Where is it most economical to live with best quality of life?

[Fern]

Re: Where is it most economical to live with best quality of life?

T. and i have discussed where to retire, and right now we're thinking Asheville, NC area, which i think is in western part of the state near the smoky mountains.

i now live in the quintessential New England town (pop. 30,000) with a historic main street (all residential except for the town hall, library and a general store and 2 churches, large flagpole in middle of road at an intersection which often causes car accidents but no traffic light has been installed cus it would ruin our charm.

i like CT but real estate and property taxes are very high. Plus we're tired of new england winters.

[Ima saver]

Re: Where is it most economical to live with best quality of life?

Asheville is a very nice area, not too far from where I live now.

[cercis]

Re: Where is it most economical to live with best quality of life?

For me, my dream spot will always be somewhere were snow is rare, ice storms even rarer, and winter temps hang out in the 60-80 range.

I love it here. Right now it's pretty affordable, you can buy decent size homes for $80-150k (depending on what area you want). All the schools seem to be pretty good, so that will be nice.

I plan to supplement our kids' education with stuff we're interested in, but depend on the school for the other stuff.

[Lemony]

Re: Where is it most economical to live with best quality of life?

Norway.

[Snoopy2645]

Re: Where is it most economical to live with best quality of life?

I live in IA & I believe its good living you can buy a nice house cheap our house was 60k & between dh & I we are now making around 60k a year we were making about 40k between us when we bought the house 7yrs ago. My BIL just bought a house for 160k in NM & makes the same as my dh I know in our situation we couldnt afford that kinda payment & his house is like ours just average.

We do live in a city too not a farm or rural area. We have also looked at moving to a much bigger city in nebraska but the houses are soo expensive unless we got way better jobs I cant see how we could afford it.

[LittleGopher]

Re: Where is it most economical to live with best quality of life?

Well, in general, I feel that if you have a choice of where to live, and that you've given some thought to your preference, then you will usually find a way to make it work. Every place has both expensive and frugal aspects.

As for me and my family, we live in a small town with ~ 2000 population. We're a far-edge suburb of Minneapolis, which is about 30 miles away from us. My kids attend our small public school, with a student population of 2400 ( graduating classes are at about 185.) Our town has a Main Street (we live on it,) a library, bank, post office, churches, one bar, grocery store (expensive, but handy) and a small number of small businesses. We share a small police department with our neighboring town and have a volunteer fire department. Pretty typical small town.

When you go to the grocery store or library, don't expect a quick stop. You know all who work there and you see your neighbors, so you have to catch up with each other. You attend church with a local police officer, several of the volunteer fire dept. guys and the mayor. You borrow our 20 foot ladder, we borrow your chain saw. And yes, it takes several neighborhood guys to fix any one car around here or to putz around the garage (yup, it's a beer klatsch!) Of course, the gals do share the occasional ice tea or coffee on the back stoop or deck or kitchen counter. Popsicles are passed out to whoever is in the backyard.

We like to partake in the many things our Twin Cities have to offer, like art and science museums, nature centers, cultural activities, zoos, etc. Many are free or very inexpensive. We live close enough to places in the cities or suburbs that have some of the bargain stores, like thrift stores, second hand stores, places like Sam's Club and Costco, dollar stores, etc, etc. We're not that big on shopping, so if we go, we plan out a shopping trip to get the most for our money and time. We get by with what we have usually.

So, we kind of get the best of all worlds. We live in a small town, and enjoy the city experience to our east and the country experience to our west. East, west, home is best!

[Fern]

Re: Where is it most economical to live with best quality of life?

No offense to the mid-westerners here, but i would automatically rule out much of the midwest becus of the threat of tornado. Does homeowners insurance pay for tonrado damage?

For similar reasons, i'd be reluctant to live in California because they say a really big earthquake is imminent. don't like the thought of all of my home and its contents disappearing under a landslide, wildfire or tornado. Hurricanes i can deal with.

[34saving]

Re: Where is it most economical to live with best quality of life?

Fern -- it's so funny that you rule out the midwest because of tornadoes. I've ruled out just about everyplace else because of earthquakes and floods! I guess it all depends on your perspective huh? BTW, tornado damage is covered by homeowners insurance and lots of us here in the upper midwest (at least) have basements.

[sweeps]

Re: Where is it most economical to live with best quality of life?

No offense to the mid-westerners here, but i would automatically rule out much of the midwest becus of the threat of tornado. Does homeowners insurance pay for tonrado damage?

For similar reasons, i'd be reluctant to live in California because they say a really big earthquake is imminent. don't like the thought of all of my home and its contents disappearing under a landslide, wildfire or tornado. Hurricanes i can deal with.

That's funny, because I'd much rather face the possibility of a tornado than a hurricane. Hurricanes can last for 2 or 3 days and affect millions of people. Tornados, although dangerous, last for 5 or 10 minutes and affect more like hundreds of people.

I agree with you on earthquakes though.

Yes, tornados are covered by basic homeowners insurance, by the way.

[kashi]

Re: Where is it most economical to live with best quality of life?

Me three! I'd rather take my chances with a tornado. You know hurricanes are going to hit you, in the same small area, just about every year. A tornado might show up, it might not. I've already been affected by one anyway, so I figure I am in the clear for the rest of my lifetime. There was an earthquake in IL not too long ago, so don't rule that out, either!

Anywhere you live, there is the threat of something...earthquakes, floods, landslides, hurricanes, avalanches, tornadoes, fires...etc etc. You just have to decide what you can deal with and what you can't.

[cercis]

Re: Where is it most economical to live with best quality of life?

I lived in Oklahoma for 30+ years. I never once saw a tornado. I did see damage after the fact. I've never had to take shelter from a tornado. I did inadvertently drive through cities where tornadoes were touching down, but never saw one.

Here's the thing about tornadoes - the damage is extremely localized. You can have one house not touched at all (not even a shingle blown or a limb broken from a tree) and across the street have a house demolished.

Home owners insurance does indeed cover tornado damage.

Now, living in a mobile home in Oklahoma? Not wise. BUT, in Oklahoma the weather forecasters are amazing. They track the clouds with special radar that can tell if rotation is starting and they draw the line 2-3 hours out. I watched 3 tornadoes on the tv and saw the line being 50-100 blocks from my house 2-3 hours out. When the tornadoes came through the city, they were almost exactly where they said they would be in the first hour or so. So, if you live in a mobile home in OK, you generally have enough warning to go somewhere where you can take cover.

Now I live in a hurricane prone area and I find it so much more stressful, storm-wise. If a hurricane enters the gulf we track it 4x daily (that's as much as NOAA updates their data) and start making plans. We live in an area that will take 16-24+ hours to evacuate should we need to (not enough roads and too many people) so we have to decide 2 days in advance if we are going to leave and where we will go. We have to risk losing our jobs because we are choosing to leave the area.

I'd almost rather live in an earthquake area, except there is no warning at all for earthquakes. At least with floods, tornadoes, and hurricanes there is the storm to warn you.

[Ima saver]

Re: Where is it most economical to live with best quality of life?

I love where I live, in the mountains of N. ga. just minutes from N.C. and Tenn.

[Snoopy2645]

Re: Where is it most economical to live with best quality of life?

I live in IA have my whole life 29 yrs & have never seen a tornado but we are ready if one would hit we have a basement & we live right below a tornado siren I know this because they test the thing every monday!!! We have had lots pass by us but never one that hit us will keep my fingers cross one never does I am not even sure about the homeowners ins I think it does cover a tornado though.

[mccartygirl]

Re: Where is it most economical to live with best quality of life?

I just want to add a couple of things:

I live in Michigan, would agree that I'd rather deal with tornados than earthquakes and hurricanes. Personally, I'm trying to talk DH into moving to Hawaii. 70's all year around is perfect to me! Cost of living sucks but gotta give somewhere.

2ndly, I have 2 schooling experiences - I knew how to read by age 3, could write my name and many words - thanks to early pre-schooling and a mother who pushed me when it came to my education. I grew up in a rural town, just about everyone farmed, there wasn't even a stop light in the town. They had advanced classes but didn't call them AP. I took the advanced classes there and loved them. My family moved between my 10th and 11th grade year and I went to school in the city. They had AP classes, which all of the classes I took were. The advanced classes in the small, rural town I grew up in were more challenging than the AP ones offered in the city. Plus, almost all of the kids I went to school with in the small town went onto college, some went to MIT, Notre Dame, one even went to West Point. Now I wouldn't say that the kids I graduated with in the city had more go to college vs. the rural. I don't think you can say that rural schools are worse or have lower college rates, it depends on the teachers, parents and student itself. Plus a lot of people who live in the city go to community college there. It all depends on the person, their family, their wants, etc. The kids I grew up with had lots of drive, most didn't want to live in a small town. The ones I graduated with in the city come from rich families, didn't have to work for a darn thing and often dropped out of high school or college shortly after starting.

I guess all in all, it depends on what you want rural vs. suburb vs. big city. I live in a suburb now of a big city, it's expensive, schools are excellent, kids are spoiled brats. Would I move to the city, hell no, would I move back to a rural setting - no, just out of pure boredom. I did have lots of fun growing up in a rural setting though, couldn't get away with a darn thing, but I have lots of great childhood memories from it.

Perky - my daughter is 21 months and has been reading her name and letters of the alphabet for a few months now. I am a working mom, I was home for 4 months after I had her and I was going stir crazy. For the sake of my mind, my husband and my child, 2 working parents is right for us. But I think the key is, work with your children. I have never heard that 4 yr olds can't read, I've heard the opposite actually. My daughter thrives in daycare, loves it infact. As soon as she's potty trained we'll start the preschool and start learning a 2nd language. I'm not a big believer that schooling is everything but it helps. I do have a few friends who never went to college and they do quite well financially. I knew of someone who never went to college and was making 6 figures by the time she was 30.

What was the debate about - oh yeah

I just need to win the lotto

[nanamom]

Re: Where is it most economical to live with best quality of life?

I love where we live, it is beautiful here. (Wisconsin) OK, it's cold too. I hawever would rather live in the east. My sole reason is that 2 of my kids and all of my grandkids are there. So I'll take the weather whatever it is if I get to hug my loved more often.
I'm not sure what where you live has to do with it but I have to say after spending years running a private Christian school I am with Perky. I am homeschooling this one all the way through high school. I homeschooled the first two (when no one had heard of it) up to high school and have regretted for years that I couldn't continue. I realize their are exceptions, I have met people who do well in a school setting however I have to say I think they are they are exceptions.