The Best Place to Live (in the US)
The part of our 5 year plan that is the most fun is thinking about where we’d like to live. The possibilities are endless! New England? Deep South? Pacific Northwest? Rocky Mountains? My biggest problem is that I like them all!
Bill and I have discussed at length what our ideal location would be. As you might expect, our criteria aren’t exactly the same, so some compromises will have to be made, but there are a few places that we think will work for us.
Criteria
- Climate – we are really looking for a place where we can enjoy being outside for much more of the year. Warm, but not too hot in the summer, not too cold in the winter, and beautiful scenery.
- Cost of Living – Although our climate description might immediately make you think “California,” it is unfortunately way too expensive to live there. Neither of us have jobs that will allow us to buy a home there, so unless we win the lottery – it’s pretty much off the list. So, cost of housing is an important consideration. Wherever we go has to allow us to buy a house – we don’t want to go back to renting.
- Job Market – We’re not likely to be able to quit working anytime soon, so being able to get a decent job is going to be key.
Resources
As a starting point, I searched the Internet for “best place to live in the US.” As my friends know, I’m a major Internet geek. When I get a new bug (like, say, selling everything I own and moving to another state), I can and will spend hours scouring the Web for every bit of information I can find.
Here are some of the resources I’ve been using to compare locations:
- The CNNMoney.com Best Places to Live 2008 list. I wonder when the 2009 list comes out?
- Sperling’s Best Places
- City-Data.com
- Weather.com
Sperling’s Best Places has a great rating that I haven’t seen anywhere else, and I think it’s really helpful. It’s called their “Comfort Index” and it rates how comfortable it is to be outside during the hot months. Having grown up in the desert (Hemet, CA) and now living in hot-and-humidville (Sugar Land, TX), this is a big one for me. I want to live in a place where I’m not miserable in the few minutes it takes me to go from my air-conditioned car to an air-conditioned building!
The Comfort Index is a scale of 1-100, with higher being more comfortable. Guess what Hemet’s comfort index is? A whopping 18 out of 100! Yikes! No wonder I disliked it so much. Sugar Land isn’t much better, rating a 23 out of 100.
On the other hand, Bill doesn’t like it when it gets *too* cold. He’s willing to put up with some weather, even a bit of snow, but neither of us really wants extreme winters.
Contenders
Based on these criteria, the places we’re currently looking at are:
Colorado - A bunch of cities in Colorado look like they would work – Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, even Denver. Although they do get snow in the winter, the daytime temperatures tend to average in the high 30s to mid-40’s.
Photo Source: Wikipedia
Washington State – Spokane or Tacoma. Seattle is too expensive, even though that’s where more jobs are.
Photo Source: Wikipedia.com
We can’t wait to go visit some of these places. There seem to be very few other places that have the beautiful locations, pleasant temperatures and decent home prices that we’re looking for – but we’re still looking!
Do you have any suggestions for research resources, or comments on a great place to live? Let us know!
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Have you ever wished you could just quit your job, move somewhere far away and start all over?We did, so WE ARE! We woke up and realized we were in our 40's, struggling from paycheck to paycheck, not loving where we live - not really living. So we decided to change it all.
![Wikipedia](\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Downtown_Fort_Collins_Colorado.jpg#file\"){kind=link}
Wow, I think we could be sisters….I currently live in FL and hate it!!!!!Way too much humidity. My husband thinks I’m nuts as I have lived in 19 different places as he was born and raised in FL.I am constantly looking for new places, nothing too hot or too cold. I love the seasons, mountains, rivers, green! Many places I have seen also included Washington, Colorado, but also Tenneessee, and North Carolina. Best of luck. I am jealous that you have a husband who is adventurous.
Jamie – Oh believe me, I know just what you mean. It took a long time for Bill to get to the point where he was ready to make a change. Just keep showing pictures and talking about all the great places you are thinking of, see if you can get him to go on vacations there. He might come around!
Thanks for dropping by!