Tell Me Why I Should Consider Living in Your Area.

I second Southern NH and third Pacific Northwest for all the same reasons the others listed. I loved WA but moved back to NH because this is where my family is.

Hi L.,

I live in Dallas Fort Worth. The summers are hot, no doubt about it. We always "average" over 90, usually average high 90s in the summer.

What I like about living here? The economy here never really took the hit the rest of the country did. Lots of jobs means you don't have to drive long commutes - lots of opportunities. 15-20 minutes or less is possible. If you decide to work in the actual city you're still looking at 30-40 minutes, or you could take the train - so not too bad. While most people were looking at cuts, lots of places here were still hiring. My husband is in the technology field and has had found two different jobs (all left by choice) each offer for a "raise" and offers coming in the first day he posted his resume. Cost of living can't get much better then this verses the incomes made here. I was able to buy my first home under the age of 25 -- in a NICE area. We have a 2100 sq ft house in a nice middle class suburb - pricing is around 100 dollars a sq ft. Grocery cost is low (I visit a friend in Grenich CT and my jaw drops at how much a simple shop costs!) Great schools that offer a spanish immersion class at 1st grade. Lots of parks, rec centers, water parks, lots of close stuff to do with kids. Strong theater community, decent museums. Plus within 15 minutes there is Six Flags - a major amusement park!

What I don't like? The summer heat. And, this may not apply to you, but I am not Christian. I am not anything, so being in a state where people think its okay to say things like if you're not Christian and offended the school wants to have a Christmas party you should "get over it"... meh. That sucks. If I could move everything I like about Texas to say, Maryland? I would be freaking thrilled. hehe. But that's me.. and I am fairly liberal. (Not all parts of Texas are like this. Austin is much more progressive, for instance)

I'm interested to see what kind of responses you get!

Hi! We live in Colorado Springs, CO. It's awesome here! There are about half a million in this city. We are a little under an hour from Denver. We have all the seasons, without the humidity. It is very dry here, but you definitely adjust to that and learn to love it. The winters are mostly mild, we are so close to the sun that even when it's in the 50s people wear shorts here. It is not a damp cold, so it feels mild and even warm even when the temp is low. If you are into outdoor activities there are tons of things to do within minutes of driving.
http://www.gardenofgods.com/home/index.cfm?flash=1
http://www.sevenfalls.com/home/index.cfm
http://www.cmzoo.org/
We are a two hour drive from the ski slopes - Keystone, Breckenridge, etc.
We have a great indoor playground here in Colo Springs called Whits end:
http://www.aiohq.com/whitsend.htm
There's an amusement park right up on the mountain towards Pikes Peak minutes from our home called The North Pole, it's open year round:
http://www.santas-colo.com/#

There are some great things in Denver too including the Denver Aquarium, Elitch Gardens, The Denver Children's Museum, Parker Wildlife experience, Museum of Natural history, the Butterfly Pavillion, The Denver Zoo, and more I'm probably forgetting.

There's a Dinosaur museum in Woodland Park (about hour drive).

I have three kids ages 7, 4, 2. We LOVE it here!

Pacific Northwest! We are in Seattle and it rarely freezes (if it does no more than a couple of days in the winter) and in the summer the temps rarely spike higher than 80 degrees, and if they do it's not humid. There's always a light breeze.
It not the most diverse area in general, but you can find very diverse neighborhoods.
There is LOTS of nature to explore and even if you live in the city, it has lots of parks and offerings for kids of all ages - a great place to raise children!
Good luck!

I'm a military brat. I've lived in Hawaii, Taiwan and Europe.

Currently we in Reston, VA - which is 22 miles west of Washington, D.C.

1. Historical value.
a. We are literally a half-hour car ride from the White House, Capitol Building, etc.
b. We are near Civil and American Revolution war sites.
c. We can take the bus and metro to The Smithsonian and the National Mall.

2. We have public transportation - which saves money when going into D.C. for the Smithsonian, Cherry Blossom Festival, etc.

3. We have mild winters - this past winter was hard - NY hard - we had over 2 feet of snow. This happens every seven years.

4. Our summers are usually hot and humid - but you have that in NY.

5. The housing market is stable. Yes our property values dropped, but this is a good thing. As the prices have become reasonable again.

6. Gas is $2.88 a gallon right now.

7. Milk is $2.59 to $2.99 a gallon - depending upon where you buy it.

8. We have three (3) major airports in our area. Dulles is 8 miles, Reagan is 20 and BWI is 45.

9. We have a huge Amtrak station 22 miles away.

10. We have good schools. Yes, we've had issues - but what school is perfect? I believe our social values are out of whack when we pay our sports stars millions, but keep our teachers who are educating our future in poverty. But this is MY personal opinion.

11. Job market - believe it or not - we have a GREAT job market, not just government jobs, but IT and other slots are readily available. The resume needs to be right - as the employers can and are choosy. So really - if you want the "great dream job" it's probably here, but you have to want it and make sure your (or hubby's) resume reads right.

Putting politics aside - we are a family friendly environment. We don't have smog either. Like any place you live - it's what you make of it. If you think negative, it will be negative. If you think positive, it will breed positive and many blessings!!

Well, I think I live in a great area!! I live in Blue Earth, MN - population 3,500 people. It is a rural farming community, but I live right in town. I moved here from the Twin Cities, MN about 3 years ago and wish I would have done it YEARS ago. Here are my top reasons for loving it here:

1. I purchased my home (4 bed/2 bath) for $40,000. I paid cash and have no mortgage.

2. The school is great, we have K-8 in one school (2 blks from my house) which means that I only have to go to one school right now for all my kids stuff. The high school is about 1 mile from me. The principle knows every kid and the teachers (even if they don't have one of my kids), knows almost every kid.

3. We have a WalMart right in town (probably the smallest WalMart in the country but it gets the job done).

4. Fairmont, MN, is about 20 minutes away and has 5 beautiful lakes.

5. Skiing is less than an hour away.

6. It is the kind of area that the kids can just come home when the street lights come on in the evening.

7. If your kids have special needs, this is the place to live! The programming and services down here are WAY better than most others.

8. We have all four seasons. We did have an especially "bad" winter this year, but typically it is pretty decent. We get more snow and less cold which is perfect for snowmobiling and skiing.

9. Literally, if my 2 of my kids did not have special needs that required them to go to a specialist, I could park my car for WEEKS and never need it. Within walkingbiking distance is: pharmacy, WalMart, tanning, hair salon, school, park, swimming pool, grocery store, dollar store, gas station, eye doctor, clinic, hospital, and post office.

Good luck in your search!

I am originally from Newberg, Oregon, and loved living there. It is within an hour or so of the coast, nestled in a beautiful valley, very temperate with lots of clouds and rain, pretty falls, and a few inches of snow in the winter. There are wonderful parks within easy traveling distance (cheap and fun family vacations!), and the schools were good when I was in them. I am not sure what the area has to offer now as I lived there when I was a kid.

For the meantime, though, I do love Rochester and am constantly astounded at how much there is to offer. I understand the itch to move--for us it is the itch to move into a larger living space with our own (unshared) yard. Sometimes I feel like I envy people who move somewhere fresh and start over, but at least we have wonderful family-oriented activities like the Strong Museum, RMSC, Genesee Country Village Museum, Seneca Park Zoo, and plenty of parks. We have festivals, music, movies at the lake, the Dryden Theater, Movies 10 (cheap family movies!!!), the county fair, and a wealth of history that is so amazing to me to walk past every day. Most important of all, we have garbage plates! :D (This last bit here was just to help you out if you do not realize your fantasy of moving somewhere else--I can't help you out with the winters though.)

Great question - very creative!
Well, I live in Southern NH (grew up in Mass my whole life, but decided to raise my family in NH). We live in So. Mass and I work in Mass which is like the best of both worlds, living in the country with the higher salary of Mass.
# 1 reason for loving NH....it is safe!!! That is huge to me and I'm married to a police officer so safety is HUGE for us! NH has all 4 seasons of course, it is beautiful, there is a ton to do in both NH and Mass. We are close to EVERYTHING...Boston, Portsmouth, NH, plus any store you could possibly want (within 5-20 miles), but still live in a place where there are lots of farms, farmstands, hiking trails, ponds, etc....can't say enough.

We live in Plano, TX which is a northern burb of Dallas. We love it.

I will say, when we first moved here in 1989 from NC, it was a shock with no trees. We managed for find a huge lot and build a home among the trees we so love.

For starters, we hate cold weather and we don't have to deal with it too much here. It does get very hot in summers but we are ok with that, I love the sun and heat.

The schools here in Plano, Allen, Frisco (all northern burbs) are good schools. A lot of families in this area are from all different parts of the country. There is a wide variety of people and we've met so many friends in our neighborhood. It is not a "typical" type neighborhood because everyone is friendly with each other, we have block parties, do things for children, etc.

NOT all parts of the DFW are are like this. This is more of an upper middle class area. We never really experenced a drop in our housing, employment or economy. It just did not hit us like it did in so many areas. There are lots of jobs out there. I am 15 minutes away from Frito Lay, JC Penney, etc headquarters just to name a couple.

We love being less than an hour from DFW airport and Love Field. We can hop on a plane and be at either coast in a couple of hours. Travel is SO easy here. We only fly with American and Southwest and we love it.

We enjoy sports and Dallas has a lot of sporting events that are fun...NBA, NFL, Hockry, Soccer. Lots of entertainment venues.

Our daughter loves the diversity. The schools thrive with students who want to excel and do excel. We've had opportunities to move and have always chosen to stay here in the Dallas area.

I moved around a lot as a kid. I've lived in MO., NJ., MI., NE., IL and TX. By far my favorite place that I lived and the one that I would go back to in a heartbeat was Papillion, Nebraska. Right outside of Omaha, you have all of the conveniences and attractions of a big city with a small town feel. It's been a while since I've been back so I know it's grown sinificantly. Within the last year or two it was named one of the top 10 places to raise a family (I forget which magazine did that list).

Good luck,
K.

I'm seconding the vote for Seattle! Lived here all my life, visited many places and can't imagine living anywhere else. Mild weather all around but still four seasons, tons of trees, mountains, water, we have it all! Friendly people, especially compared to other cities I'm told. My boss grew up in Rochester and lives here now and won't ever move back!

seattle :) area.. for the reasons listed in other posters.
Lenc