What do you like/love about where you live?

CO-guy said:
We live in the mountains of Colorado. Top of the list above all else is access to nature. We're surrounded by it and can recreate in it year round from our back door.
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Got me beat. It takes 6 minutes to walk to the end of the pavement and get on the BLM land, and I use the front door.
 
An older "first-ring" suburb of Milwaukee. Came for the job, but came to realize it is a gem. I grew up in a large eastern city, and this seems better to me in many regards. My municipality is about a square mile, with easy access on foot to: restaurants of all levels, bars, post office, grocery store, services, churches, specialty shops, etc. We have excellent public schools. The community is very friendly and tight, yet welcoming.

The housing stock is mostly 1910's-1940's, with delightful older homes, but with newer condos and apartment buildings, too. I live 1.5 blocks from Lake Michigan, and about a mile from the Milwaukee River. We keep a sailboat in a County marina about 15 minutes away. There are numerous parks, and hundreds of miles of walking/biking trails. You can get downtown in about 10 minutes by car, 20 minutes by bike or bus. The local joke is that everything is 20 minutes away, i.e., I can get to just about any part of the greater Milwaukee area in about 20 minutes by car. We have two major sports teams, plus we lay claim to the Packers, so let's just say 3. Good healthcare systems.

I do most of my shopping on foot. I have a very large grocery store 7 minutes away, a Walmart 20 minutes away, and an Aldi's and a local co-op (sort of Whole Foods-ish) 25 minutes away, all on foot. I can (and sometimes do) even walk to Home Depot or a local hardware store (~40 minutes).

Cost of living and housing costs are moderate. I live in a quiet, leafy neighborhood in a 4500 sq.ft. home, 1.5 blocks from the lake, that costs less than $1M. However, I can easily walk to homes costing ~$5M and ones that cost ~$80k, as well as affordable apartments and duplexes.

In the summer, there is no end of festivals, parties, events, etc. (Summerfest is one of the largest music festivals in the world, and Irish Fest is the largest celebration of Irish culture in the world. We also have Polish Fest, German Fest, Mexican Fiesta, etc.) I can walk to my local Farmer's Market with scores of vendors. There are numerous biergartens; I put together an itinerary with about 8 or 9 stops along a rails-to-trails bike path. (I have been to all of them by bike, but not on the same trip! :) ) Our county park system has numerous golf courses, including one that used to host a PGA tournament. I can go to the quiet local beach on Lake Michigan or to the lively, raucous one in Milwaukee with many volleyball courts and a tiki bar.

Of course, if you need something that Brewtown is too small to deliver, Chicago is only 90 minutes away.

Cons: Winters are tough. I don't mind how cold it gets, but I do mind how long it gets cold. However, we are on the "correct" side of the lake, in that it is generally sunny in the winter. The cold, dry air is not so bothersome, better than gray skies for months on end. I do look forward to spring each year, however.

Taxes are somewhat high, but at the local level we get excellent services and schools in return.
 
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Out-to-Lunch: it sounds lovely except, I admit, for the cold. I would so like something more walkable!
We've spent the past few weeks in Oahu and have averaged at least 5 miles of walking a day...And the bus system is really nice. I could get used to a walkable, public transportation friendly place.
 
Fun thread reading about all the beautiful places people live.
We moved from beautiful Hunterdon City NJ to the beautiful CT coast, just a couple of miles from Mystic , CT. We love it! Beautiful water views from the house, a beach and docks a short walk down the street. Mystic and surrounding areas have great restaurants and plenty of activities. We are 20 min from 2 casinos, not that we gamble but they have shows, comedy, etc..We have a great, caring neighborhood ,quiet in the winter as a lot of people migrate south, but super active in the summer. We back up to a State Park and another one across the little cove. But best of all for me is I can be out on the water in my boat fishing in a matter of minutes. Big bonus: our kids are much closer, Boston, and they love coming here.
 
We retired, downsized moved from NY to NH. We love that we are living just a half hour from our only child. We love no income tax and sales tax and lower insurance costs and less property taxes. The politics is pretty good for us here also.

We like our little community we live in- the neighbors, the gatherings and our clubhouse and pool, etc.

We love that we can walk to the big lake and hubby can fish and I can swim. Gorgeous scenery. Also close to numerous other beautiful lakes and ponds. And the White Mountains. Close to Vermont and Maine for vacations, but honestly we always feel like we are on vacation here.

We've got 4 seasons. We are close to shopping, theater and other cultural events, the movies, banks, restaurants.
 
Low population and the outdoors. Low crime if any, people help people, people here are all family. The weather has four season and love each and every one. We don't have all the disasters like the south, west and east US have.
I couldn't imagine living any place else.
 
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Rural NE:

I was born and raised in Colorado. It was a great place to live when I was young. Now there is too many people, we had a couple of neighbors mostly just people that lived nearby. My DW’s folks were aging and we decided to sell everything and move closer to help them out. We moved to rural Nebraska, very very rural. If you know where the sticks are, we are just past them. We were about 40 at the time we moved and we didn’t have jobs, a place to live, very little furniture just a leap of faith. When we moved here, I started by building our home here on our farm. After 2-1/2 years of construction, we moved into our home and I found a paying job in IT. Our closest neighbor is about a half mile away and he is 93 years old. There are several more in a 2-mile radius. We have two towns both about 12 miles away. Both have a great restaurant and a gas station. There four seasons, tons of wild life (deer, turkey, bobcats, mountain lions, coyotes, and many other smaller critters). We rent out most of our land to grow corn, soybeans, wheat, we have some pastures and put up some hay. If you like to be outside, there is plenty to do, hunting, fishing, gardening, farming, wandering in our woods, and too much more to mention. When you get away from the city’s light pollution, the sky is full of stars, you can see the Milky Way and the ISS drifting by.

If you have only witnessed Nebraska from the interstate, you’re missing a lot. Nebraska may not be right for everyone but its right for us. The weather gets to maybe a 100° to maybe -20°, but not long and the humidity is usually mild. It snows here and if we have wind along with the snow, we get drifts. Only 3 times in 15 years of working in town did we get snowed in and had to wait for the county to dig us out.

We have a town of about 25,000 25 miles away. There is a great hospital, doctors and all the other things you would need, being retired. There is a regional airport about 50 miles away and a major airport 100 miles away. There are plenty of restaurants and a couple of breweries that we love going to.

I have no intention of moving at this point, but you never know what the future holds.
 
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CO-guy said:
We live in the mountains of Colorado. Top of the list above all else is access to nature. We're surrounded by it and can recreate in it year round from our back door.
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We had a cabin outside of Jefferson, CO abutting to national forest land, but we sold it to help fund moving to NE.
 
PADan said:
Pittston here and hating it. The area is still poor and grimm. I too will be leaving soon. Family issues currently preventing a change. The hunt is on.
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Like AJ my family is from that area. I grew up not far from it too. Childhood memories are of mine fires when we went to see grandparents. My wife and I ran away in the late 70s.
 
I live in the suburbs of Geneva, Switzerland. I like it here. It’s a small city with a distinctly international flair. Close to the mountains for hiking and skiing and many larger lakes with pristine water nearby. Good quality of life in general. Fairly low crime rate. Good public transportation system. Decent healthcare system. Clean.
 
Phoenix metro area here (but my avatar photo is Sedona, about 2 hours' drive). Things I love: the weather 60% of the time, the desert and mountain scenery, wildlife (we are near a mountain preserve and see coyotes, bobcats, javelina and mule deer), sunshine, city amenities/parks & rec/library system, and family & lifelong friends are here. Things I like: easy access to the airport, a few decent direct international flights, good camping, easy road tripping to beautiful national & state parks in nearby states. Things I don't like: summer/late spring/early fall heat, urban sprawl, homes that still have lush lawns and non-native plants, many unused or barely used swimming pools in backyards, risk of wildfires, long-term drought. Don't get me wrong, we use our community pools often but there just seems to be a lot of folks who use more water than needed in the desert environment.

Funny that what I wrote about the "things I like" really have more to do with leaving where I live to go other places. Might be something to that...if not for friends and loved ones here we would probably consider other locations. Great thread topic.
 
skyking1 said:
The new place on the Olympic Peninsula:
Weather: It is in the rain shadow cast by the Olympic Mountains, with an average rainfall of 16" a year and plenty of sunny days.
It is cooler in the summer due to the moderating influence of the ocean and straits nearby. We are not into the heat, dry heat or otherwise.
We are similarly located as far as travel, about an hour and a half from Seattle International. It is on the doorstep of the national park and beaches out west. It's a 25 minute drive to catch a ferry to Victoria BC and Vancouver Island.
The house is a mile from the store and a mile and a half from everything else, but it is a park-like setting.
We have great views from the house and nearby. Tonight's Olympic Mt sunset, for example.
View attachment 54004 I'll try and get a North Cascades/ Mt Baker sunrise photo in the morning if the weather is good for it.
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Absolutely love that part of WA. Been many times, also taken the ferry.
 
Koolau said:
Most days, we never close the windows and we sleep under one sheet.
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I don't know how anyone could possibly sleep with the windows open. I can't even sleep with them closed unless I have a fan running to block out various noises. All of those noises would be much worse with open windows. I envy those who can sleep thru that stuff.
 
aaronc879 said:
I don't know how anyone could possibly sleep with the windows open. I can't even sleep with them closed unless I have a fan running to block out various noises. All of those noises would be much worse with open windows. I envy those who can sleep thru that stuff.
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Old people on a lot of medication can sleep pretty soundly. Also, it doesn't take much physical effort to get real tired at an advanced age. After 18 holes of golf on a hot summer day, I could sleep so soundly that night I won't even get up to take a potty break. Windows are closed here due to the heat and bugs,
 
aaronc879 said:
I don't know how anyone could possibly sleep with the windows open. I can't even sleep with them closed unless I have a fan running to block out various noises. All of those noises would be much worse with open windows. I envy those who can sleep thru that stuff.
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Yeah we didn't realize when we bought into a high-rise that all the street noice comes UP. But we've adjusted to it and sleep fine. Oddly, when we're on the mainland in a quiet neighborhood (at the old homestead) the quiet keeps me awake for a few nights!
 
"Everyone complains about the weather, but nobody ever does anything about it" -M. Twain. Well, we did. We moved. We lived in the upper midwest, where summers were humid and buggy. Winters were cold, damp, and you wouldn't see the sun for weeks.

We moved the the western slopes of the Colorado Rockies. We're still active, and I loved to ski in the winter and hike/mountiain bike in the summer. Sure, the temps vary, but no bugs. It gets warm in the summer, but nights are cool. And yes, we sleep with the windows open in the summer.

We're about 30 miles away from a tourist area, so there are nice restaurants. And we have culture with visiting ochestras and year-round theater.

It's not for everyone. Winters are snowy. There's HCOL and snowy winters. A lot of remote areas w/o cell coverage. And medical specialists are a ways away.

Will we live our our lives here? Who knows? But for now, this suits us fine.
 
I've learned that in any sort of urban setting, if you have a view, you get noise to go along with it. Our new home location is no exception. The nearby highway is audible, especially coming from our current rural setting.
It is mitigated quite a bit by our own trees and elevation. When I walk up to the apartment at the end of the day, the 20' elevation gain makes it quite a bit louder.
It is quiet enough that we will be able to open our bedroom windows, which face away from the source.
When we were shopping for property we attended an open house on a 1.1M new property.
This one here:
Sequim · Washington
It is about 900 meters from the highway and has a clear unobstructed view of it.
A pack of harleys roared by while we were outside, and it was breathtaking. We had all the sound and fury without any bugs in our teeth.
No thanks!
 
Western Washington state for sheer natural beauty. I live in a small city east of Seattle and have views of peaks in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, and the Olympic Mountains (when Puget Sound isn't foggy). Lots of walking trails, hiking in 3 nearby state parks, good retail within walking distance.
 
Gumby said:
By the time I was 30, I had lived in 14 different states - OH, VA, CT, HI, SC, MA, RI, IL, MO, MD, FL, NY, WA, TX. In early 1989, we were living east of Cleveland, OH.
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Which suburb of Cleveland? I grew up in University Heights and DH was in Cleveland Heights. Good enough at the time but now it's too dense for me.

We are in a suburb just north of Akron, OH. Close enough to Cleveland if we need a larger city but it's definitely a different feel than Cleveland.

What we like about our location is that our family is here. Our older son is 3 miles away and the younger one with our 2 grandsons is just under 1 mile. My sister is in a Cleveland suburb 30 miles from here.

I used to say that I like having four seasons but as we get older sometimes that's not so easy. Winters can get tough for a few weeks here.

Our location used to be a lower cost of living area but with inflation and taxes is more of a mid range cost of living now. DH's siblings live in the Denver area and in New Jersey where the COL is crazy high!

While relocating for better weather sounds interesting, we'd never leave because the family is so close and for now that's very important. Our son who lives a mile from us works in downtown Cleveland, so he has a long commute. In the future he may need to move closer to Cleveland, but for now it's better right here.
 
Las Vegas:
Sports and entertainment capital of the world. There is literally endless stuff to do 365 days a year!

World class food and drink.

Very little traffic outside of resort corridor.

International airport with a fair number of international non-stops.

Lastly, and most importantly, we have found the people to be incredible!
 
skyking1 said:
I've learned that in any sort of urban setting, if you have a view, you get noise to go along with it. Our new home location is no exception. The nearby highway is audible, especially coming from our current rural setting.
It is mitigated quite a bit by our own trees and elevation. When I walk up to the apartment at the end of the day, the 20' elevation gain makes it quite a bit louder.
It is quiet enough that we will be able to open our bedroom windows, which face away from the source.
When we were shopping for property we attended an open house on a 1.1M new property.
This one here:
Sequim · Washington
It is about 900 meters from the highway and has a clear unobstructed view of it.
A pack of harleys roared by while we were outside, and it was breathtaking. We had all the sound and fury without any bugs in our teeth.
No thanks!
Click to expand...
When we moved from the homestead to the prairie (in our 30s) I thought it would be totally quiet. But the interstate a mile and a half away was a source of noise - especially from the big trucks and especially when the wind was in our direction. We did get used to it, but it was a surprise.
 
Koolau said:
When we moved from the homestead to the prairie (in our 30s) I thought it would be totally quiet. But the interstate a mile and a half away was a source of noise - especially from the big trucks and especially when the wind was in our direction. We did get used to it, but it was a surprise.
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In the summer, with the bedroom window open, I can hear a car come around the curve 1.5 miles away. I like quiet and dark
 
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