Advice on Location and Moving

[moneymamma]

Hi Everyone- Looking for advice from those who made a move with a family to a lower cost of living area with good schools. My husband and I are lucky to both have high incomes and a lot of money saved/in retirement.  However we both work and live in a high income area.  I have a long commute on the train and just want to quit and be with my kids before they get too old.  I do love working but we have a nanny, house keeper, etc... just so we can both work and it feels like too much. While we are happy and live in a great community with great schools I know there is a better way.  For those who made a move how did you decide?  Our kids are 6 and 4 so we need a good public school system.  I would prefer nicer weather and more access to the outdoors all year round. 

[Goldielocks]

 For those who made a move how did you decide?


--   Distance to the kids grandparents.

[Retired To Win]

Hi Everyone- Looking for advice from those who made a move with a family to a lower cost of living area... For those who made a move how did you decide?

The first thing we did was to actually write out a list of (1) what we wanted to have in a location, (2) what we wanted to avoid putting up with in that new location, (3) what we wanted to have in a house, and (4) how much we were willing to pay for all of that (which in our case was no more than the profit we would get from selling our original house).

Then we used Mapquest and websites like City Data to develop a candidate list of locations that would fit our bill.  (You can do this too.  And -- if proximity to certain family or other particulars is on your "want list" -- it's an easy thing to tailor your websearch to an appropriate distance radius).

Next, we websurfed Realtor.com to further narrow down our list.  Then we went on several exploratory driving trips to confirm our positive suspicions about locations on that shortened candidate list.  Finally, we  pulled the trigger once we had found the right house, moved and are loving it!