Consider DFW/North Texas. Depending on how much property you need to build a shop/garage, there are several other small towns in addition to the following: Allen Benbrook Flower Mound Frisco Grapevine Keller McKinney Plano Rowlett/Rockwall Southlake No state taxes, and plenty to do. NFL/NBA/MLB/NHL/NHRA/NASCAR/Arts District, etc. Great schools and universities. Traffic can be thick in certain spots, but great roads and getting better with express lanes. I've always lived here so I may be a little biased, but there must be several good reasons that our economy is so strong and we are attracting so much corporate growth. Once most people get to Texas, they don't leave. :TU:
I would say near Jacksonville fl or south Carolina or ga area like mentioned by one member. warm not expensive and near a lot to do and as long as you don't want a beach house homes aren't bad priced. fl has a huge car culture. I would move there if I could.
Have you considered Nevada? Low taxes, growing like crazy Las Vegas especially and for a big population the traffic usually flows pretty good. We live in Pahrump Nv about an hour from Vegas not much here in the way of traffic but the property and houses are dirt cheap so far but it's going back up slowly. Bob H.
Thanks all! The considerations generally try to capture "big but not too big". This means different things to others. To ME it means seeking less population density and lesser drive times. My 16mile commute can be as much as 3 hours, rarely less than 1 hour. Avg 1.5hr No proper science here, but using crow fly math for metro size vs population. Kuala Lumpur 25 miles, 7.2 million Dallas 50 miles, 7 million Phoenix, AZ 30-40 miles, 5 million If making this happen I need to settle on some areas soon. I'll take ANY commentary since there is no such thing as "all things being equal" tie breakers yet. That said, its a hard sell to get the wife on board with cold weather even if the snow doesn't last in your area. Similarly, one has to sell the idea of me sitting in humidity. Picky? I suppose. Wouldn't mind hearing more details about good areas in Fort Worth. Especially schools for the kiddo. Edit: for southeast, I'm really not as familiar so I've commented less but googling more.
Good link. Before I rule out anything, is there a specific school in the areas with a good reputation? What part of CO are you in? Ditto for anyone reading. If you know of good schools by name feel free to share.
Oh...and the most important part....There are almost continual car shows during the year http://www.cruisinarizona.com/carshows.html ...and we have the auctions in January, too! https://russoandsteele.com/scottsdale/ and http://www.barrett-jackson.com/Even...ale-2017/5a0b6fec-3238-4bae-baba-7d93140cba83 Ask away with any other questions that you have...I convinced a lifetime Marylander to relocate here....he and his wife love it. She works at Mayo Hospital and he works from home... :TU: Finally for now...We bought our house in 2002 for $230k and right now it's worth quite a bit more. Also, new housing is going up all around us as well...10 new subdivisions in a 7 mile radius...housing prices ranging from the mid $250's to more than a million
When we were contemplating a move to the greater Phoenix area, we took week long vacation trips here in early spring months to scope out suburbs and neighborhoods. A friend of my wife's had lived in Gilbert for 10 years and highly recommended the Gilbert area in general. These SE metro suburbs have some highly rated school districts, Gilbert district is A-rated. Tempe next door is a young college town (ASU). There are many charter schools as well in Gilbert that are part of the public school system and do not cost extra, but you apply for admission. They can have a variety of focuses, like STEM, arts, even athletics. My 6th grader bikes to the closest elementary school 5-10 min away. We can see mountains in 3 directions. In winter snow is 1.5 hrs to the north in Payson where a brother in law lives. Tonight we took a nice bike ride through the neighborhoods after dark on the many bike paths available to us. For the past hour I've been in my back yard by the pool watching Bama/LSU football in beautiful 75 degree weather. Not a bug in sight. Now the bad... I accepted a position in north Phoenix a few weeks ago, wasn't looking there specifically but a job was offered. My commute has been 2 to 2.5 hours daily. Have never had more than 10-15 min drive in the past so this has been hard. Enough so that I've decided not to stay there. Lesson learned for me, don't bother applying for anything in Phoenix. But we love this area and have zero regrets about moving here. My advice is to visit the specific areas you are considering and look at the employment opportunities within the commute time you are ok with. Summer here is a bitch, you will want a pool imho. Without one we would not be nearly so happy with the move. Fall/winter/spring will be SO worth putting up with summer. Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk
I currently live in Gainesville Florida but have lived in many parts of the country. I have driven professionally all over North America. If I had to do it all over again I would live in the midwest. I would never live within 500 miles of either coast; just too many people who believe only what they want is important. Love the more open environment of the midwest. Now you must also consider what year round weather you like. I transferred to Florida because of work and have regretted it as I got older, I am now 63 and am so tired of the heat and humidity. Just went back to Buffalo NY to visit relatives and loved the 38-50 degree temps. I have worked construction pretty much all my life and have found I would rather work in the cold than the heat but too late now. So do you like being soaked to your knees when you are doing outside activities or bundled up? In subtropical and tropical climates something is always chewing on you 365 when you are outside! Yes it is colder farther north but you get a reprieve from insects. As mentioned before cost of living must also be considered. Looking ahead to what you want in the future is also very important. Picking everything up and moving when you are in your 60's suck. Mikey
That's why we chose to move to AZ before retirement age snuck up on us. It's hard enough physically, without being a senior citizen also.
Yup... this is no joke of a move. I'm 46 and need to be solid for a while choosing work and home carefully. I'll have to send resume/CV out and see what the results are. I lean toward: Ft Worth/Plano (even though might see snow) Peoria/Gilbert The above in part due to feedback. I'm not helpless though and its ultimately my choice. Thank you all SO much for input. Let me know if anyone wants a copy of CV - pm me an email.
Might be a stupid question... Are the neighborhoods in these areas HOA controlled? Like what color your window frames are and what flavor bbq to use? Some of the lawns look too landscaped to be left to owners alone. lol.
My understanding is most relatively newer areas will be HOA, while older neighborhoods may not be. Ours is HOA, built in 2004. So far no big deal in our situation. YMMV. Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk
HOA commons areas are maintained by the HOA. Your property is your responsibility. HOA groups will vary a lot on what they do or do not control. Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk
Just to update... if I can secure work, I'll be relocating to the Phoenix area. Thanks for the input! Fantastic responses.
living in ky you get the heat in the summer humidty bugs then it turns off cold and you get a foot of snow. I hate the cold though.
We were fortunate enough to be able to move on my wife's job without me having to have a job lined up first. The move itself was a 2 month job, between all the work and arranging in order to leave a home of 30 years, actually make the long drive with fully loaded vehicles, then a ton of work to settle in and furnish the house, having NOT moved almost all of our old furniture. I started the job search in mid-July, and started a job after 3 months. It's not where I was specifically looking to be in the area (too far) but we decided to give it a shot and see if the commute would be tolerable. It's not... over 2 hours daily for me from Gilbert to the north side of Phoenix. So I'm going back to the job hunt routine soon. I just won't bother to interview for anything not closer in to Gilbert.
My brother & family will be moving from Long Island to Gilbert by this January because he accepted a position at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. They did research and liked what they found on Gilbert schools for their 10 yr old. For us, we like living in a central location in Phoenix because its not usually a major traffic issue to get to any part of the valley. If you work in the Phoenix area and live in ether the east or west valley, rush hour traffic is a can be a real headache. They were the last holdouts, so now the whole family will be here in AZ.
