Best place to live in the States with young family

krissovo

I have the opportunity to move my job to the States but its a home based role that can be based anywhere in the country. The only restrictions I have been given are to be near a airport with decent connections and high speed/high quality broadband.

I was initially thinking Texas Dallas or Houston to save up to 7% in tax but the heat might be too much for me and my family in summer. I worked for a few weeks in Pittsburgh which I enjoyed so maybe an option.

Anywhere else I should look at? Where would be the best bang for the buck in terms of cost of living?

snubbleste

Have you searched for the places have the lowest cost of living?
Really?
What did you find?

krissovo

snubbleste wrote: »

Have you searched for the places have the lowest cost of living?
Really?
What did you find?

I didnt search specifically for low cost of living, its not a primary driver. I mentioned best bang for the buck which is different;)

spideog7

krissovo wrote: »

I have the opportunity to move my job to the States but its a home based role that can be based anywhere in the country. The only restrictions I have been given are to be near a airport with decent connections and high speed/high quality broadband.

I was initially thinking Texas Dallas or Houston to save up to 7% in tax but the heat might be too much for me and my family in summer. I worked for a few weeks in Pittsburgh which I enjoyed so maybe an option.

Anywhere else I should look at? Where would be the best bang for the buck in terms of cost of living?

It depends what you're into really. I live in Pittsburgh and it's constantly being voted best city to live in. It's a nice little city alright, the seasons are nice although the Winter is a bit long. Go a little outside the city and it's fairly rural. It is pretty small so you don't quite get the constant events and attractions that you get in other cities.

I lived in the Twin Cities for a while too and I really liked it up there, mind you I only visited in Winter!

I would make a list of what you enjoy doing and what you want, be it golf or hiking or surfing... Since you mentioned family don't forget to look at schools, PA is cutting a lot of funding for education right now, so I've been told at any rate.

silja

A lot depends on both your income and your family's interests. You don;t NEED to be in a big city to have good airports...

For example, where I live (Northwest Arkansas) is very family friendly with beautiful scenery great for hiking, kayaking etc. It's warm in summer but not like Texas. Our airport is small, but has very good connections as Walmart HQ is in town so lots of excecs and vendors flying in and out. However, this is the bible belt. They are fine with you not being Christian (I am not), but it is seen as odd, you will be asked within the first 5 minutes of meeting someone which church you attend, and every sports game and town fair starts with prayer. Not everyone's cup of tea.

krissovo

Our income will be quite good, its over 6 figures.

Thanks for the heads up on airports, the full requirement is to be in a major US business center within 12 hours and anywhere in the world within 24.

krissovo

spideog7 wrote: »

It depends what you're into really. I live in Pittsburgh and it's constantly being voted best city to live in. It's a nice little city alright, the seasons are nice although the Winter is a bit long. Go a little outside the city and it's fairly rural. It is pretty small so you don't quite get the constant events and attractions that you get in other cities.

I lived in the Twin Cities for a while too and I really liked it up there, mind you I only visited in Winter!

I would make a list of what you enjoy doing and what you want, be it golf or hiking or surfing... Since you mentioned family don't forget to look at schools, PA is cutting a lot of funding for education right now, so I've been told at any rate.

Thanks for the heads up, Pittsburgh the more I look keeps ticking boxes, shame about the schooling. It appears to be confirmed here:
http://www.areavibes.com/best-places/america/

Aprilmay

We live in Charlotte North Carolina, climate is great, great place to live with kids great schools in our district, low taxes (lots of New Yorkers moving here to avail of them too!) Access to Charlotte Douglas international Airport. My husband can work anywhere too we did two years research before we chose here in the end. Lots of Irish here too so we don't miss home so much and a great community spirit. Pm me if you need any more information

cheesehead

Sounds like a great opportunity krissovo. It's difficult to give specific recommendations not knowing many details. I would gather you're fairly wide-open, given you were thinking about Dallas vs Houston vs Pittsburgh (3 very different environments).

If you go by the "bloom where you're planted" philosophy, I think you and your family can do well anywhere you end up. That said, as silja points out above, there are vast cultural differences within the US and it really comes down to what you like, identifying an area you might like to live and then doing the research/drilling down to get specifics.

That said, if given the opportunity presented to you, I would look at the Mountain West (particularly Colorado). Austin, Texas is another area I would investigate. There has been a large population shift to the Southern/Southwestern parts of this country for a reason (climate/cost-of-living/jobs).

Pittsburgh has undergone a renaissance of sorts (presently being driven by the fracking/natural gas boom). I've heard good things about the 'Burgh.

Here's a link to a CNN/Money cost of living calculator: http://money.cnn.com/calculator/pf/cost-of-living/

It gives you an idea of 'how far your salary will go in a particular city compared to another city'.

If you narrow down your options, come back on the board and perhaps we can fill you in on any specifics we might have.

Tom Dunne

I lived in Oregon for a year and utterly loved it.

You have skiing one hour to the east, the Pacific one hour to the west.

Great lifestyle, fairly laid back, very European feel to the place, not too hot in the Summer, not too cold in the Winter.

And of course they have McMenamins.

dede12

Sorry this is a rather long post but figured I might be able to offer a good few suggestions/insights having as I grew up in & have lived in multiple areas of the states.

I suggest looking at some of the suburbs outside of Boston, New York City, or in Connecticut, possibly suburban Philadelphia as well. I grew up in suburban CT & then moved to the midwest for college, then back to the east cost & now i've been in Ireland for a little over a yr. Based on my experiences living in each place I would think many Irish families would find it to be a much easier cultural adjustment moving to the northeast than many other areas of the states, much more welcoming of immigrants, & more accepting of other ways of life/doing things than I found in the midwest (I was sort of on the border of midwest & south, the beginning of the bible belt). Also much less of a religion based & gun culture in the northeast than elsewhere.

Out of those four areas, I definitely think suburban towns in CT & MA are good places to raise a family - lots of good schools & plenty of cultural attractions in the area. Also they have four full seasons & easy access to outdoor activities & nice beaches as well if that's something you would be interested in. Assuming quality schools are important to you, many of the suburban public school systems in those two states are quite highly ranked in nationwide statistics - I went to the public high school in my town & I would say I received just as good an education as the people I know who went to some of the best private schools money can buy in the area. If you would like I can suggest a few towns that might fit what you are looking for.

However you can find similar towns in any of the areas I mentioned. The northeast doesn't have the lowest cost of living compared to other regions but if you are making 6 figures you should find that you will be able to live quite comfortably in the vast majority of these places.

The reason I'm suggesting the suburbs rather than the cities themselves is that for the most part you will be able to get much more for your money if you are willing to go a little ways outside of a city. Plus for the most part they are safer, have better schools, a little bit cheaper, and are more family friendly places to live than inside the cities themselves. As long as you don't go too far out you will also find it rather easy to still go into the city when you want to. Also be aware that when using cost of living calculators, put in the exact names of the towns you are considering not just the main city nearby as that can throw it off; for example the cost of living within New York City or Boston itself would be higher than living in a suburb right outside the city.

Also in any of those areas you would be within relatively easy driving/commuting distance to multiple major cities & cultural attractions (even driving from Boston to DC would only take ~8 hrs; plus Canada's not too far away) whereas in Texas things would be much more spread out & there would be far less chance to travel outside your city/area unless you are willing to fly to other parts of the country. As there are not really budget airlines as there are in Europe that can be prohibitively expensive with a family.

And I would think you'd be hard pressed to find any place that cannot have fast broadband unless you're really way out in the sticks so I wouldn't worry too much about that, although certainly check before committing to an area.

Fr Tod Umptious

One other thing to consider OP is if there is an established Irish community (or at least an ex-pat community) where you are going, thats assuming you and/or your spouse/partner are Irish.

When living abroad it is not a bad idea to get to know other Irish/ex-pats in the area, very helpful when finding your feet in the early days.

These communities are plentiful in the North East but are not so much in the South or West.