Where do you live and do you like living there?

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Vtwin

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I have looked at Washington and Oregon, but the rain there would get old eventually. I have looked at the northeast, especially Vermont and more recently, New Hampshire, but the long non-stop winters would probably be tough to deal with not growing up in it. Don't get me wrong, I love cold weather and snow, but when you are surrounded by snow for weeks and months ...

Born and raised in NW Vermont.

Love it for the most part. Rural and laid back atmosphere. Lake Champlain is a gem. You need to embrace winter or be ok with spending it indoors. Plenty of ways to embrace it if that's your thing.

Montreal is about an hour from my house. Boston about three hours. The atlantic coast is two and half hours through the green mountains and then the white mountains depending on where you're going.

The politics of the state has been going in the wrong direction imho which has increased the cost of living but at least the natives are finally beginning to get seriously restless.

If you can work from home and don't mind being away from anything even resembling a city you can buy a lot of house for cheap. That changes drastically the closer you get to the comforts of civilization.

Cell service and internet connectivity is behind the curve. Improving that is always a hot topic around election time but so far there has been more talk than action.

Serious opiate problem. A few years ago CBS did a segment on the county I live in calling it ground zero in the opiate addiction crisis. It's only gotten worse. State government has finally recognized this and is making an effort to try and get things under control.

All in all, for me, it's been a great place to grow up and live in. I do a fair amount of traveling around the country and I still get excited to see the Champlain valley spread out before me when I return home.
 
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MichaelWinicki

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Born and raised in NW Vermont.

Love it for the most part. Rural and laid back atmosphere. Lake Champlain is a gem. You need to embrace winter or be ok with spending it indoors. Plenty of ways to embrace it if that's your thing.

Montreal is about an hour from my house. Boston about three hours. The atlantic coast is two and half hours through the green mountains and then the white mountains depending on where you're going.

The politics of the state has been going in the wrong direction imho which has increased the cost of living but at least the natives are finally beginning to get seriously restless.

If you can work from home and don't mind being away from anything even resembling a city you can buy a lot of house for cheap. That changes drastically the closer you get to the comforts of civilization.

Cell service and internet connectivity is behind the curve. Improving that is always a hot topic around election time but so far there has been more talk than action.

Serious opiate problem. A few years ago CBS did a segment on the county I live in calling it ground zero in the opiate addiction crisis. It's only gotten worse. State government has finally recognized this and is making an effort to try and get things under control.

All in all, for me, it's been a great place to grow up and live in. I do a fair amount of traveling around the country and I still get excited to see the Champlain valley spread out before me when I return home.


Maybe the most fair & balanced description in the entire thread.

Any place is going to be both good & bad. One thing about your neck of the woods is that it's beautiful there. Just stunning.
 

DFWJC

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I've lived in
Dallas (not the burbs but Old Lakewood area)
SW Ohio,
New Orleans,
West Palm Beach
Research Triangle Park area NC (Chapel Hill)
Cape Hatteras, NC
Caracas (just a few months)

(Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill)
  • 4 seasons but longer spring and fall.
  • 3 major universities right there (UNC, Duke, NC St)
  • Very green with rolling hills
  • Weekend trips to beautiful mountains
  • Weekend trips to beautiful beaches
  • Middle of the road poilically
  • Average cost of living
  • I think this area of the country is nice.

Dallas Lakwood
  • North Texas is still hot. Not much snow. But not unbearable like Houston or New Orleans
  • Lakewood has big old oak trees everywhere
  • White Rock Lake with its bike trails and parks...no boats allowed except rowing
  • 50/50 politics
  • Good meighborhood restaurants , etc. I walk to many
  • A little bit of Austin granola flavor but an overall mix of professionals , etc
  • Neighbors tend to get out of the house more here vs the burbs
  • But although its easy to fly anywhere failtly chaeply from here, it sucks that theres no mountains or beach close by.
 

MichaelWinicki

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I've lived in
Dallas (not the burbs but Old Lakewood area)
SW Ohio,
New Orleans,
West Palm Beach
Research Triangle Park area NC (Chapel Hill)
Cape Hatteras, NC
Caracas (just a few months)

(Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill)
  • 4 seasons but longer spring and fall.
  • 3 major universities right there (UNC, Duke, NC St)
  • Very green with rolling hills
  • Weekend trips to beautiful mountains
  • Weekend trips to beautiful beaches
  • Middle of the road poilically
  • Average cost of living
  • I think this area of the country is nice.

Dallas Lakwood
  • North Texas is still hot. Not much snow. But not unbearable like Houston or New Orleans
  • Lakewood has big old oak trees everywhere
  • White Rock Lake with its bike trails and parks...no boats allowed except rowing
  • 50/50 politics
  • Good meighborhood restaurants , etc. I walk to many
  • A little bit of Austin granola flavor but an overall mix of professionals , etc
  • Neighbors tend to get out of the house more here vs the burbs
  • But although its easy to fly anywhere failtly chaeply from here, it sucks that theres no mountains or beach close by.

I think with any of these places one needs to consider how much heat or cold they can take.

For instance North Carolina this time of year has very high humidity... Today the outdoor temp was in the mid 80's but the real-feel temp was 106 due to humidity.
 

Yakuza Rich

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I live in the Cape Canaveral area of Florida and generally I really do like living here.

I can bear the Florida heat. In reality, there are only about 6 weeks of unbearable weather here...August thru mid-September. The temperature is usually around 90, but the humidity gets to 80% and it just never goes away. May-July are actually quite tolerable and very nice after 6pm. Since I work during the day indoors, that heat from May-July doesn't bother me and I enjoy the evenings. October thru March is beautiful and a great relief that you don't have to shovel snow and that any bad day of weather will soon turn nice in a few days.

The people are nice here. People come to Florida, particularly the Space Coast, in part to live the dream life of the nice weather and the beach and I find that usually leads to laid back people that are easy to get along with and work with. And by the time summer ends you start to look forward to seeing your friends that winter in Florida or come by for vacation. Then by March you want them all to go away. :)

Cost of living is pretty cheap although finding rentals is a little difficult because of the seasonal visitors. Plus, you don't have any state income tax. If you have a good work background you can usually find a good job that pays pretty well because the nearest city, Orlando, only has about a 30% rate of 4-year grads. And most Orlando folk don't want to come over to work because of the toll roads. But Brevard County only has 19% 4-year grads...so if you have a good resume you can likely find a good job.

You have the beach nearby as well as the river. Florida is really a recreation state as you can practically do anything you want here except for snow ski. I'm a golfer and beach bum, so that's what I do. But, if you like tennis, running, basketball, getting your kids into sports, bicycling, motorcycling, even hunting (wild boar)...it's here in Florida. And in most areas in Florida like the Space Coast, you're not likely stuck in traffic all night. So you have plenty of time to do it after work.

Another nice feature about the area in general is that Florida has a good number of nice cities to visit. It's all flat and usually a pretty easy trip. From Canaveral it takes me about 2 hours to get to Tampa, 40 minutes to get to Orlando, 50 minutes to Daytona Beach, 2 hours to West Palm, a little over 3 hours to Miami and 3.5 hours to Naples.

Negatives are usually the heat, getting screwed on mandatory property insurance from FEMA (depends on where your home is located), the initial car registration fees and a lot of people that move here end up with it being a pit stop in their career. Oh and it must be a state mandate that every indoor facility must crank the A/C to meat locker levels.




YR
 

haleyrules

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Born and raised in NW Vermont.

Love it for the most part. Rural and laid back atmosphere. Lake Champlain is a gem. You need to embrace winter or be ok with spending it indoors. Plenty of ways to embrace it if that's your thing.

Montreal is about an hour from my house. Boston about three hours. The atlantic coast is two and half hours through the green mountains and then the white mountains depending on where you're going.

The politics of the state has been going in the wrong direction imho which has increased the cost of living but at least the natives are finally beginning to get seriously restless.

If you can work from home and don't mind being away from anything even resembling a city you can buy a lot of house for cheap. That changes drastically the closer you get to the comforts of civilization.

Cell service and internet connectivity is behind the curve. Improving that is always a hot topic around election time but so far there has been more talk than action.

Serious opiate problem. A few years ago CBS did a segment on the county I live in calling it ground zero in the opiate addiction crisis. It's only gotten worse. State government has finally recognized this and is making an effort to try and get things under control.

All in all, for me, it's been a great place to grow up and live in. I do a fair amount of traveling around the country and I still get excited to see the Champlain valley spread out before me when I return home.
Vermont. Nice area. Been threw there many times. Nice and laid back beauty.
 

Melonfeud

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Central America. Weather and most important cost of living and the very most important....quality of life. Rural Central America is life at its very, very best.
I was thinking of hitting Jamaica ( had an uncle that lived there for 10-15 years,,all I remember from his stories was rum and women ON THE BEACH,,,:))before I assume room temperature ,caught some liberty in the virgin islands once and could enjoy kicking around there for a season,Too.
 

Melonfeud

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I live in the Cape Canaveral area of Florida and generally I really do like living here.

I can bear the Florida heat. In reality, there are only about 6 weeks of unbearable weather here...August thru mid-September. The temperature is usually around 90, but the humidity gets to 80% and it just never goes away. May-July are actually quite tolerable and very nice after 6pm. Since I work during the day indoors, that heat from May-July doesn't bother me and I enjoy the evenings. October thru March is beautiful and a great relief that you don't have to shovel snow and that any bad day of weather will soon turn nice in a few days.

The people are nice here. People come to Florida, particularly the Space Coast, in part to live the dream life of the nice weather and the beach and I find that usually leads to laid back people that are easy to get along with and work with. And by the time summer ends you start to look forward to seeing your friends that winter in Florida or come by for vacation. Then by March you want them all to go away. :)

Cost of living is pretty cheap although finding rentals is a little difficult because of the seasonal visitors. Plus, you don't have any state income tax. If you have a good work background you can usually find a good job that pays pretty well because the nearest city, Orlando, only has about a 30% rate of 4-year grads. And most Orlando folk don't want to come over to work because of the toll roads. But Brevard County only has 19% 4-year grads...so if you have a good resume you can likely find a good job.

You have the beach nearby as well as the river. Florida is really a recreation state as you can practically do anything you want here except for snow ski. I'm a golfer and beach bum, so that's what I do. But, if you like tennis, running, basketball, getting your kids into sports, bicycling, motorcycling, even hunting (wild boar)...it's here in Florida. And in most areas in Florida like the Space Coast, you're not likely stuck in traffic all night. So you have plenty of time to do it after work.

Another nice feature about the area in general is that Florida has a good number of nice cities to visit. It's all flat and usually a pretty easy trip. From Canaveral it takes me about 2 hours to get to Tampa, 40 minutes to get to Orlando, 50 minutes to Daytona Beach, 2 hours to West Palm, a little over 3 hours to Miami and 3.5 hours to Naples.

Negatives are usually the heat, getting screwed on mandatory property insurance from FEMA (depends on where your home is located), the initial car registration fees and a lot of people that move here end up with it being a pit stop in their career. Oh and it must be a state mandate that every indoor facility must crank the A/C to meat locker levels.




YR
My parents had a place in Ft. Meyers ( I never caught a sniff of it,,:lmao:)
 

haleyrules

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I was thinking of hitting Jamaica ( had an uncle that lived there for 10-15 years,,all I remember from his stories was rum and women ON THE BEACH,,,:))before I assume room temperature ,caught some liberty in the virgin islands once and could enjoy kicking around there for a season,Too.
Used to get to Jamaica often...Port Kaiser...alumina...mostly from there to Kokkola Finland... talk about contrasts...haha. Anyway, Jamaica...withs its rural backened redfish and sweet potato pie was heaven for me...never mind those sweet, beautiful country girls...Kaiser was a remote rural area...rare and good. I woke up many mornings, with sportin ladies, way up tobacco road in rural Jamaica. Sweet memories and good livin.;).
 

DFWJC

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I think with any of these places one needs to consider how much heat or cold they can take.

For instance North Carolina this time of year has very high humidity... Today the outdoor temp was in the mid 80's but the real-feel temp was 106 due to humidity.
Definitely having a heat wave right now in central NC
I was in the mountains there a little over a week ago and it was pretty much perfect.
Low 70s, low humidity.

Believe me Texas, Louisana, and Florida are all way hotter than NC on average.

But yes, there are people that like all sorts if weather....goes without saying.
I know people who think the winters there are too cold...lol. And I people who actually Like Calgary wearher...where they plug there cars into heaters in the winter to prevent the sub zero temps from killing the car...lol. All relative.
 
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dallasdave

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I've lived in
Dallas (not the burbs but Old Lakewood area)
SW Ohio,
New Orleans,
West Palm Beach
Research Triangle Park area NC (Chapel Hill)
Cape Hatteras, NC
Caracas (just a few months)

(Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill)
  • 4 seasons but longer spring and fall.
  • 3 major universities right there (UNC, Duke, NC St)
  • Very green with rolling hills
  • Weekend trips to beautiful mountains
  • Weekend trips to beautiful beaches
  • Middle of the road poilically
  • Average cost of living
  • I think this area of the country is nice.

Dallas Lakwood
  • North Texas is still hot. Not much snow. But not unbearable like Houston or New Orleans
  • Lakewood has big old oak trees everywhere
  • White Rock Lake with its bike trails and parks...no boats allowed except rowing
  • 50/50 politics
  • Good meighborhood restaurants , etc. I walk to many
  • A little bit of Austin granola flavor but an overall mix of professionals , etc
  • Neighbors tend to get out of the house more here vs the burbs
  • But although its easy to fly anywhere failtly chaeply from here, it sucks that theres no mountains or beach close by.
Lakewood sounds like a nice place to live.
 
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