Where Would You Move?
 

I tried to do this as a poll, but I can't figure out how and don't really feel like digging for it. :o

Hypothetically speaking: You're a young, single 20-something headed for the next phase of your life. There are places you are considering and each has it's own +/-. You don't know where you'd like to go, so you sit down and mull over the million dollar question:

New York City: Fun and fast-paced, you LOVE big cities. It would be the experience of a lifetime and you absolutely love all that it has to offer. With a roommate, you just might be able to avoid living in a carbboard box and you'd no longer need a car (goodbye high gas prices!). There's always something to do, the nightlife suits you, and you'll be in a new, exciting place you've always wanted to live in.

Atlanta: A wonderful place you've grown to feel at home in. Minimal family members around and maybe one or two friends, but you can always make more. You (generally) know the area and, though you're looking for something new, it'd be nice to live somewhere you're comfortable with. There's even a church you like. It's the cheapest option (seemingly) and the culture is something you adore.

Santa Barbara: Back to good ol' California, yet far enough away from the parental units that mom wouldn't be on the doorstep every other day. It's a high cost of living (but so's everywhere else) and a place you aren't the least bit familiar with, but all your family will be just a couple hours away and it's been YEARS since you've gotten to just call your cousins or sister up to go hang out. It'd be the best of both worlds.


So what would you choose? You don't have to say why, but it'd be nice. :)

Atlanta

NYC
NYC
NYC

Santa Barbara! I'm a Cali girl, of course. SB is beautiful!

New York - hands down.

I actually plan on starting the next phase of my life there. :o

Atlanta. I even have relatives there! I know the area relatively well, there are a lot of things to do, and it is only 5 hours away from my parents.

NYC would be second choice. It has A LOT of fun things to do. But it is far away, very crowded, not enough nature for me, and too expensive.

Santa Barbara is not a realistic option in my case.

New York

None of the above. I've lived in Atlanta, for four months a year for 3 years (for work), and I hated everything about it. Maybe I'm jaded because our office was in a rough part of Atlanta, but i never saw anything remotely "beautiful" about it. We'd go hang out at places like the Varsity or on occassion we'd go to that nice mall (Lennox Hill? I can't remember!) but it was always so ugly and dirty. Ick. I've also lived in metro Washington DC, and all I can say is that I hate big cities. I grew up in a town of 68 people, and all the smog, pollution, craziness of cities doesn't appeal to me in the least bit.

Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.

Any place but Atlanta. I think that place is hell on earth. Apparently it's Mecca for any young black professional except for me.

I've lived in NYC for 5 years now, and think it's a fantastic place for a single 20-something. I don't like driving, and it's close to other cities in the NE, and if you HAVE to get out and fish, ski, mountain climb, whatever--you can do that in a day's drive.

Santa Barbara is a gorgeous city and if being near family's important to you, that would be a good place to do it.

Could you find a job in any of the cities easily?

Are you limited to just the three cities? If so, I'd take NYC. IMHO, everyone who has the means should live in NYC for a portion of their lives.

Santa Barbara! I am all about the warm weather

This is what it comes down to: im a single 20-something but this city is much much more interesting with $$$. not to say that i havent had fun growing up here, but i was exposed to all sorts of people in college that, though they thought their hometowns and upbringing was lame, i wouldve traded with for a weekend. im sure there are lots of things i wouldve learned/done had i grown up in the suburbs, or say on the West coast, or on a farm. you get my drift. i just think with more money, you can play harder.

[rant]NYC is very 21+ IMO and really its a place to work and play. once you start thinking about raising a family, i'd get the heck outta here, even if it's as close as Westchester/Rockland county. I just wouldnt want a city life for my kids.[/rant]

p.s. im thinking of the whole "where to move next?" thing as well, but my cities are:

Philadephia
Chicago
DC
Charlotte
Houston (or somewhere in Texas, i know, that can vary between cities because its such a big state, its more of a regional move for me)

the only thing is that i feel like these would all be downgrades (no offense to those who live/raised in these placs) but again, where DO you go after NYC?

Atlanta would be kinder to someone who was entirely new to the region.

Denver

Atlanta... two reasons. The first: The only man who could ever convince me to think about getting married lives in Atlanta. The second: Some of the most wonderful Alpha Gams in the country live in Atlanta so I have a built in family.

NYC has snow and if I'm going to move out of state, it will be somewhere without snow.

I don't get the California hype. Weather is alright, when they don't have fires, floods or earthquakes, I guess, but those things are enough to keep me away.


ETA: I'm nowhere near my 20's, so my opinion shouldn't even count :)

Mobile, Biloxi, or further down into the Arkansas Delta...DeWitt/Gillette

I would do NYC. It's the hardest place out of those three options to live with a family IMO, so why not do it now while it's easier. You can always move to Atlanta or Santa Barbara after your NYC experience.

What do you do for a living? Santa Barbara is cool, but it's really more of a town than a city, and it's not known as a hub for professionals.

I wouldn't be able to handle the heat and humidity of Atlanta, so that would be out for me.

New York is an awe-inspiring place, but I don't know if that's really "me" either. I'm entirely too laid back for it I think.

I'm happy in Seattle, but if I had to move to another city, I'd choose San Francisco or Chicago.

I'm considering moving out of the area as well. Kind of intimidating since I've never been more than 3 hours away from my family. I'm looking at the Atlanta or Chicago areas since I could transfer both places. I say area because it would be a suburb of either place... I'm not so big on the thought of living in the city.

Yes, with more money, you can play harder. I guess I always assumed that most 20 somethings would have some level of disposable income that makes living here reasonable.

I will not raise my children in NYC, unless I'm married to a very wealthy man. I believe in public schools as I went to them myself, but very few of the public schools will prepare the little Munchkins for the types of colleges that MY public school prepared me for. Also, those schools are extremely hard to get into.

A lot of people have left NYC for Philly and are very happy. I'm thinking Boston, Chicago, Austin, or San Francisco when it's time.

Atlanta, yes. The others, IDK.

No, but these are the top 3--the "most likelies."

I'm studying to be a counselor, which is a much bigger field on the East Coast (but my degree in Psych can get me various non-field related jobs in a pinch).

Out of the cities you named, I would do NYC first, Santa Barbara second.

Out of any city, I just want to go back to Boston. I loved living there before law school, and I'm counting down the days until I can move back.

I've lived in both NYC and Santa Barbara. My advice for someone your age would be to go for NYC. It's unlike anywhere else on earth and it's best to experience it when you're young.

Santa Barbara's been built up a lot since I lived there but it's still pretty quiet. Not a whole lot to do. It certainly is beautiful though. I tend to think of it as a nice place to retire. It's pretty pricey also.


You all might think I'm nuts but I actually found my current home partly though this website: http://www.findyourspot.com/ I had heard of my current town and was considering it, along with about a half a dozen other cities. Then I went to that website and took the quiz. I was looking for big cities but, strangely, it popped up in my top 20 results. I took it as a sign and decided to come out and visit. Two years later, I couldn't be happier.

I took the quiz just for kicks with my husband. Amazingly my collegiate town appeared as #3. I keep telling my husband I loved the town! What is sad though is that not one town in my home state showed up.

My answer would be to go to the place where you can best advance your career. This would not only include any specific field(s) you have chosen, but also other potential career directions that could be based off what you are doing now.

When I finished college/grad school, NYC was a strong possibility. Staying in Austin was also a very strong possibility. One thing is for sure, I wanted one or the other.

I eventually decided not to go the NYC route since in my field (accounting/finance) you have to work outrageous hours to be in a top firm and really get ahead.

I decided not to stay in Austin since the job opportunities were very limited and salaries very low.

Instead I moved back home to Houston for 5 years where I could move up fast in my field and have better choices later.

2 years ago I started a company with a friend of mine, and the nature of our operations are such that we could live wherever we wanted to live. By making the choice I did to go back to Houston first, I was at the level and experience necessary to take on both an ownership and leadership role in our new venture- and once you get to that kind of place in life, you have a lot of freedom in your choices.

And so now I live in Austin, but I am completely unbound by the pressures and restrictions of the very limited finance and accounting market here. I don't have to stay in a lousy job because another one would be hard to find. And I don't have to settle for a low salary because there are tons of applicants for every viable job that comes along. In fact, I still do some consulting work on the side and get it all by word of mouth- I do not advertise my availability at all. If you put your career first early in life- this is the kind of freedom and flexibility you can expect!

Hence my advice. Go where you need to go to become a master of your field in the shortest possible time- the place where your field is widely practiced and known to exist at a very high level. And then from there, after a few years of experience, you can go just about anywhere. Different industries exist at varying levels from city to city, but top people with top experience can always find a good job just about anywhere they might want to live.

Hope this helps and good luck!

interesting: #5 and #6 came up as Dallas and Charlotte. last of my top 24? NYC. how bout that.

NYC and Atlanta were both low on my list. Not a single CA city was listed. :rolleyes: Most of the 24 cities were places in FL and TX, which I had pretty much ruled out. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see Houston was about #4 on the list, which is ironic since it's #5 on my personal list (I've also considered DC, but not really crazy about it). I'm so confused. Atlanta is the place I'm most comfortable with, but I've always wanted to live in NYC--it would be wonderful to live there now before I start a family. But I've missed my parents and relatives like CRAZY, it'd be great to live in Cali and be near them again. Keep the suggestions coming, it's giving me a lot to think about!

Thanks for the advice everyone (esp you EE-Bo, that was a good point, I'm looking into it). How would I go about finding out what the market's like for my field? I'm in psych and it's so broad--how do you find out stuff like that?

these are toughies. out of the cities you listed, i would say NYC then SB. Atlanta isn't even on my radar! For a city "similar" to atlanta i suggest looking at Charlotte, NC. I can't say enough good things about that place.

Austin
Charleston

Charlotte has a good mix of city and not-city life, I think. Plus its close to Atlanta without being RIGHT there. (I have family in both cities)..

My heart is STILL in Chapel Hill, though.

Same thing here, only I left NYC for DC, then back to the Pittsburgh office. And nor would I raise children there, unless I were filthy rich.

I want to repeat, go to NYC if you can, even if it's for only 6 months or so. The rest of your life, you will better understand so much movies, theatre, the neighborhoods - everything about NYC, and in a sense, the mindset. I don't think that there's any other city in the world that begin to compare.

I miss Atlanta SO BAD ... so obviously that is my biased vote. Little bit of something for everybody, and a good job market plus relatively low cost of living, so what's not to love? Plus lots of new renovation and growth going on. I do love to visit NYC, but I don't think I would want to live there (too much crazy, too much expensive, too much ... everything). Never been to CA, so can't speak to that.

Houston is actually a pretty amazing city. The fine arts scene is one of the best in the country, and there are many large communities with very distinctive character such that just about anyone could move there and find a place much to their liking. The cost of living is also very low, and the job market is amazing.

As for finding out about the market for your profession, I think asking around is the best first step. Talk to professors and graduate students in your field. They will understand what specific areas you are looking at and might have some good input. Also, figure out where the top grad schools are for your chosen line of work. That can help you narrow the scope of your research.

Not knowing anything about your field, my thought process would suggest NYC as a top prospect for two reasons if you want to go into counseling. First, there is a large affluent population and so there would be a good market for counseling services for people who can afford to pay top dollar. In addition, in a city so large there will be a LOT of underprivileged people living in very dire conditions- and you could do pro-bono work on the side (or even work for a government agency) and get exposure to some very tough cases which can be a great experience for your resume and also put you where you can do a lot of good for people who really need every bit of guidance they can get.

However, even if I am right in my assessment (the above is just my guess), there might already be a flood of people in your field in NYC trying to land the cushy private jobs or get into government work.

If you are interested in counseling specifically, another good thing to do would be to look up on monster.com plus city employment sites to see what kinds of jobs are out there, what the pay is, and if you watch regularly you can see how quickly jobs are filled. This will all give you important info on how hard it might be to find a job at a salary you want.

Look also at the experience requirements for those jobs. If most of the better jobs seek 2-5 years experience, you might be better off staying in a place where the market is less competitive, the cost of living lower and you can find a good entry level position that gets you the experience you need to hit a market like NYC with more success. Houston is a big enough city that I think it could be a good prelude to NYC- plus your cost of living will be a lot less. NYC is incredibly expensive- and you have little room for error in your financial planning. You can live in a decent apartment in Houston for 1/3 of what you would pay in NYC.

I know this is a lot to digest, but if you ask these questions- then they will give rise to more questions and suddenly you realize you have a pretty good handle on what you want and need. Most people don't consider the kinds of things I have listed above- they just pick a city and go. So do this and I think you will be ahead of the curve. You won't get any sure answers, but you will feel comfortable moving ahead- and that will make a difference.

Raleigh, NC
Cincinatti, OH/Northern KY area
Louisville, KY
Columbus,OH
Las Vegas, NV

Lol, that's how I got into this mess. Those cities hold my top three choices for my next degree program. :) Overally, it's going to boil down to where I get in, but I'm going to live in one of these places for a few months before my studies begin and maybe even for years afterward, so I'm thinking about it hard. That monster.com thing sounded like a good idea, I'll try that. Right now, I'm a mental health counselor at a psych hospital, so I'm getting pretty good experience already, but it doesn't count toward my practicing license. I'm going to be visiting a lot of places over the next year to see if I like them.

HC: I did want to stay in NY for even just 6 months so I can know what it's like to live there even if it's not permanent and everyone said I was crazy. Glad to see you suggested it, I feel much better about the idea. I just want to live in SO MANY FREAKIN' places while I'm still young and single. Even though I miss my family, I'm a total free spirit like that, I love moving around a lot. When I start my own family, I'll want to stay put so I have this desire to just go everywhere and see everything. *sigh* How is it possibly possible that this is getting easier and harder at the same time? :confused:

If I were younger, weren't married with kids and had enough means so I wasn't living on one cup'o'noodles per day, I would totally live in NYC. I spent a summer in a work-study program in London during college, and even though it was very difficult at times, it was a fabulous experience. I will always have a love for the city despite the fact I will never move out of this state.

Granted, I'm not a single 20-something anymore, but I think I'd slit my wrists before I'd live in NYC, Atlanta or any other big city. The older Ms. MC and I get, the less appeal city-life has. We're both from small towns, and it's becoming clear that sooner or later we'll end up back in a small town -- preferably in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

At this stage of my life, I wouldn't want to live there. But when I was under 25, I loved it; same with DC.

But taking the quiz that Leslie Anne posted, I may someday be the Mystic Cat family's neighbor!

ChristianGirl, If I were you, I would definitely head to NYC for a period of time. I had a few friends who went there after undergrad, and most of them are still there and loving it. the others ended up back in Cali but are so happy that they had that time while they were young. If you end up staying there for grad school, great, but if you get in elswhere, then you had an amazing adventure for a few months. You can always look into subletting a place for a few months just for the experience.

I love California, but I don't really think of Santa Barbara as a young 20 something place. It is really for the college crowd or retired folks.

On a side note, I took that quiz and ended up with 8 cities in Oregon! Maybe I'll have to check it out. And my significant other lives in Sacramento and that popped up as #12 on my list! Crazy!

do ATL!!!!! (of course i'm biased) but Atlanta is very cosmopolitian but you still get that southern hospitality that the South is known for. :)


NYC is ridiculously expensive. I read a stat that said prices are 10.5% higher than in other parts of the country.... .