If you found Detroit better than expected, then you are indeed wearing some rosy glasses. Just for fun since we are just kicking the subject around. List the five things/points/criteria that would be important in your selection decision?

ps, hit return.

We actually just went through that exercise when we were trying to decide where or if to move for retirement. We did decide to move to a different community but within two miles of former home. Curious to see how the lists would compare.

How is it "disingenuous" to state my own personal feelings about prefering the more politically liberal states as my choice for residence?

It's fine for you. I have no problem with that. But as I say, within any given state you can find your way for yourself, if you desire to. NC has put Obama IN the WhiteHouse, and could have kept him out. Things change. Who knows. ;o)

Take Colorado - in a hundred miles you can go from the Peoples Republic of Boulder to bible pounding, home to a hundred religious organizations, Colorado Springs.

I've lived in Albuquerque 25 years, and I'll second everything DebitNM said.

You would be able to buy a nice house in a good neighborhood for well under what it would cost in your area.

Lee Ann

I also live in the Richmond VA area, Midlothian to be exact. We moved here 15 years ago with our kids who were 5 and 4 at the time from northern NJ. We worked in NYCity and commuted. Midlothian was like northern NJ was when I was a kid. It is a suburb west of Richmond just south of the James River. 23113 is a good zip code to check.
The west end of richmond is busier but also has many great neighborhoods.
Our local public schools are very good and our kids went all the way through. They are now both attending two very good Virginia colleges. So, I can not complain at all.
In NJ, (which does not offer too many great public universities worth mentioning) we also lived in a neighborhood with terrible public schools and could not afford to move up. Moving south, gave us some very nice choices with good schools.

What I like:
No real traffic at all.
Public schools are good. Just check the rankings and pick in the one you can afford. That is what we did and it was a good choice for us.
I have always felt very safe here.
Weather is generally good here. The falls are very long and it is rather warm right up till christmas. We get some snow and ice, but not too much. Much less than DC.
We are two hours from the beach, and one and half hours from the mountains.
Airport is 30 minutes away and is a nice small, easy to navigate airport. I once arrived at 1am with both kids, who were 4 and 5 at the time. No worries, we walked right out to our car, safely.
City is changing in a more positive mode. I am very happy about this and the restaurant scene is getting so much better. Carytown is nice to dine and walk around. VCU is saving the downtown area by expanding and cleaning up the not so great areas of the city.
Neighbors, who I do not know, wave when I drive by, run by, walk by.
The south is much more pleasant and has manners than the north. My kids learned very quickly to say yes Ma'am to the teachers in school.

I think it's easiest when you can spend time in a place you are considering. A *much* more accurate gauge of how you will like it than researching online or in books.

I spend two vacations in Seattle before making the move out here from 'back east' 2 weeks one time, 6 weeks another time.

My next move (working on retirement in Hawaii) I've been to Oahu 5 times already, spending a week or two each time. Using the bus to get around, looking at downtown, and residential neighborhoods, taking dance and exercise classes - in other words not just doing touristy things.

There's only so far you can get with this big decision, by doing research and/or reading other people's opinions or descriptions of a place.

Again, thanks for sharing your info about the areas you live.

I should have started the forum with not so much detail about moving, but more like a sharing of where you live and what it is like to be a resident there.

As far as Detroit: no, we did not see every section of the city, but we did walk around in parts of downtown and everyone was friendly and those areas were nice and clean. We did drive down by the water to a brewpub and there were nothing but vacant buildings around it. Felt safer walking around the main downtown in Detroit than we do walking around the main downtown in Baltimore. Also went out to the Ann Arbor area and that was pretty nice.

Oh, speaking of the lists that come out by some websites and magazines about top places to live........Money Magazine/CNN listed Waldorf, MD as #20 out of 100 best places to live in 2012. Waldorf sniffing anywhere near the top 50 is a joke. It is a miles long strip mall down the highway. Traffic is horrendous, crime is on a constant rise, schools are in a downward spiral, and people are not friendly. Waldorf used to take me less than 30 minutes to get to but now with all the new shopping they've added, it can take an hour with traffic.

I agree with Suze that you need to spend time somewhere before moving there.

But I can tell you where I have spent time and that match the overall feel of what you have described. (Sort of. Everywhere has its pros and cons of course.) One thing I am not getting is if you prefer big city or smaller town life. So if you want a bigger city feel, Nashville might be a good fit. Chattanooga or Huntsville might be good if you want a smaller city. Don't let Huntsville fool you by being in Alabama. It is much different from the rest of the state in terms of education and opportunity and has a lot of job offerings in the federal arena. If you like beaches, Northwest Florida might be of interest, specifically Pensacola area, as there are many government areas in the areas in that region as well.

Just some ideas on places to look at, but I agree that usually the job drives the relocation, and lots of research needs to go into your move. What one person likes about where they live might be exactly what another person can't stand. You just need to experience it yourself.

Yes, all true sanibella. I really meant for the forum to be about discussing the places we live and what it is like. Did not exactly mean to have people figure out for me where to live some day. Yes, the job will drive where we move, my wife has been in too long to get out and start something new.

Chattanooga did seem like it might be a decent area, never been to Huntsville.

I'd prefer a smaller town/small city environment. I am not a NYC, Los Angeles, D.C., Miami type person. I'd rather have a slower pace, family oriented/community type feel. We were in Moore, OK a few days before the huge tornado went through and spoke with the manager of the Royal Bavaria Brauhaus about why their business hours were so short. He said that for the most part, people in those parts come home from work and spend time with their families instead of going out shopping and eating out.

I think you would like Chattanooga. And Huntsville. Maybe visit both for a bit and see?

I think the last several posts are right on. But I will also add that in largish cities (like charlotte), you don't really "live" in the big city--you live in a neighborhood. And I do say again, Charlotte still has a small town "feel" with big city amenities.
Even when I lived in NYC, I felt much the same--I lived in a neighborhood and travelled to other parts of town for whatever.

D.C. is similar, most people live in the subrubs but work downtown. Only thing is, the suburbs around here are overcrowded and overpriced. More and more people move 1-2 hours outside of downtown to get to a nicer community but are still paying $500,000++ for a home and having to get up at 3am to get to work.

We spent one day in Chattanooga and felt comfortable walking around downtown, met some friendly people at a brewery across the river and walked along the bridge. Very pretty!

A huge thing that gets me steaming around here is that we can't drive anywhere without it taking double to triple the time. I will plug destinations in our GPS and it will be 10 miles from our house but take 30-45 minutes to get there. My wife and I always talk about how to do anything around here, you have to block out a half day to an entire day to do it.

The other weekend, we went to Ikea (1-2 hours), a Restore to drop off donations (10 minutes), and a brewery for an hour in Virgina. We were gone for a total of 8 hours just to do those things.

Interesting discussion. Moved to Boston area several years ago as retirees (to be near family incl. grandkids) from Springfield, MO. Quite a different lifestyle being in an apartment and adjusting to traffic (and appreciating public transportation for the first time instead always in an auto).
Most appreciative of the arts and liberal environment.

My reflection is that every place on earth has pluses and minuses. This regarding transportation, politics, scenery, shopping, schools, the arts, and everything else. Obviously some places aren't appealing, maybe even dangerous, but these lists of "10 best places" are so trite. We've visited most places mentioned and then some.

Important questions still for jedivader: where is the best place regarding your employment? can you appreciate some aspects of where you now live? do you want to be separated from family? what is the politics of any chosen place?

As with most of life, I find pros and cons.

A huge thing that gets me steaming around here is that we can't drive anywhere without it taking double to triple the time. I will plug destinations in our GPS and it will be 10 miles from our house but take 30-45 minutes to get there. My wife and I always talk about how to do anything around here, you have to block out a half day to an entire day to do it.
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I wouldn't live in the DC Metro Area is someone gave me a house.

Honestly, I don't know how people face that traffic situation on a daily basis.

My husband does a lot of work in that area and when meeting with different attorneys, a major negotiation point is whose office they will meet for depositions or the like.

Minnesota! It doesn't have the warm weather but it has everything else. Amazing schools, fabulous theater and museums, good restaurants, friendly people. People embrace the seasons and enjoy the outdoors....swimming, fishing, boating in the summer, cross country skiing, skating, ice fishing in the winter.

I have heard from so many recruiters that it is very difficult to get people to move here and then, once here, it is impossible to get them to leave. The quality of life is simply that good.

I think the cold (it was -11 this morning) keeps the riff-raff out.

I have always heard the Minneapolis area mentioned as a fantastic place to live and raise a family. The COLD, that would be rough.

We lived in Northfield, MN for a few years and I think the Twin Cities really would be a fantastic place to live. Culturally, it's the country's best-kept secret, IMO. But the winters are long.

Also, I would not characterize the smaller towns, like Northfield, or Faribault, or Mankato (which is really a small city), to name just a few that I got to know, as friendly. They are not unfriendly, exactly; people are very, very nice. But it takes a long time to be accepted as anything other than a newcomer, partly because folks are somewhat reserved by nature, and partly because not many new people move to some of those smaller towns.

I would assume Minneapolis and St. Paul would be a different story...