Where should I move to?

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My house is on the market and there’s a good chance it will sell before the end of the summer. I want to move off of Long Island, but where?

Some possibilities:

My mother lives in Nashville, TN, but it’s expensive and I’m not sure if it’s for me. It is a really nice city. Pros - her stepkids are really nice and would be good to help me get established, very artsy, big city with lots of colleges Cons - pricey, just not sure it’s for me

Memphis, TN, is a close drive, has a good music scene, and a surprisingly vibrant reform Jewish congregation - cons, kind of midwestern, a little seedy - pros, near to my original hometown of Birmingham, driveable to New Orleans, cheaper than Nashville http://timemphis.org/

Huntsville, AL - Pros: 2 hr drive to Nashville, great engineering opportunities, affordable con: Alabama, just not sure if I can go back or not, conservatives

Columbia, MD area - Pros: could study with my yoga teacher again, Cons - pricey, very controlled suburban environment, super beige

Somewhere DCish - Pros: lots to do in DC, lots of career opportunities, lots of friends in this area Cons - not sure if I can deal with the congestion of it again

Danville, VA has this intriguing opportunity which is just so me, but when I explore it deeper I just know it’s a terrible idea. https://oldwestendva.com/ - one of these projects I get all excited about. I think I mainly like the idea of being wanted. There’s a couple of already restored houses there that interest me, but my real goal for myself was to build the house of my dreams. Pros - could be a place just for me, cheap to live there Cons - it’s in the middle of nowhere

I’d love somewhere with access to the sea or water, and affordable housing.

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Saint Andrews, New Brunswick.

I visited there once: the biggest, fanciest houses for sale were cheaper than my suburban townhouse by half, and it’s on Passamaquoddy Bay (part of the Gulf of Maine).

Probably not so nice when it comes to engineering prospects, though.

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I have asthma that is triggered by cold weather, so I’m wanting to move someplace warmer.

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Check. You’re either too far north, or on the wrong coast.

As someone who would enjoy living in the middle of nowhere (especially if I could work from home), I’d spring for the Danville idea if I were you. Beyond that, the only thing I would offer is to make a list of the things you’re looking for (cost, community, open water, employment), and rank them in order of importance. It’s very nice to say what you want and what you don’t want, but without knowing how important each thing is to you, it’s hard to figure out what the best compromise would be.

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I would have said Kitchener-Waterloo (for the software engineering companies in the area), but adjusted for the exchange rate, the prices are similar to Nashville, and it is cold in the winter as well. However, that being said, Southern Ontario is speckled with so many crossroads villages that finding something cheaper not too far from work should be doable.

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Honestly, Nashville is probably the best option, but it is really expensive right now. Plus, my mom lives there and I kinda want my own thing. I thought I was moving to Philly area and there’s a lot about the area to the south of there I like, but it’s still pretty cold in the winter times.

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Heh! I recall my old man golfing on the local courses in February. We lived on Old York Road in Melrose Park (Cheltenham Township) for a short period when I was a kid, about two houses North of Philadelphia city limits. Personally, I always thought that Philadelphians handled even remotely wintery weather pitifully, but your ideas of what is cold and wintery and mine probably differ. :wink:

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My asthma is so lame that I actually got it from a mild beach breeze last year, so I’m really looking for warmer.

Part of my issue is that there isn’t any really strong reason to go one place or another. I’d like to be near my mom though a lot of places in and around Tennessee aren’t all that exciting to me. However, realistically, it’ll be me dealing with any ailments as she ages; my brother and sister both have young children still. Memphis and Huntsville are probably the strongest ideas I have right now.

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Obligatory, especially since you mentioned Memphis:

Back to the topic!

Warm and coastal… what about Atlanta (or sunburbs thereof)? Or do you want to stick to options on your list?

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I’m open to other options, definitely looking for ideas. I lived in Atlanta for 2 years and have family there. For some reason I just never liked it. There’s no rhyme or reason to it, but I think it’s because I grew up in Birmingham and it’s so beautiful there with the rolling hills, and Atlanta is so flat. Also, people forget it got burned to the ground, so it’s very new feeling.

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Not us. We only burned down Washington. (We’re open to bids to do it again.)

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What about Asheville? Pros: It’s lovely there, super arty, super blue, lovely mountains, great art/beer culture, I’m sure there is a great yoga culture there, too, near to lots of places in GA, TN, SC, and NC. Cons: the cost of living is rising there (though you can probably use the money from the sale of your condo to get a good place intown) and the primary sector of the economy is tourism… also, lots of tourists year round.

Did I mention lots of great beer AND food AND book stores AND outdoorsy stuff to do?

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I’ve only visited Chattanooga a couple of times recently, but my spouse and I both really liked it. Or at least, liked it as laid-back tourists going for TN Aquarium/Lookout Mountain stuff. OTOH, it seemed like (to somebody who’s been out of the South for a while but visited various places several times) sort of an epicenter of Confederate bullshit.

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Tijuana!

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Nashville is okay, but the traffic and the roads suck big time. It is the most liberal part of Tennessee for now.

Can’t comment on the other ones.

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Yes it is. They do have fast Internet though.

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Knoxville is nice and relatively low cost-of-living, though it has increased a bit since I’ve been there. It’s fairly cosmopolitan (for a southern city), due to the colleges and crossroads. It’s on the river, and if you go through the Smoky Mountains, which are quite nice in their own right, you get to the Carolinas which have the beaches.

Re: tech, North Carolina has had some growth there (it’s also closer to the beach). In Tennessee, Chattanooga is supposed to be good, known as an internet boomtown for building public gigabit fiber net. That’s also closer to Atlanta, and again across the Smokies from the Carolina beaches. I haven’t been there myself, but that’d be the first place I’d look if I was going south again.

Nashville’s a trek west from either of those though.

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I would say as a joke, “Don’t come to Portland,” but the rent is too damned high. If you live outside the neighborhoods you have to drive and the traffic stinks badly.

Tho… good weather and still a robust culture independent of the apparatchiki libertarianism of the rest of the country.

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Hmm…

Vancouver Island (Nanaimo, Victoria) is a lovely place, albeit expensive. Most of the pensioners here (Saskatchewan) winter in 'zona, Tennessee, or Florida.

Lakeside towns can be lovely and usually more inexpensive, leaving funds for extracurriculars and travel.

I would not recommend the Vancouver mainland. Expensive and unfortunately lacking in entertainment.

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