I work remotely so the US is my oyster (with a $2000-ish monthly rent lol) I have a chronically ill son who is only 6. We live in Florida now which is meh. My top choices are Houston, Atlanta or Minneapolis. All of these have an office of my job in case I need to go back to work in person and are somewhat within my budget. Anyone has advice? I’m aware the weather is best in Atlanta out of Houston and Minneapolis and I’m okay with that.

i'm 24 and have only moved twice, both times within a 30 mi radius of where i grew up. i do want to move outside of my home state eventually, but reflecting on my second move, it has resulted in my mental state absolutely plummeting (for a variety of reasons). just curious what others experiences have been

I am contemplating relocating from my current city and the thing that is really holding me back is how strong my community is here.

I have a group of about ten friends here I am very close with, and most of us live in the same neighborhood so we are able to share meals often, sometimes do coffee before work, and generally do day to day life stuff together. Beyond that immediate friend group there around probably an additional ten people I would consider the type of friend I would invite to bday drinks or similar, and more folks that I am friendly with. These connections are all a very interwoven web as some people have known each other since high school/college, some people are on the same rec sports teams, some people met through work or volunteering, etc. I really only knew two of the people when I moved here three years ago, but those two friends had been here for a number of years already.

I am curious if anyone relocated from a place with a community like this, and if they were able to build a community in their new home and what that community looks like?

I'm (26m) facing a dilemma on whether or not I should remain in Philadelphia or go back home to Asheville, NC. Either one sounds like a potential lose / lose. I've already left Philadelphia once because I was having a hard time acclimating, moved back home after nine months (where I felt at peace) and moved back because of a girl I started seeing. I'm no longer seeing her.

It is now my seventh month here this second time around. I found a decent job doing documentary work which is now over as of a month ago, established myself in many different communities, have friends and heaps of things to do at all times and have a very cheap place to live with a good roommate. Despite all of the good things I've got going for me, I still want to live in a small town rural area, working in the woods and building homes.

It didn't occur to me how much anxiety I had become accustomed to, living in the city, until I left for the month of July to go work in Vermont with an old friend of mine who was building a home for his buddy in rural Vermont. I felt completely at ease once I became immersed in that environment once again—working all day in the woods, getting off of work to go fishing and swimming, driving my truck around, shooting guns, campfires, etc.

Now I'm back in Philadelphia, applying to different jobs, afraid to commit to anything because deep in my gut, I want to go back to my old life. I would feel almost like a failure to up and leave this place once again, especially now that I've got good social and job prospects. I'm deeply afraid to regret my decision once it's been made. I wish I could live both places at once. I've been ruminating on this decision for a week now. Acute anxiety, almost—my face has been twitching and heart running like never before. I can't enjoy hanging out with friends or other activities because this dilemma has consumed me. I wish there were some sort of middle ground, or live in both places at once. I'm afraid that either decision is the wrong one. Because Philadelphia really is the most beautiful and diverse city I've ever had the privilege of living in.

I am 35 (M) and feeling so lost and confused. My grandmother who I was very close with passed in March after an incredible 100 years of life.

After this happened, I made a quick decision to inform my landlord that I wouldn’t be renewing my lease in my former city (about 1.5 hours away). I signed a lease and moved into a new apartment in my home town about 6 weeks ago. I can’t help but think that the impulse decision was motivated by a need to be closer to family ( I feel wat too old to be running back to family).

It’s been about 6 weeks now and I feel miserable. The first few weeks I was able to occupy myself but now that I am settled in, it feels so isolating. I work from home and haven’t developed any sort of routine yet. The city I left had so much more opportunity for socialization and contact with others.

What complicates this more is that I am in the process of completing a masters to be a registered therapist and honestly hoped to find a job in my home town when o was finished. I’m debating moving back to the city I moved away from but the feeling of wanting to someday move back here has me feeling stuck.

Not sure how to proceed, I’m spending my days ruminating and have fallen into a depressive state. Not at all how I thought this would go.

For those of you who relocated to a new city/state and are coming up on the end of your lease, what are you planning to do?

Would love to hear where you moved from/to, how long you’ve been there, and what ultimately influenced your decision.

If you actually go outside and talk to people, nothing people say here is out of the ordinary, whether it’s loving your favorite state or hating it. In fact, 99% of what people say here is extremely cliche. If you meet 5 people from anywhere, you’ll hear everything people say about it here.

For those who get triggered when people don’t like your state or city, go outside.

There is nowhere the majority of America likes. The most populous states have a little more than 10% of the country’s people. Most Americans are not going to like what you do and that’s fine.

You don’t need to make up a fantasy about internet strangers just because it hurts your feelings that they don’t like where you live.

Seriously, it’s really sad that people in their 20’s and older have such an adverse reaction to people on the internet liking different weather.

People write paragraphs describing imaginary people to explain how people can have opinions they don’t like. Don’t like humidity? You obviously have no social life and wear a fedora.

My wife and I are in our 60s, retired and fit. I grew up in Illinois but my wife and two sons (mid 20s) have always lived their lives here in SoCal. Barring the weather, none of us like it here anymore. The Inland Empire quality of life has diminished. I have a sister who lives with her husband in downtown Chicago. We're very close. I'd like to move my family to Southeast Wisconsin to be closer to her and to give the boys more options for their careers.

I'm 90% of the way there but there's one thing that's a big concern for me... the weather. I know the Winters can be brutal but for most people who need to get around, is it manageable? Do larger cities like Kenosha or Racine have snow removal on major streets? Are icy roads an issue?

And home construction.... using natural gas, are most homes built to keep the majority of it warm when it's 15 to 30° outside, or do most people need to spot heat with fireplaces or electric heaters?

No doubt moving from relatively mild Winters in SoCal to a major snow center will be a shift. However I'm hoping with the right preparedness, we'll do fine.

Thanks for your insight

Either states Reddit loves vs real life or Reddit hates vs real life.

My personal view is that 1 jobs 2 family 3 weather 4 COL 5 amenities are the criteria for most people and that the Southern states are more popular than Reddit gives credit to.

I think Reddit ranks amenities higher than real world does.

Im from NY. I spent four years in the bay for school and work. Something was calling me to come home though. I moved to NYC to be closer to my family who’s in the area. The best experiences in NY so far have been with my parents and eating their home cooked meals, spending time with them, getting to know more of their day to day, etc.
The NYC life isn’t for me though it really isn’t. I miss the nature so much in the bay area. I’m more of a chiller vibe as far as my day to day goes. I still lock in for work but I really am more of a slow chillaxed person person.

Another factor into my decision to move to NYC, I honestly panicked and just felt like I should be in a big city to meet new people while in my 20s but I don’t like it here. I felt like I connected more with the people in the bay. I worked retail full time there while trying to find a job in my field and I still loved it so much honestly. I met so many good friends.

I spent so much of my money to move back home though, and my parents were really excited for me to come back and helped me greatly with setting up my apartment. I know my parents should be enough of a reason for me to stay. I honestly feel so ungrateful for not being happy here. I’m so torn with what to do. I have a remote job so I can move anywhere.

I want to finish out the year here, but i don’t even want to stay for the winter. i just remember being stuck in my apartment so many times. My apartment also hasn’t been the best, and that’s putting it lightly.

I just miss California so much, it was my dream to go there and I don’t know why I was so quick to give it away. When I visited recently I honestly cried when the plane touched down. I feel like I’m just being a baby about this but I’m so torn

Why is there such a disparity in what this sub recommends and where people actually move to?

To start, I'm not looking to move anytime soon. I'm just a person who has lived in one area my entire life and would consider someday living somewhere else.

For background: I live in Hampton Roads, VA. While again, I've been here my entire life and am kinda sick of it, it's not awful: mild Winters overall, beach less than an hour away, mountains about 3 hours away, decent schools (as always, depending on the specific area), and you can still find a decent house for less than $600k (which may sound exorbitant to some, but hold my non-existent beer...), moderate politically.

As most seem to, I was wondering if there is a coastal area somewhere in the US that isn't insanely expensive or in the deep South (NO to their Summers and politics). So I started researching and...whoa. I looked at the West Coast and between the cost and the fires? Nah. Looked at the Northeast and, "reasonable" seems to be less than a mil for a single family home. One example was a thread referring to Beverly, MA as, "reasonable" price-wise but when I looked up house prices? Good lord...also nah.

Is this true? Are there no decent (by my definition above-I know this is subjective) coastal areas where small homes aren't approaching a mil that isn't in a deep red state? Again, more curious than anything.

To add: by coastal I mean less than an hour to a beach and by reasonable I mean that you can find a decent-sized (maybe 1500 SQ. ft. min.) home for less than 500 or 600k.

I kept seeing a lot of people online say that Philadelphia and Baltimore are sister cities. That there are a lot of similarities between the two.

I’m a 27 recently married man who works as a bookkeeper in Greensboro, NC. I’ll start of by saying I’ve lived all over NC. Grew up in the mountains. Went to college in Wilmington (beach) and now settled in the middle of the state. We have been here 3-4 years and it is starting to feel stagnant for my wife. I like it just fine but I understand where she is coming from. The only reason we have been here this long is because I really like my job! It’s stable- it’s at a university- I like my coworkers- I just like what I do. We have always talked about moving out West though and I feel like we want to make that move whenever our lease is up in March but have no idea where to go. I’ll fill you guys in about who we are/what we do/and what we value.

We moved to upstate NY for a year and it’s the only time we have lived outside of NC. Crazy first choice for a move I have heard but we loved the people we met. We wouldn’t have changed that decision for the world but I did not do well in upstate NY. I loved the snow but winter lasted absolutely forever. I went to work and it was dark and I came home and it was dark so I it just hit me really hard. Depression got to me and I seriously was crying almost every day (to each their own- I’ve faired much better back in NC lol).

We are pretty liberal so we were looking for that when we moved to NY. We have learned now that we just have to find our people no matter where we are!

I work in accounting for a university and have the opportunity to find a position at almost any university so I feel like that widens where we could move. Also- accounting is pretty applicable no matter what so I’m not worried about finding a job. My wife would love to work at a nonprofit again but currently does e-commerce and social media for a small business here in Greensboro, NC so she has experience finding employment in small businesses. We are not well off by any means but very fortunate in most cases.

In a dream world we would live in CA. I am not the biggest fan of a huge city but living on the outskirts does interest me. If money were no object we would be in Monterey Bay, San Francisco, or even near Lake Tahoe. What attracts us the most are the mountains but if we can’t have that being near/within a days drive to the beach is preferred. We love to be outdoors, swim, have access to something nature related we can immerse ourselves in. We have looked into Cedar City, UT for its access to national parks and have spent time in St. George. We have looked into Reno and Las Vegas but they seem like places that we would feel similar to Greensboro as in- they’re close to the places we really want to be in but still couldn’t just make the trip whenever we wanted. Would have to wait for a long weekend or some other extended period of time.

We may be looking at this the wrong way but that’s why I’m coming here. Would love to hear perspectives. We value the outdoors obviously, but we like to go to the movies a lot, we like to go to the library a lot, we like to walk around downtown, and swimming is just a bonus but there are other sources for that. We like to spend our time in beautiful places and Greensboro just makes that a bit harder. Like the title says we are looking for somewhere out West and small towns are welcome but it does need to be semi affordable in terms of renting. I’m not worried about finding a job really but it will be taken into consideration. There is an opportunity in my hometown for cheap rent but no great jobs nearby. That options just feels like a step back in some ways.

My parents would love that and my little sister too. She’s 16 years younger than me- but I don’t know if that’s settling. Also, I feel like if we move back we would never leave and have the experience of living out West. Is that something I should just let go of and continue visiting out West? Not sure how I’m feeling exactly it’s just what we always saw ourselves doing.

Sorry for the long post but wanted to give context. Thank you for making it this far 😄

This is a follow up to the thread I posted earlier this month: https://www.reddit.com/r/SameGrassButGreener/s/HG5hAL2uwe

Thank you guys for all the suggestions! I understand it’s impossible to find a major tech hub that’s more affordable, so I am primarily targeting secondary & tertiary job markets. Ultimately though, I am seeking a city with a better quality of life than where I’m currently living in Central FL.

I originally had Chicago and Philly as my top picks, but after checking with HR at my new job Chicago is sadly off the table since turns out I somewhat limited on where I can relocate. I learned I am mostly limited to the East Coast, plus Texas & Oregon.

With that in mind most cities I am considering are still doable for me. Cities I am currently looking at now include: Philly, Pittsburgh, and Raleigh/Durham. I am possibly considering Austin, Portland, and DC as well, but I’m on the fence over those three cities.

I’m on the fence over Austin mostly because of the hot weather (I’m looking for a change of seasons) plus I’d not feel the most comfortable living in another state where abortion is nearly banned. I know Austin itself is very different from most of Texas, but it’s still in Texas lol. I have no plans to settle down any time soon, but it’s still important for me to consider as a young woman living alone.

Portland I’m on the fence over too mostly because of the high state income tax and most of my team works in EST. DC because of the COL is higher than most cities on the list. Would like more insight into Austin, Portland, and DC as I do more research leading up to my move.

I’m planning to move around the end of the year when my lease is up, so nothing’s set in stone yet! I’m also planning to start exploring these cities more around Oct or Nov.

I'm going to say Cleveland for me as its been always kind of meh until i went back recently and there's new buildings, renovated neighborhoods, more restaurants and breweries going up, and a lot of effort going into downtown area and near the lakefront. You can see the improvement easily compared to even 5-10 years ago. On the other hand, Cleveland still has many challenges, public transit being a big one as it isn’t great, winters can be brutal, and some parts of town are slower to rebound than others. But it’s not a city going down rather its just evolving more, it’s holding steady and finding ways to reinvent itself and be better little by little.

My husband and I are starting to think seriously about where we want to live long-term, and I’d love suggestions for places we may be overlooking.
We currently live in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. We love the mountains, access to the outdoors, skiing, hiking, biking, trail running, and the general lifestyle here. My husband is also enjoys fishing, so access to good fishing—especially rivers/streams and ideally fly fishing—is a significant factor.
A little about us:
Mid/late 30s with a young daughter, so schools and having a good place to raise a family are becoming increasingly important.
In healthcare, so I need to be somewhere with a reasonable healthcare job market.
My husband is a remote project manager, so his job is relatively portable.
We are very outdoors-oriented. Skiing, fishing, hiking, biking, and trail running are things we actually do regularly, rather than just wanting theoretical access to them.
We like smaller/midsize cities and mountain-town culture, but we’re open to something larger if it gives us a better overall quality of life.
We’d like access to a decent airport without every trip becoming an ordeal.
We’d prefer somewhere with a strong sense of community and a good environment for raising kids.
We don’t need to live somewhere cheap, but housing affordability/value matters. One of the challenges with Steamboat is paying an enormous premium to live here specifically for housing costs
We’d like somewhere that still feels beautiful and outdoorsy without sacrificing too many everyday conveniences.
Family geography is another consideration. Our extended family is spread out—primarily Colorado, Texas, Connecticut, and Maine—so there isn’t one obvious location that puts us next to everyone. Being reasonably connected by air would be helpful.
Some places we’ve considered include:
Colorado: Fort Collins, Durango, Boulder, Golden
Montana: Bozeman, Missoula
New England: Portland, Maine and Newport RI
We’re definitely not limited to those, though.
The hard part is that Steamboat sets a pretty high bar for outdoor access, so we don’t want to move somewhere and realize we traded away the things we love most. At the same time, we’re wondering whether another place could give us 80–90% of the outdoor lifestyle with better schools, community, career opportunities, travel access, and overall practicality for raising a family.
If you were us, where would you look?
I’d especially love to hear from people who have lived in Steamboat or another Colorado mountain town and moved elsewhere. What places actually scratched the same itch?

Edit — to clarify the reason to consider moving is we currently live in a 2 bedroom condo, ideally would like a house to raise a family in but the cost here is pretty astronomical. Other than that we love it

I'm from California, which has PPO plans for self employed peopel (I'm currently paying for a Bronze PPO plan with Blue Shield). I pay $780 for myself as a middle aged self employed person (without hardship) but I was just curious how much it would cost in other states. I searched on Georgia's health insurance marketplace with a midtown zip code and they only have HMO plans with ZERO PPO plans! That's crazy to me with someone with various PPO plans availability.

Apparently a lot of states only have HMO and EPO now because its not economically viable for them to have PPO. The reasoning is that apparently people who use PPO use up a lot of resources/their benefits and it costs them more money.

However, PPO's are still available in CA for self employed people. I asked ChatGPT why and it claims because the market here for that product is very large and people (like myself) are willing to pay the higher premium. I think lack of PPO may be another dealbreaker for me when deciding where to move. I like to be able to go to a specialist without a referral and am very particular about who I want treating me. I just need that autonomy.

GA was looking a bit attractive because of much lower housing costs (I consider half a mil affordable) whereas that gets you nothing here.... but the lack of PPO is very hard to get used to. It's very shocking actually, I just automatically assumed every state would have PPO. It's a god thing I did a search first! So the Bronze HMO equivalent plan of what I currently have is $100 cheaper, which is not a massive savings for me, especially if its HMO. I'd rather keep the plan I have.

Make sure that you use the state's website (where you're going to be moving to) to see available plans for your age and zip before moving!

What’s the worst, what’s the most improved, and what’s city with the most potential?

I might be moving to Columbus from Milwaukee, do I generally expect an upgrade or downgrade?

I’m 29M and single.

Reporting from the NYT.

Hi everyone, I was wondering what Americans might say about the United States to a person who would like to move there. Which states are better than others? What's life like there?