You'll have the same problem most of the places that have been suggested. If you're going to move to a quickly growing, popular area to get away from the hustle and bustle, busy city life, you're wasting your time. Where you end up may be fine now, but in five years when every square inch of land is developed and the population has doubled, you'll be in the same boat. Phoenix, Denver, So Cal, Florida, Dallas, Seattle, etc. They're all growing quickly, which means traffic and high cost of living.

It really is about priorities. In Wichita $200k will buy you 3000 sq ft in one of the nicest areas in town, and you can drive from one end of town to the other in 20 minutes. Plenty of lakes and hunting land nearby, overall friendly people, very cheap cost of living but with decent wages. 750k people in the metro area means plenty of shopping, restraunts, and entertainment. But, it's flat, hot in the summer, cold in the winter. The nearest skiing is 8 hours to CO, nearest ocean is probably at least 10 to TX. You can't have it all.

Here's a list of cities ranked, interesting reading, and it might give you some new suggestions.
http://money.cnn.com/best/bplive/

True, you can't have it all in one spot, but can have most of it all within 100 miles.

Still, I'm very happy see that no South Carolina town is on that list. The weird thing is that several extremely high cost of living areas are on that list, Saratoga, California has out of control housing costs for example. I worked with a woman that paid $440,000 for a Saratoga house in 1992 that's appraised at $1,300,000 (or more) today.

Re: Re: Re: Time to get out of here.. But where??
 

Visit Jeremy D. and take a look.

If you still want to consider a real culturally southern area there are a few books you'd need to read first.

Most are on this bibliography:
The South and Southern History compiled by Professor of History at the University of South Carolina, Dr. Clyde Wilson.

I've lived all across the US - Ohio, Indiana, Texas 3 times, new mexico, san francisco and Florida - Home is where you make it. I just happen to love boating - and I prefer my girls with less clothes. Dressing up for me when I am not working means putting shoes on. Still, all relative. I love this area, it's like going on vacation every weekend. Sure, it's hot in the summertime, but usually that means you modify your schedule to be in doors during the afternoon.

Hurricanes - yep - we have them - but you get plenty of warning and you can leave if you want - something that always unsettled me with the earthquakes in cali.

I hear ya on all those points Jeremy. Only thing missing for me in Fla is mountains and that kind of area. But hey, ya cant have everything. If I have to give something up , the last thing would be the water. Gotta have my ocean!

The Pacific Northwest According To Jeff Foxworthy:
1. You know the state flower (Mildew).
2. You feel guilty throwing aluminum cans or paper in the trash.
3. Use the statement "sun break" and know what it means.
4. You know more than 10 ways to order coffee.
5. You know more people who own boats than air conditioners.
6. You feel overdressed wearing a suit to a nice restaurant.
7. You stand on a deserted corner in the rain waiting for the "Walk" signal.
8. You consider that if it has no snow or has not recently erupted, it is not a real mountain.
9. You can taste the difference between Starbucks, Seattle's Best, and Dutch Bros.
10. You know the difference between Chinook, Coho, and Sockeye Salmon.
11. You know how to pronounce Sequim, Puyallup, Issaquah, Oregon, Yakima, and Willamette.
12. You consider swimming an indoor sport.
13. You can tell the difference between Japanese, Chinese and Thai food.
14. In winter, you go to work in the dark and come home in the dark-while only working eight-hour days.
15. You never go camping without waterproof matches and a poncho.
16. You are not fazed by "Today's forecast: showers followed by rain," and "Tomorrow's forecast: rain followed by showers."
17. You have no concept of humidity without precipitation.
18. You know that Boring is a town in Oregon and not just a state of mind.
19. You can point to at least two volcanoes, even if you cannot see through the cloud cover.
20. You notice, "The mountain is out" when it is a pretty day and you can actually see it.
21. You put on your shorts when the temperature gets above 5 0, but still wear your hiking boots and parka.
22. You switch to your sandals when it gets about 60, but keep the socks on.
23. You have actually used your mountain bike on a mountain.
24. You think people who use umbrellas are either wimps or tourists.
25. You buy new sunglasses every year, because you cannot find the old ones after such a long time.
26. You measure distance in hours.
27. You often switch from "heat" to "a/c" in the same day.
28. You design your kid's Halloween costume to fit under a raincoat.
29. You know all the important seasons: Almost Winter, Winter, Still Raining (Spring), Road Construction (Summer), Deer & Elk Season (Fall).
30. You actually understood these jokes and will probably forward them.

The ocean is three hours from my house, just enough but not too much. My brother has a beach condo there if I want to go visit for a while.

This is the view out my bedroom window. The area is called the Cherokee Foothills.
http://images15.fotki.com/v269/photo...N0475_1-vi.jpg

It's cold here now, finally warmed up to 42 degrees from a low of 25 last night. Spring weather will start in about a month.

Vinman, I'm from Flemington, NJ but could never live there again. Traffic and colst of living, not to mention gun laws, make it barely bearable to visit my folks a few times a year. Phoenix is very high on my list, though I fear it might suffer the kind of traffic I'm trying to escape here before too long. Traffic here is #3 worst in the US, just behind LA and SF. It's bad and getting worse. I have great friends here and the Porsche community is THE best. I have rarely walked down a street in DC and not run into a friend or former co-worker. But I figure I'll make new friends wherever I land. Austin is on my list too. Pat's place's remoteness is still just a little too much for me at my age. But someday I'll want something like that too.

Appearances can be deceiving, Rick. I'm 15 miles from downtown Greenville, my wife commutes 25 minutes to work at a large metro hospital. The BMW plant is 18 miles away, Michelin's World Headquaters is about the same.

The Porsche community is pretty active, if I can just remember the monthly meeting day.

If, on the other hand, you are more comfortable with very close neighbors, then this wouldn't be for you. The closest to us is about 400-500 yards distant. The advantage of that is I will be building my own shooting range this year, and that's worth something. And, I'll be planting about two acres of New Zealand clover with Chicory mixed in to attract deer and turkeys a little closer.

Hey Vinman,

Take a chance and move somewhere interesting, away from Walmartville. Maybe ****co, Santiago, Buenas Aires, Belo Horizonte, Italy, Spain, Portugal. Plenty of opportunities in some of these places and low, low costs of living. I hear Chile is paradise for outdoorspeople. Check out ****co. Its a huge risk, but the payoffs will be just as huge.

Vinman,

I used this website to search the best cities, and I selected all the criteria as very important. Well, guess what: the five highest ranking cities were in NJ. Maybe you don`t have to move too far...AFAIK, I love it in Red Bank.

Aurel

True very true. I will miss Fl and it's weather and I won't miss FL and it's weather. The only problem with canes is they take everything you ever owned. In most cases if you stay for one you don't ever do it again. A very frightening experience.
I will miss the "clothing optional state" for the same reasons as you Jeremy. You certainly describe the Florida lifestyle accurately. Every night I would drive across the causeway from Tampa to Clearwater and say to myself.,"people save their money, some for years, to come to where I live every day". You can't say that about Cleveland.

FWIW I'm a Los Angeles native, and although I have travelled the US pretty extensively over the years, and have many times considered relocating, I have not found an 'ideal' alternative yet.

I'd have to say the closest matches thus far for my personal taste are probably surroundings of Denver, SLC, or Phoenix... NV, ID, eastern WA and WY have potential too, but all of these of course have 'extreme' (but actually pretty mild in absolute terms) weather relative to SoCal.

To each his/her own, but so far TX or FL (GA/SC/MS/AL/LA) are OK to visit but not sucking me in permanently. I've done the northwest and midwest and northeast things enough to know that I ain't moving there.

For now I think the best answer is to save my nickels and try to acquire property in several areas...I hope 'settling down' permanently for a dirt nap is quite a few years off, so there's still time to explore and decide.

Colorado is pretty sweet.

Except for the fact that it's like -2 degrees outside right now.....yes, it's a very dry cold. :)

When you figure it out let me know cause I'm right behind you.

Scott