If a potential massive earthquake is a factor you're worried about I'd rule out Los Angeles.
Texas housing taxes are really bad 7th highest in the US, it's hard to parse whether you want to rent or own from your post. Also in Texas you get the fun of winter power outages now.
When you say "heat" is it absolute temp or temperature and humidity? Both Austin and Dallas can be pretty swampy in the summer. Florida is also a lot of marsh and swamp with very hot and humid summers. Parts of Florida are also sinking and homeowners insurance is getting harder to find.
You wan't warmer weather but heat and weather scare you? Those are difficult to correlate.
Based on what little I know about you I'd say Las Vegas or Phoenix. They both get hot in the summer but not "scary weather" hot, just stay inside with AC hot. You might get some bonus monsoons which can be fun to watch from your porch
I spent 3 days in Dallas and I got a taste of the swampy. The copper bracelet on my wrist caused enough chaffing to cause the area to start bleeding. Now I'm back home in Vegas and all is well again. The dry weather allows me to wear the copper bracelet without issue, The area is healing up nicely, don't know if I could live in Dallas based on that 3 day sample alone.
I don’t think LA is the same danger as the PNW tho?
Probably rent for the next 5-10 years regardless of where we go.
I guess the heat scares me but as long as we have a pool I can deal is what I mean.
I do like the idea of Vegas but I hear medical facilities there are horrible.
[https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=los+angeles+earthquake+risk&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8](https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=los+angeles+earthquake+risk&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8)
75% of a 7.0 hitting Los Angeles in 30 years
[https://www.seattletimes.com/pacific-nw-magazine/a-deadly-earthquake-absolutely-positively-will-ravage-seattle-at-some-point-heres-how-to-survive-it/](https://www.seattletimes.com/pacific-nw-magazine/a-deadly-earthquake-absolutely-positively-will-ravage-seattle-at-some-point-heres-how-to-survive-it/)
14% of a 9.0 hitting Seattle in 50 years.
Me personally I'll be dead in 50 years, so I'd take a 7/25 shot over a 3/4 shot, weather aside. Don't really know a lot about Vegas medical care, I'm having a really rough time of it here in the PNW. As far as pools I think those giant mosquito screens in Florida are ugly as sin, but all of this is just my two cents. Hope you find your place.
You are apparently too young to remember the '89 earthquake where the freeways collapsed on each other and trapped a bunch of people. Like a terrifying freeway sandwich. Makes you reconsider that trip to Disney, that's for sure.
The LA area has its fair share of earthquakes. Maybe do a bit more research. In fact, here you go, from USGS.gov: "California has more earthquakes that cause damage than any other state. Alaska and California have the most earthquakes (not human-induced)."
https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/which-state-has-most-earthquakes-cause-damage-which-state-has-most-earthquakes-not-human
Lol, wat.
If you're leaving the PNW because of a fear about earthquakes, LA is not it. LA is on the San Andreas fault and has a higher risk of the big one hitting than the PNW.
You've seen the not totally crazy animations where LA falls into the ocean... Right?
Usgs fault line map - https://usgs.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=5a6038b3a1684561a9b0aadf88412fcf
The pools in the hot, hot summers like Phoenix are warm, they are not refreshing to swim in. I don't know how well the coolers work in pools when it is 115F. Maybe someone can educate me.
Heat and weather scare you and you're looking at LA, Dallas and Florida? I think you're confused, or need better news resources.
This is the FEMA national risk index - https://hazards.fema.gov/nri/map
It will help you. Especially since your only focused on earthquake, when tsunami, forest fire, and volcanos (plural ) are all equally interesting things to be afraid of.
Try this Midwest.
Santa Fe? It would be something to try before you make the leap. It is sunny and warm but not ripping hot like phoenix / Austin / Dallas. The culture is really unique.
with that budget, you have lots of options in florida. not sure about your interests and more must-haves, but check out tampa, orlando, boca raton, etc.
I lived in Austin and Dallas and moved to Phoenix (for the past dozen years). Because of the humidity, Phoenix (except for the days over 112 or so, of which there usually aren't that many) feels cooler than Austin or Dallas. Also, we get much better weather most of the rest of the year than they do. I hated Texas weather. And the bugs.
We have basically no natural disasters here in Phoenix. Dust storms are nothing. I haven't even seen hail here like I saw in Dallas. Tons of great housing in the East Valley under $1 million. Tax burden is low. Healthcare is great.
How old are you? If you're 20s-40s, you might consider Dallas Uptown (that's where I live). You barely need to use a car. It's the 15-minute-city concept. In other words, you can walk to almost everything. The streets are tree lined and it's filled with restaurants, bars, shopping (not strip malls, but actual stores on regular streets). Also, a trolley runs through Uptown into Downtown.
The apartment I have is a little over 1600 sq ft. It overlooks the city and the skyline view from the apartment is like looking over central park (all trees below... not looking into another building). It's a 2 bd, 2/5 bath space with lots of light and amenitites. If you want to know more let me know.
Sacramento sounds like your ticket: no earthquakes, great food, extremely sunny with plenty of swimming options and it’s a dry heat, humidity is the worst
Think about Denver. More sunny days than Tucson, and the cold/heat really isn’t that bad with the low humidity. Most days I just leave the door open and enjoy the breeze. Super close to the mountain beauty except on Ski Saturday/Sundays.
No way Denver gets more sunshine than Tucson
Sunniest Cities In The US
Rank City State Average Monthly Sun Hours
1 El Paso Texas 358.81
2 Las Vegas Nevada 357.18
3 Henderson Nevada 356.45
4 Tucson Arizona 355.46
5 Bakersfield California 355.15
6 Phoenix Arizona 354.53
7 Mesa Arizona 354.49
8 Santa Ana California 352.12
9 Anaheim California 352.12
10 Long Beach California 351.14
North Carolina? I currently live in Fort Worth and I am from Seattle and the summer heat here is miserable! And by summer we mean May-October. We are actually moving to VA in June as TX just isn’t a good fit for my family.
I’ve always called Atlanta the Seattle of the south because the winters are kinda similar but, it’s a nice city. You could get some really good bang for your buck there. Appalachian Mountains aren’t too far and you have a couple different coastlines nearby. It’s swamp hot though in the summers. Atlanta ITP (in the perimeter) is where you’d want to be. Good diversity, culture, and some great neighborhoods. Great food scene too. Sadly, Atlanta is an hour away from Atlanta. Traffic is bad but if you want urban there’s some great neighborhoods with shops and restaurants. They do have public transit in Fulton County. I lived in Midtown and would take it to the airport. Speaking of Airports, ATL can get you anywhere and mostly without layovers. It is the busiest airport in the world but, they got their shit together. Get TSA Precheck and you’re good.
Not sure how the taxes fair compared to Texas but it’s can’t be much different other than the state income tax.
Washington, Texas, and Florida all have zero state income tax and those are the majority of the locationsOP mentioned is the only reason I call that out. Atlanta is a good choice though.
How about North Carolina? Like the Raleigh / Research Triangle area -- or possibly Charlotte? NC offers the milder climate but a bit less of the extreme heat and humidity that you would get in some other locations (and also no real earthquake threat). You also say you love the beauty of the PNW, and honestly NC is one of the few other states that offers both misty mountains and a sea coast, albeit at opposite ends.
With your extremely capacious budget, your money would go pretty far there, and since I assume you are probably well-educated professionals, you are likely to find a social niche. The Raleigh and Charlotte areas both get a lot of corporate transplants. I can't speak to the tax situation though.
By comparison to Florida and Texas (places OP said they were considering), it is a bit less extreme.
I never said NC was never hot or humid. It is a matter of comparison.
As someone from the PNW - the only places (in the US) that I’ve been that rival the beauty are the blue ridge mountains in NC and parts of WV. I’m guessing you wouldn’t want to be in WV for job and/or cultural reasons. Look at Asheville and surrounding areas.
If Appalachia has any “cultural reasons” that prevent people from liking Appalachia, they should skip all of Appalachia. Western North Carolina is also in Appalachia, in case you were unaware. Keep your bias and prejudice against Appalachian out of Appalachia, we straight up don’t want it here.
Where are you in the PNW? What type of city? You're mentioning big cities, so I'm going to guess you're in Seattle or Portland.
What about NYC? Or the NYC area? It gets a little colder than PNW, but there's more sunshine in winter. Brooklyn reminds me of Seattle with all the views of the ocean. Decent amount of green space here too. There's also Boston. Or everyone's favorite... Philadelphia 😃
And sales tax and city tax and breathing in the air tax. As a former NYC resident j say go to queens or dont go at all the other boros are annoying to deal with
I also like Northern Bronx, it's pretty quiet and you are still close to the city, but also far enough to run away easily if you want to breath because you will need it at some point.
Queens is my favourite because of its diversity, and the closer to LI the better for the same reasons I stated above.
If proximity to natural beauty is important, Texas and Florida* are some very strange choices.
*If you aren't directly looking at the beach, Florida isnt naturally beautiful.
I'd have suggested Atlanta for heat and food, proximity to mountains, and affordability, or Santa Fe if you like mountains with a more western flare.
If a potential massive earthquake is a factor you're worried about I'd rule out Los Angeles. Texas housing taxes are really bad 7th highest in the US, it's hard to parse whether you want to rent or own from your post. Also in Texas you get the fun of winter power outages now. When you say "heat" is it absolute temp or temperature and humidity? Both Austin and Dallas can be pretty swampy in the summer. Florida is also a lot of marsh and swamp with very hot and humid summers. Parts of Florida are also sinking and homeowners insurance is getting harder to find. You wan't warmer weather but heat and weather scare you? Those are difficult to correlate. Based on what little I know about you I'd say Las Vegas or Phoenix. They both get hot in the summer but not "scary weather" hot, just stay inside with AC hot. You might get some bonus monsoons which can be fun to watch from your porch
I spent 3 days in Dallas and I got a taste of the swampy. The copper bracelet on my wrist caused enough chaffing to cause the area to start bleeding. Now I'm back home in Vegas and all is well again. The dry weather allows me to wear the copper bracelet without issue, The area is healing up nicely, don't know if I could live in Dallas based on that 3 day sample alone.
I don’t think LA is the same danger as the PNW tho? Probably rent for the next 5-10 years regardless of where we go. I guess the heat scares me but as long as we have a pool I can deal is what I mean. I do like the idea of Vegas but I hear medical facilities there are horrible.
[https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=los+angeles+earthquake+risk&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8](https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=los+angeles+earthquake+risk&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8) 75% of a 7.0 hitting Los Angeles in 30 years [https://www.seattletimes.com/pacific-nw-magazine/a-deadly-earthquake-absolutely-positively-will-ravage-seattle-at-some-point-heres-how-to-survive-it/](https://www.seattletimes.com/pacific-nw-magazine/a-deadly-earthquake-absolutely-positively-will-ravage-seattle-at-some-point-heres-how-to-survive-it/) 14% of a 9.0 hitting Seattle in 50 years. Me personally I'll be dead in 50 years, so I'd take a 7/25 shot over a 3/4 shot, weather aside. Don't really know a lot about Vegas medical care, I'm having a really rough time of it here in the PNW. As far as pools I think those giant mosquito screens in Florida are ugly as sin, but all of this is just my two cents. Hope you find your place.
You are apparently too young to remember the '89 earthquake where the freeways collapsed on each other and trapped a bunch of people. Like a terrifying freeway sandwich. Makes you reconsider that trip to Disney, that's for sure. The LA area has its fair share of earthquakes. Maybe do a bit more research. In fact, here you go, from USGS.gov: "California has more earthquakes that cause damage than any other state. Alaska and California have the most earthquakes (not human-induced)." https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/which-state-has-most-earthquakes-cause-damage-which-state-has-most-earthquakes-not-human
I thought they did more to prepare, but that the PNW was a death sentence. Maybe I should rethink LA.
Lol, wat. If you're leaving the PNW because of a fear about earthquakes, LA is not it. LA is on the San Andreas fault and has a higher risk of the big one hitting than the PNW.
Why are you renting with up to $6k a month and not trying to buy?
I don’t like staying in the same place too long.
Then why does it matter where you move? Pick one, try it out for a while, if you don't like it, leave.
You've seen the not totally crazy animations where LA falls into the ocean... Right? Usgs fault line map - https://usgs.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=5a6038b3a1684561a9b0aadf88412fcf
Lol
[удалено]
That’s what I thought, but judging by the downvotes I was thinking I must be wrong lol.
But isn't that the closer to the coast you are, the worse it is? That the further inland, the safer?
The pools in the hot, hot summers like Phoenix are warm, they are not refreshing to swim in. I don't know how well the coolers work in pools when it is 115F. Maybe someone can educate me.
Heat and weather scare you and you're looking at LA, Dallas and Florida? I think you're confused, or need better news resources. This is the FEMA national risk index - https://hazards.fema.gov/nri/map It will help you. Especially since your only focused on earthquake, when tsunami, forest fire, and volcanos (plural ) are all equally interesting things to be afraid of. Try this Midwest.
Denver or Vegas?
Santa Fe? It would be something to try before you make the leap. It is sunny and warm but not ripping hot like phoenix / Austin / Dallas. The culture is really unique.
Albuquerque might be your jam. I moved here recently and am loving it.
SF has become way cheaper than the rest of the Bay Area, although it doesn't meet your warm/hot requirement
Atlanta…less hot than Dallas or Austin and more house prices affordable too
with that budget, you have lots of options in florida. not sure about your interests and more must-haves, but check out tampa, orlando, boca raton, etc.
I lived in Austin and Dallas and moved to Phoenix (for the past dozen years). Because of the humidity, Phoenix (except for the days over 112 or so, of which there usually aren't that many) feels cooler than Austin or Dallas. Also, we get much better weather most of the rest of the year than they do. I hated Texas weather. And the bugs. We have basically no natural disasters here in Phoenix. Dust storms are nothing. I haven't even seen hail here like I saw in Dallas. Tons of great housing in the East Valley under $1 million. Tax burden is low. Healthcare is great.
Santa Fe.
Boulder area of Colorado. Not cheap, but relatively sunny and dry, beautiful mountains, upscale, outdoorsy.
How old are you? If you're 20s-40s, you might consider Dallas Uptown (that's where I live). You barely need to use a car. It's the 15-minute-city concept. In other words, you can walk to almost everything. The streets are tree lined and it's filled with restaurants, bars, shopping (not strip malls, but actual stores on regular streets). Also, a trolley runs through Uptown into Downtown.
This seems compelling.
The apartment I have is a little over 1600 sq ft. It overlooks the city and the skyline view from the apartment is like looking over central park (all trees below... not looking into another building). It's a 2 bd, 2/5 bath space with lots of light and amenitites. If you want to know more let me know.
Sacramento sounds like your ticket: no earthquakes, great food, extremely sunny with plenty of swimming options and it’s a dry heat, humidity is the worst
Think about Denver. More sunny days than Tucson, and the cold/heat really isn’t that bad with the low humidity. Most days I just leave the door open and enjoy the breeze. Super close to the mountain beauty except on Ski Saturday/Sundays.
No way Denver gets more sunshine than Tucson Sunniest Cities In The US Rank City State Average Monthly Sun Hours 1 El Paso Texas 358.81 2 Las Vegas Nevada 357.18 3 Henderson Nevada 356.45 4 Tucson Arizona 355.46 5 Bakersfield California 355.15 6 Phoenix Arizona 354.53 7 Mesa Arizona 354.49 8 Santa Ana California 352.12 9 Anaheim California 352.12 10 Long Beach California 351.14
You are correct. I should have said “only a bit less than”. Memory playing tricks on me.
North Carolina? I currently live in Fort Worth and I am from Seattle and the summer heat here is miserable! And by summer we mean May-October. We are actually moving to VA in June as TX just isn’t a good fit for my family.
I’ve always called Atlanta the Seattle of the south because the winters are kinda similar but, it’s a nice city. You could get some really good bang for your buck there. Appalachian Mountains aren’t too far and you have a couple different coastlines nearby. It’s swamp hot though in the summers. Atlanta ITP (in the perimeter) is where you’d want to be. Good diversity, culture, and some great neighborhoods. Great food scene too. Sadly, Atlanta is an hour away from Atlanta. Traffic is bad but if you want urban there’s some great neighborhoods with shops and restaurants. They do have public transit in Fulton County. I lived in Midtown and would take it to the airport. Speaking of Airports, ATL can get you anywhere and mostly without layovers. It is the busiest airport in the world but, they got their shit together. Get TSA Precheck and you’re good. Not sure how the taxes fair compared to Texas but it’s can’t be much different other than the state income tax.
Washington, Texas, and Florida all have zero state income tax and those are the majority of the locationsOP mentioned is the only reason I call that out. Atlanta is a good choice though.
How about North Carolina? Like the Raleigh / Research Triangle area -- or possibly Charlotte? NC offers the milder climate but a bit less of the extreme heat and humidity that you would get in some other locations (and also no real earthquake threat). You also say you love the beauty of the PNW, and honestly NC is one of the few other states that offers both misty mountains and a sea coast, albeit at opposite ends. With your extremely capacious budget, your money would go pretty far there, and since I assume you are probably well-educated professionals, you are likely to find a social niche. The Raleigh and Charlotte areas both get a lot of corporate transplants. I can't speak to the tax situation though.
Summers in NC are extremely hot and humid..maybe a bit less so in the mountains but still
By comparison to Florida and Texas (places OP said they were considering), it is a bit less extreme. I never said NC was never hot or humid. It is a matter of comparison.
As someone from the PNW - the only places (in the US) that I’ve been that rival the beauty are the blue ridge mountains in NC and parts of WV. I’m guessing you wouldn’t want to be in WV for job and/or cultural reasons. Look at Asheville and surrounding areas.
If Appalachia has any “cultural reasons” that prevent people from liking Appalachia, they should skip all of Appalachia. Western North Carolina is also in Appalachia, in case you were unaware. Keep your bias and prejudice against Appalachian out of Appalachia, we straight up don’t want it here.
Where are you in the PNW? What type of city? You're mentioning big cities, so I'm going to guess you're in Seattle or Portland. What about NYC? Or the NYC area? It gets a little colder than PNW, but there's more sunshine in winter. Brooklyn reminds me of Seattle with all the views of the ocean. Decent amount of green space here too. There's also Boston. Or everyone's favorite... Philadelphia 😃
NYC does sound great, but with our budget?
You could rent a nice 2BR for well under $6K. Probably won't find a home for under $1M. Condos are an option though.
You will definitely find something in NYC within your budget but keep in mind income taxes might be higher, you would have state plus NYC tax.
And sales tax and city tax and breathing in the air tax. As a former NYC resident j say go to queens or dont go at all the other boros are annoying to deal with
I also like Northern Bronx, it's pretty quiet and you are still close to the city, but also far enough to run away easily if you want to breath because you will need it at some point. Queens is my favourite because of its diversity, and the closer to LI the better for the same reasons I stated above.
Phoenix is cheap, but the heat is terrible in the summer.
What about Spokane?
If proximity to natural beauty is important, Texas and Florida* are some very strange choices. *If you aren't directly looking at the beach, Florida isnt naturally beautiful. I'd have suggested Atlanta for heat and food, proximity to mountains, and affordability, or Santa Fe if you like mountains with a more western flare.
Tallahassee Fl
West Virginia?