Advice on places to move to..

[hithard]

Myself, wife, and two very little ones are looking to relocate. Politics,taxes,safety, politeness, and many others things are issues are not in alignment with our beliefs.

We are looking for community values, neighbors don't charge each other for help. I'm sure you get the rest.

I'm an electrician, can handle residential, commercial, and industrial. Have never been out of work. I spent the last few years running maintenance crews a refinery.

Not looking for a big city, or a real small town. Just a nice place to raise our kids, and enjoy the outdoors and share with others what life has to offer.

Thanks for any input.

[Dennis Eugene]

Craig,Alaska.

[marlin39a]

Prescott, Arizona area. There is going to be a lot of home building here soon. Your line of work will be in demand.

[FISH4BUGS]

I would suggest New Hampshire. Any town except Durham and Portsmouth, both liberal pockets of the state. Gun friendly, no income or sales tax (although the real estate taxes are high to make up for it) and plenty of work.
Small town life is great if you want to get involved or you can stay under the radar. Volunteer fire departments in the small towns. A real sense of community.
Winters can be kind of harsh but you just take advantage of the outdoors and hike and snowshoe. We have very distinct seasons here, all five of them. Spring, summer, fall, winter and mud. Depending on where you live, there can be six seasons with tourist season.
Mountains, oceans, plenty of hunting and fishing, forests, lots of wildlife, and an overall conservative state make it a great place to live.

[JBinMN]

I am at a loss to tell anyone where they should live, as folks desires are so different from one another most times. What might be good for one is not so good for another.

I will suggest that since you have a very useful trade & experience, that you try to contact different employers in areas that you become interested in going, to make a new home for yourself & family.

If you have been part of a nation wide elect. union, that might be something to check out also, as the union may be able to help with rates of pay, etc, as well as provide contacts so that wherever you think about going, you might have a contact with folks that already live there that can tell ya how things are before you would move there. Just as you are doing here by putting out feelers to see what folks think, the more you "network" with folks that will not lead ya astray, the more info you can make to determine the best place for you to move.

I have moved a bit over the years with my family, both while in the service & as a civilian. I have found that eventually you have to make your decision on the families terms & not so much your own. Meaning, schools for the kids that are decent in teaching, a church, if you are a churchgoer. (< - another "network" if you choose), etc.. Distance from what you & the family like to do when not working/at school. Distance from family to visit, neighbors if ya do or do not want them nearby. Lots of variables. I will also suggest that unless you are going to buy some property that is rural, and the neighbors are a reasonable distance away, and instead are going to live in the confines of a middle size town, rent before ya buy. Meet people, learn the area. That way you have the option of finding out just how much ya like where ya chose to go. At least for a short time, 3 months, 6 mos., etc.. Gives ya more time to search around for what ya really want. Then, if you find that the town or a property just a ways up the road would have been a better place to set up home, you won't be kickin yourself in the hind end for settling for something ya locked in to, when something else was a better location & more of what ya really wanted.

I prolly could offer some more things, but I will shut up & let others share some insight for ya.


I wish ya G'luck!

[Handloader109]

I'll echo jb, if you are union, then consider union state such as New Hampshire. I for one could not stand the winters. If you work hard, have good skill set, you can find work coast to coast. Good luck

[myg30]

Morning Sir, I moved to Tennessee from NY 26 yrs ago and never regretted a day. Nashville is growing fast and the surrounding 35 mile radius. Lots of work for electricians both commercial and residential as well as industrial. I'm sure other cities and towns are growing fast here.
I would not live in the city ( Nashville)but outside area you can be as country as you want with farm land around and interstate drive to work if nessary is very reasonable. Schools are good.
No state income tax, property tax is low, gun friendly state and surrounding states for travel with firearms as they honor our CCW permits. We Never supported Al Gore !
There are some of the best hospitals here. Local volunteer fire depts, some paid city/ town depts,county EMS, Life flight if nessary.
Home to the 101st Army Airborne, Fort Campbell.
Good BBQ and southern cooking. 6 hr drive to Florida beaches. Lots of lakes,fishing, hunting.
There is still southern hospitality found even though lots of transplants here. Churches and community's are abundant. You will even find a few Catholic Churches ( lol), had to go there as mostly Baptist and Church of Christ and even the smallest towns have 3 of each !
Grown your own food, raise a few chickens or cows,let the dogs run on your property the children will love the country life!!

Mike

[Tyguy95]

Minot ND

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[GhostHawk]

Well if your from Kali you probably don't want too far north.

Probably North edge of Colorado down to the border.

Decent electrician can get good work almost anywhere. As long as he knows his stuff.

Look for mid sized college towns. 20 to 60,000 people. Should be fairly quiet, good values.

As for neighbors, well you earn them as you go. You move in your a stranger. Breaking the ice is up to you. How well you fit in is going to depend on how well you fit in. And how hard you try to fit in. We moved into a very small village in 1958. 30 years later we were still the "New guys" But that is small town life for you. And we only moved 8 miles. So its not like we were foreigners.

Good luck on the search.

[snowwolfe]

Morning Sir, I moved to Tennessee from NY 26 yrs ago and never regretted a day. Nashville is growing fast and the surrounding 35 mile radius. Lots of work for electricians both commercial and residential as well as industrial. I'm sure other cities and towns are growing fast here.
I would not live in the city ( Nashville)but outside area you can be as country as you want with farm land around and interstate drive to work if nessary is very reasonable. Schools are good.
No state income tax, property tax is low, gun friendly state and surrounding states for travel with firearms as they honor our CCW permits. We Never supported Al Gore !
There are some of the best hospitals here. Local volunteer fire depts, some paid city/ town depts,county EMS, Life flight if nessary.
Home to the 101st Army Airborne, Fort Campbell.
Good BBQ and southern cooking. 6 hr drive to Florida beaches. Lots of lakes,fishing, hunting.
There is still southern hospitality found even though lots of transplants here. Churches and community's are abundant. You will even find a few Catholic Churches ( lol), had to go there as mostly Baptist and Church of Christ and even the smallest towns have 3 of each !
Grown your own food, raise a few chickens or cows,let the dogs run on your property the children will love the country life!!

Mike

I been to 49 of our 50 states. I researched a retirement home for a year and arrived at Tennessee. You can pick a city life close to Nashville, Knoxville, or Memphis (yuck) or go rural. We live 15 miles away from two decent size towns. I'll toss some numbers out for you to think about:
vehicle registration for a year, about $24
no state income tax, no toll roads
very LOW property taxes
cheap gas
low utilities.......our house is 2,300 sq feet and our monthly electric bill in the summer is $100, and we run the AC 12-18 hours a day.
auto insurance rates are low
Best feature of all. The people! Everyone you see will wave or stop and talk to you. We been invited to family reunions, picnics, etc
deer and turkey all over the place
fantastic fishing
I could go on and on but you get the picture. My wife and I flew here to look at a chunk of land and within 2 days knew this state would be our final home. Another interesting fact is you can drive to 75% of the USA population within a 1 days drive. Lived in a lot of places and the only one both the wife and I hated was Colorado. Its a big county, different strokes for different folks.
Good luck with your search. But there is a reason why people are moving to TN in droves.

[rockrat]

I ended up moving to Colorado, been here 26 years. thought about TN, but just too humid for my tastes, same about the hill country of Texas. Loved Virginia (family goes wayyy back there) but also the humidity thing. Same thing with Kentucky. All beautiful country, just humid.
Should have looked a bit more at TN and the Cumberland plateau, might have been a bit less humid there.
If I had to do it all over again, maybe the corner of VA near where KY and TN meet. Close to WVA also. Maybe. Do like it here. Think Snowwolfe was just on the wrong side of the mountains, on the Front Range, I am on the Western Slope.

[Char-Gar]

Lots of places in Texas that match you needs, but there are also some that do not.

[clodhopper]

Bozeman MT. is fast becoming the type of place you wish to escape.

[bedbugbilly]

I lived in lower Michigan all my life - rural on a farm but the village closest was about 2,000 people. I used to know everyone, now I know very few - the township swells to about 60,000 in the summer due to all the lakes we have in the area. I know what you mean by your search for where people are friendly, good values, willing to help each other out, etc. We now winter south of Tucson and I have come to like the area very much - I guess you could say I don't like "change" but we have made quite a few friends here in AZ as well and all are friendly.

The nice thing about the United States is that there are so many places that a person could love to call "home". Personally, I have no use for the politics and attitude of the west nor east coast who want to run everything. The midwest though, a lot of what you are looking for still exists - you'll just have to decide for yourself where you want to land and fit in. You have a good trade and will always have work.

I'm of the age that I often think of how life was back in the 1950s when I was growing up - people went to church on Sunday, we had a parade and memorial service on the town square to honor those who paid the supreme sacrifice, we celebrated the 4th of July and neighbors helped neighbors out. When there was a death in the community, folks made food, etc. and took it to the family as they had enough to worry about without having to cook. We had a volunteer fire department - I ended up serving on it for many years - and when there was an emergency, people helped their neighbors. Sure, it wasn't "Utopia" - but it was a good way to live. Above all, people had "respect" for each other and there was non of the political hogwash that goes on today. I guess what I'm saying is, if you find a community that offers many of those values, you will find a "home".

Look at the practical things as well - expenses, income, taxes, license fees, insurance, etc. as those things have a lot of effect on happiness. And look at the schools your children would be going to as far as the amount of parent involvement,what they are teaching and the values they have.

Good luck to you and I hope you and your family can find a good place to call "home" which is more in line with the values that you have and that you want your children to have.

[quilbilly]

Wait to see where Amazon announces where its new semi-headquarters will be and find a town about 30 miles away. Business journals say 50,000 new jobs there and it will more than likely be closer to 75,000 as Amazon phases out of the cesspool known as Seattle. Secondary jobs will multiply that 75K number by 3. Bezos may be a hard core Marxist but he will likely locate in a place not dominated by fellow travelers like Seattle.

[MyFlatline]

A few questions shy of an answer. Cold or Hot climate,,maybe in between. Is Hunting an important issue?, Others have asked about Unions. I have toyed with the same things, as in moving. I have not been able to find the answers for me yet. I'm a Contractor with a good client base, that's hard to walk away from..

Best of luck

[AbitNutz]

I think it may be useful to do this in reverse. Don't look for the state to move to. Make a list of states not to move to. That will narrow your list and then you can decide between just a few...

[smokeywolf]

My situation is far different from yours, but my reasons for leaving Kali are the same.

Arizona is nice; good weather in the North. Although I really like Texas and have nothing but the greatest regard for Texans, I would shy away from all states that border Mexico. I really like Idaho and Utah, but Mrs. smokeywolf doesn't want that much Winter and worries about the Yellowstone volcano. Also, I can get more for my money in the Midwest or Southern states. Arkansas ended up being our number one pick (not the eastern edge, cuz of the New Madrid Fault). Possibly the most solidly Red state in the Country and likeliest to stay that way for many decades.

[BOSCHLOPER]

Let me join FISH4BUGS in inviting you to New Hampshire. We moved here in 1999 and have loved every minute of it. The kids were in middle school when we came, they are grown and gone now. They went thru public schools, which we found to be as good as anywhere else. Gun friendly state, as are our neighbors Maine and Vermont (Mass. now so much). The wife and I were both raised in San Diego and moved across the country in 5 steps. We have now run into the other ocean and are done moving. We love the seasons here, fall color is at it's peak right now, snow before you know it.

[Hickory]

Texas, Florida and California are or will be rebuilding.
You shouldn't have a hard time finding work. Now that I think about it, you might want to cross California off the list.