Have you moved out of state?

[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.

 

[bucksnbirds]

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

I believe its an itch that just can't be scratched with only a few trips a year out there. I spend month long stretches at a time for various tags and never want to come back home.

By planting our own roots, I mean that there are a ton of bloodlines that stay in the same area because it's what they know. Always following in the previous generations foot steps, over and over, and over. I want to start new somewhere else and create a new niche in our family.

 

[Oregon]

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.

No. School, crime, politics, pollution etc etc can be researched with 100% accuracy with google searches. Weather. Google search. Tag availability, Google search. Public land availability, google search.
I can tell 1000 people the Oregon coast is the greatest place on the planet for an outdoorsman and 997 will tell me I’m crazy having never lived here. Politics suck!! Harvest rates suck!!! Weather sucks!!!!
If you actually live here you’d realize I eat more harvested good tasting critters than just about any one on the planet. Within 20 miles of my house.
Who else can say they guarantee crab, mussels, 6 types of clams, 8 mushrooms, oysters , salmon halibut tuna steelhead rockfish perch trout bass lingcod, bear, grouse, quail, ducks, geese, crawdads deer elk within 20 miles of their house?? I can. It isn’t even hard. It’s an everyday thing.
We just don’t have high paying jobs.

 

[tkhuntsman]

I left SW CO in 2018 and moved to MT due to a job and being closer to my wife's family. The writing was on the wall then over poor political decisions and an ever increasing liberal population that wanted to end everything I hold dear. I'm in a better place and it was an improvement. I miss some things about home but not enough to subject myself and my family to nonsense.

 

[will_brap]

We just don’t have high paying jobs.

The number of dudes I see show up to my area with new UTVs, new hunting outfits with latest camo pattern, fancy new pickups and big shiny campers/RVs…

I have always chosen to live in poor rural areas, the places other bring their fancy toys to recreate (hunt). There aren’t many high paying jobs here, so I can’t afford $125,000 of stuff to go hunting.

Turns out old pickups and army surplus wool do just fine in the woods. My kids get to grow up in Small Town USA and hunt/fish/camp/hike/float where others only come on vacation. Earning less money seems like a good trade to me.

 

[Fujicon]

The number of dudes I see show up to my area with new UTVs, new hunting outfits with latest camo pattern, fancy new pickups and big shiny campers/RVs…

I have always chosen to live in poor rural areas, the places other bring their fancy toys to recreate (hunt). There aren’t many high paying jobs here, so I can’t afford $125,000 of stuff to go hunting.

Turns out old pickups and army surplus wool do just fine in the woods. My kids get to grow up in Small Town USA and hunt/fish/camp/hike/float where others only come on vacation. Earning less money seems like a good trade to me.

This is the theory I call "the two paychecks." That is when you choose to live in an economically depressed area and your first paycheck is diminished as a result, but by living there your quality of life is greatly enhanced, so that second "paycheck" which doesn't go into the bank balances the scales.

Portland, Oregon has always been a classic example of the two paycheck theory. Portland and Seattle are only 170 miles apart with very similar cultures and politics. But the per-capita income between the two is vastly different. As of 2023, Multnomah County's per-capita income (where Portland is located) was only $75,772, while the per-capita income in King County (where Seattle is located) was $122,235. That's a huge discrepancy between them, with King County/Seattle having 61% higher per-capita income!

There was a time when people in Portland could sustain that huge income discrepancy with Seattle because they got a "second paycheck" in the quality of life. But those days are now long gone and that second paycheck has gone negative, making the discrepancy even worse. The result is that Portland is now actually losing population because the politicians have screwed it up so much. Once that downward spiral begins, as it has in Portland, it takes decades to stop. Just ask Detroit.

 

[Maxhunter]

Back in 1982 I enlisted in the AF and left a rural part of Oregon. I decided to make it a career and stayed in the service for 25yrs. I changed my residency at my first duty station in WY. Retired from the service in Utah and moved back to WY in 2012. Great hunting and fishing here but the weather can be brutal at times especially the wind. My dad and mom are deceased along with sister and brother. I still have relatives that live in Oregon but I only go back to visit. Living in WY is the best decision I’ve made.

 

[ReaptheHeat]

About to bail on CO but that means one less soldier in the fight to keep this place sane.

The stuff coming down the pipeline is a recipe for disaster. The future isn't looking good and I am not sure how much longer normal people will put up with rule of the majority peacefully. So much going on politically and we are a recession away from pure chaos.

 

[BananaHands]

Moved from CA to AZ for similar reasons. Az because my mother was from AZ and have a lot of family here. I wish I would have moved to a cooler state, similar to those you’re considering.