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Updated almost 3 years ago, 01/11/2022
Of all the places you lived, where would you move to right now
I have only ever lived in Wisconsin so I do not have a good idea as to how it compares to other places. I know it always seems that the grass is greener in another state but I want to get some sort of consensus.
The south is only getting hotter. Austin TX has seen the average number of 100+ days go from 14 to 24 in the last 30 years. The north is getting warmer ... I have seen winters here get milder and milder. I could go south, but Illinois has high taxes like California and there is an outflux of people from both states.
To me, the states in the middle seem appealing. Like NC, SC, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Colorado, Utah, Nevada.
But I want to hear what you think. Tell me a place that you have lived before and would be the one place you would live if you had nothing binding you to where you are now.
I grew up in Massachusetts (awesome state) then vietnam ( can't recommend this (to humid)) then Miami for college (definitely nice if lots of people is your thing) then California since 1981 (nice but expensive) now moving back to Maine where my family has had realestate, forever. Still looking for a home on the water up and down coast. Definitely not worried as I have David Marshall (EXP Realty, LLC) in South Portland helping me (biggerpockets). He'll be my Broker when I move to Maine. Also, Philip Seymore is living in paradice climate wise, San Diego ( considered best climate anywhere in U.S..
@Casey Powers What did you like most about Puerto Rico? I’m considering moving there for half of the year, and staying in my home state (New Hampshire) during the warmer months.
@Elsa Chang Hey Elsa, what town in NH! I live in Stratham.
I’ve lived in...a ton of places....hands down Antibes, France was my favorite but in the states any place in Florida near the beach is my preference due to lenient corporate tax laws, cheap property and no state income tax. It’s steamy hot here but that’s why you need a lovely swimming pool!
PS: I have to say Berlin, Germany is also a very awesome place to live but to cold for long term.
Here’s the laundry list of where I’ve lived...in no particular order...
Cedar Lake, IN. (11 years)
Tampa, FL. (off and on the last 30 years)
Fort Lauderdale, FL.(1 year)
St. Pete, FL.(2 years)
Clearwater, FL.(2 years)
Berlin, Germany (2 years total - over 2 different times)
Lille, France (7 months)
Paris, France (4 months)
Antibes, France (5 months)
Overland Park, KS (2 years)
Los Angeles, CA (7 months)
Houston, Texas (2 years)
Holetown, Barbados (1 year)
Had to chime in...
had a house in Marina Del Rey, SoCal - too crowded
lived in Lucern, Switzerland - gorgeous would go back!
Barcelona -
Santiago, Chile
Bologna, Italy
Hood River, Oregan
Gudalajara
Puerto Vallarta
Bacalar and Huatulco, Mexico
Boulder and Denver, now in Colorado Springs for 9 yrs.
Working on a plan to live in CO (nov - april) months/New Zealand (may - oct)
@Joey Wharton How fun! Some beautiful places you have lived! I definitely agree on Lucerne, Switzerland although I was just a visitor and not a resident.
I've lived in San Jose, CA., Seattle, WA. Southern California, St. Louis, MO., and Dallas, TX. Without a doubt, southern California is where I would stay. And I did, lol moved back here the first chance I got. I'm not built for cold weather 😂
@Maurice Bishop Move to Florida! It’s always warm and no state income taxes! 😁
Right where I live right now......Southern California. PARADISE ALWAYS!
Wow! Lots of great responses!
I am making a Google Map with places mentioned most often. I will try to attach it to this post.
I tried to give most credit to those who have lived in the most places and tried to filter out a lot of the places that military people frequented (since it would make it a bit lop-sided). There seems to be a lot of ex-military on this site.
I saw a lot of (in no particular order) Australia/NZ, Italy, California, Seattle/Oregon coast, Denver/Colorado Springs, Hawaii, and follow the Gulf Coast from Houston to New Orleans through Florida and up through North Carolina.
Surprisingly, Cleveland got a few votes!? I have never been there, but assumed it was similar to Milwaukee (which is not saying very much). I just cancelled a flight there to move my son into Case Western until he/we chose to stay home this semester. I am happy to see that people like it there.
I didn't want to put any place outside of the continental US, but I couldn't help it.Best places to live - BiggerPockets
@Kevin Rea
Mommas womb. Its murder out here. Other than that I would split between Colorado, London and Sicily.
I would love to buy an RV and live in that for a year with my wife and three kids. We would try to go to as many national parks as possible. Also, I really want to visit the upper peninsula of Michigan.
@Kevin Rea
I love living in New Bern NC. Weather is great. Property is affordable. Rentals and Airbnb's are doing well. We are 35 miles from the ocean and are constantly on the boat salt water fishing. Being on the water is amazing. We catch a wide variety of fish which is a blast. I absolutely love it. This is home!
I have recently moved to Florida from Minnesota / Wisconsin area. I can definitely tell you that only living 35 minutes away from the ocean is a huge plus . No state tax, property is affordable and there are so many Airbnb and vacation rental opportunities . Plus the lakes do not freeze for 5 months out of the year !
Back to Kailua Hawaii. We only moved a month ago, but already want to go back.
Originally posted by @Kevin Rea:
Wow! Lots of great responses!
I am making a Google Map with places mentioned most often. I will try to attach it to this post.
I tried to give most credit to those who have lived in the most places and tried to filter out a lot of the places that military people frequented (since it would make it a bit lop-sided). There seems to be a lot of ex-military on this site.
I saw a lot of (in no particular order) Australia/NZ, Italy, California, Seattle/Oregon coast, Denver/Colorado Springs, Hawaii, and follow the Gulf Coast from Houston to New Orleans through Florida and up through North Carolina.
Surprisingly, Cleveland got a few votes!? I have never been there, but assumed it was similar to Milwaukee (which is not saying very much). I just cancelled a flight there to move my son into Case Western until he/we chose to stay home this semester. I am happy to see that people like it there.
I didn't want to put any place outside of the continental US, but I couldn't help it.Best places to live - BiggerPockets
Add another vote for Cleveland. I like a quite life and the suburbs are very nice for that, we have great parks and outdoor areas. There is still a nice center section of downtown Cleveland with higher end restaurants and bars (not my scene but I appreciate that its available). Also the airport here is big enough to get you pretty much anywhere in the world with one connection but its small enough that you don't have to worry about out of control security lines or massive traffic.
- Andrew Weiner
Places I've lived in sequence (1) Singapore (2) Kuala Lumpur (3) Hong Kong (4) Ithaca, NY (5) Washington DC (6) Rome, Italy (7) New York, NY (8) Hong Kong (9) Shanghai (10) Hong Kong (current)
Right now I think I'll stay where I am but in the future, I'd love to move back to New York City.
Oahu or Maui lived there for a year and was the best experiences of my life!
Spent my life living in both Cali and Texas. Specifically, I'd like to move back to San Diego
I have lived / spent time in
Chicago, IL and surrounding suburbs
Houston, TX
Las Vegas, NV
Los Angeles, CA
Venice Beach, CA
Ormond Beach, FL
Sarasota, FL
Atlanta, GA
Tallahassee, FL
Dwagaic, MI
Port Hueneme, CA
Overall, Vegas so far is the best when looking at cost of living, relative to rents and wages.
Sunny all the time and if you can get over the dry heat its not bad at all.
Wish there was more rain and a change of seasons but ill take the good with the bad ( bad being no natural disasters).
Cons, city relies heavily on tourism and entertainment which is taking a huge economic hit due to covid
thats my .02
So while looking up a neighborhood for one of my clients, I found bestplaces.net and you can look up any zip code in the US, and they also have a "find your best place to live quiz" It was a really cool resource that I use all of the time now, and I found out that my fiance and I best fit in Flagstaff, Az.
I'm taking this opportunity to brain dump my thoughts on potential home-bases.
Places I've lived for at least one month, RANKED from most preferred --> least:
Mexico City, Budapest, Chiang Mai (Thailand), Lviv (Ukraine), Copenhagen, Canggu (Bali), Guanajuato (MX), Bangkok, Valencia (Spain), Playa Del Carmen (MX), Tbilisi (Georgia), Mazatlan (MX), Palm Beach (FL), Guadalajara (MX), Saint Petersburg (Russia), Plovdiv (Bulgaria), Kyiv, Athens (Greece), Novi Sad (Serbia), Medellin, Easton (PA)
Criteria for rating potential home bases (will vary for each individual):
- 1. Mo. Cost of Living
- 2. Addtl Tax Obligations
- 3. Prox to Fam and Friends
- 4. Social/Dating
- 5. Scenery
- 6. Nature
- 7. Food
- 8. Livability
- 9. Fun
- 10. Ease of Transit
- 11. Safety
- 12. Work Friendly
- 13. Real Estate Opportunity
After rating some home base options on the above criteria from 1-10 (and weighting columns proportionately to my preferences) and running a quick excel calculation, my top choices for home bases are Miami, Austin, Denver, Tampa, Mexico City and Asheville NC.
Since I am overseas in Asia, I will definitely look into Singapore as a country to look into. But in the United States, with a lot of economic and social uncertainty, I will consider areas like Texas where the markets will still stay relatively strong. I have some more data and research about the different markets and would be happy to share some with you.
After over a year of posting this, here is a an update now that the we "appear" to be reaching an end to this pandemic.
I just saw this video from Yahoo Finance: https://finance.yahoo.com/vide...
Rentals are hot especially in (from East to West):
Raleigh/Durham, Miami, Orlando, Atlanta, Austin, Salt Lake City, Phoenix and Las Vegas.
I am going to see what was decided upon last year and compare it to this list.