Where would you move?

[TBoneTX 43,286]

The traffic in and around Austin is routinely even worse than the traffic in Houston can be.

Houston has (arguably) world-class medical care.

If I had a compatible career, and if I could speak Spanish, I'd move someplace like Harlingen or McAllen.

Don't listen to people's opinions if they've never lived in (or never been to) Texas, please.

Look under "Cities & Regions" here: https://www.traveltexas.com/#/

Edited November 1, 2016 by TBoneTX

[Michael and Ganna 104]

We have been going to the US and are doing the same research as you....our information is very much different or more complete.

There is a reason the housing market is so hot in Seattle......Jobs! Also if you look at your home as an asset and it grows at the rate 1.7% per year as an example....that is beating a 1year cd for example .65%

We have looked at the beautiful homes in the gulf states....250K buys a lot of home, and in a nice area filled with jobs....There seems to be a catch....homeowners insurance (if you can get it) is more than 12K a year...We found the same information on Atlantic coastal cities.

We are going to the US this Sunday ...... We have Boulder Colorado and Bend Oregon in our sights and will further our research

Hi all - I am new to this amazing forum, and this is my first post. I tried looking for similar topics, and while there are some overlaps, I could not find anything that discusses our dilemmas.

I happen to be one of the winners of the DV lottery. We are a family of 4, kids are 13 and 11. We all speak English fairly well, wife and I have bachelor degrees and I have 15+ years of experience in leading MNCs. We are originally from SE Europe, and I currently work in Nigeria, (we are all here, kids go to the American School). I have also lived in SE Asia for 6 years. My brother (US citizen) lives in upstate NY. We can also bring in 100K USD, and perhaps some 200K-250K more once we sell some properties back home.

Our strategy is two-fold:

cost control (so moving into relatively cheaper cities, but not compromising safety and quality of education) and

revenue generation (i.e. bigger cities, i.e. more jobs available in our industries, though we wouldn't shy away from any kind of work, esp. in the early days)

We are looking at;

Rochester and

Syracuse, NY (brother & his family are there, and COL is (very) cheap). Economy is so-so, as is the weather. Kind of similar to where we come from.

Chicago area (big job market, solid balance between cost and potential earnings)

Charlotte (as above, perhaps slightly smaller, affordable real estate, + like the weather)

Atlanta area (again, big job market, OK weather)

Austin (Not too expensive, some good schools, apparently good QOL)

Plano (as above)

Seattle (it looks like it's not going to work - rent / properties are just too expensive, though would love to move there).


We are combing through city-data and other sources we find useful - rent, trulia, salary.com, monster etc.


Securing a job prior to arrival would be great, one obvious issue is that I don't have my SSN yet, so potential employer would need to be open minded and willing to risk a bit (and I'd need to reassure them that it's all legit).


Our location choices are guided by

Cost of living (rent at first, then buy a house/apt)

Safety

Quality of (public) schools (Middle and High)

Employment opportunities (I am struggling how to quantify this - I am looking at salaries, number of job openings, unemployment rates)

Relatives (only in the short run)

Climate

Commuting times

Overall QOL (can be very subjective)

Eliminatory factors are cost of living and safety.

Just curious what do you think of this plan, and if you are (considering) moving, what are your thoughts and what do you factor in. What else would you look at, both in terms of potential locations, as well as factors to consider.

[LJ75 3]

Thank you all for your inputs.

I have tried to quantify this whole thing, and assign weights to different areas, but as you have so rightly said, it's very hard not to be subjective about it. What I realized from this and other (local) forums, is that DV lottery winners tend to move to areas where they already have family and friends. And often, many regret doing it, but relocating once the roots are set becomes rather difficult.

Now, this is still WIP, basically I 'double-clicked' on the approach I mentioned earlier. In comments, I have added the links to websites with sources of info. I will certainly look into additional places (e.g. Portland, Houston....), and it looks like I will need to remove some. Please disregard 'scores' I have given to employability, climate, commute - those are just place holders, I need to do some more research...

The other way is to use the elimination method - e.g. Chicago, Syracuse, Rochester will be removed, for one reason or another. Probably Seattle too - it just does not fit into our budget, and I am not sure we would be able to generate sufficient revenues to sustain us. There may be lots of jobs there, but we are not engineers (or programmers), and it seems that most of those jobs are in IT related industries. I am a marketeer (marketing director / manager), and my background is in commercial - marketing, sales, business development, key accounts in FMCG industry (i.e. non-digital). I have lots of experience - from Europe, Asia, and currently, Africa (Nigeria), and a degree in business admin from SE Asia, so I'd rather be a bit conservative about my prospects.

We are also not very religious (I guess that's a politically correct way to say that we are atheists), don't fancy guns too much (but don't mind them as long as they are not pointing at us), we have a small dog, like outdoors, and would prefer our own yard.

Again, thank you for a great discussion, and subjectivity and favoritism is welcome, and if you add a fact or two to it, that's added bonus.

[PurplePassion 1]

I have a forum I can suggest to you. I have been reviewing it a very long time to make sure we decide perfectly where to go.

http://www.city-data.com/

[Brazil2USA2016 7]

what about Philadelphia? there are wonderful suburban neighborhoods in the Northeast section. you can get a 4 bedroom single for around 200k. lots of career opportunities, nestled between DC and NY. Commuting into city takes 20 minutes via rail. theres a nice culture/US history. public school system is not great though. could try for charter, catholic, or private

[millefleur 5,038]

You know, no place is going to be perfect. Anywhere you pick will have its upsides and downsides. Just try to prioritize what matters most to you so that whatever sacrifices you have to make won't seem so dear in the long run. I grew up in NE Florida, and while I honestly hate the place for various reasons....I loved my high school (which was a public magnet school.) The public school system in some parts of FL is just awesome. So I still have good memories of it from being a kid despite the fact that I would never live there as an adult.

Needless to say, you definitely need to visit a place and do hardcore research on the housing market/school system before moving there. My mom up and moved to Denver, CO because she thought it seemed like a good fit between being out West but also being in a large city. She had visited a few times before and was impressed by the nature. After about a month of being there, she grew to hate it because it was so insanely spaced out (endless urban sprawl, you had to drive insanely far to get to anywhere) and the housing market was absurd (this was two years ago, maybe it's changed now). But that said, I'm sure someone on this forum is going to come along and say that Denver is great and you should move there. They probably have their own reasons. Everyone has their own taste. My mom eventually moved to OR where she is much happier now.

Traffic has an tendency to be bad anywhere in the US if you're a 9-5 worker. Some states/cities are worse than others, but traffic is just inevitable for most people since the US is most designed around cars and not pedestrians. If you go to a bigger city with good public transit, the cost of living goes up with that convenience.

Edited November 1, 2016 by millefleur

[ManCharsey 254]

Portlander here and I can tell you this is an awesome place to live. Like one person above said, even the supposedly 'bad' neighborhoods in NE Portland have whole foods etc. and the main reason it is (or was..as its been all gentrified) considered bad is because that was the only place in the city with black folks and typical of racist America, it was labeled 'bad'.

Generally, the Pacific Northwest though is without a doubt the most beautiful place in America. Green vegetation, lots of jobs especially in IT, engineering (Nike,Intel, Boeing, Adidas etc are all here) and healthcare. The Portland housing market is going up really high but that's still nothing compared to bigger cities like Seattle, San Francisco etc. thanks to folks moving here from California for causing the housing price spike!

You will love it here if it's open to consideration..No Californians allowed here though!

Legal weed too if you smoke!

Edited November 1, 2016 by ManCharsey

[ManCharsey 254]

You know, no place is going to be perfect. Anywhere you pick will have its upsides and downsides. Just try to prioritize what matters most to you so that whatever sacrifices you have to make won't seem so dear in the long run. I grew up in NE Florida, and while I honestly hate the place for various reasons....I loved my high school (which was a public magnet school.) The public school system in some parts of FL is just awesome. So I still have good memories of it from being a kid despite the fact that I would never live there as an adult.

Needless to say, you definitely need to visit a place and do hardcore research on the housing market/school system before moving there. My mom up and moved to Denver, CO because she thought it seemed like a good fit between being out West but also being in a large city. She had visited a few times before and was impressed by the nature. After about a month of being there, she grew to hate it because it was so insanely spaced out (endless urban sprawl, you had to drive insanely far to get to anywhere) and the housing market was absurd (this was two years ago, maybe it's changed now). But that said, I'm sure someone on this forum is going to come along and say that Denver is great and you should move there. They probably have their own reasons. Everyone has their own taste. My mom eventually moved to OR where she is much happier now.

Traffic has an tendency to be bad anywhere in the US if you're a 9-5 worker. Some states/cities are worse than others, but traffic is just inevitable for most people since the US is most designed around cars and not pedestrians. If you go to a bigger city with good public transit, the cost of living goes up with that convenience.

Colorado is actually cold as hell. If you want to freeze your butt off, you move there lol.

Legal weed though so hey, nothing to complain about!

[bcking 3,157]

Absolutely right. The "bad" areas ended up just being labeled because they were the lower income places. Sad because they are also beautiful neighbourhoods with wonderful old houses.

Bend, Oregon is nice but a little isolated. I guess if a job in your field is there maybe it works. I used to go as a kid for winter holidays, but not sure what it would be like living there.

Traffic in Houston isn't so bad, but I guess it depends where you live and where you work. I work in med center and live in the Heights. Takes me about 30 minutes. Really love the food in Houston, and the lack of state income tax.

[ManCharsey 254]

Absolutely right. The "bad" areas ended up just being labeled because they were the lower income places. Sad because they are also beautiful neighbourhoods with wonderful old houses.

Bend, Oregon is nice but a little isolated. I guess if a job in your field is there maybe it works. I used to go as a kid for winter holidays, but not sure what it would be like living there.

Traffic in Houston isn't so bad, but I guess it depends where you live and where you work. I work in med center and live in the Heights. Takes me about 30 minutes. Really love the food in Houston, and the lack of state income tax.

Exactly! Now that is surprisingly the desired part of the city (Alberta, Killingsworth, Division etc) and the homes there are crazy expensive too!

[Sukie 1,440]

I think you need to add another variable to your list - and that is going to be hammered home in the next 7 days. The US has become so polarized between the liberal and conservative factions. Some of this ties into gun laws and the importance of religion in your daily life. Some of this is dependent upon what your race is, or what kind of racial blend (or not) you want to expose your children to.

If your kids have been raised internationally, then they may have a really hard time in an area without any racial or ethnic diversity. If you are atheist, then being in the Deep South may prove to be a bad move.

I have lived in Germany, Japan, Hong Kong and Australia, and I am Caucasian. I grew up in the American South (Alabama). I now live on 20 acres in the Hudson Valley in New York - 2 hours from NYC when I need a city fix.

I have lived in Alabama, Boston, Cincinnati, Seattle, Manhattan and Brooklyn. I found Seattle the best city for diversity and raising children. I happened to move there in a terrible economic depression, so I bought a house at a rock-bottom price, but it took a while to find a job. I loved Boston for its history and NYC for the incredible VERVE.

If I were to council ANYONE - I would say that you need to look at "community". Where will you and your children feel most "at home"? Can you afford to live there? Can you get a job there? You can buy and house and get a job, but if you cannot feel safe or "at home", is it worth it?

Best of luck to you!

Sukie in NY

[Everlast 49]

Please ignore all the hype and bad press Chicago has been getting lately.

Do consider Chicago. It's a lovely place to live in.

I am Nigerian and live here. So do thousands of other immigrants.

Cheers!

[LORIEandPHIL 123]

Please ignore all the hype and bad press Chicago has been getting lately.

Do consider Chicago. It's a lovely place to live in.

I am Nigerian and live here. So do thousands of other immigrants.

Cheers!

really don't consider Chicago. They even tax bottled water ($1.20 extra tax on a case) IL, is also almost certain to bring in a sugar tax that will add 68 cents to a bottle of coke. They are in financial meltdown, to many pensions to pay, no money to pay them. Brutal winters, we are considering moving away from here because of the high costs, and weather. Look up Cook county property tax!

[Russ&Caro 1,548]

I just knew that in this thread would Texans recommending to move to Texas.

Texans have to be Texans, no? LOL

I invite anyone to come to New Mexico and meet the TX transplants here. They don't all have nice things to say about Texas, although some still do.

[templeton 120]

+1 for Charlotte. Love the area! Beautiful country. Summers can get pretty hot, but I'll take that over a long winter any day. Wearing shorts into November is pretty cool. As someone else said, cost of living is very reasonable, especially out here in the burbs. The only drawback is the traffic along the main corridors, but any place you choose is going to have pros and cons.