A New Hometown
How do you choose a new hometown?
Maybe you are moving out of your parent’s home and want to relocate to a different city or state or even country.
Maybe you are starting a new life or career and want to do that somewhere different than where we are currently living.
Maybe you are retiring and want to move somewhere that is not dictated by your job location.
Where would you go?
How would you decide where to go?
My husband will be retiring next year and we have been discussing the location of our future home. We have moved around the southeastern United States for the past forty plus years, from Virginia to the Mississippi Gulf Coast and several locations in between. All of our “new” hometowns were dictated by my husband’s work. We made those moves in order for him to advance in his chosen career.
This next move will be very different. Our choice will be dictated by criteria other than employment opportunities.
What factors would you need to consider if you were in a position to choose a new hometown?
Would finances and the cost of living be your only concern?
Would you need to consider how far your new hometown is from other family members?
Would you choose your new hometown on the basis of weather?
Please share your thoughts in the comment section below and let us know (1) if you have chosen a new hometown before and how you chose that location or (2) if you are considering a move now and what criteria you are using to make that decision.
Click here for a larger view of today’s featured image which was taken in Bay St. Louis, MS one of our former hometowns.
Comments
Bay St. Louis is calling your name. come back to the warm weather,soft breezes,good food,and friends.Would love to have you back here.
Hello Marie! Thanks for reading, commenting and inviting us back to “da Bay”!
That would have been our first choice but one of our criteria is to get closer to family. And besides, where would be live in the Bay? I’m not sure that Cedar Point is affordable for us anymore and in my opinion that is THE BEST area of Bay St. Louis!
Miss visiting with you and Joe when you’re there.
If I had no considerations to think about…Scotland is where I would move! I love Scotland! But, since I am older and need to consider all that entails, I think I would stay where I am in the Raleigh NC area. However; I might like to have a small condo on a high floor with a balcony and lots of light! Under garage parking and lots of amenities near a shopping center!
How exciting that would be to move to Scotland! However, I know you won’t leave all those grands and great grands there in NC!
Deborah and I are going through this now. I have retired and Deborah will be retiring soon. We started with a large list of places we would like to live. Many were ruled out because they just were not practical (too expensive, too much crime, etc). I found several websites that rate cost of living, crime, weather, people with similar points of view, healthcare, quality of life, activities, and other items that were important for us. We looked at a long list of potential locations. In the end, we decided the most important factor was being close to family. So, we set a geographic boundary with family in mind and looked at the best locations based on the same criteria above. We set up agents on Zillow and Realtor to send house listing for that chosen area and we continue to review those as we wait to sell our current house. No place is perfect but being near family is the cornerstone for us.
Same for us, Melvin. Closer to family. However, because I have family in the south AND in the north I also took the weather into consideration.
As beautiful as Ohio is, I don’t want to retire there because of the winter weather. Snow covered barns are gorgeous but driving in snow and ice is not what I want to do ever again.
I need warmth so south it is.
Thanks for reading and commenting Melvin!