Best place to live

Arden

Arden

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I'm ready to leave my current city and my job allows me to move just about anywhere, so I'm looking for an amazing place to live.

FoH/Rerolled community has been a fantastic resource for all kinds of great stuff over the years, so I'm turning to you guys now for your opinions on where I should go.

Here is my rating criteria. Note- *Everything* on this list isn't a necessity. I'm just looking for the best combination of things.

-Climate: Prefer mediterranean or semi-arid. Lots of sun. Long, warm, and dry summers with cool, short winters. Avoid places with excessively long, hot, humid summers or places with long, cold winters.

-Affordability: Pretty self-explanatory. I would like to buy property in the near future and would like to get the best bang for my buck. I can't afford somewhere like San Fran, DC, or NYC, but could probably swing most other places.

-Culture and Cuisine: Culture- Is the city a paragon of progressiveness or a stagnant backwater? Does the city have history? Style? Cleanliness? Personality? Does it get good music venues? Nightlife? Cuisine- how many good restaurants? Organic grocery stores/farmers markets?

-Convenience: How much of a headache is traffic? Easy public transportation? Overcrowded? High crime? Factor in the ability to live downtown and walkability. How is the shopping? Do you have to order everything online?

-Local Points of Interest: Fun things to do within 45 minutes of where you live. I'm big on the outdoors. Waterparks, music venues, beach, parks, mountains, hiking, rivers. General outdoor activities. Proximity to water/mountains is a big factor here.

-Nearby Points of Interest: Obviously, there are plenty of great places that don't necessarily have fun out door activities right in their back yard. Nearby points of interest include places that are a 3-hour or less drive away.

Cities currently on my short list:

Boulder, CO
San Diego, CA
Raleigh, NC (close to family in VA and that's another factor)
San Jose, CA

Obviously, all of those place aside from Raleigh have affordability issues.

If you know anything about those places (especially Boulder) or know of another cool place you would recommend, let me know!
 
Arden

Arden

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Chanur_sl said:
Not Quebec that's for sure.
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Only thing I've heard about Quebec is they have nice strip joints, and that's not really a consideration (although generally attractive women would certainly be a plus). Besides, I'm pretty sure the climate in Quebec would strike it off my list pretty quickly.
 
Arden

Arden

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Badabidi_sl said:
I'd dump Boulder if you want short winters.
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Yeah, I thought so too, but I did a little research into some of the historical weather data for Boulder, and it looks like they have pretty nice weather. Even in March and February and December they were getting days into the 60s and even 70s. The snowfall seems frequent but very light. Looking up weather on an almanac doesn't tell you everything though, so I could be wrong.
 
Chanur

Chanur

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My parents fell for the average annual temperature scam. Average temp where the live now is probably like 65. They visited it in the fall and it was gorgeous. What it doesn't tell you is that it spends like 5 months at 30? or less and the summer can get go 100.
 
Arden

Arden

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Chanur_sl said:
My parents fell for the average annual temperature scam. Average temp where the live now is probably like 65. They visited it in the fall and it was gorgeous. What it doesn't tell you is that it spends like 5 months at 30? or less and the summer can get go 100.
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I wasn't looking at any average temperatures. I was looking at the daily high temperature and low temperature each day over a period of several months and several years.
 
Miguex

Miguex

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Lived in Boulder for 3 years, its absolutely amazing in most of your criteria. Winters aren't that bad but you do get crushed once every few years with a doozy of a storm. Doesn't meet your criteria for affordability though, real estate is about on par with the cost here in So Cal, at least it was a few years ago last time I visited.
 
Arden

Arden

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Miguex_sl said:
Lived in Boulder for 3 years, its absolutely amazing in most of your criteria. Winters aren't that bad but you do get crushed once every few years with a doozy of a storm. Doesn't meet your criteria for affordability though, real estate is about on par with the cost here in So Cal, at least it was a few years ago last time I visited.
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Thanks, that's the first hand account type of stuff I'm looking for. I don't mind getting hit with a blizzard every few years if the weather is awesome most of the time. Just looking at Zillow, real estate prices are pretty damn high there, you're right. I even looked into Luisville next door but it was just as pricy. If nothing else jumps out at me, I might just have to bite the bullet and pay a shitload of money to live in Boulder.
 
Arden

Arden

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Frenzied Wombat_sl said:
Are you restricted to the USA or were you talking about anywhere in the world?
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US would be a lot easier but I could probably make overseas happen. I didn't list it because it would be difficult to swing, but Perth Australia was also on my list.
 
C

Ceythos_sl

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I lived in San Diego for the better part of 14 years. Aside from the affordability point, it should meet your criteria pretty well. If you do end up there, resist the temptation to live in the east county areas - you'll end up with the hot ass summers you're trying to avoid. There's still some deals to be had there though, from what I'd seen the housing market hasn't yet caught up to where it was before the burst.

I might also recommend checking out San Luis Obispo, CA. It's a central CA college town - it's pretty clean, low crime, small enough of a town that walking/biking most places isn't a chore. Shopping isn't bad, they have a huge farmer's market every week and their downtown area has a decent variety of shops, and most anything you want short of designer clothes is probably within 15 miles. They've got a growing beer scene if you're into that (and Firestone Walker's and a few other places within 30 mins drive), and Paso Robles about 30 mins up the road is pretty much all wine scene. I hadn't seen any of the local musicians in my time visiting there, but the Paso area gets a decent variety of bigger name acts especially in the summer. Tons of hiking, lots of trails within ~10 mins drive, and so many beach towns. Plus it's centrally located so if you wanted to make a weekend trip to SD, LA, San Jose, San Fran, etc it's all very doable. It's grown up a lot in the last 15 years (my in-law's live nearby and we visit probably about 3-5x a year), you might check it out.
 
Frenzied Wombat

Frenzied Wombat

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Arden_sl said:
US would be a lot easier but I could probably make overseas happen. I didn't list it because it would be difficult to swing, but Perth Australia was also on my list.
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Don't know much about Perth, but Melbourne Australia is absolutely fantastic. Property isn't cheap, but isn't at Cali levels, and the food/culture/weather is phenomenal. Bangkok Thailand would also be high on my list assuming I could work anywhere. Dirt cheap (you can live like a king), very modern, pretty much every cuisine/culture you can imagine, weather is great (assuming you like tropical), good public transportation, women are gorgeous and low maintenance, and you're literally a one hour flight from countless stunning islands/beaches. About the only negative I can think of is pollution, but it's not any worse than LA/NY.
 
K

k^M

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Arden_sl said:
Thanks, that's the first hand account type of stuff I'm looking for. I don't mind getting hit with a blizzard every few years if the weather is awesome most of the time. Just looking at Zillow, real estate prices are pretty damn high there, you're right. I even looked into Luisville next door but it was just as pricy. If nothing else jumps out at me, I might just have to bite the bullet and pay a shitload of money to live in Boulder.
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Do you need to live in/right by Boulder? The Denver/Boulder area has a lot of good price area's (currently shopping for one and I live about 15 min south). Boulder is absolutely gorgeous, lots of great food/hiking/scenery, and its a quick drive over from a few other places. Shoot for halfway between Denver & Boulder for the great mix of mountains vs. city.

As for the weather, you can't really read online what it's like to live anywhere near here. You put it in your post but it'll go from a 36 hour (damn near) whiteout blizzard to 65-70 degrees the next day and vice versa. Weather coming off the Rockies brings a lot of peculiar and iffy speculation, but 300 days of sunshine means it melts quickly (usually). Other nice thing is there is next to no humidity here, maybe 5-15% on the worst of days in the summer when it gets hot and rainy.

One other thing to keep in mind, prices in Boulder specifically may be jacked because the flood 2 years ago destroyed a ton of shit. Freak of nature storm, sure, but I'd probably avoid buying there until it settles (may have already, don't go out there too often).
 
Skanda

Skanda

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Ceythos_sl said:
I lived in San Diego for the better part of 14 years. Aside from the affordability point, it should meet your criteria pretty well.
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I'd agree with what Ceythos posted but would add some things addressing your Convenience point. I would say public transportation is alright to bad depending on where in the county you are. We also can have quite heavy rush hours so either plan around that or do enough research in locating a house so your work is the opposite direction to the heavy traffic flow.
 
Royal

Royal

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Is proximity to your family in VA overriding your desire to avoid long, humid summers? 'Cause that's what you're gonna get in Raleigh. This one has been horrendous.
 
C

Ceythos_sl

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Skanda_sl said:
I'd agree with what Ceythos posted but would add some things addressing your Convenience point. I would say public transportation is alright to bad depending on where in the county you are. We also can have quite heavy rush hours so either plan around that or do enough research in locating a house so your work is the opposite direction to the heavy traffic flow.
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It's been a couple years since I've lived in SD, but the few recent times I've been to visit it seems like the North County area's been pretty shitty traffic wise for some reason? Even when there wasn't something going on at Del Mar. I'm with you though on the transit point - as long as you don't need to hop multiple trolleys and buses to get where you're going, it's generally okay but if you're trying to get from like Santee to La Jolla? You're probably going to want to account for an extra 30 mins to catch the next bus somewhere along the way.
 
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