
Ask HN: Where to move within US? - codegeek
Tired of living in the Expensive East Coast and specifically NJ. Everything is so expensive while the infrastructure is so shitty.<p>My wife and I have been contemplating moving to a different state within US and would love to get your opinions. We have 2 toddlers but really no other huge requirement.<p>We have looked at Texas, Florida and even Georgia. Warmer weather, not much snow and low taxes. What else ?<p>Note: We have lived in HongKong when we had no kids and absolutely loved it. But with kids in equation, we want to stay within the US for now.
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larrykubin
A lot of people are moving to Austin, Portland, Seattle, and Denver/Boulder.
No state income tax in Austin or Seattle, no sales tax in Portland. Home
prices are rising in all of these areas, but are a bargain compared to the Bay
Area or NYC. And you can still see a show, go to great restaurants, meet
interesting people, find a good job, and have a livable amount of space for a
family.

A place where you can get a cheap, large home, and pay no state income tax is
Vancouver, Washington. The city itself isn't very interesting, but you are
across the bridge from Portland, where there is a lot of great food and drink,
and you can shop with no sales tax. You will rarely see snow, but you will see
a lot of clouds/drizzle for much of the year, which can take its toll.

Austin has a lot of tech jobs and is sunny for much of the year, but brutally
hot for at least 3-4 months if you aren't used to it. It's a fun place to
live.

If you want more of a small nature town feel, you could try Bend, Oregon or
Boulder, Colorado.

I have lived in Portland, Seattle, and Austin, and spent a lot of time working
in SF, so let me know if you want more specifics on anything.

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fredophile
Have you considered somewhere near Research Triangle Park in North Carolina?
You've got a few mid sized cities to choose from or you can buy an acreage if
that's what you're into. There are several tech companies around here as well
as large universities. I haven't looked at the start up scene but I've heard
there are a few startups based around here.

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codegeek
yea that option is also viable. Thx. Will look into it.

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madcaptenor
Consider Atlanta. Plenty of tech companies (although less startup-oriented and
more corporate; whether you see that as good or bad is something you haven't
elaborated on). Everything is cheap and the infrastructure is shitty. When it
threatens snow flurries a couple times a year everybody freaks out and stays
in and it's really easy to get to work. Summers aren't too bad if you're used
to NJ; it doesn't really get _hotter_ here but it stays hot _longer_, and
everything is air-conditioned well.

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brudgers
With two toddlers, public schools may be something worth considering. In both
Florida and Georgia _all_ school districts are at the county level. [1] This
means that even the best local public schools are subject to county politics
in regard to funding and curriculum and staffing. Consequently, while a
particular school can do some things via PTA, there isn't really fine grained
local control [e.g. people can't choose to tax themselves to make school
funding a priority].

On the other hand, if public schools aren't a priority, then it's a bit
different, I suppose. Keep in mind that Florida has low taxes and low
services. Compared with NJ, that's probably true of Georgia and Texas, too.

North Carolina is another option worth considering if you're moving south away
from snow.

[1]: My recollection is that Texas has school districts at the municipal
level. You can google it up to verify.

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madcaptenor
In Georgia _most_ school districts are at the county level. But in some cases
a city has a school district independent of the surrounding county - often if
not always this is the county seat. In the Atlanta area, at least, Atlanta,
Decatur, and Marietta have separate schools from the surrounding counties. (In
the case of Decatur, this fact explains a _lot_ of the higher property values
there compared to adjacent unincorporated areas of DeKalb County.)

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SEJeff
Arizona gets a bad rep as super hot, but Tucson is not nearly as hot due to
being slightly higher altitude. Also, the government tends to be "smaller" and
less intrusive than other states such as say Illinois. I lived there 2 years
when stationed at Ft Huachuca during my UAV training, loved the state and
would live there again if given a chance.

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weloytty
The Raleigh/Durham/Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina is nice: lots
of tech, good weather, and salaries seem pretty good.

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codegeek
Cannot edit the text anymore. Just wanted to mention that I have a
bootstrapped product that I run and ideally would love to stay closer to
startup ecosystem. Of course, California is out of question again due to the
excessive cost of living.

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heyheyhey
I would say Portland, Austin, and Seattle.

For startup ecosystem, Seattle probably has the best followed by Austin and
then Portland.

For cost of living, Seattle is the most expensive. I'm not sure about Austin
but Portland has been increasing the past couple years.

~~~
joezydeco
If Seattle is a choice and you are planning to enroll your toddlers in the
public school system when they're older you might want to track what's
happening with the public school teachers.

Just speaking as a parent, which probably makes me a minority in this
conversation.

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cweagans
Boise, ID. Very, very cheap to rent anything (whatever you're thinking for an
amount that's "very cheap", cut it in half and you can probably find something
nice around Boise for that amount). Groceries are pretty inexpensive, and
everyone is very friendly. Cable One has 100Mbps connections for $100/mo
($75/mo for first three), and the schools are adequate if you're willing to
encourage your kids to learn more and be proactive about their education on
their own. It's a great place to grow up, and it's a great place to live and
work. Highly recommend it.

If Boise is too small for you, pretty much anywhere in the Pacific NW is a
good option. If I didn't live in Boise, I'd move to Portland.

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skyflashings
How are employment opportunities in Boise? Only companies I'm aware of are
Micron and HP.

~~~
cweagans
There's a ton of smaller tech companies here. Balihoo, Clearwater Analytics,
FFW, Bodybuilding.com to name a few. I've lived here all of my professional
life and haven't ever had a problem finding work (either local or remote).

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volkadav
Since you mention children, I feel obligated to say that imho as a Texan
parent, Texas public schools are a travesty. Even the good school districts
are hampered by the nonsense the state gov pushes down (e.g. just google
"texas textbook controversy" and ... pick a year).

It's for this reason that we're looking at leaving Austin, even though it is
otherwise quite a nice city, before our kids hit school age.

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cylinder
Curious why you didn't mention your professions. That's the most important
consideration.

One thing is for sure, the East Coast / NY metro does suck if you're not
incredibly wealthy. Quality of life is so poor. If I can't get into an upper
income bracket while here I'll be out the door soon.

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gautamnarula
Don't move to Georgia (I assume when considering Georgia you meant Atlanta or
suburb of Atlanta).

Pros: Low cost of living, lots of space relative to other places, people are
probably friendlier than they are in NJ.

Cons: Traffic is absolutely horrendous (only LA has worse traffic), high crime
(in the city--it varies by suburb), really hot and humid summers, terrible
mass transit (combine that with terrible, terrible traffic...), backward
politics (I'm saying that not as a conservative or liberal, but rather as an
observer. In 2012, the GA Secretary of State basically openly endorsed the
idea that Obama may not have been born in America...), bad schools.

The tech scene is decent thanks to Georgia Tech. But you can do better than
here.

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topkai22
I moved to Reno, NV to be near my wife's family a while back and have
surprised myself by loving it. Very family friendly, small enough to get
around, very good visual arts scene driven in part by burning man, decent in
town research university, beautiful scenery, near the resorts at lake Tahoe,
and what appears to be very good city governance.

A small but well supported startup scene exists, but is consumed by "gaming"
(gambling) and medical startups. Opportunities related Tesla factory is also
sucking up investment dollars. The plus side is that you are only 3.5-4h from
the bay area, and there is a community of angel investors living in lake
Tahoe.

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Someone1234
Can I just say: Cost of living ONLY matters if you're compensated from out of
state.

A lot of people look at CoL and think "wow for the $120K I make in NYC I could
live like a king in Oklahoma!" But the reality is that places with lower CoL
also have lower salaries, so a $120K NYC salary might be $60K in other states,
with the same job, same responsibilities, etc. It is relative.

Oregon has a lowish CoL and a low amount of snow. Ditto with Ohio. No clue on
startup culture. Utah (yes, that one) seems to be an up-and-comer in terms of
startup culture, and while it does get a lot of snow, they're very pro-active
in clearing it which is nice.

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madcaptenor
I live in the Atlanta area. I could literally have the same job in the SF area
(where I used to live) for 20% more - my company has an office in Palo Alto
where there are people with the same job title and the same responsibilities.
However this would _more_ than be eaten up by the increased cost of housing.
Say my take-home pay is 100 arbitrary units; my housing costs about 20,
leaving 80 for everything else. In the Bay Area I'd make 120 but I'd pay at
least twice as much (40+) for comparable housing, leaving 80 or less for
everything else (and everything else costs more there). Salaries are higher in
higher-cost markets but that difference usually doesn't make up for the cost
of living difference.

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draw_down
20% bump is surprising, my company has an SF office and I've been told that as
a rule, salaries are twice what we get in Portland. However I still feel that
increase would be eaten up by housing costs.

~~~
madcaptenor
These salaries are supposedly tied to the cost of labor in various markets,
and we're a large enough company that they do a lot of surveys of economic
conditions, what competitors are paying, etc. to set salary bands. But the
cost of the sort of technical labor we're talking about here might vary more
between SF and other markets than the general cost of labor.

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JSeymourATL
There are some true hidden gems in the often over-looked 3rd tier Southern
markets, especially in bang-for-the-buck livability...consider Asheville, NC &
Franklin, TN > [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/29/9-southern-towns-
yo...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/29/9-southern-towns-you-
nee_n_4985803.html)

~~~
monroepe
Franklin/Nashville area is pretty nice. The prices are very cheap and the tech
scene is emerging. The people are super friendly too.

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ashwn
I hear Tx is nice...not sure about infrastructure though. We too are looking
to make a move, though we're not even in the planning stage yet.

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gesman
I just moved to CA, Bay area and the whole climate here is insanely healthy.

I am running 7 miles at the morning before going to work. I never did it in my
life before. Ever. And I'm 51.

Then whole day just flows. I thought it's Thursday but apparently it's Friday
already.

Something is in the air here. Something really good.

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sjs382
New Orleans is wonderful this time of year. ;)

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colund
But bring a boat in case of a Katrina 2 coming in

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toomuchtodo
Living on a boat is always an option on the gulf coast.

