Child is in college and we are free to move! Ideas? (best suburbs, real estate)
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My child is going to college in the fall and hubby and I are free to relocate. Question is where? I have lived in Florida for thirty years (except for a three year stint in Alaska) and I am way over it. We are looking for a town with plenty of outdoor activities (trails, water, skiing) yet close enough to a major city to take in the cultural side of life. We like to go to the opera, theater, and museums. We are also sports nuts, so we like to go to football, baseball, or basketball games. The dream town we move to would be quaint, with old houses and a great, historic downtown. I hope buying one of the old houses wouldn't cost me an arm or a leg. I would like to be about an hour or so away from a major city. I'm not afraid of cold weather but I don't want major weather extremes---I've had enough of summer most of the year or winter most of the year. My husband and I are both teachers, so well paying, well run school districts would be great. I don't have a preference to what part of the country to live in so any ideas would be great. Thank you so much.
Three Rivers, Michigan would be great for you. It's a quaint, small Midwestern town, with a beautiful historic downtown district that's on the National Register of Historic Places. It's about an hour south of Grand Rapids, a major city, and if you want a REALLY big city, Detroit and Chicago are both about two hours away.
Three Rivers has a local theater group as well as several shows at the historic Riviera Theater, as well as a museum downtown. You can find more such opportunities in the surrounding towns. Professional sports can be found in Detroit, Chicago, and Grand Rapids.
Homes are plentiful and you can buy some fairly large houses for pennies on the dollar.
The weather is moderate, with four distinct seasons. Winter is from November - March, Summer is from June - August, and Spring and Fall are between those months. The summers are great, the winters are snowy, and the fall color is amazing.
Thank you for the replies. I have always heard that Michigan and Pittsburgh get really, really cold and lots of snow in the winter? Am I way off? Would love to hear from other parts of the country, also.
We like to go to the opera, theater, and museums. We are also sports nuts, so we like to go to football, baseball, or basketball games. The dream town we move to would be quaint, with old houses and a great, historic downtown.
I'd recommend a place in south Texas for you because I think you'd like the warm winters, but I keep coming back to these three sentences.
With UT football and basketball and a AAA baseball team to the north in Georgetown, Austin has the sports and culture you seek. The best suburbs of Austin have quaint downtowns, but the sticking point is that they're also booming with growth. Austin has some great museums, including the LBJ library and the Bob Bullock Texas History museum.
I'm not sure that San Antonio would have enough sports or culture for you. UT-San Antonio will start Division I football in 2011, but other than high school football (a big deal in Texas), AA baseball, minor-league hockey and a WNBA team, the Spurs are the big game in town. San Antonio has two Art museums, and a theater downtown that shows the occasional opera and touring Broadway show. None of San Antonio's suburbs within an hour's drive strike me as fitting the notion of quaint, AFAIK.
I would look at college towns The bigger the student population the better., Places that have large colleges ten to be pretty loaded with entertainment.
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I would like to be about an hour or so away from a major city. I'm not afraid of cold weather but I don't want major weather extremes---I've had enough of summer most of the year or winter most of the year. My husband and I are both teachers, so well paying, well run school districts would be great. I don't have a preference to what part of the country to live in so any ideas would be great. Thank you so much.
