Hello, All! So, my wife and I and our friends/roommates (its pretty much become like a family at this point, especially with the 5 kiddos) have decided that central Florida is not for us for various reasons that I will keep private. We are moving out of the area for sure, we just haven’t nailed down a specific place/state to move to. The list seems to be narrowed down to the following (in no particular order, plus one more that I’m listing separate): Maine New Hampshire Vermont Massachusetts New York (Upstate. NYC is out of the question) Colorado I’d love to know what people’s lived experiences were in these states (in general). You know, the dull stuff like cost of living, how easy/hard it is to get jobs, how the schools are, best places to be, crime and things like that. For me, personally, I’d like to know how the LGBT communities and resources are in these areas. Are the communities good? Are resources easily (or even moderately) accessible, especially for a trans person? Now for the one I saved for last: Wisconsin. It’s my home state. Even though its been almost 3 years since we moved away, it seems like not much has changed, atleast on the surface. The idea of moving back there has been floated recently, and I don’t know about it despite it being very tempting as that’s where the majority of our friends and family are. Crime and drug use seem to be on the rise, especially in the southern part of the state and I don’t know how the job market is, but I can get a feel for how things are by messaging people there. What I’d like to know is more about the LGBT community in WI and how available and accessible resources are for people who identify as trans. Any input would be greatly appreciated! Thanks
The job market anywhere in the northeast is bad. Way too many people living in the same small area, cost of living is very high and the salaries do not match the cost of living. Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont are all very nice, the entire area is basically a huge suburban community for the most part and it's a fantastic place for kids with good schools etc. however because the states are so small getting a job there is difficult, and getting a job that pays enough to afford the good quality of life is harder. Upstate New York has cheap cost of living and it's bit easier to find (low-paying) jobs, but it's also generally a pretty boring place to live and I've heard a lot of complaints about it...Syracuse in particular. Both New York and Massachusetts have a really bad drug problem too. Meth, crack etc. is widespread and visible throughout the entire state for both of them, usually worse in the smaller towns. Massachusetts is the best for the LGBT stuff, Boston is one of the best LGBT areas in the world. Colorado is nice, I don't have much experience with it but I've been to Denver and the surrounding area and it was a friendly place. Jobs didn't seem too hard to get there, but cost of living is extremely high anywhere except the rural areas. Wisconsin seems ok in general and good for kids. You'd know more about that than me since you lived there.
Colorado is nice, and depending on the area there are tons of things to do and see. It is a bit on the high side as cost of living goes for the mountain west, but probably cheaper than most places out east.
I know you live much closer to there than me, but I searched house prices there out of curiosity because cheap didn't go with my memory of the place...how is this cheaper than like, anywhere on the east coast? Most of the houses I found in the $300,000 price range are less than 1,000 square feet, in bad neighborhoods, and look run down. Practically anywhere on the east coast outside of the NY/NJ area $300,000 gets you a 2,000+ square foot two story suburban house in a nice area.
Depends a lot on what part of any given state. Denver is a major metropolitan area. If you look in the smaller towns, real estate isn't so bad, and probably closer to what you've quoted for average pricing. As far as locale, New Hampshire, MA and upstate NY are all worthy of consideration; they aren't overpopulated and without jobs, that's a pretty large generalization that doesn't hold up to scrutiny. One of the big considerations moving from FL is climate. All of the places you mention have pretty severe winters. Growing up in WI, you'll have a good idea of what you're in for, just make sure the rest of your cohort knows what they are in for. Having grown up in the DC area and spent 10+ years in northern OH, I know that living in an area with harsh winters is not something I'd do again. Another consideration is political climate. Colorado, outside of the larger cities, can be pretty conservative, and that isn't the best if you're looking for large LGBT support. The other areas (NH, MA, NY) tend on the whole to have a less conservative or fairly liberal populus. One of the constant trade-offs anywhere you go is... cost of housing vs. desirability of area. Unless you find an up-and-coming (gentrifying) area, generally, the nicer areas are going to be spendy. But you can often find an area that's improving and gentrifying and get some really good deals, especially if you're in a position to buy rather than rent. As for work... so much depends on everyone's field of expertise. If it's general retail/office/customer service/etc then those jobs exist pretty much everywhere. Unemployment is pretty low nationwide, unless you happen to move to a more rural area where the major employers have closed down, so jobs aren't that hard to find. If you have more specialized skills, then finding places with job growth in your area of interest will be important. Also, take a look at smaller-but-growing towns and cities. There are quite a few places (most likely in all the states you mentioned except maybe Vermont) that used to be pretty suburban-bordering-on-rural that have experienced major booms in the past few years, that have good job opportunities and still have relatively low housing costs. As for Vermont... it would be an awesome place to live, but you should know if you have young people that there's a statewide emergency with drug issues, so much so that the governor spent a significant portion of his annual speech addressing it. This can be traced in part to the rather rural nature of the state on the whole, and somewhat limited industry and job market. But a beautiful place (if you can tolerate the cold), and if you find the right part of it, may be worth considering.
My sister lives in a suburb of Denver, and they didn't pay over $200k for their brand new home. Which is 3 bedrooms and two baths, plus two car garage. I don't know the actual square footage, but it is over a 1,000. But as Chip mentioned, winter is going to be a monster surprise to those who haven't experienced it.
Thanks for all the responses! I let this percolate for a while to see what I'd get and I was not disappointed! I especially want to thank Chip! That was an amazing amount of info you found! All of the adults grew up either in Wisconsin or another part of the upper Midwest, so we are all fully aware of (and kinda missing) what winter brings. The only ones that might have trouble are the two youngest kiddos. The second youngest, who's 3, was born in WI but moved down with us when he was ~10 months old, and he'd be in the same boat as the littlest one (turns 1 on Saturday) as he was born down here, so Florida is all they've known. As far as jobs go, I think all of us would be ok in finding one. My experience lies mainly with office work, sales, warehousing and factory work so I'd probably have the most difficult time finding a job depending on where we decide to go. My wife has a lot of customer service experience and is going for a degree in criminal justice. My roommates are in a way better position. Roommate 1, we'll call her A, is going for a degree in business management, has a lot of customer service experience and supervisior experience that just paid off with a nice job at a good company. Roommate 2, we'll call him N, is going for an I.T. degree, has experience in that field already, customer service experience and is a former Apple Master. All 3 of them are within a year or so of completeing their degrees. I am in year 1 of my studies going for a degree in history. Once again, thanks for all the suggestions and info! We're still unsure of where we'd like to go, and we have enough time to figure things out as we'd be moving summer of 2019 or 2020 at the latest. We're wanting to do things the right way instead of just deciding to pick up and go in a matter of weeks like we did when we moved to FL (it was about 6 weeks or so from the time the idea was proposed to the time we moved). If anyone has more they'd like to share, go for it! Can never have too much information
