help! my wife and i would like to relocate from cleveland, Ohio to a small town either in the carolinas along to coast or the east coast in general. how do we go about researching etc. to find that small town??? work is not a problem as we work out of our home. any suggestions would be great. tried a general search on google with no success. please resond to <a href=mailto:[email protected]>Email us direct!<a/> thanks.

Highlands, North Carolina, and Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida are both great choices. When we were searching, we went to the library (I'm sure you could do it now online) and looked up the statistics of each town.

Some outfit does an annual list of best places to live. I think Money Magazine does articles on best places to retire. Once when we were contemplating a move we subscribed to the local newspaper. Reading it everyday gave us an idea of what was going on in the community and local politics. You should take your hobbies into consideration, are there clubs you would like to join, events you would like to attend. I didn't care for the small towns in coastal NC but I love small towns north of Portland ME. I live in a small NH town but we still have the conveniences of colleges, shopping, etc within an hour's drive. Airfare from Manchester NH is usually pretty good but it's a lot more expensive out of Portland.(If I email this, nobody else will see it and comment/generate a discussion so I'm just going to post it.)

It is a tough adjustment to move from a large City to a small southern town. Most people have lived there for generations and you are an outsider with a northern accent and perspective. Do not confuse the friendly way they treat you as a visitor to the way they will treat you when you move into the small town.

If you are set on the idea, move to a southern town with a share of outsiders. I always liked Tallahassee Florida and Chapel Hill, NC- the two most yankee friendly mid sized towns in the south. The towns with a higher amount of educated people are best, expecially college towns.

Also there are a number of books out there that tell about the best small and mid sized towns in America, check them out.

Based on my experience living and working in small towns in PA, I would say look for a college town. They are more welcoming towards outsiders and have more of cultural life and often more vibrant downtown areas than other small towns.

There are a couple of books out you may want to look into. One is called America's Most Charming Towns. The other is called Americas Best Small Towns. One thing about small towns. If they are within an hours drive of a big city they'll be bustling suburbs within 5-10 years. Our town in Illinois made the list of most charming towns a few years ago. Since then, we've got almost every chain store imaginable. A lot of people are thinking like you.