What are some good places to relocate in the U.S?

[LiciousLily]

I am spending 2012 traveling extensively to look for places to semi permanentely/permanently relocate. I want to live out my 20's and discover some things but I feel like staying here is just kind of pushing to "settle down". .I don't want to get in the groove of that yet. Not only that but I'm not into the culture around here, and I can't take the winters. Also, I want to kind of "start over" and get away from certain people that are just hanging around that I feel are somewhat toxic. I am looking for a place that has a large number of young active people. I don't want to disclose my current location other than I am in the Northeast. I visit NYC a lot but decided against it because the cost of living is too high. I am looking for: decent cost of living, mild winters, not ultra conservative but also not so open minded that there is a large number of drugs and unemployment, and nothing too bumpkin country. I am planning on staying alone but my ex who is a very close friend of mine might make the plunge and move to the area with me. Random roomates are out of the question. Obviously I am going to continue cam modeling, other than that though as far as careers go I am in the beauty industry just doing make-up artistry. Only because I love it and it's really more of a paid hobby than anything. My real "degree" is in computer programming, on the web developer side. So if I am moving somewhere permanently I have to think about vanilla jobs. I've been around asking lots of people and decided to use some forums I am on to gain some insight. Does anybody have any suggesions? So far I have Charleston, SC and the Seattle area on my list.

 

[JickyJuly]

Chattanooga, TN was a nice place for me for a bit. It's only 1 1/2 hrs from Atlanta which would be a great place for makeup artistry and has a super decent cost of living.
The downfall for me was that people there seem to need A LOT of education when it comes to proper pet ownership and driving.

 

[MissHollyJade]

I love Charleston and used to live there. The only downfall to there is that housing is super expensive ( at least if you are planning on buying) . It is a great place to live though.

 

[Loslonelyboy]

I am sure this thread here may help you a little!
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=5022

 

[Jayne_Black]

Money magazine does a study every year on best places to live. Here's the link to the 2011 winners
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bplive/2011/

 

[JoleneBrody]

I have a very deep love affair with Portland, OR. However if you have any seasonal depression issues I would not suggest it nor Seattle. It rains a lot and is overcast most of the winter. It rarely snows (when it does they shut down) but they do get freezing rain and of course regular rain. It is a very open minded city especially to the Adult industry. Portland has more strip clubs and sex shops per capita that any other city in the U.S and when you're there i'st noticeable. Every corner!
Portland has an amazing music scene for every taste however Portland also has (anywhere on I-5 for that matter) A huge homeless population. They even did a story about it on 60 minutes.
N.E Portland and North Portland are some of the cheaper areas but also the rougher areas. N.E also gets the east gorgue winds and they are brutal. The hawthorne and belmont districts are amazingly awesome young neighborhoods filled with Mcgintys and Hipsters but a bit spendier. Beaverton is a suburb still within city transit that is a bit more cookie cutter. It's spendy but also offers cheap apartments.

 

[ViruSphere]

If you want to move north of the border, Vancouver, Calgary and the Toronto area are doing well. Montreal has great food and culture, but you'd have to learn how to speak and read French.

 

[Jupiter551]

Australia :mrgreen:

 

[SirLes]

Australia :mrgreen:

:shhh: , don't tell everyone.

 

[mynameisbob84]

I'm looking to head out to America for a while in 2013. Where's a good place to visit?
I wanna see a fair bit of the country. I wanna go to a festival (I'm thinking either Coachella or SXSW), I wanna visit New Orleans (though I do hear it's kinda dangerous there), definitely wanna see New York (if only to go on the Ghostbusters tour and maybe see a band at MSG), wanna go to Vegas, and would like to see an NFL game and maybe a wrestling PPV (cos' I'm cool like that).
What else is there to do in America land?

 

[Bayliee]

I have a very deep love affair with Portland, OR. However if you have any seasonal depression issues I would not suggest it nor Seattle. It rains a lot and is overcast most of the winter. It rarely snows (when it does they shut down) but they do get freezing rain and of course regular rain. It is a very open minded city especially to the Adult industry. Portland has more strip clubs and sex shops per capita that any other city in the U.S and when you're there i'st noticeable. Every corner!
Portland has an amazing music scene for every taste however Portland also has (anywhere on I-5 for that matter) A huge homeless population. They even did a story about it on 60 minutes.
N.E Portland and North Portland are some of the cheaper areas but also the rougher areas. N.E also gets the east gorgue winds and they are brutal. The hawthorne and belmont districts are amazingly awesome young neighborhoods filled with Mcgintys and Hipsters but a bit spendier. Beaverton is a suburb still within city transit that is a bit more cookie cutter. It's spendy but also offers cheap apartments.

Vancouver, Washington (It's like 5 mins from Portland, right across the border of Oregon) is nice I lived in portland for a long time and recently moved. The state doesn't tax income as high as Oregon does, but you're still close enough to make purchases in Oregon without sales tax I definately wouldn't go to Seattle though, I lived up there while I was in the navy and I hated it.
I however do LOVE the "storm watch" when there is a single snowflake that touches the ground haha

 

[Just Me]

I have a very deep love affair with Portland, OR. However if you have any seasonal depression issues I would not suggest it nor Seattle. It rains a lot and is overcast most of the winter. It rarely snows (when it does they shut down) but they do get freezing rain and of course regular rain. It is a very open minded city especially to the Adult industry. Portland has more strip clubs and sex shops per capita that any other city in the U.S and when you're there i'st noticeable. Every corner!
Portland has an amazing music scene for every taste however Portland also has (anywhere on I-5 for that matter) A huge homeless population. They even did a story about it on 60 minutes.
N.E Portland and North Portland are some of the cheaper areas but also the rougher areas. N.E also gets the east gorgue winds and they are brutal. The hawthorne and belmont districts are amazingly awesome young neighborhoods filled with Mcgintys and Hipsters but a bit spendier. Beaverton is a suburb still within city transit that is a bit more cookie cutter. It's spendy but also offers cheap apartments.

I will 2nd Portland and most of the Pacific Northwest. I have lived in most areas of the US, and lived in Europe. The Portland area is where I ended up staying more or less permanently. But, and this is a big but, in my experience one place was not all that different from another. Make a list with the most important things for you for livability, and start from there.

 

[JoleneBrody]

I however do LOVE the "storm watch" when there is a single snowflake that touches the ground haha

That awesome!!! I constantly joke about the super intense "storm watch 2012" Dun dun duuuhh, on the local news in Portland too! I kind of miss how stupid it is there when it snows! Now I live in a place where (before I was a web slut face) heavy snow is no excuse to not go to work.

 

[Just Me]

I have a very deep love affair with Portland, OR. However if you have any seasonal depression issues I would not suggest it nor Seattle. It rains a lot and is overcast most of the winter. It rarely snows (when it does they shut down) but they do get freezing rain and of course regular rain. It is a very open minded city especially to the Adult industry. Portland has more strip clubs and sex shops per capita that any other city in the U.S and when you're there i'st noticeable. Every corner!
Portland has an amazing music scene for every taste however Portland also has (anywhere on I-5 for that matter) A huge homeless population. They even did a story about it on 60 minutes.
N.E Portland and North Portland are some of the cheaper areas but also the rougher areas. N.E also gets the east gorgue winds and they are brutal. The hawthorne and belmont districts are amazingly awesome young neighborhoods filled with Mcgintys and Hipsters but a bit spendier. Beaverton is a suburb still within city transit that is a bit more cookie cutter. It's spendy but also offers cheap apartments.

Vancouver, Washington (It's like 5 mins from Portland, right across the border of Oregon) is nice I lived in portland for a long time and recently moved. The state doesn't tax income as high as Oregon does, but you're still close enough to make purchases in Oregon without sales tax I definately wouldn't go to Seattle though, I lived up there while I was in the navy and I hated it.
I however do LOVE the "storm watch" when there is a single snowflake that touches the ground haha

Washington has no state income tax, and the property taxes are a bit cheaper this side of the river too :-D Dont get me started about the "Storm Watches" and tieing every news story into the PNW angle :lol:

 

[MadisonLeigh]

I think I would love the PNW! However I do have seasonal depression issues...but I love rain and cloudy weather, I just hate the super cold snowy Michigan winters. Lily if you are looking around the Carolinas, I've heard that Asheville is awesome, but I've never been. and I've heard that San Francisco is an awesome place for tech related jobs but sadly it's super expensive. Apologies for this totally unhelpful comment, lol, and good luck in your search!!

 

[Neudiin]

Lily if you are looking around the Carolinas, I've heard that Asheville is awesome, but I've never been.

I lived in Asheville for just over a year and would move back in a heartbeat if I could bring my own job. If you want 4 seasons but you don't want really cold winters and hot humid summers, Asheville is an amazing town. Now Asheville proper is kinda expensive to live. Of course what is expensive to one is completely reasonable to another lol. My friend's and I said Asheville is the San Fran of the east. Very laid back, the people are awesome, lots of artists and very open to pretty much any lifestyle.

I'd feel bad if I didn't mention my hometown of Charleston SC. Its a great place to live. Mild winters but the summers are hot as hell. Rent is reasonable as long as you aren't on the peninsula.

 

[HollieCakes]

Charleston, just saying!

 

[HollieCakes]

Oooh I didn't even see it was on your list. AWESOME. Seriously come down and visit me sometime & see what you think. I love it here. Housing isn't expensive at all (compared with northeast where I moved from too anyway) and there and lots of tech jobs as well.

 

[Jupiter551]

I however do LOVE the "storm watch" when there is a single snowflake that touches the ground haha

That awesome!!! I constantly joke about the super intense "storm watch 2012" Dun dun duuuhh, on the local news in Portland too! I kind of miss how stupid it is there when it snows! Now I live in a place where (before I was a web slut face) heavy snow is no excuse to not go to work.

Lol that kinda sounds like this thing here I signed up for after the floods last year - I get phoned with a dramatic automated message if there's a big storm coming in that could be potentially damaging/flooding.

Except they pretty much do it for every rain shower, and sometimes call up at like 4 in the morning..

 

[LiciousLily]

Wow guys, thank you much for the replies!
It looks like Vancouver area and the Carolinas is where I am concentrating on first. I am spending 2012 taking a little few-day vacation once a month. I'm going outside of the USA to hit up Spain, I must visit Australia sometime, too!

 

[timothy856]

Jolene is right, Portland is a great city to live in. Everyplace has it's bad points, and Portland's is the rainy winter. But the rest of the year is awesome! You really ought to come for a visit in any season but winter. It's one of the best places in the USA. Sixty miles to the Pacific ocean and sixty miles the other way to beautiful Mt Hood, skiing at night too! Check it out, really! Casinos not far away, high desert areas within a couple hours drive. Canada about 5 or 6 hours drive North past Seattle. Try it You'll like it! I should of read your profile first, but Portland is home to over 200 public parks, lots of community centers and swimming pools, all kinds of rivers and 150 city owned bridges as well as about 50 more state and county bridges. Mass transit is everywhere, street cars, lite rail, a tram up to the top of the West Hills at the Oregon Health Sciences University, and there are many colleges and universities here too. Lots of malls throughout the city, and bicycling is fast becoming a way of commuting for thousands of people everyday. I hope you will consider checking it out. I have lived in Oregon all my life and I love it.

 

[SoTxBob]

You 'don't like the winters' where you are.. That tells me you don't want a lateral move but more southerly.. AKA warmer winters. May I recommended Austin Tx. There is a huge population of young there, mostly due to the Unis there and the music scene. Being degreed in computer prog and web design, you probably know Austin is the birthplace of Dell. Lots of tech there. It's a fairly mild winter when compared to anything north of the mid west.. It does freeze and snow a bit but nothing you even really need a snow shovel for. Lots of water to find and play in. Fairly close proximity to large city life or more relaxed burbs or country style living. your choice. And perhaps the best thing is cost of living.. Considerably less that many northern locations. :twocents-02cents: [yes, I used to live there.]

 

[inkydoo]

I'd second Austin. I know several people who started wandering the states looking for a cool place to settle down, and never made it past Austin because it just felt so right for them.

People think of TX as conservative, which is largely correct, but Austin is an oasis of liberalism in that sea of red (sorry for the terrible mixed metaphor). Very high tech city with a diverse population, which leads to all sorts of interesting things going on all the time. Known as the live music capitol of the world, it obviously has a great music scene, and, given its size, a pretty good food scene as well.

Of your requirements, it definitely has mild winters, reasonable cost of living (it used to be pretty expensive, but over-building has changed that), is open-minded, and not country-bumpkin (though you don't have to drive very far to find that). It's all a pretty laid back culture full of creative types, and reminds me a lot of places like Portland and SF.

Plus, being in Central Texas, there's pretty close access to a variety of locations. If you're an outdoorsy type, there are a ton of state parks and other places within a two to three hour drive (and quite a bit right within Austin). If you want more of the full-blown city experience (if you wanted to say, visit a bunch of museums, or see a major market sports team), then Houston, Dallas, and Fort Worth are within four hours by car, and San Antonio less than two

 

[Just Me]

Austin is essentially Portland south :lol: or maybe Portland is Austin north

I have lived in both places and you could not go wrong with either.

 

[ElaySmith]

Check out Wilmington or that area. It is on the coast, a college town with lots of things to do but you can still get that home town feel. Ashville is nice as well as Boone if you like the mountains. I have always been a fan of the Carolina's....love love love visiting there!

 

[ga5457]

Charleston is a nice palce to live but if you decide to move to that area DON'T move into North Charleston. It is always one of the highest rated areas for crime in the US. Another place you might check out is Savannah Ga.

 

[HollieCakes]

So when are you coming down to visit me LilyCakes??! :dance: