Pony Talk > Off Topic

Moving Out of State - Recommendations?

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tuneful87:
It's no secret that Connecticut is in fiscal ruin, and now that I'm ready to buy a home, it just doesn't make sense to buy in CT. Since we have members in pretty much every state and I'm not terribly well-traveled, I'd be most indebted for any advice you might be generous enough to give (cities/counties/states). I work from home 80% of the time and would do so 100% of the time in another state, so the right home and land is incredibly important to me since I'll be spending almost all of my time there. I'll provide some of my general criteria below.

Weather - Winters here are harsh and long, so a more moderate winter would be ideal. I don't mind a bit of rain and I love the heat (though not the humidity), as long as we're not talking Death Valley temperatures.

Housing - I'm a big fan of contemporary and mid century modern homes, none of which are common in CT. I would like a nice chunk of land as well, and houses not too close together. Property taxes are insane here...$6-10k on average! A town/city with substantially lower taxes would be ideal.

City Size - I'd prefer the suburbs or a more rural setting, but with easy access to a larger city.

Amenities - I'm a fan of the arts and a variety of good restaurants, and it would be nice to have some decent options for when my friends from out of state visit.

Community - While I'm a loner, I'd still like to easily make new friends in whatever community I belong to! So, a friendly and welcoming community wouldn't hurt.

I can't think of anything else at the moment! I know that no city/state is perfect, but there are an infinite number of better options than Connecticut right about now!

invaderhorizongreen:
I am in NY and our taxes are about 5K a year or so, winters are not too bad in the finger lakes, unless you go towards Buffalo or Rochester NY.   Victor NY is very expensive, and houses around here are usually 80K or less if they need a ton of work, and most start at 120K and up.  However water town is another big snow area, and it gets really cold up there. 

Minty_Magic:
Welll if you don’t like Death Valley temperatures central Arizona might not be for you, but I have a feeling you might like northern Arizona. The weather is perfect, they get very mild winters with just a little snow and the summers aren’t nearly as bad as they are in the valley. I think they average around 90 degrees in the worst of summer.

The arts have a huge presence up north too! Sedona and Jerome are especially built from a community of artists, and seem to have a strong sense of community. Since Sedona is a big tourist area they have lots of great food around too, though it can be pretty pricey!

I’m not sure how property taxes run in northern Arizona. Sedona I know is a fairly expensive area, but there are less popular cities like cottonwood that might be reasonable. Cottonwood is ideal because it’s nestled right by Jerome and Sedona, which are the coolest cities in my opinion! Flagstaff is probably the biggest city up north, but it still has a close knit community feel. My friend has an apartment in flagstaff and she finds it to be fairly affordable.

The only bad thing is Arizona is pretty boring when it comes to architecture in homes. I also love mid century homes but they’re pretty rare here too. A lot of them have also been gutted and made really boring :(  Places like Sedona have a lot of custom builds though, so it might be more interesting than Phoenix!

I’ll be clear I’m pretty biased to Arizona though. I’ve lived here my whole life and I love it here, even when it does get to be 115 degrees in the summer.  :P  I’m also super biased toward Sedona because it’s only about an hour and a half from the city so I visit a lot! Even though I’m no where near retirement my goal is to retire up north near Sedona!

Pokeyonekenobie:
Depending on your price range, you could consider buying land and then building a home on it. 

I live in Northern Utah, so we do get winters, but since we're not on the coast like CT, I would be willing to bet it isn't quite as bad as you're used to.  Humidity is generally low and the summers are pretty nice.  Right now the weather is in the 40s, but sometimes we do get snow in October--really it depends on the year how bad the winters get but usually they're manageable.  Or if you want warmer weather, head to Southern Utah.  I have a friend who lives in St. George and they close everything down when they get 1/2" of snow because they don't have snow plows and for them that's a lot of snow.  She once sent me a picture of a 5" high snowman her kids made and they had to gather every bit of snow on their lawn to make it. 

The area I live in is rural, there are 2 acre lots in the area for sale for building and there are new houses that have been built that are up for sale.  I have no idea what the property taxes are as it kind of depends on where you live and what your property has on it.  (for example looking at a house down the street on Zillow: 2 acre lot, 2,000 sq ft home, costs $342K and they list the property tax as $2k).

I work in town, which is about 16 miles away.  Salt Lake is about an hour and a half away and they have a great Comic Con (which they had to rename FanX because San Diego Comic Con threw a tantrum after Stan Lee said ours was better).  Utah is pretty big on theatre and the arts, so you'll find that almost everywhere you go here (one of the first buildings built in Salt Lake was a theater).  There's a random theater kind of in the middle of nowhere out here called "The Barn" and it is a "theatre in the round" in an old barn.  There are lots of chain restaurants as well as locally created restaurants to choose from. 

As far as friendliness goes, I think the community I live in is friendly, but they're not in your face about it.  Our neighbors have used their tractor to shovel our driveway before and if my parents aren't home our other neighbors will bring in our trash can for me while I'm at work (we have a long, steep driveway and they tow it up with their 4-wheeler).  If you need help with anything all you have to do is ask and someone will show up.
 It's a nice little place. 

I'm a military brat so living here for 5 years has made me antsy to move but it's still a nice place to live.

SunnyDazeAhead:
Come to Indianapolis!! We have all kinds of weather, moderate winters and hot summers with not as much humidity as say FL which is 90-100% from what I remember when I was a part time resident there.  :hot: The place I live currently is classified as Carmel West so I'm not exactly in the heart of downtown or anything but I like it that way bc there's so much green grass and trees and I just moved into a new apartment which makes me feel like I'm in a rural setting when really I'm only minutes away from Keystone at the Crossing, Castleton Square Mall and tons of other dining and shopping locations. I know that there are a LOT of other MLP Arena members that also call Indy their home so you would have a small community already here (I know this from when the MLP Fair was held in Indy a few years ago hehe) I'm originally from the city of Kokomo which is an hour north of the city and I absolutely LOVE it so much more now that I moved here permanently back in June. The neighborhood seems to be friendly for the most part but I'm sure there are inconsiderate/rude people no matter where you go tbh bc sometimes strangers are just jerks lol  :enraged:

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