JMortensen Posted March 23, 2006 Author Share Posted March 23, 2006 That's really good advice Michael. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad-ManQ45 Posted March 23, 2006 Share Posted March 23, 2006 I have lived as an adult in Charlotte, Gastonia and Hickory NC, Austin and El Paso TX, Albuquerque NM and Atlanta GA. Living in El Paso was great - close to mountains, High Desert climate - less humidity that Phoenix AZ and no State Income Tax. Albuquerque was more expensive to live in than El Paso, anmd the food wasn't as good. I live in Tlanta now, but grew up here. I have visited Houston in October, and there is no way I would even VISIT in the summer. I was a party animal when living in NC and don't remember much of it....But El PAso had it beat for standard of living for sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bastaad525 Posted March 26, 2006 Share Posted March 26, 2006 Virginia!!! that's were me and my wife are headed (from CA) in about 3 days Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted March 26, 2006 Author Share Posted March 26, 2006 Good luck! Hope that works out for you guys. I'd love to hear some feedback after you've been there a couple months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bastaad525 Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 Good luck! Hope that works out for you guys. I'd love to hear some feedback after you've been there a couple months. you know it brother! you guys will be all I have to talk to for a while once I get out there and you thought I typed long posts before Seriously though yeah I'll definately post about how it is out there.... personally I think I will love it, the ONLY thing I'm worried about is the humidity as this seems to be the one thing people all seem to bring up as the only thing they don't like (well and the occasional snow and cold but I don't mind snow or cold). Of the people who know me really well and know anything about Virginia, about 50% of them are certain I will be back to CA within a few years. Knowing myself and how much I have hated it here even since I was a young child, I give myself slightly better odds Well... tommorow is D-day, computer gets dissambled for packing today.... See you guys on the other side Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oldestzguy Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 tfreer85 as far as Bakersfield goes Three more good reasons: Buck Owens Merele Haggard Dwight Yokam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted April 8, 2006 Author Share Posted April 8, 2006 Well I got back from Boise Thursday evening. The drive from Seattle to Boise is about what the drive up the central valley of CA on I5 is like. Theres a couple hundred miles of NOTHING. Enough about the drive though. The bad news: Boise is flat. I thought it was going to be mountainous terrain, trees and all that. It's in friggin Idaho, right? Nope. Flat as a pancake except the North and East sides which get into some foothills, and housing in these areas is $400 to $600K and up. No trees except where they've been planted. The city of Boise is tiny. Coming from Seattle I expected this, but it was even more tiny than I expected when I got there. Boise is an older city, but I'd guess that 80% of the homes in the greater Boise area are less than 30 years old. So there is this core of old homes downtown, then basically it sprawls out into the flat, featureless farmland to the west. Subdivisions and tract homes and strip malls stretch out from Boise for about 20 miles to the south and west. So in the flat, featureless farmland they're building boring cookie-cutter houses, which is what we'd likely be buying. There is a suprising amount traffic to and from Boise in the morning and afternoon rush hour, although everyone was telling us that to get from Nampa (farthest west suburb) to Boise took about 35 minutes. It's probably only 10 miles, so 35 minutes means you're moving slow, but still moving. I think we saw the gay Boisean and the black one too. Not a whole lot of diversity. Not a whole lot of rock music either. Lots of country, which ain't my thang y'all. The good news: If you are willing to live in the sprawl and commute to work, you can buy a 2500 sq ft house with a 3 car garage that's a couple years old on a 1/2 acre lot for about $250K, probably less if you looked farther from the city than we did. The people are incredibly friendly. The restaurants had universally good food. We went to a restaurant right downtown about 6 blocks from the capitol building, I got a large filet mignon and mashed potato dinner, my wife got beef stew and mashed potatoes, we walked out with a bill for $25! Gas was $.20/gal cheaper. Food was cheaper. Hotel was cheaper. Just the general cost of living is better. It's easy to find your way around town. Coming from Seattle, which is a nightmare to navigate with bridges and tunnels and streets that meet at weird angles and change names for no reason, I found trying to find addresses in Boise incredibly easy. LOTS of nature. Get into the foothills and there's all kinds of mountain biking, hiking, fishing, hunting, etc. Apparently the forestry roads are pretty popular with the moutain bikers, so within 30 minutes drive you can be on any number of logging roads having a good time. The home prices are appreciating very quickly, so buying in Boise looks to be a good investment. So there it is. Boise is still on the short list, but we're thinking hard about other places too. Still want to check out Albuquerque and Colorado Springs has been mentioned a bunch lately too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparks280zt Posted April 8, 2006 Share Posted April 8, 2006 tfreer85 as far as Bakersfield goes Three more good reasons: Buck Owens Merele Haggard Dwight Yokam Dwight Yokam for president! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mentallylost Posted April 8, 2006 Share Posted April 8, 2006 You should have driven a few more hours and visited the areas from Ogden to Salt Lake City to Provo and even Park City. Utah has got to be the most beautiful state that I have ever seen. I lived there for 4 years before joining the Army and if it wasn't for my wife living there for 24 years before leaving, we would live there again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wingnutthehutt Posted April 8, 2006 Share Posted April 8, 2006 I just moved to Sacramento from the Easy Bay and it's much cheaper to live up here. There IS rush hour traffic, but it's far better than the bay area any time. Traffic actually moves up here. As far as being a car guy goes, there's Sac Raceway, Infineon/Sears Point, Thunderhill Raceway and we have trees! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted April 8, 2006 Author Share Posted April 8, 2006 Yeah, my brother in law lives outside of Sac in Greenwood. It's nice, but his place is $400K and is about what we want, so that's about $150K out of our price range. Sac has it all with regards to motorsports, that's for sure. Surprisingly Boise has 11 autoxes a year, although there is no big track around, and I was just starting to really get into the big track thing. One track day is like 1000 autoxes all in one day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Posted April 9, 2006 Share Posted April 9, 2006 Jon, it sounds like Boise is too much of a small town for some one used to L.A. and Seattle. Granted, small towns have their particular appeal, but I would opine that moving from big city to small town is far more traumatic than the reverse. One experiences a feeling of exile; you offend the authorities, and they send you to a small hamlet in Siberia. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wingnutthehutt Posted April 9, 2006 Share Posted April 9, 2006 I have an aquiantence who grew up in a small Idaho town, Pocatello, and she said it was a horrible place to grow up unless you are ultra right wing. If you have kids, keep that in mind, unless you're right wing, and then its should be perfect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted April 9, 2006 Author Share Posted April 9, 2006 I talked to the real estate agent and my aunt about Pocatello. My aunt used to live just across the border in Wyoming, so they'd drive to Pocatello to stock up since it was the closest town of any size. 75% mormon population. Boise is about 25%. So yeah, apparently if you walk into a restaurant and order a cup of coffee you can expect some flak from the waitress and glares from most of the other people in the restaurant. I've experienced the same in some rural parts of Utah. Point taken though. We're definitely not moving to Pocatello... Michael, you're exactly right. Which is why we're still looking. I think I could adapt, but I'm not sure my wife will be completely happy there. She said the trip showed her how much of a city person she really is. Personally I felt like I was living in an anthill in LA, I feel its 10x worse in Seattle (not as much sprawl, more high rises, impossible to park anywhere, streets don't make any sense, etc). We both LOVED San Luis Obispo, which is a town of 50,000 but close to other larger towns like Santa Maria, and only 1.5 hours from Santa Barbara. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bastaad525 Posted April 14, 2006 Share Posted April 14, 2006 Jon - initial impressions of Virginia (been here just over a week) are good. Well... Portsmouth sucks (where we're staying with a friend right now), but we've found some NICE apartments and houses in the Chesapeake and Williamsburg areas (suburban/residential, but a VERY short hop from there to the city) for very nice costs. 3br/2ba houses often with sizeable lots (well like 1 acre maybe) can be had from $150k-ish on up. We're currently apartment shopping and have found some VERY nice 2 bed/2 ba apartments in private communities, close to freeways and all kinds of shopping, for well under $1000 a month. That may sound like a lot... but these places are NICE. The one we are currently drooling over has it's own private lake (stocked with fish), tennis courts, volleyball courts, pool, outdoor jacuzzi, indoor jacuzzi, large clubhouse with full entertainment center, gym, private assigned parking... the works... $900 a month for a two bedroom with a fantastic view of the lake. The freeway is like 5 miles away and also two major shopping centers and one huge mall... yet the immediate area somehow has remained beautiful and very quiet. Crime in the area is super low, and there are many schools in the area. Mind you, in the San Fernando Valley where we just came from, $900 will get you a small one bedroom in a not-so-great area. You can't get anything decent out there for less than a grand... 2br's average $1300-1500. So... yeah... so far so good. Still not the cheapest of the cheap... my dad says I need to move to the empty midwest to get that (houses for sub $100k), but me and my wife both really want to remain near the ocean and 'true' city areas. VA seems to be a great mix between city and suburban. Ah well, there's my rave consider it, anyways. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BiltWel Posted April 14, 2006 Share Posted April 14, 2006 For about $300k you can get a very nice place (couple thousand square feet) with land and a shop here, our schools are great and airfare is getting cheaper all the time. The downside is you have to pay property tax on your cars. The upside is there are no smog resrictions lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Posted May 12, 2006 Share Posted May 12, 2006 Jon, Interesting that I'll be in Boise the 2nd of June interviewing for a new job. You're right about the flatness, relative to Seattle. Compared to the DFW area, though, it's heavy mountain terrain. Since I grew up there I find your analysis interesting. I also noticed that Boise is listed as #1 for real estate valuation growth potential. Evidently it is still a hot market and it is expected to remain that way for awhile. I'm a bit dismayed by the cost of home ownership during my recent investigations. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zuhow Posted May 12, 2006 Share Posted May 12, 2006 I'm biased, but I say move out here to the east coast. Personally, I'm a huge fan of living on the Chesapeake Bay. Bastaad's got it pretty well summed up (but truth be told I REALLY dislike VA, mostly because I can't help but associate it with Northern VA/ DC metro area). Southern VA is nice. My recommendation is you come over and check out around Annapolis Maryland. If you don't mind a bit of commute, you can score a nice set up- just avoid the DC surrounding areas (Prince Georges and Montgomery Counties come to mind as places best left to others) Check out Anne Arundel County or Calvert County. Western MD (Frederick or Washington counties) is more of the mountain/ rural setting, Annapolis is a drinking town with a sailing problem. As far as what you’re looking for: 1. climate - Gotta admit- you get just enough summer to make you wish for winter, and just enough winter to remind you why you hate it. 2. traffic- Avoid the DC beltway and you’re golden 3. Lower latitude - check 4. House at least 1500 sq ft. -no problem 5. Garage an absolute must, separate shop even better- easy 6. Road racing / autox venues within a couple hours tow- check 7. $300K or less – depending- in the historic districts, this is where condos start, but you can easily score a 1500 sqft house on 1/2+ acre for this if you don’t mind a 30 min drive 8. Safe community- atleast where I live, kids leave their toys at the community park indefinetly, and there’s zero crime (unless you count HS kids drinking as crime) 9. Land??? Search on www.realtor.com to get some idea what your looking at (land=cash, but you knew that already!) try zip code 21012- that’s where I live, but you won’t find 5+ acres there for anything short of a princely sum Her priorities: 1. commuting distance to major city – 30 min to DC, 30 min to Baltimore, plus easy access to Philly and NYC 2. Close to medical care –THIS is the place to get sick or injured if you must, SEVERAL world class hospitals, NIH and all that. PLUS lots of people would want (and can afford) your wife’s dietician services. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted May 12, 2006 Author Share Posted May 12, 2006 I own handguns and won't give them up, so MD is out for me. Still tentatively looking in the NC area, but increasingly thinking we'll stay out west. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wingnutthehutt Posted May 12, 2006 Share Posted May 12, 2006 I've been looking at a job in GA lately, and, while I hate the humidity, the northern Atlanta area is starting to look really nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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