Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

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cheese_breath
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by cheese_breath »

caroljm36 wrote:
cheese_breath wrote:
cannondale wrote:Claremont, CA is surrounded by Oakland, CA.
Claremont is nowhere near Oakland. It's east of LA.
Lots of gangs out that way now too.
Claremont's fine. Just stay out of Pomona.
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jane1
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by jane1 »

Glen Allen, VA (suburb of Richmond, VA). But it can snow a couple of times a year.
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Sunflower
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by Sunflower »

cheese_breath wrote:
cannondale wrote:Claremont, CA is surrounded by Oakland, CA.
Claremont is nowhere near Oakland. It's east of LA.
Pretty sure this person is referring to a neighborhood in Oakland. It is nice and borders Berkeley (and has a nice resort). They pretend they are separate from Oakland, hence the confusion.
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by drawpoker »

That's what I thought, too.
Just using the name as a vernacular - Watts, Compton, East L.A, etc etc
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cheese_breath
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by cheese_breath »

Sunflower wrote:
cheese_breath wrote:
cannondale wrote:Claremont, CA is surrounded by Oakland, CA.
Claremont is nowhere near Oakland. It's east of LA.
Pretty sure this person is referring to a neighborhood in Oakland. It is nice and borders Berkeley (and has a nice resort). They pretend they are separate from Oakland, hence the confusion.
He doesn't know anything about Claremont, and I don't know anything about Oakland. So I guess it evens out. :happy
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westcoastinvestor
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by westcoastinvestor »

I am not sure of the schools everyplace, and it is generally a trade off between beach and mountains (where there is snow), but here is what comes to mind.

N CAL- Berkeley, Outer Sunset/Richmond District in SF, Half Moon Bay, anywhere on the Peninsula, San Rafael, Walnut Creek, overall, much of the Bay Area would meet those criteria. Santa Cruz and Monterrey area, Davis, Chico, Santa Rosa, Petaluma.

S CAL- Other than what has been mentioned, Ventura and Oxnard Counties.

Oregon- Portland, Ashland, Eugene, and Bend

Arizona- Flagstaff and Tuscon
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by gkaplan »

westcoastinvestor wrote:I am not sure of the schools everyplace, and it is generally a trade off between beach and mountains (where there is snow), but here is what comes to mind.

N CAL- Berkeley, Outer Sunset/Richmond District in SF, Half Moon Bay, anywhere on the Peninsula, San Rafael, Walnut Creek, overall, much of the Bay Area would meet those criteria. Santa Cruz and Monterrey area, Davis, Chico, Santa Rosa, Petaluma.

S CAL- Other than what has been mentioned, Ventura and Oxnard Counties.

Oregon- Portland, Ashland, Eugene, and Bend

Arizona- Flagstaff and Tuscon
Oxnard isn't a county. It's in Ventura County, right next door to the city of Ventura.
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by denovo »

caroljm36 wrote:
cheese_breath wrote:
cannondale wrote:Claremont, CA is surrounded by Oakland, CA.
Claremont is nowhere near Oakland. It's east of LA.
Lots of gangs out that way now too.

No there isn't.

Btw, for OP, a lot of places in coastal CA would fit your requirements, but tend to be very expensive.
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ahmadcpa
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by ahmadcpa »

Cupertino, CA
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by randomguy »

ahmadcpa wrote:Cupertino, CA
The complaint about Cupertino and Palo Alto is that the schools are too good:). Seriously there are parents complaining the schools are too tough.

I am not sure if I would consider either of them really to be small towns though. That whole area from SF to SJ is a bunch of urban sprawl (with some vary nice nature areas near by).
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by 92irish »

S.F. East Bay Suburbs: (Lafayette, Moraga, Orinda, Alamo, Walnut Creek).

Great weather (Berkeley Hills block a lot of the fog, cold you'd experience in S.F. proper).
Great public schools.
Good employment opportunities in the Bay Area (for well educated)

Negative: Expensive, high cost of living. Traffic and congestion.

If you can afford it, these suburbs are awesome for family raising. There seems to be a high correlation between beautiful weather/schools and cost of living - no matter where you are.
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by celia »

#4. If you are seriously considering California, be aware that very few cities have a population under 300,000 if you consider adjoining cities. Most people here don't know the boundaries for their city, but in LA County there are 10 million people living in 88 cities (and random unincorporated areas). The cities are wall-to-wall and you can drive for over an hour before you feel like you are out of the "city". So would you like to live in a city of 100,000 people surrounded by 9,900,000 other people?

#1. Forget sites like GreatSchools.org in which the reviews are written by parents of students at each school. The vast majority of people think the school their child attends is great (else they would send them elsewhere, right?). I've never heard someone say their child's school is terrible. They "like the teachers" or they "have computers". That is the basis for a review???

An unbiased source for comparing California student performance is found at http://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/ which has evolved over the last 10 years as accountability and standards have been introduced.
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Meg77
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by Meg77 »

Chattanooga TN hits all your criteria.
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ThankYouJack
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by ThankYouJack »

celia wrote:#4. If you are seriously considering California, be aware that very few cities have a population under 300,000 if you consider adjoining cities. Most people here don't know the boundaries for their city, but in LA County there are 10 million people living in 88 cities (and random unincorporated areas). The cities are wall-to-wall and you can drive for over an hour before you feel like you are out of the "city". So would you like to live in a city of 100,000 people surrounded by 9,900,000 other people?
Even Harmony, CA is up to 18 people :)

But I agree with your point. I'm not a big fan of crowded suburban sprawl which is part of the reason why mountains is my requirement.

celia wrote: #1. Forget sites like GreatSchools.org in which the reviews are written by parents of students at each school. The vast majority of people think the school their child attends is great (else they would send them elsewhere, right?). I've never heard someone say their child's school is terrible. They "like the teachers" or they "have computers". That is the basis for a review???

An unbiased source for comparing California student performance is found at http://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/ which has evolved over the last 10 years as accountability and standards have been introduced.
That's a good point about parents saying their kids schools are great. Most people I know will move if they're in a bad school district or go to charter schools if the public schools by them are not good. Getting feedback from teachers who have rotated schools can be really helpful too.
Meg77 wrote:Chattanooga TN hits all your criteria.
I've never been there, but would be interested in checking it out. Probably not a lot of suburban sprawl which would be nice :)
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by retired recently »

The problem with available information of school performance is that it typically shows how well the school does at getting their students above the state-mandated level of learning for a particular grade. If your child is much more capable than reaching the "bar" then it becomes very difficult to determine how good the schools are at providing challenges.
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by celia »

retired recently wrote:The problem with available information of school performance is that it typically shows how well the school does at getting their students above the state-mandated level of learning for a particular grade. If your child is much more capable than reaching the "bar" then it becomes very difficult to determine how good the schools are at providing challenges.
This is the minimum information I would need to know if I was looking for a school. If the grade average is lower that your child's capability, that would slow down your child's growth. If the average is the same or higher than your child's, then your child will continue to growth academically. I think the idea of finding a challenging, enriching, or many-optioned learning environment is a moot point if the school doesn't even meet basic standards. This was a big discussion point when standards were first implemented, but it overlooked the fact that many kids still do not read and write English and later drop out of school. Isn't that the bigger issue?
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by Ron Ronnerson »

Pleasanton and San Ramon, CA (East Bay in Bay Area) would meet your criteria. I've lived in both and they're both very nice towns. They're similar places but Pleasanton has a nice little downtown which makes it slightly more appealing in my opinion. Cost of living is high.
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by hapagirl »

+1 for Pleasanton. My niece grew up there and we would visit every summer. 45 min drive from central San Jose (w/o traffic). Seemed really community oriented.
If money isn't an issue, I'd look in to Atherton/PA/Portola Valley/Woodside, Walnut Creek, Sausalito.
My heart is set on Seattle or Tacoma though.
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by wander »

Best place is where you really call it your home. My best is not your best since each has different opinion.
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by Valuethinker »

ThankYouJack wrote:My wife and I may consider moving once our children start public schools. When that time comes we hope to be able to work part-time so we want to really enjoy where we're living. Our top priorities would be:

1. Top-notch public K-12 schools (or possibly inexpensive/free charter)
2. Great weather (sunny, warm summers, very mild winters ~60 degrees)
3. Great for outdoor activities/adventures (next to the mountains and ocean or lake)
4. Either a large town or small city (maybe 50,000 to 300,000 people)
5. Family friendly, diverse community
6. Bike friendly area

Any recommendations?
Where there are good public schools there will be high housing prices. That's almost a given. Most other places, the best kids go to private schools.

You might find a college town somewhere that has modest housing prices and excellent schools.
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by Leeraar »

Valuethinker wrote:
ThankYouJack wrote:My wife and I may consider moving once our children start public schools. When that time comes we hope to be able to work part-time so we want to really enjoy where we're living. Our top priorities would be:

1. Top-notch public K-12 schools (or possibly inexpensive/free charter)
2. Great weather (sunny, warm summers, very mild winters ~60 degrees)
3. Great for outdoor activities/adventures (next to the mountains and ocean or lake)
4. Either a large town or small city (maybe 50,000 to 300,000 people)
5. Family friendly, diverse community
6. Bike friendly area

Any recommendations?
Where there are good public schools there will be high housing prices. That's almost a given. Most other places, the best kids go to private schools.

You might find a college town somewhere that has modest housing prices and excellent schools.
I'd rank compatible values quite high on my list. Subscribe to a local newspaper for a few months before you decide.

L.
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by Meg77 »

ThankYouJack wrote:
Meg77 wrote:Chattanooga TN hits all your criteria.
I've never been there, but would be interested in checking it out. Probably not a lot of suburban sprawl which would be nice :)
I went to summer camp on Lookout Mountain just 30 mins from there every summer, and I went to boarding school in Chattanooga for 2 years of high school. They have good local schools I'm pretty sure, but there are three dominant private schools there (2 accept boarders but are mostly local students) which are excellent. Anyway though my husband and I went back to visit for my high school reunion last year, and he was so impressed with the city that it made me see it in new eyes. It really is a cool, vibrant little city. It's anchored by a river so has a bit of an Austin TX feel (with more trees and less traffic), and they have a great downtown with bike sharing and lots of newer hip condo developments and restaurant areas. I remember a lot of families lived on Signal Mountain or Lookout Mountain in pocket neighborhoods - I never saw any of the suburban sprawl I've come to know in DFW. Cost of living is moderate at best, and of course you have kayaking, white water rafting, hiking, biking etc all within a 30 minute drive. And you can ski in some parts of the state, though I never have. I was stunned that DH seemed open to living there at some point (San Francisco is his first choice). Anyway it reminded me when I saw your list. Definitely worth a fun family trip anyway!
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by Flashes1 »

I'd caution anywhere in California. Great place to visit, but to tie my family there? Not so much.

I'd look at Texas, Alabama, Tennessee and North Carolina. All fiscally conservative, business friendly, and great flagship state universities that aren't hemmoraging cash like they are in California.
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by Jack FFR1846 »

hapagirl wrote:+1 for Pleasanton. My niece grew up there and we would visit every summer. 45 min drive from central San Jose (w/o traffic). Seemed really community oriented.
If money isn't an issue, I'd look in to Atherton/PA/Portola Valley/Woodside, Walnut Creek, Sausalito.
My heart is set on Seattle or Tacoma though.


When would that be a 45 minute drive? I stayed at a friend's house in Pleasanton 15 years ago and drove to SJ to catch my flight home. I was on the road at 4am on a friday morning and arrived at the SJ airport at 8
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by VAB »

ThankYouJack wrote:My wife and I may consider moving once our children start public schools. When that time comes we hope to be able to work part-time so we want to really enjoy where we're living. Our top priorities would be:

1. Top-notch public K-12 schools (or possibly inexpensive/free charter)
2. Great weather (sunny, warm summers, very mild winters ~60 degrees)
3. Great for outdoor activities/adventures (next to the mountains and ocean or lake)
4. Either a large town or small city (maybe 50,000 to 300,000 people)
5. Family friendly, diverse community
6. Bike friendly area

Any recommendations?
Hello, I am facing the same exact question :)
May I ask what city did you end up in after all this search? Thank you!
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ThankYouJack
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by ThankYouJack »

VAB wrote:
ThankYouJack wrote:My wife and I may consider moving once our children start public schools. When that time comes we hope to be able to work part-time so we want to really enjoy where we're living. Our top priorities would be:

1. Top-notch public K-12 schools (or possibly inexpensive/free charter)
2. Great weather (sunny, warm summers, very mild winters ~60 degrees)
3. Great for outdoor activities/adventures (next to the mountains and ocean or lake)
4. Either a large town or small city (maybe 50,000 to 300,000 people)
5. Family friendly, diverse community
6. Bike friendly area

Any recommendations?
Hello, I am facing the same exact question :)
May I ask what city did you end up in after all this search? Thank you!
Still searching. Not sure if it exists as there's a lot of top priorities on my checklist :) I do love Santa Barbara and did do a tour of Southern California a couple years ago but I don't think it's worth the housing premium (unless you're a multi-millionaire). But I think it's important to not have the grass is greener on the other side mentality too as every place has pros and cons.
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by Beehave »

abuss368 wrote:Tampa, Clearwater, or Sarasota Florida.
Hot weather much of the year (no seasons) and questionable schools in SW Florida. Howard County, MD for excellent public schools. Maybe some portions of Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill NC if you want warmer than Maryland. Be careful about the schools there, probably some excellent and surely some not in that area of NC.
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by VAB »

ThankYouJack wrote: Still searching. Not sure if it exists as there's a lot of top priorities on my checklist :) I do love Santa Barbara and did do a tour of Southern California a couple years ago but I don't think it's worth the housing premium (unless you're a multi-millionaire). But I think it's important to not have the grass is greener on the other side mentality too as every place has pros and cons.
Absolutely agree with your last sentence. I like Southern California too but it is ridiculously expensive. Have you researched Washington, DC? I would love to hear from people who live / lived there also.
Here are the weather and family rankings I found:
http://realestate.usnews.com/real-estat ... er?slide=1

http://amp.kiplinger.com/slideshow/real ... -kids.html
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by gkaplan »

ThankYouJack wrote:
VAB wrote:
ThankYouJack wrote:My wife and I may consider moving once our children start public schools. When that time comes we hope to be able to work part-time so we want to really enjoy where we're living. Our top priorities would be:

1. Top-notch public K-12 schools (or possibly inexpensive/free charter)
2. Great weather (sunny, warm summers, very mild winters ~60 degrees)
3. Great for outdoor activities/adventures (next to the mountains and ocean or lake)
4. Either a large town or small city (maybe 50,000 to 300,000 people)
5. Family friendly, diverse community
6. Bike friendly area

Any recommendations?
Hello, I am facing the same exact question :)
May I ask what city did you end up in after all this search? Thank you!
Still searching. Not sure if it exists as there's a lot of top priorities on my checklist :) I do love Santa Barbara and did do a tour of Southern California a couple years ago but I don't think it's worth the housing premium (unless you're a multi-millionaire). But I think it's important to not have the grass is greener on the other side mentality too as every place has pros and cons.
Ventura, about forty miles south of Santa Barbara, is another option. I'm not sure how much housing costs, because I always rented while I was living there. (I lived three blocks from the ocean.) To give you an idea, I rented there for almost twenty-five years. I believe my first rent payment, not including security and cleaning deposit, was $540. Surprisingly, I can't remember my last rent payment. I think it was something like $980, but I'm not at all sure. My records (and my credit union's website) only seem to go back to August 2014. (I retired and moved to Portland in January 2014.)
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by lightheir »

Silicon valley in Norcal (including SF area and South bay area through San jose) hits ALL of your points with aplomb.

The critical issue that will unfortunately trump all your wants/desires - home prices. Which are astronomically high for US housing. (Unfortunately, not astronomically high for a foreign buyer who might be comparing to Beijing, Shanghai, or Hong Kong, or London, so they push up the real estate values even higher.)

Seriously, if you've got the cash to burn, and aren't wedded to a megaurban lifestyle, it's hard to top this area, it's so good. But if you don't have the cash, it's not so fun to be worrying about how you're going to keep maying the mortgage!
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by cheapskate »

In addition to Palo Alto. Cupertino/Los Gatos check off all of your boxes. The schools in Mountain View, Sunnyvale have been improving steadily over the years. Los Altos will be as expensive (if not more) than Palo Alto.

If you consider the East Bay, things get much more affordable - Mission Fremont, Pleasanton, Danville, San Ramon (in decreasing $). Commute will be a nightmare though.
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by metacritic »

??????????????????


[quote="cannondale"]Claremont, CA is surrounded by Oakland, CA. They do have good schools, but..........It's surrounded by Oakland.
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by Slacker »

VAB wrote:Absolutely agree with your last sentence. I like Southern California too but it is ridiculously expensive. Have you researched Washington, DC? I would love to hear from people who live / lived there also.
Here are the weather and family rankings I found:
http://realestate.usnews.com/real-estat ... er?slide=1

http://amp.kiplinger.com/slideshow/real ... -kids.html
I can't speak to the schools portion of DC.

Weather - not too hot in the summer but winters can be quite brutal. Directly in DC there seems to be a zone of no snow, but the areas moving outwards get increasingly more snow. A couple years I was there we had "polar vortices" coupled with warnings of not being outside for more than a few minutes at a time due to potential for frost bite on your face. Other oddities - sometimes we would have the daily high at 10AM and other times at 9PM (spring/fall).

The metropolitan area is great for activities and entertainment with many free entertainment options, housing is a bit pricey but shouldn't be a problem if you are looking at California. Bicycling around the NOVA/DC area is really great and you have some "mountains" in the area (more like big hills in my opinion coming from Denver). To really experience great mountains and countryside I recommend the Shenandoah valley. Also the beaches at Rehoboth and Oceanside are pretty close and nice enough.

Taxes are just a little lower than California for most earners in Virginia and Maryland (I think you have to make more than $100k/yr to really see a difference in taxes between California and Virginia) while you will likely pay about the same amount in income tax in California and DC until you are earning more than $250k/yr.

Amazing mass transit (maybe only NY City has better mass transit).

Affordable housing can be had by living outside of the beltway on the NOVA side, but I'm not sure if the schools are of reasonable quality in those affordable areas.
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by Slacker »

gkaplan wrote: Ventura, about forty miles south of Santa Barbara, is another option. I'm not sure how much housing costs, because I always rented while I was living there. (I lived three blocks from the ocean.) To give you an idea, I rented there for almost twenty-five years. I believe my first rent payment, not including security and cleaning deposit, was $540. Surprisingly, I can't remember my last rent payment. I think it was something like $980, but I'm not at all sure. My records (and my credit union's website) only seem to go back to August 2014. (I retired and moved to Portland in January 2014.)
How were the earthquakes in Ventura? Any fears of Tsunamis? Crime? Pollution? Sea level rise impacts on the town?

I ask because my wife is wanting to move to Southern California and I'm zeroing in on Ventura/Oxnard as being one of the most affordable options relatively close to Los Angeles but away from the brutal desert heat. We work from home anywhere in the US with incomes that can support SoCal rental prices, but I'm trying to keep our savings rate high and minimize housing costs.
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by gkaplan »

I felt the 1994 Northridge earthquake. (My one-room bedroom apartment shook, but that's all. Ventura didn't suffer any damage, that I know of, and we didn't have a tsunami while I was there.) I did feel the 1988 Whittier earthquake, and that was more scary, because I was sitting in the fourth-floor Cal State University cafeteria when it hit, and the whole building shook. People did die, because they were living in buildings that were not seismically fit. That's probably not a problem any more. I also lived through the Morgan Hill earthquake in the San Jose area. Not much happened that I remember. And of course there was the 1989 Bay Area Loma Prieta earthquake. That was more serious. There were many deaths and much property damage. Really, though, you learn to deal with the possibility of earthquakes, at least I have. (Portland, where I live now, is concerned about earthquakes and tsunamis.) People in other parts of the country have to deal with hurricanes and tornadoes. Left-coasters have to deal with earthquakes and tsunamis. Pick you poison.

(Edited to correct syntax.)
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by finite_difference »

CA has been covered extensively so..

Hawaii.

Singapore.

Depending on your definition of warm, the Tri-State (NYC/NJ/CT area) has hot summers, a very pleasant spring and fall but pretty cold winters (not much snow though).

Kansas supposedly has mild winters and a great school system.
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by JBTX »

bloom2708 wrote:At one point we were considering a move from ND to Anthem, AZ (north Phoenix). The schools had great ratings the school rating sites.

We then talked to a family that moved from that area to ND. The wife had worked in the school districts around Phoenix. Said the schools were not nearly as safe or good as the ratings indicated. They moved here where the ratings are for some reason not as good, but the schools are very safe and effective.

"Good schools" is a tough definition I think. Is that new buildings, low crime area, certain racial demographics, high test scores, small class sizes, no drugs. It is all of those?

We are going to "finish out" our kids in crappy weather ND and then plan a part year move to a warmer climate. Then we don't have to worry about schools.
My wife is from the MN/ND. She is the only one who has moved away in a large family. There is a bit of simplicity of life there that is attractive. Very low crime and people are generally very agreeable.
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by Dendritic Tree »

Asheville, NC is a mountain paradise and has excellent public schools.
moneywise3
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by moneywise3 »

abuss368 wrote:Tampa, Clearwater, or Sarasota Florida.
There are no hills though. Just some rivers filled with gators.
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by IngognitoUSA »

Interesting that so many people can pack up and move anywhere without any issues. No roots of family or friends to take into consideration?
moneywise3
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by moneywise3 »

Dendritic Tree wrote:Asheville, NC is a mountain paradise and has excellent public schools.
Asheville is no warm weather. You can get 5 deg warmer in Greenville SC.
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by abuss368 »

moneywise3 wrote:
Dendritic Tree wrote:Asheville, NC is a mountain paradise and has excellent public schools.
Asheville is no warm weather. You can get 5 deg warmer in Greenville SC.
I have visited both places. Very nice.
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by radiowave »

drawpoker wrote:Look into Raleigh-Chapel Hill-Cary (Research Triangle NC area.)
Has all 6 that are on your list plus housing costs & medical lower than national averages.
Wish I had done it fifteen years ago.
+1 Beach is about 2 hours (Wrightsville/Topsail Beach), mountains are about 2.5 (Boone, Banner Elk, Blowing Rock), Chapel Hill has some of the best schools in NC, Univ of NC and Duke for education and healthcare, it does get down in to the 40-50s in the winter sometimes and rare snow, plenty of biking in the area, check out Zillow.com, median house prices for a typical 4 bedroom house will be high 300's, low 400's in desirable neighborhoods.
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TeamArgo
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by TeamArgo »

I believe St. Augustine, FL would hit all of your criteria. St. Johns County schools are ranked as best in the state (no snickering, please), and a recent 1/2 percent sales tax increase was dedicated to school construction and further improvements. Weather, check. Nice sized town, check, with easy access to Jacksonville. Bicycle paths, trails, and lanes, check. Beautiful beaches with lots of public access, check. Diverse community, mostly check, and getting better. It would be well worth checking into.
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by emanuel_v19 »

I've lived in San Jose for 10yrs but work in Palo Alto. I can vouch for being one of the best climates in the States, according to many transplants coming from different parts of the US of A. Housing is tough, I rent. But I think the pros of the silicone valley trump the cons of prices, not just in the housing sector. I wake up happy everyday :sharebeer
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by VAB »

TeamArgo wrote: Sat Aug 12, 2017 8:48 am I believe St. Augustine, FL would hit all of your criteria. St. Johns County schools are ranked as best in the state (no snickering, please), and a recent 1/2 percent sales tax increase was dedicated to school construction and further improvements. Weather, check. Nice sized town, check, with easy access to Jacksonville. Bicycle paths, trails, and lanes, check. Beautiful beaches with lots of public access, check. Diverse community, mostly check, and getting better. It would be well worth checking into.
Thank you for your input, what are the best neighborhoods in St. Augustine area (safety, friendly welcoming neighbors, distance to beaches, etc.), what's the average rent for 1 bedroom? Home prices?
I've heard Jacksonville is not very safe nor friendly, is it true? How does that affect St. Augustine?
How much a household appliances repair technician can make there?
Thank you ~
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by Ged »

ThankYouJack wrote: Thu Oct 16, 2014 1:44 pm My wife and I may consider moving once our children start public schools. When that time comes we hope to be able to work part-time so we want to really enjoy where we're living. Our top priorities would be:

1. Top-notch public K-12 schools (or possibly inexpensive/free charter)
2. Great weather (sunny, warm summers, very mild winters ~60 degrees)
3. Great for outdoor activities/adventures (next to the mountains and ocean or lake)
4. Either a large town or small city (maybe 50,000 to 300,000 people)
5. Family friendly, diverse community
6. Bike friendly area

Any recommendations?
I enjoyed growing up in eastern Massachusetts.

With the exception of #2 it has all you want in its suburbs.

1. Schools - the best in the US, overall competitive with anything in the world including Singapore.
2. not always warm - New England, so it does have a real winter.
3. Mountains in NH and western Mass
4. Shore - Cape Cod
5. Quite diverse selection of communities
6. http://www.wbur.org/news/2015/05/12/mas ... ndly-state
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chickadee
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by chickadee »

Northern suburbs - Cedar Hill area - of Austin, Texas. Bonus: no state income tax.
Agree with the spirit of this. But it's Cedar Park, not Cedar Hill. I'd put Round Rock TX, Georgetown TX and San Marcos TX on the list. Near lovely lakes, not ocean FWIW.

If you are an applicance repairman, please come to the area. We have booming growth and lack enough people with these skils, in my opinion.
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Miriam2
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Re: Best place (with warm weather) to raise children

Post by Miriam2 »

VAB wrote: Sat Aug 12, 2017 11:13 pmThank you for your input, what are the best neighborhoods in St. Augustine area (safety, friendly welcoming neighbors, distance to beaches, etc.), what's the average rent for 1 bedroom? Home prices?
I've heard Jacksonville is not very safe nor friendly, is it true? How does that affect St. Augustine?
How much a household appliances repair technician can make there?
Another thread on moving to Jacksonville, Florida Opinions on living in Jacksonville Fl
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