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Looking to move somewhere with trees, rivers, nature
Karrmer
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
In the United States.
I've been trying to research as best I can but there are so many places that it's almost impossible to figure out where to even look. I'm trying to find something with trees, rivers, lakes, etc - I lived in Utah for a short time and some parts of that are very similar to what I'm hoping for, but the Mormon aspect makes it a no go.
I'm OK with snow as long as it isn't too crazy. I'd prefer a pretty big city nearby so getting a job would be somewhat easy eventually. I don't want a place that has issues with crazy storms like hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, etc, so I'm guessing most of the east is out.
This leaves me believing that the only real option is potentially Colorado? I visited the Appalachian Trail in Georgia and the trees and scenery there were beautiful but the weather and people are not something I enjoyed. I'm guessing I'd like to stay somewhere in the west. I also am not interested in a place with high crime or a "ghetto" neighborhood. I'm from Southern California so if anyone is familiar a place like Hemet or El Cajon or whatever is definitely not on my radar.
I considered Oregon or Washington but I'm not sure if they're too expensive, if anyone has any insight on areas there if they may fit some of this criteria that'd be awesome.
I have a pretty good disability retirement income that is fixed so I'm trying to find some place affordable. I'd like to buy a home if it's possible but my budget would be around $180k tops and while I could find some amazing homes in Phoenix at that price range, I haven't had much luck in Colorado, so if my "dream" area isn't affordable to own yet I am OK with renting until I get a job rolling again and increase my income so I can pay for a better home.
If anyone has any info on Colorado or, more specifically, the Colorado Springs area vs Denver or any other nice towns to live there, that'd be great too.
I've been trying to research as best I can but there are so many places that it's almost impossible to figure out where to even look. I'm trying to find something with trees, rivers, lakes, etc - I lived in Utah for a short time and some parts of that are very similar to what I'm hoping for, but the Mormon aspect makes it a no go.
I'm OK with snow as long as it isn't too crazy. I'd prefer a pretty big city nearby so getting a job would be somewhat easy eventually. I don't want a place that has issues with crazy storms like hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, etc, so I'm guessing most of the east is out.
This leaves me believing that the only real option is potentially Colorado? I visited the Appalachian Trail in Georgia and the trees and scenery there were beautiful but the weather and people are not something I enjoyed. I'm guessing I'd like to stay somewhere in the west. I also am not interested in a place with high crime or a "ghetto" neighborhood. I'm from Southern California so if anyone is familiar a place like Hemet or El Cajon or whatever is definitely not on my radar.
I considered Oregon or Washington but I'm not sure if they're too expensive, if anyone has any insight on areas there if they may fit some of this criteria that'd be awesome.
I have a pretty good disability retirement income that is fixed so I'm trying to find some place affordable. I'd like to buy a home if it's possible but my budget would be around $180k tops and while I could find some amazing homes in Phoenix at that price range, I haven't had much luck in Colorado, so if my "dream" area isn't affordable to own yet I am OK with renting until I get a job rolling again and increase my income so I can pay for a better home.
If anyone has any info on Colorado or, more specifically, the Colorado Springs area vs Denver or any other nice towns to live there, that'd be great too.
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We get snow here, but it's only a couple of days a year, and a lot of times it doesn't reach the valley floor, only sticking up in the hills. The only real natural disaster you have to worry about is volcanoes and earth quakes, and both are pretty rare (much more rare than a hurricane or flood). Summers here are amazing. It never really gets blisteringly hot, and cools off greatly at night. Summers are mild enough to go outside and do all your outdoor activities and not be incredibly hot like you would be in the south.
You're not going to find a lot of homes for $180k around here though, at least not in the city. Perhaps across the river in Vancouver. Land is just too expensive here for there to be a ton of cheap houses to buy. Taking a quick glance, it seems like the median home price here is in the 250-280k range.
Virginia's not nearly as humid as Georgia (don't get me wrong, it's still humid). You could probably find something around $180K around Roanoke or maybe some of the counties outlying the Richmond metro area.
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Eastern Wisconsin is beautiful, as is the northern half of MI's lower peninsula and all of the upper, maybe also northwestern NY state? I mean, you're going to get a shitload of snow in all of those places, but you could easily get a $180k house
Just looked at Phoenix, and checked out Flagstaff - beautiful place, may consider it, but seems like a bit too small of a town for me. I'll check out Virginia and North Carolina but I'm a little frightened of the tornado/hurricane issues, Greensboro I just looked at and it looks like it gets occasional large tornadoes causing a lot of death/damage.
I'm from San Diego and while we have to deal with earthquakes and the occasional fire storm, death and severe damage is pretty rare if you aren't out in the rural areas so I've gotten a little spoiled by what is probably some of the best weather in the country. Issue of course is the cost of living here, as I definitely can't afford to buy anything and if I choose to just keep renting I feel like it'll be pointless since I don't know if I'll EVER be able to afford a home here, since 500-700k is pretty normal for anything decent
Still looking for any info or thoughts from people that have lived in or experienced Colorado. It sounds up my alley but I'm not really sure.
What kind of work are you looking to do? The University of Wyoming is by far the largest employer here, and if you are just looking for a job with benefits, you can definitely get one here.
I'd also point out my childhood home of central Minnesota. Absolutely gorgeous. I don't know about job markets there though.
It rains. A lot. But it's generally just misty. You don't get torrential downpours terribly often. Seattle rains less, but harder.
Plus, the rain keeps it cool. The rain is part of why our summers are so mild, because we get so many overcast days.
Denver area is awesome, because there is nature and more sunshine than anywhere else. You'd have to live outside town to actually be near trees, though.
Of the two, I prefer the Springs--it's smaller (while still being a decent-sized city), less polluted, and a little closer to the mountains. The weather is very inconsistent (like any mountain state), but tends toward being dry and sunny (although not terribly hot). We do get tornadoes and the occasional dangerous blizzard, with the latter being more rare than the former. The mountains are immediately accessible with a few minutes of driving (or walking, if you live in the Western part of the city), and there are hundreds of miles of them to get lost in if you're willing to drive further. There aren't a lot of large rivers--Colorado is a semi-arid state, for the most part, but there are lakes and smaller rivers scattered around the mountains.
Be aware that there is a very large military presence in Colorado Springs--there's the USAFA in the North, Peterson AFB in the East, Ft. Carson to the South, Schriever AFB right next to Peterson, and the Cheyenne Mountain facility to the West. There are a lot of military personnel about and it has influenced the culture of the place--you may or may not like that. It's also a fairly religious city, although not nearly to the extent of Salt Lake City, and it's not dominated by one particular religion, either.
Dunno what else you want to know, but I can probably answer most simple questions.
Asheville and Boone NC are great places with solid economies right now. You could do far, far worse.
note that many out of towners find the constant (like, 9 months of the year) northwestern drizzle depressing, to wit:
sure you can, you just go out in the rain. Also, you can't beat the summers up here, once they eventually arrive (it rained today, hooray for june.)
Anyway, finding a place where there are lots of trees without fairly abundant rainfall may be a challenge.
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
Funny, I plan and execute things all the time here. I went hiking weekend before last, planned it three weeks out. Had my gear setup for both rain and sun, and it rained. That sure was impossible to do though, because it was a "shitty grey mess" outside. God, I guess I should have just stayed inside and been a wierdo...which no one actually does here.
And good luck finding a place with forests and nature where it doesn't rain, a lot. Old conifer forests especially require a ton of rain.
hey there laramie forum dude
I am from casper
make sure to disclaim not to move to the rest of wyoming
the rest of wyoming is butt, except jackson, which is 1% turf
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shockingly Pittsburgh or morgantown WV area fit in pretty well. super cheap cost of living and all of the laurel highlands to explore
Haha, as an Oregonian I agree with the Portland portion. We do have pretty good seasons actually, I'm about an hour south of Portland and would recommend the area. Unless you have grass seed allergies, then you're screwed!
It's about 1.5hrs to any sort of "nature" you want. Mountains, beach/dunes, open desert, rivers, etc.
I've lived here almost 30 years now. If you can dig that anything you do could get rained on, any time, no matter what it looks like outside - sure, it's a pretty place. A lot going for it. But it takes a special type of crazy to thrive here that not everyone can pull off. If I could go back in time and shoot whoever convinced my dad to move here, I totally would. Except it probably was my dad himself, he's one of the crazies.
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For more nature, you'll want to head farther north. The largest metro area in Northern New England is around Manchester, NH, while Portland seems really nice if you don't mind Maine weather (pro-tip: stay near the water, which modulates the temperatures).
1. What is the minimum size of city you want?
2. Do you like seasons? Seriously, can you handle snow (you're from socal, so not "hey there's snow on the ground in mammoth" but more "I have to shovel and drive in this crap"
3. How many days of rain/snow are you ok with a year?
2. I'm OK with the snow, I lived in Utah for a few years while going to college and got used to shoveling snow out from under my vehicle so I could get to work and all that jazz. I'd still prefer a more mild winter, but snow isn't going to necessarily destroy anything. One issue with snow is I have a Dodge Challenger as my only current vehicle so the whole RWD sports car thing can kinda land lock me. This isn't as big of an issue since I don't have to really work in order to make a solid income.
3. I'd prefer as much sunlight as possible, but rain and snow are also nice to have. I enjoy having seasons, and am getting a bit tired of the endless sunshine in San Diego. At the same time, I also got very USED to the endless sunshine so I'd like to keep a good bright summer and maybe mix in some winter in there. Probably not into the endless rain of Portland, but a Colorado winter seems fine.
I am also looking into Coeur D'alene - it looks beautiful, I just don't know how the job market is and I have heard rumors that it can be pretty racist. This can be an issue since my girlfriend is half black, and she has told me she is against the idea of Couer D'alene because of the racism she has heard about. If anyone has any clue of how that area is (or Spokane since I guess they're kinda the same?) that'd be nice. Northern Washington/Idaho in general look really nice.
I guess my ideal world of having this house with a big yard surrounded by forests with water nearby and ALSO living close to a big city probably doesn't really exist, at least not without spending huge money. So now I have to debate whether I'm willing to go farther from the cities to get that more nature-y house, and I probably am, so if anyone has any insight on even small towns that'd be cool too.
Manchester also has the benefit of only being about 1-2 hours (depending on traffic) from Boston.
Here in Vermont we're not much farther, we have trees and rivers, Lake Champlain is really beautiful, there's plenty of nature (take the bird feeders down unless you like bear). The snow might be a problem if you have a weak back and a hatred of snow tires though. ;-)
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The weather's seasonal- it takes a bit to warm up here, but there's something to be said for being able to swim in a lake at three a.m. when it's warmer than the air is. Winter can be kind of harsh sometimes (lots of snow, ice, late frosts), but we've got ski slopes, snowmobile trails- lots of stuff to do. We also get some amazing pictures (search google for some pictures of the South Haven lighthouse during winter when it's covered by ice from frozen lakewater... it's a thing of beauty.
I can has cheezburger, yes?
2) Denver/Highlands Ranch and Boulder in CO might be good for you too, for the reasons described above. Awesome skiing at Vail, Copper, and Winter Park, of course.
You're not going to find many people recommending it because no one really goes there on vacation or anything.
Just avoid the southern part of the state, that's where the Arkansas stereotypes come from.
And then there's the fantastic cross country skiing, which is probably the thing I envy Mainers the most for.
I'll second these. Plus you'll be near Grandfather Mountain!