Where To Live?

[jesselp]

Currently, I live with my wife and two grade-school age sons on Long Island, just outside of New York City. While the trappings of life are great - I live two blocks from an ocean beach - it is also very difficult to live here. High taxes, high regulation, high cost of just about everything, bad schools (even the expensive private ones around me are not great) and low levels of basic choice and freedom.

My wife and I have come to the conclusion that it's time to re-make our lives.

If you could move anywhere in the USA, where would you go?

Major criteria:

1) Good schools
2) Great access to outdoor activities (currently we fish, surf, beach, and boat, and camp in the summer, and ski/snowboard in the winter. I hunt in the fall, and I expect the boys will start joining me in a few years.)
3) Reasonable housing costs and taxes. Mind you, what you may think is unreasonable, I may think is very reasonable coming from the NYC metro area!
4) Close to an airport with reasonable flights back to New York - I will still need to come back once a month or so to see my clients.
5) Less regulatory burden than NY! Freedom!
6) Enough local wealth to support continuing to build my business. I am an independent financial planner by trade, and which my clients are not all multi-millionaires, there needs to be enough local wealth to support growing my business.

Any realistic thoughts or suggestions? Both my wife and I grew up in New York City, so this will be a MAJOR change for us.

[John Chambers]

Well, I'd say Texas but we are officially full as of yesterday. :biglaugh:

[jesselp]

Well, I'd say Texas but we are officially full as of yesterday. :biglaugh:

I promise not to bring any bleeding heart liberal political views with me!

[Mr. Anthony]

Texas, Colorado, Arizona?

[Gabriel Suarez]

Look for places where you have some of the following:

Local and state government tends to leave you alone...for the most part
Low Taxes...again for the most part
Easy to do business

Don't look for extreme low cost of living as you will end up living with cheap-living rats.

I like AZ...but there are places in AZ where I would NOT live.

[Winchester67]

I like Missouri a lot. I end up complaining about the snow by the end of winter, but I would miss it if I lived somewhere it didn't snow. Mild climate, business/gun friendly, reasonable taxes and property costs. Kansas City and St Louis are too big for me, but for a New York boy it would be a small town. KC would be my first choice, or Springfield if I was looking for a big town. Columbia is a nice town...close to where I live now. Columbia would mean a flight to KC or St Louis for a flight to NY however. I think anyway.

[CDX09]

AZ. Tucson is f'ing lame so avoid this liberal bastion. The wifey and I are looking to possible relocate to the Scottsdale area.

[ERN]

Denver or Vegas.

[TyGuy04]

Post Falls or Coeur d'Alene, ID. Just across the state line from Spokane, WA. Spokane has business opportunities, airport, wealth, Coeur d' Alene is supposed to have good schools, and the cost of living on the Idaho side is stupid low.

[ReconScout]

Fairly certain Raleigh, NC fits your bill quite perfectly. Potential wealth expansion there is great with all the major universities and the research triangle. Close to the beach, fantastic outdoor activities, close (ish) to mountains to get your ski on, and the cost of living is reasonable. For the most part, the state leaves you alone.

[flyfisher]

Huntsville AL

[LawDog]

Just about any place you go will have less regulation than NYC. So the question becomes how much less regulation. Chicago would be an improvement, but I wouldn't move there.

Move housing costs down lower on your list of priorities. As long as you are earning enough to own instead of rent it really won't matter. Home ownership isn't a cost, it is an investment. That doesn't mean you can completely ignore the costs of housing, but it really isn't a very useful criteria.

Access to outdoor activities is a difficult standard because it is so subjective. Personally, I have no interest in the beach at all. I like mountains. I could have all kinds of fun in Colorado. But when considering outdoor activities, I can think of few places less appealing than Texas. And yet, Texas wins in so many other categories.

Taxes are a complicated maze that you have to navigate. One of the best plans is to live in a state that has no income tax (Washington, Nevada, Wyoming, South Dakota) and do most of your shopping in a state with no sales tax (Oregon, Montana). You could also live in Alaska, where there is no income tax or sales tax, and they pay you to live here. :smile: Do your research ahead of time. The two states (among the lower 48) that lead the nation are Alabama and Tennessee. But finding enough local wealth to support your business will be difficult in Alabama. Add to the difficulty that you are not part of the good old boy's club. And I also suspect they'll find your method of speech to be a bit....funny.

"Good schools" in the modern era pretty much rules out the entire public school system. You may find a few decent public schools here and there, but mostly they are crap. The defenders of these failed institutions are mostly kidding themselves; they are in denial because they don't want to have to pay for private schools and they can't admit to themselves that they are shortchanging their own children by sending them to these day prisons. If you have money, you can provide your children with an excellent education in Montgomery, Alabama. If you think you can find a good public school there, then you'll either admit defeat or be doing intellectual contortionism to twist out a new definition of "good."

Easy access to New York will significantly shorten the list of possible places. For an urbane, east-coast, white-collar thinking man, with a streak of woodsy defiance, I'd say the two states to focus on would be North Carolina and Virginia. Northern Virginia ('NOVA'--which is not culturally a part of the south) is filled with money and good, private prep schools. And you can scoot up I-95 without having to strip for the TSA. There are lots of other options, but for you I would recommend focusing on those two--at least to start.

[mitunnelrat]

I, living in MI, would recommend it for many of the reasons you have listed. I live 3 miles from Lake Huron, in a rural area with great hunting that I absolutely love, and I am < 100 miles from Detroit Metro airport, which would make for a short flight back to NY.

The downside is that I've read we are (or were, this was some time ago) the most regulated state in the union.

I haven't had to concern myself with the education system, or too much with taxes for that matter, so I can't speak to those, but the suburbs and communities north of Detroit, and south of Port Huron, may be an area that could provide for your needs and cater to your wants.

[Ride4TheBrand]

Just as a side note, I'm enjoying a fine cigar and a wee dram of single malt scotch on my back deck in Fort Worth this evening... At 68 degrees.

[Big Mike]

Just as a side note, I'm enjoying a fine cigar and a wee dram of single malt scotch on my back deck in Fort Worth this evening... At 68 degrees.

I'm 2 hours south of you and its great weather here. The wife and I have been looking at where to live when I retire from the Army. In the end we have settled on Texas, probably San Antonio. The weather is great, economy is better.

[jacob74]

You didn't mention if cold weather was an issue. Lake region of New Hampshire. Plenty of wealth, fishing , hunting, workable gun laws and 24 miles of coast line.

North carolina like suggested earlier is also a possibility.

Florida has plenty of water for all you enjoy. Hunting , good gun laws and low cost of living ( Home and Tax wise )