<p>I don’t really hate Iowa and there are a lot of positives here: low cost of living, people are nice, no traffic, very little crime, any person can afford a nice home and live in a nice area which means, less social inequality, no ghettos except for some very small “seedy” areas in Des Moines.</p>
<p>This place is getting old for me because I am in my 30’s, I am single and socially, there is not much to do here for people who are older than 21.</p>
<p>If I was married and planning to settle down and have kids, this would be an ideal place to live. </p>
<p>Small city is great except when you (a) when you want to meet people and (b) when you marry and your spouse wants to work… </p>
<p>Having said that, for quality of outdoor life you won’t beat the South, or near South, unless you love snow. Lower cost of living, year round outdoors, great food, great state universities, great sports… </p>
<p>I drove from Boston to Portland, ME once and I really liked Portland. It is a small town but very nice! </p>
<p>I have to confess that driving on the Maine Turnpike at night was a very scary experience- all those moose crossing signs freaked me out, I can only imagine what is like hitting a moose in the dark going 70 mph. :)</p>
<p>Old Orchard Beach was also a lovely place. As much as I dislike Boston immensely, I have nothing negative to say about Maine.</p>
<p>I am in IE right now and I can tell you that most of these jobs are located on the outskirts of big cities. Especially for manufacturing you will probably end up in a plant on the outskirts of a city like Detroit or Chicago. That’s why I switched from MinE to IE. You can get the smaller town life with less expensive housing with a major city just 15 minutes away. I pray that I can get a job around Ft. Collins/Denver when I graduate. I love that area with a passion.</p>
<p>When we visited Washington State, son was not too impressed with Seattle, didn’t like the traffic, but he loved the area where the Microsoft campus was located. Particularly liked Kirkland. Although he unfortunately won’t be attending grad school there, future grandma is hoping that’s where he’ll eventually settle down.</p>
<p>One concern with smaller locations is lack of other jobs, if yours should “disappear”. Not saying you shoudl rule it out. Just consider the likelihood of job stability in your decision process. </p>
<p>Please don’t encourage anyone to relocate to Washington. Many of the great places in the Puget Sound region are now crowded and sadly have begun to resemble both NORTHERN and SOUTHERN California. How is that even possible? LOL. Yeah, Kirkland is an oasis, but not for long. Drat!!!</p>
<p>You don’t have to worry about this Californian moving there, lol.</p>
<p>I lived in Seattle for about a year after college and absolutely hated it. I moved back to CA and vowed never to return. The winter weather - solid grey skies, drizzle, and no sun for literally WEEKS on end - combined with the 70+ hour work weeks, traffic, and claustrophobic feel to the area were just too much. It is not a sustainable place to live IMO, unless you are some kind of masochist! :P</p>
<p>One the plus side, the scenery is very pretty once you get completely out of the city!</p>
<p>@bschoolwiz, I’ve never seen a moose on the Turnpike. We did hit one on a back road, though. He came running from the woods on the passenger side. My husband swerved to the left, and the moose slammed into the passenger front window. I was sitting in the front passenger seat. I saw this HUGE moose head, including massive antlers and bloodshot eyes, before it slammed into the windshield. His body swung around and literally smashed the ENTIRE right side of our Tahoe. He got up and ran into the woods! One of the windows shattered and my son got a little glass in his eyes. We were over an hour away from the nearest ER. The state trooper said we were lucky to be in a big SUV.</p>
<p>@Vladenschlutte, housing prices have gone up a LOT in Austin the last few years. Everyone wants to live downtown or close in. Many houses have been torn down in order to make room for bigger ones. I miss Austin, but not the traffic!</p>
<p>^ Interesting. I would have figured Round Rock, or near Lake Travis to be more desirable areas to live. Some of the housing developments along the 360 loop are beautiful. I didn’t find downtown Austin all that attractive to be honest.</p>
<p>I’m interning at a nuclear power plant in Western PA about an hour from Pittsburgh. I thought finding a 1 bedroom apartment for $400/month was an absolute steal. After talking to some of the locals, I can find a place furnished for $350.</p>
<p>I would say small town definitely allows you to live a different lifestyle. Even as an intern I have been able to put aside a substantial amount of money before I head back to school. Same sized place closer to pittsburgh would probably run $800+ per month for rent alone.</p>
<p>I was looking at some jobs in small towns in South Carolina. You can buy a pretty decent home in these areas for about 60 K but I realize this type of lifestyle is not for everyone. I can see how some people would think SC is kind of a backwards place but, you can live really well in place like that making 6 figures.</p>
<p>Be careful to distinguish small town from suburb. Suburb equals traffic! A lot of companies are moving their offices to the suburbs because of high crime in the city. Also, I find college towns have high price housing, because that’s what the market can bear. Students willing to pay high prices for the convenience of proximity to campus. While one may be able to find employment in a small company started by professors, unless they’re lucky enough to be absorbed by a bigger company which takes you along, I don’t feel like that’s good job security, either.</p>
<p>Fractal, you make the PNW sound like Dante’s Inferno, without the heat. Heh, heh.</p>
<p>Yeah, the powers that be have allowed every cluster of trees and small forests in the city of Seattle to be bulldozed for housing in the last 20 years. The elimination of nature. No more rabbits and pheasants or wild blackberries down the road like when I was a kid. Concrete, blacktop and subdivisions EVERYWHERE these days.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that there is huge variety of locations on East coast. I went to college waaaaay upstate NY, and there were more cows than people in that rural county. It is nothing like NYC. </p>
<p>There are now homes selling for nearly $1 Million on Kiawah Island, SC. It wasn’t that long ago that the place had few roads and was full of snakes!</p>
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