relocation questions- WA, NV, AZ, CA

I'll get info for you, Mike. And thanks!

I'm leaning that way a lot more as I spend the evening researching. I used to live ont he rainy side for a while up there, and liked it okay, but really liked the watersheds out east for hiking.
 
1066vik said:
Have you looked at the Carson City NV area?
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Not especially- I mean, we've looked into a lot of areas, the narrowed list is based mostly on the presence of a fairly large regional medical system- for example in Reno there's specific pediatrics facilities that make jessica think of career advancement as she goes through a master's program.

Another example, though we don't intend to stay in the sacramento area- the hospitals down in sac have full facilities and specialized care, whereas the Sutter Auburn hospital is going to send all the 'interesting' cases down to Sac for care. Leaving your pediatric or L&D nursing experience at a very basic level if you center on the Aurburn area. Granted, that's only a 90 minute commute difference round trip, but a similar case would appy if we moved to marysville or Oroville. As examples- I have NO DESIRE to combine CA lack-of-freedom politics with one of the meth capitals of the world.

Jessica is getting more and more excited about Tri Cities, though I'm still a bit more comfortable with the relaxed NV attitudes. (I'd rather OC than CC, for example)



Of course, there's aspects to raising kids in/near Reno that are a bit less than ideal.
 
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makes good sense - I won't live in Ca (for lots of reasons, blade length and magazine capacity among then) and wasn't sure about the medical facilities in Carson - but it's gorgeous countryside and had a decent rep as a place to live 8-10 years ago when I was considering relocating west, before i got married to a girl who doesn't want to live more than a couple hour drive from her family.
 
Please don't move to AZ. We don't have enough water for two more people. :rolleyes:

Prescott is a nice town with a regional medical center and a VA hospital. I would think that there would be plenty of opportunities for a RN.

RE: Phoenix...:barf: It's another very big city with mega-problems. It's over 100 degrees there for much of the year. I couldn't live there.

Flagstaff is nice if you like lots of snow in the winter. The Prescott area has a fairly moderate climate. It is pretty warm in the summer. About what you have in the Sacto area, but it's much cooler for most of the year.
 
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How does Las Vegas compare with Phoenix, especially climate and crimewise?

Water problems, as in water being more expensive than in the rest of the country?
 
If you're thinking of homesteading as well, make sure you can get an allodial(sp?) title. This means you own the land itself.
 
koyote said:
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The politics of WA aren't as much to my liking as NV, it seems to be going down the same road as CA (so does Oregon) where the overly urbanized coastal population centers mess up the rest of the state.
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I live near the coast. Please don't move to WA state.
 
Northern, AZ,, how about SW Utah. Dixie Medical is an awesome hospital. St George has a lot going for it. You could live 25 miles away, a 25 minute commute and be nearly rural.

Win
 
Christoph!

Tri Cities is a nice area in many ways ( a lot better than Yakima where I live) However it does have a REALLY BAD problem with gangs in the schools. Employmant wise it is better than Yakima cost of living is better than in CA.

Personaly if I were looking to relocate (which I would love to do but lack the funds) I would head over to Idaho. A much better political environment and much easier for the self employed as well. Washington State has some of the highest business taxes in the country, and many policies which a horrible on small business. Plus the state offices which business owners have to deal with are openly and aggressively HOSTILE. The only avenue they leave of appeal to any of their policies or decision is a horribly corrupt and one sided administrative court which decides 98% of the time in favor of any insane regulatory action taken by the state. This includes hrrendous fines for not carrying what they think is adequate insurance (even though the insurance amount carried was the amount required by law). I have operated a one man refrigeration shop in this state for multiple decades and closed it due to the out of control state regulation. The Tax situation for anyone in business is even more insane. I have seen peoples property seized and not returned even after they proved in court that they had paid the bill and produced the canceled money order. These are before you even think of dealing with the environmental folks who regulate water rights etc.

Don't care to rain on your parade but don't want you to move up here and wind up sorry you did so. The frustrating thing is that even if you get what you think is good advice from the state and document it it will do you no good in a dispute with any of the state agencies or departments.

I have lived in this state since I was 4 years old and would leave with a quickness if I was able.
 
I'm an hour north of Reno on the CA side. If I had to live around Reno I would choose the Carson City country side, the Sierra's as a backdrop, no state tax, great hunting and fishing oh yeah!
 
I agree. Wednesday I'm leaving on a property shopping trip to the Carson Valley. If you want an area that is more family friendly than Reno, take a look at Gardnerville and Minden, about 15 minutes south of Carson City. But don't tell anyone else until after I buy!;)

DancesWithKnives
 
Reads like most of your interest is in WA, which is a pretty good choice. However you might be under-realizing the benefits of Reno.

If you are worried about the gambling aspect, I can say that as a resident of Las Vegas for over 10 years that unless you work in the casinos, or have a gambling problem, you avoid the casinos until a relative comes to town.

Median houses look pretty cheap, but the real test is anything to do with schools, such as teacher to student ratios, and average teacher salary vs the national average. Even if you are not in the child rearing age, this is a good indicator of how broke is the government. http://www.trulia.com/real_estate/Reno-Nevada/community-info/

A nice thing about Reno is that is has four seasons, you can actually see the border of town (unlike anywhere in Cali), and plenty of outdoors access. Tahoe is only 45 minutes away and is an easy drive, unless there is a blizzard. http://www.renosparkschamber.org/recreation.htm
 
glockman99 said:
I live near the coast. Please don't move to WA state.
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why? I mean, I have reasons for and against every option on the table, but so far the only one that has massivley more against than for is staying in CA (I'm waiting for the local cities fireplace bans to go statewide just to prove the idiocy of the assembly)

Win Heger said:
Northern, AZ,, how about SW Utah. Dixie Medical is an awesome hospital. St George has a lot going for it. You could live 25 miles away, a 25 minute commute and be nearly rural.

Win
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Haven't really looked specifically outside of the areas we've narrowed to, but I'm personally in love with the whole 100 mile or so radius around the four corners- all 4 states. Extending that west a bit wouldn't be at all bad :D


wildmike said:
Personaly if I were looking to relocate (which I would love to do but lack the funds) I would head over to Idaho. A much better political environment and much easier for the self employed as well.
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One of the attractions of Tri Cities is being in "range" of more states for land purchasing purposes.

wildmike said:
Washington State has some of the highest business taxes in the country, and many policies which a horrible on small business. Plus the state offices which business owners have to deal with are openly and aggressively HOSTILE. The only avenue they leave of appeal to any of their policies or decision is a horribly corrupt and one sided administrative court which decides 98% of the time in favor of any insane regulatory action taken by the state. This includes hrrendous fines for not carrying what they think is adequate insurance (even though the insurance amount carried was the amount required by law). I have operated a one man refrigeration shop in this state for multiple decades and closed it due to the out of control state regulation. The Tax situation for anyone in business is even more insane. I have seen peoples property seized and not returned even after they proved in court that they had paid the bill and produced the canceled money order. These are before you even think of dealing with the environmental folks who regulate water rights etc.

Don't care to rain on your parade but don't want you to move up here and wind up sorry you did so. The frustrating thing is that even if you get what you think is good advice from the state and document it it will do you no good in a dispute with any of the state agencies or departments.

I have lived in this state since I was 4 years old and would leave with a quickness if I was able.
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One of my housemates- and this move will involve two whole families in our little conservative co-op- has heard similar things and asked me about this.

I tend to trun on the mode of "I'm a one man shop, I justmake knives. I'll pay taxes but the government and I don't have to have much to do with each other" and I like it that way.


Mike Quesenberry said:
I'm an hour north of Reno on the CA side. If I had to live around Reno I would choose the Carson City country side, the Sierra's as a backdrop, no state tax, great hunting and fishing oh yeah!
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I love the eastern Sierra. I just do.

For initial moves we're looking at reasonable commuting distance and a rental with a garage for me to work out of. For purchasing we need to wait a year or two, but the areas betwwen reno and carson city and out SW of Carson look good. One thing with nursing is that if she's on a 3 day shift, plenty of nurses make 3 day commutes and have a room they share in town and live WAY out. We know one nurse, in fact, who lives on a ranch in Wyoming and commutes to SAN FRANCISCO!! (where she's well over 140k a year)

DWK2 said:
I agree. Wednesday I'm leaving on a property shopping trip to the Carson Valley. If you want an area that is more family friendly than Reno, take a look at Gardnerville and Minden, about 15 minutes south of Carson City. But don't tell anyone else until after I buy!;)

DancesWithKnives
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I'm looking! I do need to do more research on purchasing. We'd rather purchase land, even OTG land, and build- but the right house would sway us.


zenheretic said:
Reads like most of your interest is in WA, which is a pretty good choice. However you might be under-realizing the benefits of Reno.

If you are worried about the gambling aspect, I can say that as a resident of Las Vegas for over 10 years that unless you work in the casinos, or have a gambling problem, you avoid the casinos until a relative comes to town.

Median houses look pretty cheap, but the real test is anything to do with schools, such as teacher to student ratios, and average teacher salary vs the national average. Even if you are not in the child rearing age, this is a good indicator of how broke is the government. http://www.trulia.com/real_estate/Reno-Nevada/community-info/

A nice thing about Reno is that is has four seasons, you can actually see the border of town (unlike anywhere in Cali), and plenty of outdoors access. Tahoe is only 45 minutes away and is an easy drive, unless there is a blizzard. http://www.renosparkschamber.org/recreation.htm
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wow. All good points. It's also close enough to be done as a staged move.
 
glockman99 said:
I live near the coast. Please don't move to WA state.
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Do people move to Aberdeen on purpose ? :D

zenheretic said:
Reads like most of your interest is in WA, which is a pretty good choice. However you might be under-realizing the benefits of Reno.

If you are worried about the gambling aspect, I can say that as a resident of Las Vegas for over 10 years that unless you work in the casinos, or have a gambling problem, you avoid the casinos until a relative comes to town.

Median houses look pretty cheap, but the real test is anything to do with schools, such as teacher to student ratios, and average teacher salary vs the national average. Even if you are not in the child rearing age, this is a good indicator of how broke is the government. http://www.trulia.com/real_estate/Reno-Nevada/community-info/

A nice thing about Reno is that is has four seasons, you can actually see the border of town (unlike anywhere in Cali), and plenty of outdoors access. Tahoe is only 45 minutes away and is an easy drive, unless there is a blizzard. http://www.renosparkschamber.org/recreation.htm
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My Dads cousin lived in Henderson, Nv for almost 25 years. She was a big wig for one of the banks in LV, and said the same thing. Most locals don't go to the casinos.
 
oh wow. granted, the 40 minute commute would suck a bit, but there's some decent land and house prices outside of carson. Anyone got an extra 25k so we can get a full $50,000 together and pay cash? (!!!!!!!!!) :D

my workshop dreams are a buildin.

WA is still on the table, of course. Heck, so is St George, now.
 
How far east do you want to go? Have you checked out the Derby city? We still have some freedom here in Ky. and Louisville has quite a few hospitals (first hand transplant, great heart care, etc.) and one of the best children's hospitals in the country. Big city with small town feel, decent traffic and nice people.
 
Christoph. Washington state government agencies wont let you have nothing to do with them.

They leave many decisions in codes etc up to the interpretation of the field agenbts and the administrative courts. Which are very hostile to small business and especialy to independent one man operations of any type. It wouldn't be too hard to fight through if it weren't so arbitrary and insane. This state will also tax you on every tool, screw, rivet and even every piece of scrap.

When you think you have met the codes for the building of the shop (and have according to all written codes) Then the inspectors will come after you with their interpretations and what they want you to do (which will add considerably to costs) If you balk and challenge them they will come back everyday with a fine tooth comb and write maximum tickets for every concievable/possible infraction. I know of one company who got one inspectors ticket reduced in one instance. That inspector then did this exact thing to an apartment complex that was being built costing the company an additional $80,000 in fines and court costs.

While you are not likely to be in such a position just be aware that the folks who work in buerocracies in this state are generaly against any kind of one man shop and think what is needed is always more regulation.
 
glockman99 said:
I was born here...THAT'S my excuse.:D.:D.
Actually, I've tried moving away a few times but always end-up back here, sooner or later.:).
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I haven't been there for probably 15 years. It is a nice area.
I have a friend that use to live in Gig Harbor, then he got a divorce and followed his new girlfriend to Spokane.
There are a lot of nice place in Washington
 
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