QOTD #13: What criteria did you use to choose the place where you currently live?

Back in the dark ages, when my wife and I were first dating, I took her to Aspen to go skiing. "I do this every year, I'm gonna keep doing it ...". She fell in love with the mountains and moving to the mountains became a mutual dream.

Fast forward a couple decades, our youngest daughter was graduating High School, I was unhappy with work, and I had a job offer in Boulder, CO that included moving expenses. Pretty much a now or never situation. We took it and never looked back.

We love Colorado weather, particularly in the mountains. It rarely goes below 0 or above 90 and we get 300 or sunny days a year.

Family is 1000 miles away, that has some advantages and some disadvantages. No one ever stops by without notice.

We bought the home with my job in mind. It's 20 miles up a mountain and is reasonable compromise between living in the mountains and being employed.

This was the second house that we looked at in CO. We looked at others; but my wife fell in love with a smaller log home with a fabulous view. It's hard to argue with a woman whose dream home is a cabin in the woods.

Boulder is San Francisco liberal. Works for me; but it had nothing to do with our move.

 

Before I moved here, I knew I was going to leave my hometown in Ohio within a year. I made vague plans for Florida that ended up not working out, and from there decided on either Nashville area or a suburb of Boston. I was also looking into the San Diego area, but cost of living was a little high for me.

Enter some dude I met on some weird Internet forum. ( ) North Carolina sounded all right to me, so here I am! I'd like to think location wouldn't really have mattered, but I might have had second thoughts if he'd been from say, Kansas or Oklahoma.

So, yeah. I basically moved down here for a boy. What a cliché, right?

House-wise, we rent, and the main criteria was "two bedrooms" and "not Eden's parents' house." So, we weren't very picky, to be honest. We did end up passing on another rental recently (we wanted to move to get away from our Crazy Neighbor, but that's an entirely different story) because it was a 45ish minute drive to work.


Given the choice of location, I'd love to live in Colorado or California. The sea or the mountains, I absolutely love both. House-wise, the dream is to live in the middle of nowhere...or at least have a really big yard. One day.

 

We had a 2 bedroom unit before this house. My main (and probably only deal breaker) was to be near public transport. Sydney is a big place and having ready access to the train makes getting around a whole lot simpler. The bonus is good local schools, easy walk to a supermarket, nice neighbours, back yard with space for a garden and chickens (not really enough space for sport mad children!).

My wife wants to move out of Sydney to shed us of our mortgage, but doing it is a one way trip.

 

Easy... it's the spot where I made the crater when I exited the military.

I'm surrounded by all that rubber government money and the people that subsist on it.

Moving to another area would mean more money in my pocket but put me away from all the big city amenities.

 

Born and raised in AK, never expected to leave.
When I left I never really expected to come back.
Now I'm back and and never expect to leave.
Close to my family, my kiddos.
Weather isn't wonderful but I'm used to it.
The scenery is wonderful and the people are pretty damned amazing.
I do have a good job that I would probably have a hard time getting any place else.

 

No criteria, just ended up here in Tulsa and stayed. " Living on Tulsa time "

 

I moved to this country for work. I stay because it's a good life and both my wife and I like the work we do (and the money we make).

We chose the house we currently rent on a number of criteria but the main one is that it has two levels and an outdoor space (most condos, which we'd previously been living in, don't have either). It is also right on the subway line, close to the centre of town, and my favourite cycling trails. The only thing it's missing is a pool (condos have these).

The house is also about half way between my office downtown and my wife's school out in the west end.

Come to Singapore and have a home brew in my backyard.

 

I first came to this city (St. John's Newfoundland) in 2004 for school because tuition was super cheap. I stayed for the inclusive feeling on campus and then the clean air, nature, and small city vibe. I have moved out of the province a couple times since moving here and am certainly not settled down yet, but this city just kinda feels like home.

In a few months, if all goes according to plan, i'll be moving to New Zealand. My reasons for choosing that country include the fact that they're willing to give me a working holiday visa, the amazing nature, the supposed laid-back lifestyle, and the weather. Oh, and the glow worm caves

 

I ended up in the DC area because my exwife, a women's studies major in college, wanted to work for a progressive political organization, and DC was where she felt it made the most sense to do so. So yeah, I followed a chick here.

We ended up moving to this specific city in part because a longtime friend of hers was already living here. We stayed with said friend over the weekend that I interviewed for what would become my first job. Outside of the interview we didn't have much time to look into apartment prospects. What time we did spend, we decided DC proper was too expensive for too little space, Northern Virginia wasn't up for discussion, and we weren't at all interested in any of the cookie cutter bedroom community options that dot the landscape between DC and here.

It just so happened that the apartment next door to the friend's place where we were staying was opening up within the next few months. Factoring the length of the commute and, conversely, the new commuter rail line that was also scheduled to begin service to DC in about the same amount of time, we opted to sign on the soon-to-be-available apartment—sight unseen—reasoning that if the commute was absolutely horrible, we could always move closer.

Long story short-ish, we both did the DC commute for a few years. Then she got a local job. Then we bought our house. Then I got a local job—in fact, just a half a mile up the street from the house. Then she broke up with me and moved out, and I stayed. I have no plans to leave anytime soon.

I fucking love this town.

 

We moved out of Chicago for better schools. The kids were thriving in Chicago, but that was at a private school.

We feel in love with Naperville at the time. It was spread out, there wasn't a lot of traffic, the schools are highly rated.

It was our second house, aka our forever home. I tell my wife my next stop is the cemetery. I will die in this house. We love the house, we like our neighbors but, naturally, things are crowded now. Too much traffic and too many traffic lights make going crosstown a frickin' nightmare.

Despite this, it was well worth the move. My taxes paid for my three kids schooling, at quite the bargain I must say. They grew up without having too much pressure or crime. I'm still willing to stay here until I retire, either to another state, or the dirt farm in the cemetery, whichever comes first.