ school which we are happy with. We looked at other houses in the school district for fun, but DH likes that our house is historic, and I like the friends the kids have made as neighbors. Otherwise, we also enjoyed Ann Arbor, MI. Winters are bad both places, but better in IL than in MI.

I dislike winter. I dislike it being dark all the time in November/ December. I dislike basically November- February. I love May-September a lot.

I have learned that I didn't love living in NYC. After my jungle adventures, I learned I do not want to live in Bogota or on the coast (way too hot). I enjoyed living in Spain, but that would have some issues for long term residence. I really liked Hawaii, and I might go there for my mid life crisis (originally thinking Spain), but I think I would feel disconnected to stay there long term like have island fever.

My retirement dream is to be a snowbird like my grandparents, but I don't think DH wants to do that lol.  In the middle of winter, FL sounds amazing, but I think I would struggle with the heat in the summer. We did like New Mexico when we visited.  Maine was beautiful.  I liked Maine better than Seattle/ WA/ Oregon.  CA seems overly expensive maybe.  

[librarychica]

I have no idea where I’d move if I could live anywhere. Someone asked me that this morning and I could not come up with an answer.

I live in Central Florida. I like the proximity to springs and boating, just a few hours from the beach, my family (that one only applies to me). I dislike the heat between mid-May to the end of October, the traffic/crowds, how I can’t seem to find decent after school care (that’s specific to my part of town I think?), how it’s impossible to walk anywhere, and the generally low wages, and I don’t really like theme parks.

I think ideally I’d live in a smallish city near the mountains, a few hours from a beach if possible, walkable, no more than 8 weeks of over 90 degree weather, good schools, and a small museum or two. Where I could buy a 4 bedroom house to under $500K. 😉

[sdlaura]

I dislike that my current area is expensive (including high taxes) and crowded. Also there's a lack of jobs in DH's and my industry such that we're kind of stuck at our current firms unless we move or work fully remotely for a firm based elsewhere.

I love the weather and overall lifestyle/things to do, and quality of schools. Our specific house location is within walking distance of the places 3 of our kids go during the day, and I think that would be really hard to replicate.

There are many places I could live - but most places I like tend to be expensive. And I feel like I need a certain amount of infrastructure to have plenty of childcare options for four kids, and I'd like to be close enough to an airport to travel easily.

I hope to wait to see where my kids end up to decide where to live in the future. My parents live close to my sister and her 3 kids on the East coast and have a condo close to me that they use for long visits. 

[mommyatty]

I’m actually in this situation since my new job is fully remote. And I really don’t know. I loved DC. I love Maryland in general. I would like to move back to the east coast, but DH is not at all cut out for harsh winters, so the Northeast is out. But the mid-Atlantic is nice.

I don’t like how conservative our state is, although our area is generally moderate. I hate summer more and more the older I get. Historically I would have said I like the cost of living, especially housing, but OMG now our houses are as expensive as many other big cities. Like I think we are now on par with places like Chicago. We used to be much, much less expensive. We like our kids’ school and that we have a good support system here. I love that winters are quite mild (except for the occasional snow storm that wipes out our entire electric grid… see “state is conservative”, above).

I want someplace that’s moderate. Moderate weather. Moderate cost of living. Moderate political climate. I would love some natural beauty. I would also like somewhere I could have some land. I’d like to keep horses and goats.

[sunbutter]

May 25, 2021 15:27:40 GMT -5 librarychica said:

Where would you live if you could live anywhere and why?

What do you like/dislike about where you live?

What are your criteria for your perfect spot?

If DH and I didn’t have to work to maintain our lifestyle, I’d live on a remote rocky coast somewhere. With some land.

We like that we live in an a part of the neighborhood that is off the beaten path which keeps traffic light BUT is within a mile of high school and middle school so kids can walk. We have neighbors but also on a wooded acre so it is a nice balance. School district is routinely rated highest in the country. We are in a flight path of a rookery of blue herons and I watch them fly by my office window everyday.

What I don’t like is the close proximity of a major highway. We don’t see it, it’s about two miles away, but I can hear it when I’m outside. Our realtor thought I was crazy. So I was loving the absence of sound at the start of the pandemic during the lockdown. Silver lining.

We are kind of in our perfect spot for work and kids. Low taxes, good schools, acceptable commute (30 minutes), 30 minutes out of Philly (drive or train) for arts and culture and health care, close to bike paths, beautiful parks and hiking areas, close to major highways....
We are a bit too hilly for the kids to ride bikes around the neighborhood, that’s a downside...




Perfect without kids and job for us would be a bit more remote....

[k3am]

If I knew a better place, we’d probably be there!!

We live in CA n the Bay Area. It’s a lovely place, weather is great (baring heat waves, droughts, fires, power outages, etc), and we have a ton of things to do.

I love our neighbors, neighborhood, and overall climate. I hate the fires (have you had to stay indoors for weeks on end because it’s not safe to breathe outside?!?), cost of living ($2MM for a 60 year old house that needs updating?!?), and I don’t agree with the general politics in our state (left leaning / “coastal elites”.)

I don’t really know our criteria for the perfect spot. With jobs in the mix it’s... where we are?

I’m currently on a work trip and thinking that we need to move.

[twinmomma]

I kind of love where I'm at in most regards. We get all four seasons, we're less than an hour to Boston for "city life" but still feel like we're in the country in a lot of ways, the ocean is less than an hour away, mountains are a two hour ride. We kind of have everything close by that we could want. Cost of living is kind of high, but not nearly as high as if we crossed the border to MA or went somewhere else in the country. Politically, I align more with a liberal/blue leaning state than where we are now. There's a lot of "free staters" that are making things kind of crazy here. But it's a trade off. If we moved a little further south to MA, prices for housing and taxes would go up quite a bit.

I can't really imagine living anywhere else in the country. I love having all four seasons, including a "real" winter. And even though we don't go to the beach often, I would hate not having the coast nearby.

[xctsclrx]

Where would you live if you could live anywhere and why?- I want to live on the water. I used to think the ocean, but now I think a lake would be better. I just want the water.

What do you like/dislike about where you live? I really like where I live, but about June/July I want to be anywhere else. So hot outside.


What are your criteria for your perfect spot? Near the water. I want to be in driving distance of the ocean. I want to go further north, but still close to an ocean, but I am a moderate consertive, and politics

[supertrooper1]

I'm in Western Washington. I've never lived anywhere else, so I don't know where else I could call home. If I promoted up, I would end up in the Loundoun County, VA, which is becoming one of the most expensive places to live in the U.S. I like that area when I've visited, but family keeps me where I am.

I really like being close to the water and mountains. There are no limits to outdoor recreation. The weather is generally mild year round, but you have to deal with the gray during the fall and winter which discourages a lot of people. Summers are perfect with only a couple 90 degree days, usually staying in the 70's and 80's.

I don't like how Seattle politics decides for the rest of the state. I'm semi-rural but it doesn't seem like technology keeps up with our growing population. There are many great places to live in my county, but they don't have internet or cell service. Cost of living is better than Seattle, but still high for as rural as my area is. I'm in an area with a population of about 150,000 and the infrastructure and stores are set up for that. But when the border with Canada opens up again and half of Vancouver travels South, grocery shopping, going to Costco or the mall will become miserable again and the roads will be packed with people that don't know our traffic laws.

[186momx]

I'm in I5 corridor of Oregon in the middle. I will agree with supertrooper1, that politically the state runs too much off the big cities while 85% of the state is rural. There is a huge movement in some of the eastern counties to merge with Idaho that has gained a lot of speed since COVID hit.

I'm an hour away from the coast/beach, an hour away from decent skiing/mountains. 2 hours to the big city and 2 hours to great skiing/high mountain wilderness fun. Our weather is nice maybe a stretch of upper 90s during the summer but our average July/August temps is upper 80s. Winters are long but mild. The gray just gets old.

I know I couldn't live in the Midwest where I was born. Too many visits back taught me it isn't the place for me.

[sdlaura]

mommyatty DH and I grew up in Maryland - most of our family and friends are still there and I like it a lot. I think it would hit some of your wants like natural beauty and moderate climate - but I wouldn't consider it to be moderate politically or have a moderate cost of living - though it's not as bad as SoCal cost-wise. A lot of people I knew growing up have moved to North Carolina for those reasons. Maryland fits into my theory that most places I would want to live are also expensive

[polecat8]

I am in SW PA and I don't think we could ever move. All of our family is here and the COL is reasonable. We're near a major city and enjoy a lot of the arts and concerts. There are also some pretty rural areas nearby along with state and county parks that have some great trails. Another reason we stay is my industry is pretty hopping in my area. A lot of startups come from the local universities. I've built up a pretty good network and have been able to land some nice jobs through them.
The only downside I can think of is that sometimes the weather is weird. Transitions between seasons is not as gradual as it once was. For example, we had snow on Easter this year and then 70's a few days later.
If we could move anywhere, I'd like to live in the mountains. DH and I lived in upstate NY for a few years before we had kids. I loved the relaxed feel of the area. We also loved Vancouver when we visited there a few years ago. Something about hiking in the woods just makes me happy.