Relocation advice -- Who lives in FL, TX, GA, NC, AZ?

[Excursion05]

OK fellow Orgsters, I'm looking for some first hand knowledge of southern states.

My wife and I have been talking about moving from Missouri to a state that is warmer year round and has little to no winter to speak of. Based on what I do (SQL Server DBA/software developer) it looks like I there are a lot of opportunities for me in Florida, Texas, Georgia, North Carolina or Arizona according to statewide searches of Monster.com.

I'm 47 and she's 50 and we would really like to make this our last move. But you never know what's going to happen so that may or may not work out. Speaking of not knowing what will happen, we are also in the process of adopting our 4 and 5 year old grandkids (boy and girl) so good schools and good neighborhoods are a really big deal.

If you are particularly happy with a town or area in one of these southern states I'd love to know about it. On the flip side, if there are areas that one should avoid, that would be good information to have as well. I can do research on housing cost, general cost of living, etc. But I'd sure like to get some first hand input instead of just looking at real estate websites and census data. Thanks in advance for any and all input.

 

[bigjack7679]

I live in Texas, North Texas

I work for a company in Plano TX. IT/ Healthcare company

Plano,Frisco,Irving,Dallas have ton of jobs

Great schools near Frisco and Plano

Search Indeed as well

 

[Excursion05]

I live in Texas, North Texas

I work for a company in Plano TX. IT/ Healthcare company

Plano,Frisco,Irving,Dallas have ton of jobs

Great schools near Frisco and Plano

Search Indeed as well

Thanks for the input. Also thanks for reminding me about Indeed. I've been looking at Monster and Dice but not much else so far.

What got me started looking in the first place was a consultant from the Houston, TX area that did some work for us was talking one day about how Houston was really going through an IT boom right now.

 

[mysql]

I'm in FL. Tallahassee is likely where you'd want to look at.

 

[Stevo80]

^ I lived in Tallahassee, still own a house there. Nice size city, not bad, but wouldn't move back. Currently live in Auburn, AL ( consistently ranked top 10 by Forbes for best small town for business and development), also excellent place to raise a family with outstanding schools. Look at this Best Small Places For Business and Careers List - Forbes
I use to travel for Honda in sales in all of S GA, S AL, pan handle and N FL, if you have any questions about any where in that area let me know.
Did I mention Auburn is 3 hours to the mountains, 3 hours to the beach, and we like our guns....

 

[mysql]

He's talking about tech jobs.

I'm in Tampa, there is some tech stuff here, but not as much as he'd find in Tallahassee. When I was in venture capital talks, I had to make a road trip up there.

 

[Tony Nitrous]

Every thought of looking further afield ?

30 minutes to the beach,
30 minutes to the mountains,
Haven't seen a frost in ten years,
we rarely shoot people,
Stable strong economy,
highest median personal wealth per capita worldwide.

I looked far and wide (world wide!) when I decided to move last time.

Tony.J.

 

[mofuggahere]

^ I lived in Tallahassee, still own a house there. Nice size city, not bad, but wouldn't move back. Currently live in Auburn, AL ( consistently ranked top 10 by Forbes for best small town for business and development), also excellent place to raise a family with outstanding schools. Look at this Best Small Places For Business and Careers List - Forbes
I use to travel for Honda in sales in all of S GA, S AL, pan handle and N FL, if you have any questions about any where in that area let me know.
Did I mention Auburn is 3 hours to the mountains, 3 hours to the beach, and we like our guns....

Tallahassee has a much better football team Go Noles!!! Sorry I had to.

 

[mofuggahere]

NC does get a bit of winter. I am in central florida we don't get winter weather here. No state income tax and lots to do. But summers are hot!!! Also you can ride year round for sure.

 

[sixpack577]

NC does get a bit of winter. I am in central florida we don't get winter weather here. No state income tax and lots to do. But summers are hot!!! Also you can ride year round for sure.

+1, NC has had a lot of snow the past few winters, and they get plenty of cold.
The riding is good on the western half of the state, if you like curves and mtns.

 

[Superzuki]

NC does get a bit of winter. I am in central florida we don't get winter weather here. No state income tax and lots to do. But summers are hot!!! Also you can ride year round for sure.

+1 on that! Especially no state income tax!! Texas also has no state income tax. No winter weather at all. Once every few years there's a real wet summer, usually summer is just hot, but this year it's also hot and wet. No electric vests, gloves, boot liners. I have a liner for my leather jacket, somewhere,,,,never used it.

 

[Excursion05]

Every thought of looking further afield ?

30 minutes to the beach,
30 minutes to the mountains,
Haven't seen a frost in ten years,
we rarely shoot people,
Stable strong economy,
highest median personal wealth per capita worldwide.

I looked far and wide (world wide!) when I decided to move last time.

Tony.J.

Actually I hadn't thought about leaving the country, no. But....
Well, probably not.

 

[Excursion05]

I did not know about the taxes in Florida and Texas That's a plus for sure As is year round riding!

 

[RedBusarider]

Unfortunately there is no perfect place on earth. There will always be trade offs.

NV doesn't have state income tax either.

Only Montana, New Hampshire, Oregon, Delaware and Alaska Have NO SALES TAX.
Sucks that none of the warmer southern states are without sales tax. One of the trade offs I guess.
Of all the states you listed it looks like GA has the lowest sales tax rate at 4%. Highest is TX at 6.25%

Do you have a time frame as to when you might be moving?

 

[Excursion05]

Unfortunately there is no perfect place on earth. There will always be trade offs.

NV doesn't have state income tax either.

Only Montana, New Hampshire, Oregon, Delaware and Alaska Have NO SALES TAX.
Sucks that none of the warmer southern states are without sales tax. One of the trade offs I guess.
Of all the states you listed it looks like GA has the lowest sales tax rate at 4%. Highest is TX at 6.25%

Do you have a time frame as to when you might be moving?

Obviously I have to find a job but I would like to move before winter. My wife's timeline isn't quite that aggressive. She like's the idea of living somewhere warm but hates the thought of moving. The whole process of packing, unpacking bothers her far more than it does me. We pretty much have to wait till the adoption is finalized which should be in less than 60 days if all goes smoothly.

 

[1busa]

I would cross NC off the list.... lived there for about 5 years and it gets cold snow or not!! When I was stationed down there I brought a friend of mine from PA down there 2 check out my base and stuff. This was right around Christmas/New Years. Well I tried telling him that PA cold and NC cold are too different things. He only brought a thin leather jacket and a hoodie and he was freezing his azz off the entire time!!! He couldn't believe it was colder down there than in PA. They don't salt roads so when you get an inch of snow people act like it's a foot and either don't leave the house or you see cars littered along the side of the road with hazard lights on blinking

I will say that I spent a weekend once in Tempe AZ and absolutely loved it!!! Nice smooth straight highways 4 as long as the eye can see loved the atmosphere and the people. I know I was only there 4 a weekend 10+ years ago but it still left a lasting impression on me as a place I'd wanna eventually move 2

 

[Excursion05]

1Busa, good to know about NC and cold. Based on the other comments I've see it sounds like it's NOT what I'm looking for.

The wife and I have also talked about taking short vacations to some of these places to get a quick impression of the area. If Tempe made that big of an impression on you, there must be something special about it for you. That's the kind of thing I'm looking to find. One of those places that makes an impression and makes you want to take the leap to be there.

 

[BUBBA]

I live in Texas, North Texas

I work for a company in Plano TX. IT/ Healthcare company

Plano,Frisco,Irving,Dallas have ton of jobs

Great schools near Frisco and Plano

Search Indeed as well

Great football too!
I watched Plano play Stratford (sp) in the Astrodome back in day, 1978, it was better than any pro game I have ever seen.
Craig James was the FB, anyone remember this. I am old and the memory is a little faded!