RE: What keeps you where you are?

[Camperroo]

 
As you know a member of the board is moving away from Boston to MN and another just posted about the possibility of moving in a couple of years.  What I m wondering is just what keeps most of us planted right where we are?  I had the benefit of living in CA for a few years, which we really enjoyed, but then moved back to the East coast...a move which we wish we hadn t done, as we realized we really enjoyed our lifestyle out there.  But we moved back home to be near family again and well...you know how that goes...sometimes distance is a wonderful thing!  But here we are living in the expensive Boston area wondering what really is keeping us here.  We have friends that have uprooted and moved to lovely areas of the country where they bought brand new homes for half or less than half of what you could expect to pay here, and they say the cost of living is much less.  They have found the school systems to be comparable and found comparable jobs.  So what keeps us or you where you are?  Have you thought recently about moving, getting away from expensive, congested areas but just not able to make yourself do it or take the risk.  I often find myself wishing my husband had the kind of job that could decide it for us by just telling him he s being transferred!!

[fivegonefishing]

 Camperroo
We are moving from Toronto to Oshawa, both cities are in Ontario however Oshawa is on a much smaller scale...I can t wait!  My job is based in downtown Toronto however I m on the road a lot so it doesn t really matter.  We chose Oshawa as it s one of the smaller big cities within a reasonable amount of time from Toronto.  My husband and I would love nothing more than to move to a very rurarl area but with three high needs children and now a mother living with us, we needed some of the creature comforts a bigger town offers.  If it weren t for employement we would have loved to chose another a much different area.

[gsm x2]

 Camperroo
We re living here because I can t think of any better place to live.  We are living near the ocean on the northern outskirts of the Los Angeles sprawl in an area where we can and do camp and enjoy other outdoor activities year-round.
 
 For this we give up alledged family contact...where we think we would spend a lot more time with family, but in reality we probably get to see more of them by visiting than we would if we lived there.
 
 gsm x2

[Turn Key]

 Camperroo
Weather: Though Texas  " Super Summer"  can be brutal, the rest of the year is great and there is nothing I have to shovel[: (]!
 
 Job (and other income producing interests): Pays good for the little I do.  " Bennys"  are great!  I m getting close to retirement.
 
 Most of all, kiddos and grandbabies:  Nuf said on that.[][][]
 
 Actually, about the only place I can think of that I d like to move to is the Texas Hill Country.  Still puts me too far away from my prime reason for staying put.

[Jeffrey]

 Camperroo
Yepp, we do think about moving.
 Both have lived in this city all our lives, and only about 2 miles from here.
 We keep watching everyone else moving around, and think we would like something different.
 
 But.......
 Kids like their school
 My business is here and hard to move and keep the customers
 

[jpreiser]

 Camperroo
my husbands job keeps us here, and the kids dont want to start a new school. If I had my way I would move tomorrow!

[AustinBoston]

 Camperroo
I can tell you what kept me in Mass. for 43 years.
 
 Tradition.
 
 My family has been here forever (OK, not forever, only since 1620).  New Englanders stayed behind when all others went west.  Most New Englanders who settled on the West Coast travelled there by boat.  Going across land was too far.  Which meant you had to have money.  Why would you want to go to a wild, uncivilized land when you already had money?  It was too far to go overland when California and Oregon were being settled.  It was too far for Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas.  Nobody left.  As the barriers to leaving came down, one important one stayed up, and that was the psychological one.  Nobody left here to go there, never mind that it used to be impossible and now it isn t.
 
 My children were born in the town I was born in.  My father was born less than 20 miles from here, in the town his father was born in, who was born in the same house his father was born in.  I have followed this back.  Since 1643, my ancestors have moved three times.  Only my father went more than 5 miles.  He went less than 20.
 
 There are good things here.
 
 There are great opportunities for entertainment, food, and nature within a day s drive.  You can be in Montreal, New York, or New Brunswick in a day or less (OK, Montreal might be a stretch in a day).  Whether you like the sands of Cape Cod, the theaters and museums of Boston, the restaurants and history of any New England state, the rocky coasts of Maine, the mountains or lakes of New Hampshire, the Mansions of Rhode Island, or the 17th, 18th, or 19th century " towns"  of Plimouth Colony, Surbridge Village, or Olde Mystic Seaport, you can get that here in a day, a few hours drive, or less.  Even in Vermont, there are things not found anywhere else.  The Shelburne museum in Shelburn Falls, VT is unlike anything I have seen anywhere.
 
 There are no whale watches that leave from Michigan.  There are no 17th century towns in Colorado.  They never made whaling boats in Ohio, Arizona or Idaho.  You won t find lobster fishermen in Kansas, Minnesota, or Montana.  They don t have truly fresh swordfish in Kentucky, Arkansas, or Nevada (OK, maybe in Vegas there s a casino that flys it in every day, but 99.8% of it is previously frozen).
 
 People tend to be more professional here than in most parts of the country.  The corollary to this is that they tend to be less friendly...at least until you get to know them.  Most outsiders don t have the patience for the process to get poeple to open up to you.
 
 The money is good, and I have had the opportunity to make a lot of it over the past 5-6 years...but the cost of living is not good.
 
 I m not saying there s anything bad or wrong with other parts of the country, but living in Massachusetts can be comfortable.  That is, once you re used to the raw, gloomy winters, the dirty politics, the confusing, lousy roads, and a pace of life that can taken the breath away from a hyperactive Californian.
 
 We have made the decision to leave, but it s not because I don t love New England, it s because it s time, after 384 years, to move on.
 
 Austin

[kathybrj]

 Camperroo
We stay here because we just haven t found anyplece that we enjoy more. We see the Adirondacks and the Green Mountains from the end of our road. It s not too expensive to live here, the schools are good and our families are relatively  close by.
 
 I have a 12 minute commute to work, which takes me past open fields and woods and then into the historic part of Saratoga. Blaise takes a nice scenic route to work, which is 20 minutes from home.
 
 We have a state forest up the road and a state park 20 minutes away.
 
 Yeah, the winters are snowy, but we enjoy it. When we don t will be the time we start looking for elsewhere to settle.

[6Quigs]

 kathybrj
The weather[8D]

[NCSunshine]

 Camperroo
Have always lived in Central NC.  Early in our marriage, we seriously thought about moving to CA, but the work did not pan out.
 
 After 13 years of marriage, started adopting our babies.  DH came up with moving to CA again, I told him NO, we adopted this baby to give her family and she is going to be close to her family.
 
 So here we are, we have moved four times but have stayed in NC.  Would consider moving somewhere else in NC close by, but with our three adopted girls I still want to remain close to family.

[PopupSgt]

 Camperroo
We stay in the Cincinnati area due to my job.  All of my family (bro s, sister, mother, father) live in the Dallas Texas area.  I really miss not being around for family get together s and only see them every 12 to 18 mos.  But being that I m in the CNC electric discharge field there isn t much of a calling for that line of work in Texas [].    Now that I am activated in the AF visiting famliy in Texas has become more difficult and all our visiting plans were put on hold until deactivation back to the reserves and civilian life.
 I would do back flips to move back to Texas with my family but you gotta have a job to feed the family and in my line of work jobs are scarce in that neck of the woods.

[springer02]

 Camperroo
DH s job has moved us 7 times in 22 years and we ve been in some awful places but we LOVE where we are now, in the gorgeous Shennandoah Valley of Va.  Although his job has some challenges now (upper management style) we love it here and it would take just the right offer to get us to go anywhere.
 
 Why do we love it here?  We have the house we always wanted, DD is in a good school and is doing well, I have a 2 minute drive to work and because I work for the public schools DD has NEVER been in child care after school, the state parks are wonderful for camping, the mountains........
 
 Like I said, we ve moved a lot and it can be great or terrible.
 
 Tena

[Gatsmommy]

 Camperroo
DH and I were just discussing this. We moved here a year ago from MN for his job. Other then the heat, and being so far away from family,  I m starting to like it. Of course once again there s rumors the job will be moving....this time to the Cincinnatti area. We re in a wait and see mode right now.
 
 One thing I found is that even though there are things you may not like, alot of it is because it s not what you re use to. i ve found that if I can keep an open mind, and make an effort to get to know people, I could probably enjoy living anywhere. DH is a little less able to deal with change though and while he s " warming"  up to life in TX he d be happy to get back to the genral mid-west areas.  We ve decided that no matter where we move to, we will always give it a minimum of 2 years before we decide we don t like it.....unless the job decides for us LOL.
 
 It is a very real possibility that we will try to move back to MN at some point, but the main reason would be to be closer to family. I really miss that my children aren t going to be able to have the close relationships with their cousins and that the rest of my nieces and nephews do. Of course having grandparents nearby to babysit is another big plus in this area LOL
 

[jstaddwtr]

 Camperroo
This area has been good to us, so we should not complain.
 
 At the same time it would be nice to be out of the " beltway"  as most Washington, D.C. folks talk about it.  If we could we would like to return to the midwest, preferably Indiana.  We miss the people, the traditions. and family.  
 
 DH is trying to make a job switch but those kind of things at our age is hard.  We feel closer to America when we are home...kinda funny when you think we are in our country s Capital.  We have lived in Chicago, Minnesota, Indiana and L.A. but always prefer the Midwest.  Someday we will go home, we hope.

[CampinCrazy]

 Camperroo
We don t stay put for long.  Longest stay was in Cedar Rapids, Iowa (3.5 years) shortest was 9 months in Lee s Summit MO.  DH job keeps us moving across the country.  I guess that means he does a good job.  I moved alot as a kid, so it s not a big deal; plus when a large corporation moves you, they do most of the work and cover most of the $$$.  My daughter was in her third state by 18 months of age.