Hi Forum!
I'm pretty young, and although I love the state where I live
a lot, I just don't see myself staying in Denver, Colorado for much more of my life..
I have Seasonal Affective Disorder, which causes extreme depression due to lessened sunlight during the winter months, usually November through March. Even in the summer, if it rains more than 3-4 days in a row, I start to get a little irritable/weepy. I haven't been able to find a sufficient medical treatment that isn't in pill form, although I am still searching (and taking suggestions, if anyone has them). All this winter is literally killing me slowly. I think my long term solution is to move south, as close to the equator as possible - and while staying in the USA, at least for now.
Things I like about where I live:Mountains/Nature accessible - Hiking in the summer
Dry summers
Big city atmosphere nearby, with museums/zoo
High density of mature deciduous trees in the urban areas, supported by city (Denver Digs Trees)
Local historical district in my suburb, with olde buildings/parks/shoppes
Mixed housing makeup - 'low income' apartments adj to middle class houses, adj to duplexes/triplexes, adj to sprawling mansions with horse property
Lots of jobs, easy to get a job in 3-4 weeks in case of lay off/fired/other job disaster
Variety of school districts/colleges
Very few natural disasters
Variety of ISPs (sorta) and cell providers
Excellent public transportation, including regional public transportation and lightrail train system
Things I don't like about where I live:Extremely expensive housing market (600-900 sq ft condo easily 100k, not remodeled - small unfancy apartment easily $800-1000/mo to rent)
Entire city is 30+ miles across - would prefer to live in a town where I can walk from one end to the other, TBH
Don't really care for snow/winter anything
Placed I have visited that I liked a lot:Washington State, Seattle area - Love the rainforest/mossy feel! However I visited in the winter, and my depression was SEVERE after I returned. This is actually how I came to confront my depression.
Rural NY State; Lyons, NY- Suburban more like, I found it quaint and homey
Rural Texas; Lubbock, Brownwood - Scrub oak is really gorgeous, but I'm not sure I'm up to all that wide open space.. I don't even like how flat the south/southeastern Denver metro area is...
Freeport, Bahamas - Local color here was really cool, as was the idea of being on an island smaller than the city I lived in.
I'm not specifically adverse to any area of the southern USA, but I think I would probably like to stay out of Texas/bible belt areas, unless given a good reason to reconsider..
I'm heavily considering New Mexico, Arizona, Las Vegas area of Nevada and Central or Southern California, for no particular reason other than they aren't the bible belt, and Florida smells like old people :).
The Plan:I don't think I will be moving to another state in the next 12-24 months... However, I would be interested in planning a road trip around a chunk of the southern USA sometime soon (in the next 12-24 months), and would like to visit a number of "might possibly move to.." towns for 2-3 days per town. Eventually, I would like to move somewhere with a solid local economy, and also eventually purchase a 3-4 bedroom "forever home" to make babies in/garden around. Wherever I move to, it would be best if it met frugal requirements, such as being walkable/bikeable, having good enough public school districts, and hopefully not full of McMansions.
Being within road trip distance of the ocean would be nice, too. I really like the ocean.
So, given all the information above, can anyone suggest a few cities/towns I should research?Thanks everyone who reads and replies!
EDIT:
Are you FI or is your job not location-dependent? Do you have family or friends anywhere in those areas that you would want to be somewhat close to? Those are some factors that I don't think were addressed in your first post.
Neither. I'm barely starting out my financial journey, and have only had a real job for a couple of years now. My current job is location dependent, and is just a very basic paper pushy/call centery job for which my qualifications are: not an idiot, shows up on time, can spell/speak English. That being said, I'm building a portfolio for web design and am going to try to shoot for an entry level job in that field once I have something to show for myself. I'm married, and my DH is directionless with his career path and not very academic; I am slowly urging him toward trades to escape retail, which should be useful anywhere.
My mom is my only priority relative, who lives within 1mi of where I live now. Chances are, she would probably end up moving to where ever I move to, or moving to Port Angeles/Sequim, WA to be closer to her sister. My dad currently lives in Tanzania, and I would be just as happy if he never came back to the states.