best places to live

[treehugger]

My DH and I are both native Californians. I've lived in both SoCal and Norcal, and in 5 different cities, but now we live in the same city (the same house!) where DH grew up. For lots of reasons, we would both like to leave the Bay Area. We are really drawn to the Seattle area, again, for lots of reasons.

My company used to have an office in Bellevue, but this year they moved to downtown Seattle. That was exciting since being able to transfer there would go a long way towards making a move possible.

Kara

[JaneV2.0]

I lived in Bellevue briefly--right on the main drag--and talk about walkability! I had an immediate positive response to Bellevue, and eventually to the whole East Side. I recommend it highly.

[lhamo]

Another native Seattlite -- and that is where I am most pulled to, largely because of family and friends in the region but I also love it there and miss it terribly. I like West Coast life, and would probably be most happy living anywhere within 100 miles of the Pacific Ocean, as far north as Juneau and as far south as Santa Cruz. Love Vancouver, Portland, and the Bay Area. Do not enjoy hot weather and would prefer to avoid that. Liked Hawaii a lot during our visit there this summer, but distance from other places might be a drawback.

Like living in Asia generally, but find Beijing hard to love. I would probably like living in Hong Kong if I could live in a decent sized apartment where I wanted -- outlying islands or mid levels -- and had money to send my kids to good schools. Not going to have the money for that anytime soon, unless some investment bank decides to hire me away from my non-profit job!

Most European capitals would probably agree with me. Would probably be happy anywhere in the UK.

Never been to Central or South America, or to the Middle East, Africa, Australia or New Zealand. From Zoebird's descriptions and my sister's accounts of her trip there, I think I would LOVE NZ. Like the Pacific Northwest but with the seasons flipped around.

Russia doesn't appeal at all -- like China but with cyrillic instead of characters. And cold. India is intimidating. Nepal, maybe. Bhutan -- definitely, but not going to happen in this lifetime. Maybe I'll just reincarnate there

lhamo

[Zoebird]

yeah, welly is like portland, or and/or san fran weather-wise. a bit more wind.

[Acorn]

Lhamo, I used to have HK on my list, but I really dislike the competitive schooling and parenting style there. But aside from those things and the prohibitive prices, I love HK and especially the outer islands.

[shadowmoss]

I'm currently working in Honduras. No, I have no plans to retire here. The underlying need to be constantly vigilent for the random violence/theft is a big turn-off. I would like to visit some of the other Central American countries while I'm down here. The weather is basically nice and for the most part the people are really friendly. The 3rd world issues are difficult to deal with, but most other than the violence could be dealt with. I would need a largish travel budget, though, to visit back to the US often if I lived down here permanently.

[mira]

I'm a bit young to be thinking about retirement, since my adult life is only just beginning!

I have lived in various places throughout my life, due to my dad's last job and my studies. We've always lived far away from one side of my extended family or the other. It hasn't always been pleasant and I wish I could see my paternal extended family more often (there's an ocean separating us!). Because of this, I want to make sure I bring up my children close to both sides of their extended family, so my partner and I will be remaining in the vicinity of where we currently live (apart from some possible temporary stints abroad...). The weather's rubbish here and the population is distinctly lacking in diversity, but I want my kids to know their relatives!

[Spartana]

I am currently living in Southern Calif but have my house up for sale and plan to do the full time travel thing soon. Right now I don't have any desire to put down roots, but I know that I will eventually - maybe in 20 years when I'm early 70ish ;-)! I've lived in many different place in the USA, including Alaska, Hawaii, Florida, Virginia, New Jersey, North Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana, Kansas, Maine, both North and South Calif. Pennsylvannia, Massachutetts, and even in Canada and a few places in Europe - and, after pretty much any place in Europe, love Maine the best - especially around Portland. It has all the big city things in a small, easy accessible area with a small population (64,000 in portland). I love the 4 seasons, beautiful coastline with many islands, great neighborhoods and historic areas, and lots and lots of outdoor recreation nearby. I love everywhere in New England but Portland, Maine would be my first choice. The only drawback for me would be the high taxes and high heating costs and possibly the high home prices - which are very inexpensive compared to SoCal but much higher than other parts of the country. But I have been thinking that I may not buy anything permentent again anyways - just rent where ever I feel like it and maybe spend part of the year in one area of the country (world) and another part of the year elsewhere - at least until I'm old in 20 or so years. As a somewhat youngish, single, childless, retired person I can do that fairly easily and cheaply. My only family, a sister around my age, lives in SoCal and I'd be able to spend part of the year with her, and part of the year travelling or loiving somewhere I liked (don't like SoCal) the rest of the year, if I left myself footloose and fancy-free!

[artist]

I definatly live where we will retire. We love our home and community. The convience to things (40 mins to Boston south, The ocean east. 40 minutes to the mountains west. 90 mins to the lakes region north and so on. Our state is frequenty chossen #1 state to retire in as well. Our city was voted the #1 city to live in twice. The following is from Money Magazine 2010, 10 best states to retire to.


1. New Hampshire. It's a safe and cheap place to live. Its cost of living is 89% of the national average and the average state and local tax burden is 7.6%, putting it among the lowest in the U.S. in both categories. The state ranks 48th in the nation in violent crime and in property crime. The only criteria it didn't score well in was climate.

We didn't choose our location, it chose us. Circumstances brought us across the MA/NH border in 2002. We just love it here. I don't think I would want to live anywhere else.

[Spartana]

I definatly live where we will retire. We love our home and community. The convience to things (40 mins to Boston south, The ocean east. 40 minutes to the mountains west. 90 mins to the lakes region north and so on. Our state is frequenty chossen #1 state to retire in as well. Our city was voted the #1 city to live in twice. The following is from Money Magazine 2010, 10 best states to retire to.


1. New Hampshire. It's a safe and cheap place to live. Its cost of living is 89% of the national average and the average state and local tax burden is 7.6%, putting it among the lowest in the U.S. in both categories. The state ranks 48th in the nation in violent crime and in property crime. The only criteria it didn't score well in was climate.

We didn't choose our location, it chose us. Circumstances brought us across the MA/NH border in 2002. We just love it here. I don't think I would want to live anywhere else.

I have also thought about NH as the place I might live. I like all the state - well I LOVE all of New England - but like the Portsmouth area the best. I knew that taxes were lower there then in Ma or Me but didn't realize they were that much lower. Burlington, VT was another place I thought of living permanently too. I like that town and area aloty but. again, high heating costs.