What are prettiest/nicest places that you thought would be a great place to live? Keep in mind I'm in my thirties with a four year old.

Cost of living is a factor. I want to get a lot of bang for the buck, and preferably not get raped on taxes.

 

Florida is not your friend

 

What type of work do you do for a living?

 

move to nova: the cost of living is ridiculous, the traffic sucks, and you pay tons of taxes depending on what city you live in.

 

Yeah, what do you do for a living?

I'd highly suggest Oregon, anywhere in the northwest corner. Weather is great beyond a lot of rain end of fall-end of spring, but cost of living is cheap.

Also consider southern Washington, like Vancouver. My GF rented a 2 bedroom, 1 bath, 1 story, 2 car garage with a fenced yard for $700/month, including utilities except electrical.

Nearby is Portland International Raceway, Oregon Raceway Park, The Ridge, and Pacific Raceway.

 

Ultimately, I think your career options will play a big part in things. That, and whether you prefer super-metropolitan (NYC, Boston), some urban (any large MSA) or country living.

If you throw out the "cost of living" element, I would say Vancouver (British Columbia) was one of the nicest places I ever visited on the continent.

Florida has very low cost of living - especially with home affordability post-bubble, no state income taxes and modest sales tax. Florida has several excellent universities if you plan to live here long enough for the kid to go to school and almost anywhere in the state is no more than 1-2 hours from a nice beach.

You also have the Orlando attractions (Disney, Epcot, Universal, etc) for the little one.

Spring and Fall (and the two weeks of winter we get) are beautiful. Clear skies, lots of sunshine and great for roadster driving.

We have no state emissions testing and no vehicle inspections. You can pretty much register anything that started life as a factory car.


On the downside, if you don't like beach and tropical atmosphere or lake and river watersports (from boating to paddleboarding), the outdoors mostly suck. A lot of super dense underbrush or swamp. A big elevation change is measured in hundreds of feet.

It's hot - REAL HOT - for a significant portion of the year. Think "feels like 102 - 105F" hot when you factor in the humidity. We have a long thunderstorm season. Contrasted with the PacNW where it might drizzle all day for a week, here it thunderstorms for an hour or two 3-5 days per week.

For months on end, your weather forecast will be: "high in the mid-90s with a 60% chance of afternoon storms."

We also have the potential for hurricanes and we are home to the sharkbite capital of the world (New Smyrna Beach).

The state is much longer than people give it credit for. Inside our borders, we have some amazing beaches, historic locations and other great destinations but they can easily be 6+ hours apart.

 

plus if you're a redistribution type guy, Washington takes all yous guys's money and give it all to our state in the form of Gov't contracts to all the local companies here. It's pretty nice.

 

Houston has one of the most, if not the most, stable local economies. We have jobs out the *** right now. That is all the positive stuff I can say. It doesn't snow here....

 

You can get a six-figure job with a high school education in North Dakota and it does snow there.

 

He's not joking.

Out Of Work? Go to North Dakota! There's a Hiring BOOM! Even McDonald's pays $15 an hour! | Peace . Gold . Liberty | Revolution

Some parts of ND pay up to $20/hour to ------- fast food workers.

 

I"m in radiation oncology

 

Coastal Virginia is on my list.

 

Huh, I'm a CNA in oncology, small world. Providence is huge here with 4 local hospitals, as well as a couple Legacy hospitals, and OHSU if you'd like to look them up. All in Portland.

 

Any location with a cancer center treating with radiation, and there is at least one of me not far away.

I will be looking in Charleston, myrtle beach, etc

The good news is that there are not many of me in my field. The bad news is that a job change usually requires a move.

 

I'll have to look into it. I'm a medical physicist.

 

Medical work and cancer? I would think you could work anywhere you want. Are there any trends on a state level that are negative for your specific field? Being full of senior citizens, Florida has a pretty significant health care industry.

 

Florida also has some of the best public high schools in the country, if you know where to look.

 

Louisville Ky. There are several nice hospitals there where someone with your expertise could find work, UofL comes to mind. I think if you where to work there your kid(s) would get into their school for cheap. The cost of living is low too I believe, it was where I lived which was in a town about 20 minutes outside L'ville.

Florida is too flat and humid, not to mention the hurricanes and skeeters.

 

I can pick where I want, but it's a matter of a job opening up in that area. There are never a bunch of us in one area unless it is a very large city with multiple large hospitals. Nashville, st louis, boston, charlotte, atlanta, etc.

I'd like to have a nice view...... mountains, desert, ocean, lake.....something like that. Oh yeah, south of 500k ;p

 

I'm with Curly on the Northwest. Boise, Idaho was one of the nicest places I ever lived. Great, great family town.