I'm thinking of moving (2 Viewers)

[The_Doc_Man]

California sounds nice. We know that it never rains in southern california. Also, LA is fine, sun shines most of the time and the feeling is laid back, palm trees grow and rents are low. Also, California girls are the best girls in the world
Col

Well, I appreciate that you at least got a lot of the song references right, Col.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Being a Brit can I ask one question? What's Sun?

Something that, supposedly, never sets on the British Empire.

The empire on which the sun never sets - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[ColinEssex]

And just by the way, regardless of what Neil Diamond says, rents are NOT low (and it does rain occasionally).

One school of thought is that the line 'rents are low' is the only thing Neil Diamond could think of that rhymes with 'palm trees grow' and it fits rhythmically and in context of the song.
I dont think the song is a true reflection of life in California. Its called 'poetic licence'.
Col

 

[LarryE]

Being a Brit can I ask one question? What's Sun?

It's only available in some parts of Cornwall but some have said it was seen decades ago on the Isle of Wight but those sightings were never confirmed.

 

[AccessBlaster]

BTW it's raining here right now.

 

[DickyP]

Something that, supposedly, never sets on the British Empire.

The empire on which the sun never sets - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

That was the empire, not UK. Why do you think we wanted an empire except to get warm!

 

[Cronk]

My friend lived in Britain for a couple of years. On returning home, I asked him what was the best about being back. He said being able to see his shadow.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

The closest I've ever been to something like that is in the Seattle/Tacoma area in Washington State, the northwestern-most state excluding Alaska. The tour guide on the bus said they had so many gloomy days (over 300 per year) that Seattle was in the top 10 suicide cities of the USA (at the time, over 40 years ago.) He might have been exaggerating because Washington is no longer on the top 10 list.

 

[Cotswold]

When looking around, maybe make sure there isn't a DuPont, or a 3M factory anywhere near?

 

[Isaac]

We're strongly thinking about Reno NV at this point - strong enough to possibly make it the next place we go 'visit' to check it out.

My #1 drawback for Reno is earthquakes, but I read an article that encouraged me quite a bit having to do with how earthquake-proof the buildings are or aren't - turns out they feel that 99% of the buildings in Reno area are built to withstand a moderate to severe earthquake.

I like the sound of the weather, the dryness, and the general location of it.

 

[Steve R.]

See if you can contact @pbaldy. Based on his profile, he lives in Nevada. We have not been there for years so any advice will be out-of-date. Here is my out-of-date suggestion. Though it is way to the south of Reno, you may want to take a look at Gardnerville.

Gardnerville, Nevada - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The complete Reno, Nevada earthquake report (up-to-date 2025).

Find the latest and strongest earthquakes near Reno, updated every few minutes. So far in 2025, 104 major nearby earthquakes detected...

earthquakelist.org

 

[Isaac]

Wow Steve, that PDF is really interesting - thanks for sharing!

 

[Isaac]

and I appreciate the advice about Gardnerville, checking it out now

 

[pbaldy]

My #1 drawback for Reno is earthquakes

We get lots of earthquakes, but don't feel the vast majority of them. The ones we do feel are like "was that an earthquake?" The worst damage I've heard of is something falling off a cabinet or something. We do not live in fear of earthquakes here.

That said, it is a high-desert environment, which would seem to be excluded on your list. Winter can be cold, and snow in town is not uncommon. Much less than in the nearby mountains, but still can cause driving issues. We got 2" at our house over the weekend, but that was the first snow in town since mid-December.

 

[pbaldy]

We're strongly thinking about Reno NV at this point - strong enough to possibly make it the next place we go 'visit' to check it out.

If you visit, let me know. We can share an adult beverage or whatever.

 

[Isaac]

Ok cool! Thank you Paul

 

[AccessBlaster]

So after ~20 years in Phoenix, we're starting to think of moving to a place that's:
1) more scenic, in terms of deciduous forest and non-desert type beauty
2) has waterways, green grass and trees, and maybe even an ocean Coast
3) isn't too much more humid than AZ - somewhat is OK/expected, but we don't want to move to 'full' humidity
4) is cooler than Phoenix by at least ~14-15 degrees, which Albuquerque just barely accomplishes
5) is affordable
6) maybe has winter, but not a super long / cold one

We've ruled out Nevada due to being too much like AZ. Ruled out Colorado as having too hard of a winter. Ruled out southern California for being expensive and a bit too much, culturally speaking. Still pondering Oregon and Washington, I know I'll have a lot more humidity, but the in-between climate is appealing to me. (ruled out the major cities like Seattle and Portland for mostly-obvious reasons, but considering the smaller cities in either).

It would be nice to land on a coast, if possible, without paying too much - or within an hour.

I'm trying to figure out what Northern California is all about. You just don't hear much about it. I look on the map and the whole northern half seems abandoned by any sizeable cities to speak of. What is it like to live in the northern half of CA - excluding Sacramento and San Francisco ??

Place we are considering strongly enough to go take a trip there and check them out - Rio Rancho NM (greater Albuquerque), and Boise ID (my idea as I know a lot of tech jobs there).

For the most part, employment isn't an issue as I work from home......But it would worry us to end up in a REALLY small town, in case I ever have to look for an in person job.

Does anyone have ideas and insights - about anything, or northern CA ? I'm always interested in people's perspectives about cultural, political, or any other ramification of living somewhere. For example my brother lives close to Portland, and he confirmed it's everything it's known for, both good and bad.
I'm bit scared of moving to CA, which my wife wants, because I feel like we would encounter too many troublesome things that just make life more complicated there. We did live in San Diego for a year and I remember finding out there was no walmart supercenters there, we had to drive to El Cajon just to get ground turkey. I remember thinking this is just one small thing yet it's rocking my world........LOL

Edit - also it needs to be in the western half of the US as the eastern half is too fraught with natural disasters in the S and winter in the N

Mexico?

 

[Isaac]

Mexico?

I'd be to Baja California in a heartbeat if it wasn't for the fact that my job prohibits me from working outside the United States due to some kind of language in the contracts with clients. I'd be instantly fired if it were discovered I was working from OOC, and I'd have to have a perfectly functioning vpn to fake my location and life in fear LOL.
When I worked for Apria a few years ago, I went to my mother in law's house in MX for a couple weeks and started working from there.
It didn't take long for me to log in one day and get a message "your account does not exist". turns out their IT dept had a policy - let them know you're going overseas, or else your ad-ent account gets blown up the moment they detect it. I was new at the time, and my manager did not like me very much after that. The team I was on was like a glorified Finance team (and actually reported up thru finance) and considered Excel Macros with SendKeys (to screenscrape AS400 programs on citrix servers) to be the pinnacle of their Programming. It was a bad fit and I quit after 4 mo.

 

[Pat Hartman]

The closest I've ever been to something like that is in the Seattle/Tacoma area in Washington State, the northwestern-most state excluding Alaska. The tour guide on the bus said they had so many gloomy days (over 300 per year) that Seattle was in the top 10 suicide cities of the USA (at the time, over 40 years ago.) He might have been exaggerating because Washington is no longer on the top 10 list.

I lived in Seattle for almost 2 years on contract with Boeing. I found Nashville, far more depressing in the winter than Seattle. At least any day in Seattle when you could see the mountains (peaks ~ 8,000 feet), was a good day. I spent more time outdoors while there then I spent in any other city where I've lived. The climate was very moderate. I bought jackets with hoods so I didn't have to deal with the mist. It rarely rained hard. Just a lot of mist but the funny thing was that in the winter, they would give the weather report in altitude. It's snowing at 2,000'. If your base lodge was above 2,000', go skiing

About the only nice thing about winter on the Connecticut shore is that LI Sound moderates our temperatures and winter has a lot of crystal clear blue sky days. Spring is our rainy season.

 

[Isaac]

I like Seattle for just being there over the weekend, the culture is decent, I like the climate, weather, vegetation, ocean. But I could never live in a city or metro area where you could never find a place to park and parking/driving is always a huge deal. I guess I am "suburban" at heart in more ways than one. It's gotta be easy to drive around and preferably I avoid metro areas that hvae decided they are too cool for school and ban walmart and fast food
Of course I could never afford Seattle proper, either, but may consider a more affordable suburb