As some of you know, I'm planning on relocating within the next few years. Upstate New York is absolutely beautiful in the summertime, but the winters? No way. The older I get, the more tired I am of dealing with cold and snow and terrible, icy roads several months of the year.
So! To where should I move? Definitely south, probably quite a BIT south. And here's where I could use your opinions. Where do YOU live? Do you like it, and why? Is the climate temperate? How about the cost of living? Crime rate?
My current neighborhood is in a semi-rural area not far from a small-ish city, and that's kind of what I'm looking for, but without the ice and snow. But if you live someplace completely DIFFERENT from that and absolutely love it, I wanna hear about that, too!
Sell me on your city! your county! your state! What do you love about where you live?
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Jeepers! Guess I thought you were just talking.
If I could move somewhere, it would probably be the Florida panhandle (e'en though Florida is NOT shaped like a pan) near Pensacola. It is full of military people along that beach strip from there west to Ft. Walton Beach, and the crazies who have migrated to Miami are not present.
Adorable green chameleons for the kitties to chase.
(We lived there 1970-72. Pretty sure Gwenne lived nearby at Keesler AFB along the coast west of Pensacola.)
Oooh! How exciting!
So, I live in Santa Cruz, California. It's a relatively small town, kind of stretched out - there's the West Side - where the University is, then Downtown - where the Beach Boardwalk is, and then there is Live Oak - an unincorporated area, Capitola (where I actually live), Soquel and Aptos - all little towns connected together. More rural, about 20 minutes away is Watsonville - lots of strawberry farms!
This part of California is a FAR cry from the image people have of California - most people think of LA - hot and sunny all the time. Here on the Central Coast, our summer starts in September - we get a month of nice sunny warm weather - but most of the rest of "normal" summertime is cool and foggy - the fog might burn off around noon, but rolls back in right around 4pm - "nature's air conditioning" we call it :D
Other than that, the weather is pretty temperate - definitely no real "winter" - it snows once every 7-8 years up in the mountains - enough to stick for an hour or two, and cause traffic jams as people take their children up to see snow :D
Traffic? Yeah, we have that. My work is 10 miles away, in another town, by freeway, and without traffic I can be door to door in under 15 minutes. On a summer afternoon, if the traffic is especially bad, it can take more than an hour to get home. Usually it's 40 minutes or so to get home at 5pm.
Surface streets aren't much better during the busy times.
Cost of living? Ahahahahaha. My house, a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath condo/townhouse, was a "steal" at 369k in 2010. My next door neighbour bought her place last October, a 2 bedroom, 2.5 bath version of the same thing, and paid $650k for it.
Rent is ridiculous - IF you can find a place to rent. A 2 bedroom condo, can fetch upwards of $2000/month, easily.
Other things aren't so bad - fruits and veggies are reasonably priced, and the quality is amazing. We get corn on the cob starting in May, usually, strawberries start in February, peaches have started coming in already.
We don't have tornados, hurricanes, any type of snowpocalypse or snowmaggedon. We live with the constant thread of earthquakes though. And wildfire season starts in June and goes through December or so - but doesn't *really* ever end. Droughts are the new normal and we have a huge homelessness problem.
The politics are generally liberal, California leads the way on social changes - smoking was banned in public here long before it became the norm. Yeah, the rest of the country thinks we're a bunch of tree huggers - but it's kind of nice to be on the leading edge of social change :D
Would I recommend moving here? Only if you have money, to be honest. There are a lot of people who struggle to afford to live here. But - if you can afford it, and you're looking to have access to some of the most amazing natural beauty around - oceans, mountains, and everything in between - it's a pretty awesome place to live :D
My family has lived and still lives in eastern Tennessee south of Knoxville. Beautiful area with lots of nature hiking and such. Very mild seasons but still seasons. And no real terrible weather. Athens to Lenoir City area. Not an expensive place to live.
Ginny, a couple of questions about Fla. - (1) Is hurricane insurance available? and (2) how often do alligators get into people's houses? I always thought that was a pretty rare occurrence, but there was a thing on the news the other day about an alligator getting into a house, and I swear to God, the report said that Florida wildlife control people remove 8,000 alligators a year from people's houses!! Did I hear that wrong? Is that really true? Because that's about 7,999 alligators too many for me.
spiff, I would LOVE California - been there to visit - but yeah, the housing costs. and earthquakes. but I AM still hoping that someday you'll let me do a makeup on that missed vacation. :)
and fmc, that sounds like a really nice place. Right now I've kind of got my heart set on being in driving distance to a beach, but I'll definitely consider it.
So, upper valley NH is right out.. only thing here that isn't there is me.. and I'm not sure that's a big selling feature.
Upside: Beaches are much whiter sand than Atlantic side; seafood; military neighbors who are supportive people.
Downside: Hurricane insurance; lots of jet noise from training bases....but you don't even notice it after a bit. I imagine the alligators are farther south in Florida. Never heard of it where we were. Check out Navarre, FL. Alligators would be near the swamps, not the beach.
What fmcgmccllc said is true about Tennessee.....so green and always pretty. You would have the seasons there, as opposed to what they have in Florida.
Wow, Spiffikins is pretty dang convincing!! We may camp on her back doorstep after reading her pitch. It does sound pretty much "YOU", but for the expense.
Holy crap, woman, you've got a new "verify I am not a robot" thing that took me about seven tries!!!!!!! Click on all the squares with vehicles my ass.....I DID and it didn't like it.
Go visit the lakes and rivers in this area. Fabulous for water play and a nice drive to the rapids between NC and Chattanooga.
I love living in Houston, but I don't think it is for you. The traffic is incessant and the humidity keeps every one inside 8 months of the year. But oh! The fine arts! Much of it free. And the birds! The ones that live here, the ones that winter here, the ones that migrate through. You might think about other places in Texas. The hill country is beautiful, and has its share of birds. But the Texas coast would be a 4 hour drive away.
Julia
Yes, what Julia said about Texas. Our observation has been that you cannot PRY Houstonians away from there. But the birds info is right on; we look at Golden Triangle Audobon Society (the triangle is very near Houston)site on Facebook with the most gorgeous variety of birds year around. Hill Country isn't bad at all.....spent total of six years at Ft. Hood, just north of it. Maybe an outlying community from Houston, like Woodlands!
That's "Audubon", for cryin out loud. Jeez, I hate being old.
Julia, all I know of Texas is the Dallas-Fort Worth area, which did not impress me AT ALL. Maybe I'll look into the hill country, but again, beaches are calling.
And Ginny, fun fact: I grew up on Audubon Ave!
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