nicksta43 wrote: It was 98 here yesterday with a heat index of 100. It felt cooler to me than 92 in Knoxville.
Same thing with me when I lived in Oklahoma. 110F days were more comfortable than 85F days in Ohio, because of less humidity and a constant wind.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned Prescott, Arizona. Foothills of the mountains, moderate climate year round, lots of cultural activities.. One caveat, it is expensive. Lots of California retirees have adopted the area and real is pricey.
I live in Hendersonville, NC and work in Brevard, NC. Been in the area since '90 and love it.
Highlands Sports Car Club is active in the area too. Chrispy and I were out autocrossing with HSCC just last night.
Lots of things to do! It's cooler here since the elevation is about 2,000 feet above sea level.
Not Austin. DO NOT MOVE TO AUSTIN. thank you.
PNW is nice.. Moderate weather and a good economy. Housing is expensive, but taxes are relatively low. Oregon has no sales tax and Washington has no income tax. (I got a 6% raise by just moving, due to no income tax).
HAHA. Calteg I totally agree! TG I no longer have to commute downtown anymore. That was a severe exercise in please shoot me.
Nicksta, What part of TX are you in? I think I must have gotten use to it over the 13 years of living in Austin. I no longer notice it too much anymore.
Arkansas is full, sorry no vacancy. See if you can convince some of the latest new comers to go with you wherever you wind up. 
NWA saw a much less severe impact of the "economic downturn" than most of the rest of the country thanks in large part to Walmart and all of the business interests that cater to them. The gargantuan agricultural and poultry industry in the area helped too, everyone's got to eat. The rest of the state is mostly rural, short of the North West, North East, and South West corners, and the Central part of the state. East Central is pretty urban too, but why would anyone in their right mind want to live in West Memphis?
Where I live, Conway, about 30 miles NW of Little Rock has seen a 10% annual population increase over the past ~3 years. It was once a sleeper community, everyone worked in LR, and lived in Conway. Now it's becoming an urban center in its own right, it's a college town 3 different institutions, and all of the shopping and restaurants that were once only in Little Rock or NWA are now appearing in Conway too.
While I appreciate Conway, I kind of hate it too. The infrastructure hasn't kept up with the boom. For some asinine reason stoplights are being replaced with roundabouts, and of course no one knows how to use them. A large influx of post Katrina "refugees" never left, and brought a bit of New Orleans with them. If you told me 10 years ago there would be panhandlers outside store fronts in Conway, AR I'd have told you, "you're crazy."
I lived in Fayetteville for 10 years, and absolutely loved it. I was hoping when we moved back to AR last year we'd be in NWA again, but the employment opportunities for our fields were hiring in LR, not NWA.
I'm rambling, here's some motivation/advertisement:
http://www.movoto.com/blog/opinions/photos-of-arkansas/
We get "snow" but after 3 years in OH, I'll take AR snow over OH snow anytime.
In reply to bmw88rider:
Temple, Killeen, Waco, Bryan, College station.
Florida panhandle, near the ocean for breeze in the summer. Very nice if you find the right spot.
I vote for Carolinas, Charlotte or Raleigh/Durham. Cash coming in, newish, good mix of people, 2-3 hours west to the mountains, 2-3 hours east to the ocean beaches. And close to blue ridge and great driving roads
Toyman01 wrote: Charleston SC SUCKS. You really don't want to move here. No really, we have enough Yankees already and don't want any more.
I like ATL, but haven't lived there. Just visited for a couple weeks.
Asheville is cute, but I didn't see the big draw. I found it to be remarkably expensive for what you get.
Los Angeles has dreamy weather, but you pay for it.
Savannah is gorgeous but haven't lived there.
Arizona is nice if you can tolerate the heat. 350ish clear days a year, don't worry about rust and plenty of car related events to enjoy if you are near Tucson or Phoenix. Plenty of mountains to escape for the weekend to cool off too. California os close enough to visit for a weekend with out having to pay the price to live there.
Wow! Thanks for all the feedback guys!
We're both teachers, so pretty much anywhere there are schools, there will be work (hopefully), but the money will be somewhere between e36m3 and ok-ish depending where we end up. I'm ok with a little snow, but am tired of winterbeaters and snow tires.
Like I'm sure many of you do, I think of my plans in terms of cars….I miss my supra that I sold because I couldn't drive it in the salt in good conscience, I want another and I want to drive it whenever I'm not on a superbike. I'll keep the fj40 for if god forbid it snows or for wheeling, camping trips (mostly at racetracks) pulling an adventure trailer with a roof top tent, (or a zombie apocalypse of coarse).
I like the thought of being near the mountains and I like being within a couple hr drive of water, I like living just outside an area that has lots to do.
Asheville NC folks: What do we need to see while we're in town? (good/bad)
If you can deal with the heat, then Vegas should tick most of the boxes and when my wife lived there, they had a teacher shortage.
80% of Arizona is public land, half is national parks/monuments and half is state trust land/state parks. E36 M3 loads of off-roading out here.
I worked in Arizona for a week and fell in love with it, mostly because of the weather. My one question, however, is where does a car guy keep his cars? It seems like almost everywhere is urban living with maybe two car garages...what do multi-car guys do for storage? Keep 'em in rental units? If I'm living in a place where I can drive cool cars most of the year, I'm going to have more than two, but I don't like the idea of leaving them parked on the street. Where I come from in the east, we've got lots of places with multiple outbuildings, barns, garages, etc. which I didn't see when I was in AZ, UT or NV.
Kia_Racer wrote: I have been looking to transfer to the Winston-Salem area of NC. Doing research online. Mostly because I am tired of the oppressive heat 8 months at a time.
What industry do you work in? I live in Winston. Some people love it, some people HATE it here.
Asheville is awesome, but I've always heard "bring your own job".
carbon wrote: We're both teachers, so pretty much anywhere there are schools, there will be work (hopefully), but the money will be somewhere between e36m3 and ok-ish depending where we end up.
In NC is definitely on the E36 M3 end of that scale. NC has some of the lowest teacher salaries in the country.
Other ATL folks would have more input than me, since I'm a newbie, but everything on your list is here. Schools...check. My wife took a job with Paulding County schools, she starts next week. She interviewed with lots of schools here and was impressed. Race tracks...check. Road Atlanta, which I can't wait to check out. There are others nearby. The ocean is far away, but lots of large lakes nearby. I live 5 minutes from Lake Acworth, which has beaches and lots of stuff to do. Mountains are also very close.
We love Prescott, AZ; unfortunately the Californians have discovered it so real estate is really up there.
This winter Mrs. 914 and I are checking out New Mexico.
The paddock at RA, VIR or possibly Barber would be good choices.
I really like living in Pittsburgh, and so do the people who live here. We do get snow and grey weather in the winter, but 3 out of 4 seasons are very enjoyable. In NC, I could hardly be outside in the middle of summer. In PA, folks start calling 75 degrees "hot".
Pittsburgh has a low cost of living, cheap homes, great schools (besides city schools), fantastic restaurants, a growing downtown, and some great friendly people. Seriously, the people here are the friendliest I've found nationwide. Jobs are getting more and more abundant thanks to the gas industry (gasp, OH MY GAWD FRACKING). I have really grown to love it here.
ScreaminE wrote:
No snow was right in the subject my good man! First chink in the armor...
ScreaminE wrote: We do get snow and grey weather in the winter
Yeah, I was totally oblivious that the OP said no snow.
I have a lot of love for the Mountains and foothills of NC, but the mountains will get snow. Not the kind that stays very long.
If I was a lesbian, I would go straight (no pun intended) to Asheville. Otherwise, I just don't quite get Asheville.
If you go to Asheville, got to 12 Bones down on the river.
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