ilovefuzz.com

Im considering moving and im not sure where, here is some things id like

Cheap to rent/live
Not super hot like Florida etc
Not a lot of snow
A decent music scene
Plentiful construction work hopefully


What are my options?

The Dallas-Fort Worth area probably would cover a lot of that...
There's always construction somewhere or another.
Can't comment on rent because I live in a college town, so I assume it's higher here than elsewhere.

Snow, a couple times per year.
Hot, well, a lot. But not so humid which helps.

Have you thought about Chicago?

Chicago gets quite a lot of snow doesnt it?

theAntihero wrote:Chicago gets quite a lot of snow doesnt it?

Probably more than you're used to.

You could always go to Arizona or something. It's a dry heat and those desert cities are constantly expanding.

theAntihero wrote:Chicago gets quite a lot of snow doesnt it?

No?

But that could just be a difference of calibration.

Yes, don't move to Chicago, or anywhere in Illinois. I lived there for 21 years. Too much snow, too much taxes.

Every single person I knew in construction was always looking for work. Not to offend, but Illinois has a serious illegal immigration problem. It is really hard to compete with illegal immigrants who work for half of what you expect to get paid.

My wife and I both had great jobs when we lived in Illinois. Even making wise financial decisions, it was just too expensive to get ahead. Within 2 years of moving south, we had bought a house. Our mortgage is about what a friend of ours up in IL pays for taxes on his house of comparable size. His mortgage is more than 3x ours. A friend up in DC pays about the same for a parking spot and rent for his dog as we pay on our mortgage-- and he has to add $2,500/month-- 5x our mortgage-- in rent on top of that.

If you are in construction, look for the growth in population. Illinois is not it. They are one of the bottom 10 states in terms of population growth, having gained only 52k people since the last census. They have lost a congressional seat every census since I have been alive, and that means that as percent of the total population, their population is shrinking. My state, Georgia, has gained 305k people. Those folks gotta live somewhere, so it stands to reason that construction is more in demand here than up there.

Basically, avoid the midwest and northeast. They are stagnating as people move south where there seems to be more economic opportunity, and that is causing states like those to raise taxes and fees to compensate for the lost revenue.

Just deal with the heat. You don't have to shovel it, like snow. You never have to warm your car up before you leave in the morning. You never track gray, salty slush through the house. I would trade heat for snow any day of the week. In fact, I did.

Mike

Sounds like you're kind of a bitch when it comes to inclement weather there, Mike.

Hah... my last apartment was on the 5-lane main road in my town. Over the course of 10 days, we had 36" of snow... in March.

The plows were non-stop, and the snow piled up in my driveway. Every morning, I had to wake up an hour early, and shovel snow 2.5 lanes worth of packed slushy snow out of my driveway just to leave. Once I got home, I had to park my car on a side street, and speed-shovel my driveway so I wouldn't get towed for parking on the street after 6PM due to yet another "snow emergency."

10 straight days of shoveling, 2 hours a day. Less than 4 months later, my wife and I had quit our jobs, sold everything we couldn't fit in the car, and moved south.

BTW, it's gonna be 67 here tomorrow, and 74 on Sunday... cold front. I better check on my orange trees.

I mean, I wouldn't want to deal with snow in Illinois either. No point in having snow anywhere where it's flat.

If it's any consolation, this winter has totally sucked.

D.o.S. wrote:... If it's any consolation, this winter has totally sucked.

That's why I abandoned New England for warmer climes.

I almost moved to Savannah a few years back, but didn't think I'd be able to stand the summer heat.

... I meant that there hasn't been enough snow.

I've not had that experience in New England. Chalk it up to "global warming".

Portland….or Seattle if you want bigger [more expensive]

theAntihero wrote: A decent music scene

Denton Texas
a lovely offshoot of the dallas fort worth metroplex.
should be some good construction gigs around the area.
Check it out it's a bitchin place, think a couple members here live around there.