Help me find a new place to live.

[aviator8]

As I said earlier go expat, the options are so much better, Philippines, Central America, Romania, Croatia, Greece, Thailand. You can get by on a fraction of the cost of living anywhere in the US. Healthcare is not a mafia scam designed to bankrupt you, and you can live in great climates with great diving. Although I don't know your business I bet it would flourish in any of these locations. You could probably live outright on your Freedom Plate income alone.

 

[diversteve]

PS today the sun was shining and it will be mid-60-70's fron mow thru April. We might see a little rain in July - "Monsoon" season but mostly that's just afternoon dust storms, Not a good idea to drive on the freeway in one. otherwise it's just overcast and really windy for a couple evening hours. We did actually get 2 days of rain this month but they mis-predicted it about 5-6 times 1st,

Because my sis lives in the foothills they Very occasionally get light snow but she has to run out and take pictures as it will be gone by noon.

Tucson seems around 15 degrees cooler than Phx generally but can get Hot in the summer also.

We live in a desert.​

 

[Jcp2]

I don’t know if there are a lot of warm and dry weather places with generic value and opportunity left in the US. Nice weather places are popular with everyone, hence the crowding and high prices. Maybe somewhere close to Asheville or Durham, NC?

 

[-JD-]

Part of the reason I don’t like it here anymore is the threat of PG&E caused wildfires. We are up against an embedded entity that has a complete monopoly on our power source and has neglected to put a dime into their infrastructure over many years. As time goes by and more people move into CA and more homes get built where they shouldn’t get built. The freakish weather we’ve been getting makes for a perfect storm when you combine high dry winds with high voltage and plenty of fuel.
So PG&E will spike the rates to make up for all the law suits and to try and update their infrastructure and we will get screwed once again.
This year alone they cut power several times to try and prevent fires but it still didn’t work. I lost several weeks worth of critical work because of all that. I can’t do it anymore.

Stopgap ideas until you can move.

Generator - if you have natural gas or can get propane, the pad-mounted automatic backup generators are not too insanely pricey $5K installed or so (at least around here). With natgas you can live comfortably with basic electric loads for quite a while.

Solar with a battery bank - Pricier, but with all of the CA Green incentives it may be "reasonable". At least it will be offsetting your electric bill, and if the rates spike, you are saving more. Downside, without a huge battery bank, your power-outage usage will be limited.

 

[Addicted2H2O]

Chalk up another recommendation for Texas. If you want salt water diving, somewhere along the Texas coast would be the way to go, with the southeastern part of the state having quite a number of dive sites not too far out. But if you want warm and dry.....and GOOD economic opportunity North Texas, or more specifically the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex is BOOMING and has been for years. There's a reason lots of big corporations are moving their HQ's here. Toyota for instance...now based in Plano. There are dozens more that I can't remember but in all seriousness there's money to be made here. And we get lots of "refugees" from California. Our housing here is at least 50% less than what it costs in CA and I'm being modest. Austin is not nearly as much a reflection of that and really is quite honestly a poor example of the rest of the state. A lot of the people in what we call the Cen-Tex area are rude and snobby, at least in and around Austin. Obviously not everyone is that way, but more so there than anywhere else in the state. And it is probably the most liberal city in the state, too. Don't get me wrong, it's beautiful there. But it's a pretty arid climate and during the summer months they do occasionally go through severe droughts. At one point a few years the biggest lake in the area, Lake Travis, was more than 60 ft low. And it's the lake most of the Austin/Cen-Tex area dives since you can reach depths well over 100 ft. There are a couple of caves in that area to dive, too, but nothing like what you'll find in FL or other places. But I digress. Take a look at Dallas-Fort Worth and see what you think. I have neighbors across the street that moved here mid-August from CA and they love it so far. They, too, are self-employed and from my understanding are doing quite well for themselves. And although we are pretty land locked here, DFW airport is 2nd largest international airport in the country and it's a short 2.5 hr flight to Cozumel if you just want to dive blue water or cenotes/caves. We have a couple of local spring-fed lakes, too, but max vis you can expect in them is about 20 ft and bottom depths of around 45' max. We loving refer to them as "mud holes" but if you need to train or just blow bubbles, they're fairly close and have decent facilities. I'll actually be out at one next weekend dive mastering an OW class in the cold water. Fun Times!!!

If you have any questions about the area, feel free to shoot me a PM and ask. I don't know all there is to know but I've been in DFW for about 20 years and before that grew up in the Houston area closer to the coast (near Galveston). Good Luck with your search!

 

[DavidFL]

+1 for Florida. Hot but not, unfortunately, dry; somewhat mitigated by ubiquitous always-on air conditioning. I'm semi-retired in central Florida. This is the high ground for Florida, so despite occasionally putting up the hurricane shutters, we're not going to have storm surge...until the entire state is underwater. I live close to the Orlando airport; because of the intense competition flights to/from the rest of the world from Orlando are as inexpensive as you will find anywhere. It is a 2:20 drive to my favorite day-boat operators in Jupiter and West Palm Beach to dive. Should you get the cave bug, they are within 2 hours or so the other direction. Cost of living is low for lots of reasons. Besides all the service jobs in Orlando, we have a fast growing technical and medical/research community. The University of Central Florida, Full Sail, Rollins College are not famous but solid. People complain about there being "no beach", but it's only about 45 minutes to Cocoa or New Smyrna. I have roots in the Pacific Northwest and a small cabin/foothold in remote Wallowa Country, Oregon, but I am able to visit there frequently for my 'mountain' fix. I have a single-member LLC and I'm on the Board and President/CEO of a not-for-profit; all the regular communication with the state government is easily done online. I used to work for a defense contractor; when we negotiated contracts, 'laws of the State of Florida' were our second-favorite of 50 states in which we did business in one form or another. I came to Florida on a Navy shore duty assignment almost 40 years ago and haven't found any good reason to live elsewhere.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Texas varies in humidity. I have been told the Houston area is humid. So if that's an issue, be aware. And I was raised in south-central Arkansas, where summers can be a sweat-dripping steam bath (during droughts!), so I know it can be an issue. If I lived in Texas, I'd try the Fling live-aboard...but be warned whether they go out of not is hit or miss, from what I've read in the past.



This might help narrow it down; would you be content living inland if you could take 2 dive trips/year? I'll throw out some dive trip expense examples.

I tend to budget around $3,000 to $4,500 for a 'typical' week long solo dive vacation. My recent 8-day, 30-dive Bonaire trip ran around $3,500 with airfare and everything. Last year an 8-day, 26-dive trip to Cozumel staying at Casa Mexicana about $3,250. Those trip costs include round trip airfare starting at Nashville, TN. And I tend to include food (no alcohol), tips if relevant, airport parking, pretty much everything but souvenir expenses in my sums.

You could do Blackbeard's or the Juliet cheaper; for that matter, stay at a cheaper place and I hear good things about Dive With Martin for cost control in Cozumel. Turquoise Bay Resort in Roatan seems to be a good choice for quality budget dive trips (haven't been). I'm not the low cost leader, but am fairly cheap. If you take your wife, that's going to run up the bill.

I would definitely consider living inland if the cost of living value to business potential ratio is better than where I live now. The weather rules are no snow, no prolonged rainy wet dreary winters. My joints can’t take too much cold and Norcal gets this way. This also eliminates Oregon, Washington, northern territories, the North East, etc.

 

[Scott]

If you want to stay out west, NM or Utah would be my choices!

Naa...you don't want to move here. Salt Lake City and the wasatch front (Ogden to Provo) have become one large metropolis. Southern Utah is nice, but it's growing at an alarming rate. Once California falls into the ocean Utah will replace it. Recreation wise, you can't beat this state, but it's not a place to retire to.

Our plan is to leave in the next five years so we have already done some leg work on what will work for us. On the radar is Florida, Georgia, Costa Rica, Bonaire and Greece. Texas is a maybe, but could be a hard sell since my wife grew up in the panhandle.

 

[tursiops]

PS today the sun was shining and it will be mid-60-70's fron mow thru April. We might see a little rain in July - "Monsoon" season but mostly that's just afternoon dust storms, Not a good idea to drive on the freeway in one. otherwise it's just overcast and really windy for a couple evening hours. We did actually get 2 days of rain this month but they mis-predicted it about 5-6 times 1st,

Because my sis lives in the foothills they Very occasionally get light snow but she has to run out and take pictures as it will be gone by noon.

Tucson seems around 15 degrees cooler than Phx generally but can get Hot in the summer also.

We live in a desert.​

Are Phoenix and Tucson likely to have water shortages in the next 10-20 years?

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I went to high school in East Texas. There are so many negatives about living there, but humidity is the worst. You get out of the shower and begin sweating within seconds. We would get a small amount of snow in the Winters, but Spring through Fall was just miserable. I hate the politics of California, and as long as we have freeloaders voting for politicians who continue to support them, things will never change. You can't beat the climate, though. I can't think of a better place to live.