I had the life for about 6 months. Found a awesome place to rent in westlake right on lake Austin, even got a boat slip for my Malibu. Lived 5 minutes from 6th street… Uggh! Makes my tummy hurt just talking about it. I miss it so bad. I had to move back home for family and I make more money… But I hope I end up back down there one day. I envy all you Austinites. I tried… Hopefully, I will get a chance to live there once again.
no, i live in portland, OR.
i lived in orlando, fl for 24 years and dallas, tx for a year. didn’t like texas one bit after living there for a year. austin is a cool city, but the oppressive heat would kill it for me. dallas to the north has worse weather, as it freezes during the winter.
Austin would be a nice place to live, and I don’t mind the heat. It’s the cold I couldn’t deal with.
I would love to live anywhere that had decent mass transit and was bicycle friendly I could live without having to own an albatross (I mean car). Sadly, up north is much better for that than Texas. If I did have the opportunity, it would be a difficult decision.
If it weren’t for family circumstances, I would move back to Chicago in a heartbeat.
I wish I lived in San Diego. Or San Francisco.
I wish I lived somewhere else, probably the PNW, maybe Colorado. But since I moved out of The Worst State In The Union a couple years ago, I’m no longer consumed with burning hate for my location every waking moment of my life. So that’s a plus.
The flip side is that I know quite a few people who are living in dream locations and don’t have a pot to piss in, much less retirement savings.
I lived most of my life in Austin. It’s a great town, but I wouldn’t be able to live there again- too much heat, too many fire ants, too much driving to get anywhere. Good food, though, and lots to do.
For me, it’s Bend, OR. I lived there for four years, and not a day goes by that I don’t regret moving away. My wife and I intend to retire there, but that’s a ways off.
[QUOTE= Tom Waits]
Well, I wish I was in New Orleans, I can see it in my dreams,
Arm-in-arm down Burgundy, a bottle and my friends and me
Hoist up a few tall cool ones, play some pool and listen
To that tenor saxophone calling me home
And I can hear the band begin “When the Saints Go Marching In”,
And by the whiskers on my chin, New Orleans, I’ll be there
[/QUOTE]
Except for the sadness that is Bourbon Street at 7 am.
I moved to Colorado about five years ago. Since I was a kid I dreamed about living here. I recently turned down a job offer in California because I just didn’t want to move from here. That and I didn’t think California was the place for me.
I love it here. I would only move if I lost my piss pot, maybe.
I have lived in Tucson for 11 years and I’ve never really liked this town. I feel ungrateful for saying that, because Tucson has been good to my family. We have good jobs, schools, friends, etc. But I don’t like the desert and I HATE the heat. I’d love to move to New England.
I’ve only lived in 3 places; San Jose, San Diego, and Wahiawa (dad was in the Navy). I’m in San Jose now and I absolutely wish I lived in SoCal or Hawaii.
It takes all kinds. I moved to the Boston area suddenly and unexpectedly 16 years ago. I never liked it or Massachusetts very much although I did come up with a suburban area that I can live with. It is way too cold for too long, very expensive, and the people are unfriendly in general, harsh, and standoffish. I like other parts of New England like New Hampshire and Vermont but they are even colder and that is a deal killer for me.
I would prefer to live almost anywhere else except New York City, LA, or the Pacific Northwest. All of those seem like hell on earth to me each for different reasons yet they are first choices for many people so there you go.
If I could just pick anywhere without worrying about finding a job, the Charlottesville, VA area would be a top contender as would parts of North Carolina and Tennessee. Colorado is nice too but there is that cold thing again so I only go there during the summer. Much of my family lives in Texas including Austin. I like Texas fine but the neverending sprawl would get to me after a while. The heat sounds good though.
However, I am seriously considering moving to Costa Rica in 10 years when my youngest graduates from high school. I have already started doing research on regions and real estate there and may even buy something there in the next couple of years.
Another to say you are not alone. I moved to Upstate NY for the sake of elderly parents, and really, really want to leave. Of all the places I’ve lived, I love the Pacific NW the most, even though it was hard to make friends there. Don’t know where I’ll be going next, once I am free to leave.
I’m from just outside of Austin and plan to get back there within the next year, hopefully over the summer.
Born and raised here in Austin. I don’t intend to leave anytime soon.
…with a helicopter.
I’m pretty happy here in Dallas. The only place I’d want to move is Houston (where my parents live) or possibly Austin (where in-laws live), and that’s mostly so we can be closer to our parents so they can spend more time with the kid and any future kids.
Otherwise, I do like Houston, but it’s not a particularly great city for IT/computing folks, and my wife bitches about the humidity. Austin is too full of dreamy, space-cadet hippies and stinky people, the traffic is atrocious, and it’s just too hot and dry there for me.
I live in Dallas, and it’s insanely big and sprawling. There’s no cohesiveness, no community, and most of the neighborhoods are just butt ugly.
I was born in Washington state, though I have few memories from my childhood of it. I’ve been up there five times in the last ten years and loved it every single time. It’s beautiful - climate, architecture, geography. I couldn’t do the Olympic peninsula because that’s where they get all the rain and cloud cover, but Seattle was fantastic. It gets about as much rain as Dallas, sometimes gets snow in the winter, has a ton of activities. The only things keeping me from moving there are lack of family, sparse employment, and cost of living.
Maybe I’ll win the lottery.
Falmouth Mass is on Cape Cod. Dad was stationed there eight years at Otis Air Base. I lived there until the sixth grade. Loved sledding in the winter and ice skating. Summers we were at the beach only 1 1/2 mile away. Cranberry bogs were only a few blocks from my house.
Beautiful area in the summer. Nice beaches. There’s a lot of really great places to visit within a hour or so driving.
Down side is the tourist traffic. Cape Cod is a big summer tourist destination. Lots of snow but actually the cape is somewhat protected from the really bad winter storms. Other areas of Mass get hit a lot harder.
Even after all these years I still miss Cape Cod.
I just recently moved from the San Francisco area to PNW and I love it. I’ve been planning and dreaming of this move for years and now I’m living right where I want to be. Sometimes I find myself feeling that old anxious longing just out of habit and then I think wake up! You did it! You’re here!