OT - Best places to live for family

mrc70

Hi All,

I have been an IT consultant and have been roaming around all along, from one place to another.
I would like to settle-down at one place and buy a house. Would you recommend couple of good places to settle down for a family with kids ?

Here is what I am looking for

1) Preferably medium level City (do not like very big cities or very small towns)
2) Preferably a conservative (do not mean the American conservatism) area, typical of South Asian type (may be asking too much, I guess )
3) State with good Schools/Universities
4) peaceful with low crime rate

Appreciate your response/help.

Investor

Come down to Austin, TX area.

mrc70

Then we can form Mutualfund Observer followers investment club .

Jokes apart, it is one the places that we like. I also have relatives in Dallas and Houston.
Moreover, with 3 more cities within 200 miles range, probably a good place for job market.

Texas along with Raleigh, NC (where I lived earlier) are two coveted places for settling down.

Thanks Investor.

Mark

Fill out the survey and see what's out there:

http://www.findyourspot.com/

DlphcOracl

States which consistently rank highly in K-12 education that also have excellent universities in state include: Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Virginia, and Ohio. Consider the following cities:

Maryland: Silver Spring, Rockville, Germantown
Massachusetts: Springfield
New Jersey: Toms River, Edison, Cherry Hill, Trenton
Virginia:Arlington/Alexandria, Roanoke
Ohio: Columbus

Some of these may be smaller than what you are looking for but they are not "very small towns".

scott

Madison, WI is a nice option. Winters are ... not great (although I think better than they used to be a couple of decades ago - thanks to global warming, the Midwest now truly is Canada's Florida), but there's some really beautiful areas nearby and Wisconsin is (I think) a good state.

If you have kids, the Wisconsin Dells are about 45 minutes away, which is the Waterpark Capital of the World - it's essentially a town crossed with an amusement park. Arcades, minigolf, everything. And when I say "everything", that includes an upside-down White House.

Upside Down White House:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wisconsin_Dells_-_Top_Secret.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin_Dells,_Wisconsin

A lot of nice natural areas nearby, including Devil's Lake State Park:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil's_Lake_State_Park_(Wisconsin)

Austin, which investor mentioned, is also supposed to be terrific.

johnN

good morning - great question. We live near Dallas areas it's growing very fast for many bussiness especially housing sectors/heatlh care, some IT growths. Austin is also a good place for family/plentiful jobs for IT/computer personnel. You'll get great conservatism if you come to the great state of TX. I also lived in Houston before previously and it's a wonderful area, nothing to do at night though unless you like food [many good restaurants and many ethic groups live in Houston, many Asians also]. I think several computer companies have moved to Houston recently.
My brother/mom also work in IT/computer, they've been living near silicon valley/SF [San Jose, CA/southbay] areas since 1980s and it's a great place also [I grew up there]. It was very expensive but now the prices of home have drop - probably is going up very soon. My parents want us to move back there but because of job we are still stuck in Tx. I would highly prefer to live there. The wifey family live in San Diego and I think it's a heaven-meet earth place but no job for me and the wifey, don't know about IT business there but I suppose you can get a job if you start your own business and do your own there.I would retire near San Diego. Lots of Asians live in/near San Diego [especially Filipinos/Vietnamese, Chinese/Koreans/Japanese - you name it]. My top choice would be San Diego but the houses there are around 600s K average

mrc70

Thank you all! Wonderful suggestions.

This is the beginning and I have to continue my research seriously here onwards as I am planning to move in summber before the new academic year starts.

DlphcOracl

One additional comment/thought:

Consider large upscale suburbs (populations of over 100,000) near culturally rich, diverse cities. The school systems will be excellent and you will have easy access to world class cultural facilities without the crime and headache of actually living in the city. Examples:

1. Naperville, Illinois (suburb of Chicago)
2. Aurora, Colorado (suburb of Denver)

etc., etc., You get the idea.

perpetual_Bull

I really enjoy living in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho Life doesn't get much better than this, imo.

The airport is in Spokane, Wa ( 30 minutes away ) along with many higher paying jobs.

AndyJ

Here's info on a criterion you didn't mention, but which correlates pretty well with a couple of the ones you did. It'd be one of the first things I evaluated if I were in the market for a new town, just to be sure I wasn't dooming myself to spending most of the rest of my life in my car.

http://www.walkscore.com/rankings/cities/

hank

There's tremendous natural beauty in many parts of Michigan. Fifteen or so years back I'd have given a ringing endorsement - and the TC area - mentioned in the linked story was at the top - greatly prized by professionals willing to accept lower pay there in return for the pristine waters, rolling orchards, downhill skiing and the like. Today - due in part to "austerity" politics (keep my taxes low at any price) I'd say stay away unless you drive a tank. Linked story is not unique. For years driving in the state has resembled an obstacle course. Many accidents are caused by people swerving to miss holes like the one in the video. Recession was hard on the state. But Florida got whacked pretty hard too as I recall. Their roads are much much better than here. Anybody out there got worse roads?

Original Story at TV 7&4 http://www.upnorthlive.com/news/story.aspx?list=195873&id=875604#.UU0d5aN5mK0

(Re-linked) UTube Video

JoeNoEskimo

Denver, CO has some really nice suburbs. Mid-size city nearby, great weather (low humidity combined with lots of sun), skiing, Rocky Mtn National Park, etc. Enough business parks and corporations located here to support the population base (i.e. jobs).
Light-rail available for commuting.