Buying A Home
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Where would you live in the US if you could start from scratch?
My husband, almost two year old son, and I are desiring to relocate. We currently live in a city on the outskirts of Dallas, TX. Reasons for us for not wanting to stay:
1. weather (heat)
2. social "responsibility" of making a lot of money and having a bigger house
3. not feeling connected to many people
4. not being near water, mountains, etc...and the fact that it takes FOREVER to get anywhere because Texas is so huge!
We are seeking information and suggestions about where to live in the US! Raising a family, healthy lifestyle, moderate cost of living, great education are important to us... Does anyone have any ideas? Do you love where you are? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! 
Re: Where would you live in the US if you could start from scratch?
I am not sure where, I'd have to do some homework and then decide. I do know however, it would NOT be in New York State!!! ( thats where we are now)
My husband and I wanted to relocate and have talked about it, but have never been able to find employment. Our ultimate area would be North Carolina.
We are from up east ((rhode island) and it is SO expensive to live here. Also, the unemployment rate is huge, people are rude (although I grew up like this so I don't notice it, but DH is from out west and he does) and its a very "who you know "type of place.
I grew up here and I do love it, but I generally get "stuck" geographically.
we planned on relocating because north carolina has a business boom, tons of places up here are moving down there, so there is a possiblty for jobs (although, i applied at over 100 and never received 1 call back, so who knows) the weather and the ppeople were all factors.
However, if you are looking for education systems... I would consider the Northeast.
As much as we considered moving and all those things I siad before. There is something to be said about the "who you know" type of environment, it is a nice community and the education systems can't be beat. Imagine your toddler's school trips are to some of the oldest places in the nation!
I mean, if people didn't love new england so much, they wouldn't endure the winters and buy houses that cost 500,000 for 1400 sq. feet on a tiny postage stamp lot--right?
I don't mind NY so much, but the taxes, on the other hand, I do mind....property taxes on Long Island (where I live) are obscene....
Taxes is one of the reasons I said I wouldnt pick NY!!!
Our property taxes on a 450K assessement are 14K a year (town & school taxes combined)
Thanks for the info! We are considering Portland, ME, Grand Rapids, MI, or outskirts of Denver, CO....would like a more small town feel and access to beaches and/or mountains ...my husband's allergies here in TX are also awful!
Of course, this is very much depending on if he can find a decent job!
I live in Grand Rapids, MI now and highly recommend it. The cost of living is extremely low and there is a huge push for supporting local economy and healthy living. Lake Michigan is a 40 minute drive from the city. The schools within the city limits leave much to be desired, but the surrounding school districts are all solid.
What kind of job is your husband trying to get? For a long time the job market was rough up here, but I'm starting to see more positions opening up constantly (I've actually been approached by recruiters multiple times about switching jobs).
Plus, if you love beer, Grand Rapids is sort of beer city USA right now with all of the microbreweries. The recession never hit GR as hard as it hit the rest of Michigan.
If you want to know more, feel free to PM me.
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Have you challenged your assessment? Not sure which county you are in, but in Nassau County, you can challenge the assessment and get your taxes reduced. Especially now since the housing market has been doing so poorly. Our County Tax guy held a bunch of seminars detailing exactly how you can do this (sans lawyer). You can hire a lawyer to do it too, and there are ones who specialize in this, but you can easily do it yourself too and save that much more on your taxes. PM me if you want more info....I think the deadline is May 1st (at least it is by us - they gave an extension due to the hurricane)
Portland is nice. Very quiet and quaint, but gets very cold in the winter. Denver is suposed to be nice too - I have a good friend living there and he loves it. Oh, and if you are looking for a small town feel, I can suggest Media, PA. I grew up there and it's really a nice cute quaint little town. (Their slogan is 'Everybody's Home Town'). Media is great....it's a very historical town in PA - about hmmmm...30 minutes from Philly and another 30 minutes from Delaware border in the other direction. Great school district too. Google it because I'm pretty sure the town has a website
I live in CT and in some ways I hate it and some ways it's ok...
Things I hate:
Although I love the seasons and think they are beautiful, the change all year round is a pain. It's mostly either too hot and humid in the summer for me, or too freezing cold in the winter.
The beaches and water are gross. Thus the reason I travel to tropical locations, Florida and Calif.
Holmes are expensive (as compared to down south). You could own a mini mansion in the south for $250,000 dollars...here that gets you an average house
The state is pretty boring unless you love to shop, do outdoor stuff. I'd love to be by the beach everyday and see a lot more cool stuff (my aunt in calif goes to orchid shows, year round farmers markets, flea markets, craft shows, marathons) all kinds of fun activites because the weather is so great all year round. CT is just plain boring
Things I like:
Salaries are good for the area
I would love to move to California- but things are way too expensive there and make CT seem reasonable.
I don't have kids but I heard school systems are good
I think you would like Denver Colorado or Portland Oregan.
If you're not afraid of a little cold and snow a few months a year, there are some great suburbs of Minneapolis, MN to live in. Many MN locations were on CNN Money's list of top 100 places to live last year. Minnesota has great public schools, good air quality, parks and lakes everywhere (just during my morning 4 mile jog, I run by or between 3 lakes). Lots of great scenery. Tornadoes are not that common, no earthquakes, no hurricanes. Just some cold and snowstorms in the winter - but summers are absolutely beautiful. Some suburbs are higher cost of living than others, but there are also enough jobs (decent jobs) in the area to support it. Plenty of big companies are headquartered in or around Minneapolis. I just moved to a Minneapolis suburb after living in Duluth, MN for several years. I wondered if I would be happy or if I would wish we could have picked somewhere different...anywhere different. And the answer is that I LOVE our new city. Absolutely love it, and even if we had a do-over and could pick anywhere else, I would still pick where I am now. And I cannot imagine living in states where there aren't any bodies of water!? Or just man-made lakes? Wow! I like my lakes...especially up north where they were carved out by glaciers a bazillion years ago. Really beautiful.
Then again, some people cannot imagine the snow or cold. It's all relative I guess!
Kalamazoo/Portage, MI! There are a lot of cultural, recreational, and educational attractions in Kalamazoo (but Portage is a better school district). Gull Lake School District in Richland, MI (not too far from Kalamazoo) is worth looking at as well. GreatSchools.org will have specific recommendations and ratings for each education building in each district.
The Kalamazoo area has a relatively low cost of living with a variety of homes available on the market right now (my sweetie and I will be buying our first home here this summer!). Kalamazoo has two great hospitals, a wonderful community college and two successful universities as well as smaller post-ed establishments, and plenty of parks/golf courses/shopping. Like I said earlier, Portage is better for K-12 schools and Gull Lake is another quality surrounding school. The community takes a lot of pride in our city and we connect through social media and advertising to promote fun, healthy, and charitable events. For instance, the Kalamazoo Marathon http://thekalamazoomarathon.com/ was a big hit this past weekend. There is a festival place in downtown Kalamazoo that holds different cultural and charitable festivals in the summer http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2013/04/downtown_kalamazoo_festivals_2_1.html and lots of people come to support Western Michigan University's sports teams http://www.wmubroncos.com/ and our Kalamazoo Wings hockey team http://kwings.com/ throughout the year. We have a great library http://kpl.gov/ with several branches that hold lots of kid-friendly educational events. The Kalamazoo Nature Center http://naturecenter.org/ is definitely worth the price with its events that delight all ages, butterfly garden, and hiking trails. The Kalamazoo Farmers' Market has started up for the season and is a blast too. Kalamazoo is currently in the running for Beer City USA because of its many local breweries and craft beers (it's bigger than a beverage! http://www.votekalamazoo.com/#). The Kalamazoo Air Zoo http://www.airzoo.org/ is one of our family's favorite places to celebrate birthdays too!
We are halfway between Detroit and Chicago and less than an hour drive from Grand Rapids, another incredible city with lots of attractions (their several museums http://www.experiencegr.com/things-to-do/museums/ and Fred Meijer Gardens http://www.meijergardens.org/ are must-see!). We get the best of both worlds by living in a smaller, growing community but not losing the ability to take a day trip or weekend away to the big city. The trains to Chicago are nice and the drive to Detroit is easy. Grand Rapids, Chicago, and Detroit all have pretty major airports and Kalamazoo has a smaller one as well.
Kalamazoo has its problem areas. I wouldn't recommend living on the north side of Kalamazoo, but I feel safe in the Central Business District downtown, on campus in Kalamazoo, and in Portage. Kalamazoo has a rich historic district that has transformed into what is known as the "student ghetto" (historic houses cut up into apartments and rented to an almost entirely student population) and a transitional neighborhood where home values are low and crime is a little more prevalent. There's lots of hope though, as a neighborhood services group is buying these houses and completely rehabilitating them and selling them. These houses are absolutely beautiful and it is slowly fixing up the neighborhood! Richland is definitely a safe town, as its smaller. There's construction in different areas throughout Southwest Michigan as well with new homes in newly formed subdivisions from as low as 100K.
The weather will be A LOT different than Texas. Michigan weather can be unpredictable. You'll hear lots of people say, "If you don't like the weather in Michigan, wait 5 minutes." While sometimes this is an exaggeration, it usually isn't. For instance, today is was 80 degrees and sunny until 7pm then it dropped to 60 and started raining. It's snowed a little at least once in April the past two years. Usually, it is pretty comfortable but every once in a while we get a little extra precipitation because of the lakes. That means a few snow days in the winter. There was some flooding up north in the Grand Rapids area because of extra rain earlier this spring, but nothing crazy in this area. We get all four seasons, which is good because we have great skiing opportunities here in addition to all the water attractions!
I'm a little biased, but Michigan is definitely one of the greatest states. We are surrounded by beautiful lakes and there is so much natural wonder throughout the state. I highly recommend you check out http://www.michigan.org/ to see some of picturesque waterfalls and rocks, breathtaking beaches, and fun yearly festivals and events throughout the state. South Haven and St. Joesph have great beaches that are barely an hour away, and there are plenty of lakes in the area nearby (Gull Lake, Gun Lake, Fort Custer, to name a few). Going to Sleeping Bear Dunes (about 3 hours north) http://www.sleepingbeardunes.com/ for a weekend is an incredible adventure!
My sweetie and I were in a similar boat where we could really move anywhere once we graduated high school. I looked at colleges around the country and ultimately decided that there's no place I'd rather be than Michigan. I haven't regretted it for a minute. If you have any questions, I can do my best to answer them for you! I know this is a long post and thank you for reading, but I am so serious about the Kalamazoo area being the best place to live!
A local website to help you get a feel of the housing market in Southwest Michigan - http://realestate.mlive.com/ (search Portage or Richland)
Take a peek at some of the historic home remodels occurring in some Kalamazoo neighborhoods - http://knhs.org/category/recent-projects/
Wishing you the best in your decision-making!