Have you moved out of state?

[Ecampbell25]

Perfect? Definitely not.
Better than others? Definitely yes.

Agreed!

But it’s super hard with having kids in the mix because they want to be around their cousins and other family members…

But you never know until you go!

 

[will_brap]

Its a big country. Last thing you want to do is to live in the same place all your life. Everyone should experience different parts of our country before deciding where they want to live forever.

I couldn't disagree more. My family homesteaded in the very small, very rural town that I was born in (in along with my children and 5 generations before me). Generations before me lived and died there. I wanted to die in there but state politics forced us to move. There is a very real community that is irreplaceable when you and your neighbors have been going to the same church together for generations.

Your can be a mile wide and shallow or a mile deep and narrow. In my perfect world we would have stayed a mile deep.

That said I'm glad we moved and I think this move will be good for my grandkids.

 

[Coveyleader]

I'm about to move out of the country........ Just trying to make it work.

 

[Oregon]

Alls I know is not a single person on the planet can tell you the best place to live. Not a single one of us wired the same. I hate it for the folks not happy where they at, stoked for the folks who are happy where they are.
I’m never moving again after the 7 states I’ve lived in.

 

[hrhunter]

Yup,when i was 18. Born and raised in a small town in N.H. met a boyfriend that summer who was only visiting his grandmother for the summer months and i packed up and moved to FL with him never living anywhere else other than that small town i was born in. All my family still lives there. Though i'm no longer with the same boyfriend, i still live in FL and been here a total of 13 years. Never considered moving back home because little did i know how much of a different world there is outside of that small town. There really wasn't anything going good for that town other than the papermill which would shut down every other year. still not much going on in that town. I don't regret moving to FL. Though, I'm about to pack it up again and move to TN. Small town that reminds me of my home town in N.H. only not quite so cold in the winter time. I enjoy FL but i do miss the 4 seasons and my dream home is to have a log home and no chance i'm going to build one of them in FL so we're on our way to TN in about 5 years. Got the property already, just killing time while my daughter finished school. Now the in-laws are wanting to move with us as well as our friends who already have property as well so it won't be quite so isolated this time around. at least we'll have people to share the new experience with this time around.

 

[Fujicon]

Alls I know is not a single person on the planet can tell you the best place to live. Not a single one of us wired the same. I hate it for the folks not happy where they at, stoked for the folks who are happy where they are.
I’m never moving again after the 7 states I’ve lived in.

I like what you wrote because it speaks truth. It would be like trying to tell someone only strawberry ice cream tastes best. Everyone has different preferences, values, likes and dislikes.
However...
There are still objective measures that allow us to compare one locale against another. Things like pollution, school test scores/dropout rate, poverty level, average commute time, crime rate, proximity/time to health care, unemployment rate, median income, median home price, etc. Depending on our likes and dislikes, as well as our personal circumstances, we have to make choices about the extent we compromise on those objective measures -- some obviously more than others -- while a few factors become a red line in the sand that we simply can't compromise on. Relocating is all about compromise because there is no such thing as a perfect place, even when only viewed through the lens of our personal likes and dislikes. Consequently, these discussions where people share their perspectives about relocation push/pull factors, what pushed them out of one place and what pulled them to another, can be enlightening and help all of us as we wrestle with this issue of compromise.

 

[pirogue]

Moved to 5 different states, and worked (up to 3 years) in a few others. Most moves were work related, but last was my own choice. Would never live in a state that tells me I can’t hunt on a Sunday, I can’t trap with footholds, etc.

 

[buffybr]

I was a 5th generation Denverite (Colorado) as my GG Grandfather homestead and founded the town of Bennett just east of Denver. My Great Grandfather was born in Denver when it was a town of 5,000.

I moved from the Denver area to Steamboat Springs after college, but supporting a family with seasonal jobs in a resort town was fun, but difficult, so in 1975 I moved to Montana with a permanent job. Another move from NW Montana to SW Montana, and I've been in the same house here for 47 years.

 

[bucksnbirds]

Been in NW Oklahoma the entire 28 years of my life. Born in Odessa, but moved here before I could remember.

This place is heaven on earth for sense of community, world class Rio and whitetail hunting, 8 deer tags, more coyotes than I could ever hunt, pigs, great quail hunting, and live right between what I would consider the best two walleye lakes in Oklahoma. I live in a town of 200 people, and 30 minutes from the in-laws. Everything is 30 minutes away, but it's peaceful.

I would love to move to Wy or NW Co, but the wife couldn't fathom being further from her family than the short 30 minutes we are now. Feel like we are following in the generations before us and bound to die out here without ever planting our own roots somewhere else, which I'm fine with, but I believe life is to short to stay the same as the status quo.

 

[will_brap]

Been in NW Oklahoma the entire 28 years of my life. Born in Odessa, but moved here before I could remember.

This place is heaven on earth for sense of community, world class Rio and whitetail hunting, 8 deer tags, more coyotes than I could ever hunt, pigs, great quail hunting, and live right between what I would consider the best two walleye lakes in Oklahoma. I live in a town of 200 people, and 30 minutes from the in-laws. Everything is 30 minutes away, but it's peaceful.

I would love to move to Wy or NW Co, but the wife couldn't fathom being further from her family than the short 30 minutes we are now. Feel like we are following in the generations before us and bound to die out here without ever planting our own roots somewhere else, which I'm fine with, but I believe life is to short to stay the same as the status quo.

Traveling to hunt, explore and recreate that area doesn’t scratch the itch? What do you mean about “planting your own roots somewhere”?

 

[JeffRaines]

Traveling to hunt, explore and recreate that area doesn’t scratch the itch? What do you mean about “planting your own roots somewhere”?

I'm not the OP youre responding to but...

I love Montana. Always have. I grew up in south Alabama, eventually made my way out west and currently reside in Western Washington. I dont hate it here from a recreation standpoint(politics are a different story), but I still long to live in Montana. Its not realistic to live there from an economic standpoint though - me and the wife both would have to take a massive pay cut along with real estate being the same as here means we'd need to both work a LOT more to live and that pretty much cancels out why I'd want to live there.

With that said, trips to Montana are a couple time a year thing. Planning. PTO. It's a lot... and not saying it isn't worth it, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't wish it were my backyard so I could enjoy it more often with less planning. The endgame for us might be living somewhere like Spokane - not that its a glorious area in itself, but there's plenty of hunting and recreation nearby and it would make Idaho and Montana day/weekend trips vs long term planned PTO trips.

Does it scratch the itch? Sure... but, well to keep it family friendly... imagine being in love with a woman who you could only spend the night with once or twice a year. Sure, you love her and that's not everything, but man... I'd be wanting to "spend the night" more often is all I'm saying.