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Realistically, we'd never really move because both our families are here and being close to them is extremely important to us.

Financially, COL is so freaking high here and we are just getting by (we're doing fine, just don't have extras/luxuries). Even moving a 3-5 hours away we'd get so much more for our money (job situations aside).

I think if we were suddenly a lot richer, life would be a lot more comfortable where we are now! I feel like most other places I'm drawn to probably all have high COL.

If I'm just dreaming, I'd totally do something like what the Bees are doing now! Living in some remote island, running a resort, etc (tho Mrs Bee is now in the capital with the kids most of the time).

I have the opposite problem... I'm in upstate NY and the weather has already turned cold, dark, and drizzly, and I can just feel my SAD kicking in as we speak!

My ideal living situation would be somewhere with a less brutal winter and more of a large urban/metropolitan area.

We think about this all the time...

Right now we’re in the SF Bay Area. Great job opportunities, entertainment, nature, diversity, education. COL is a real bear though and our family isn’t here.

We used to live and plan to eventually return to Raleigh NC. Good but not quite-as-good jobs, entertainment, diversity, education. COL is really reasonable (like 10% of what ownership is in the Bay Area) and our family is there. Seems like a no brainer when I spell it out but right now my husbands work is in CA.

Back to my hometown in Washington. I miss trees that weren't planted by humans. Desert-living can be sad. Unfortunately, that housing market is crazy and jobs for me are practically non-existent. While I could work for my current company remote, I don't think I'd enjoy it long-term.

I took this quiz and got my own hometown, a town 20 minutes from me now, and some other intriguing options I've added to my list: https://www.bestplaces.net/fybp/

We’re in a Dallas-area suburb and generally love it here. It’s a great place to raise a family, low COL, and our families are close.

I feel you on the heat, though. Yesterday was SO hot and I hate running around town with the kids on days like that. I become a sweaty mess just getting them in and out of the car and it’s way too hot to go the park.

I love a lot about where we live, in a far suburb of Boston. It’s a great community feel, just totally gorgeous, not much traffic, but the trade off is we are far from many major conveniences- target is 20 min away, there are a couple good restaurants within 10-20 minutes but most are 30 min. We have long cold winters, but our fall is so amazing, and summers are fairly mild.

The thing I hate the most is how early it gets dark for so long in the winter. I had driving home from after school activities and it’s already totally dark. I can deal with the cold and the snow, but the darkness gets to me. But I love it here so wouldn’t move.

Like someone else said, realistically we're never going to leave because both of our extended families are here, and it's very important to us to be close by them. We're in ND, and I love a lot of things about it - 95% of people are SO genuinely nice, they'd give you the shirt off their back if you needed it. It's low-crime, and I live in a bigger city (for ND) so there's plenty of opportunity for jobs, social life, kids activities, etc.

I'm just SO sick of the COLD. Last year we had storm after storm, it snowed into May. Then June was kind of like our spring - 50s-60s and raining constantly. It didn't really get to shorts weather til the week before 4th of July. And now it's cold again already, 40s all this week and most of the state got snow a couple days ago.

If I could just pick up both of our extended families and move all of us somewhere, I think I would stay midwest but a little further south. I have some friends from college that moved to Omaha after graduation and we've visited them there many times. It seems nice, still very midwest, but they have more of an actual summer. I'm sure some people think it's hilarious that Omaha is my "dream location", haha. But I love the midwest!

We talk about this often... We currently live north of Boston and we love the area. We're 10 minutes away from the beach, an hour or a bit more to the mountains, we all ski,.... the city is close and we both work there, and there are lots of conveniences within 15 minutes or less of our home. Family is close-ish, 1 hour and 3 hours.

We almost moved to San Francisco before we had kids, which I LOVE, but as mentioned, COL is crazy. And now that we have kids in the school system we'll likely stay put. But we even talk about staying in the area when the kids are out of school/when we retire.

We're just New Englanders at heart I think!

@MrsADS: We are in Southwest Florida and agree with you on many of your points!

We are in a smaller area (it's a vacation destination spot with a lot of snowbirds) but not thrilled on raising my kids here even though it's "paradise" and all of our family is here.

I always wish that if cost wasn't an issue to move out of Florida not sure where though! I love seasons and wish we had them and wish we had better job opportunities that other states offer.

We're currently in Atlanta (me born and raised and him since middle school). We have 3 of our 4 parents here and probably won't leave anytime soon because of family and job opportunities.

But the traffic and congestion here is getting so bad!! Every time we turn around, they're building a new apartment, condo, or townhouse without the infrastructure to support it. My husband's commute takes him to the opposite side of the city every day, and there's no way for him around the gridlock. There's no public transportation option for his commute either. We talk a lot about moving to a smaller city that is a little easier to navigate, like Nashville or Charlotte sized. But I don't think we'll do that as long as our parents are here; they're not getting any younger...

If money and travel were no object, I'd love to live in San Diego. The weather there is fantastic. No snow but not too hot either. And the beach is close by too!

@foodiebee: I'm not a fan of the heat we've had lately at all. It's 96 degrees today! But I also can't handle snow being a southerner. And my husband grew up in AZ as a kid, so we're destined for somewhere warmer.

The housing cost is just so high in SD! We looked up real estate prices last time we were there, and it just wasn't a possibility. The salaries that I saw weren't that much more than we make here either. I don't know how people do it.

I've never actually been there, but I've always wanted to live in Montana on a ranch. (I've never ranched either lol) I also wouldn't mind living in Hawaii (also never been there)

I haven't travelled much! I've lived in CA as a kid and lived in AZ for 30 years now. I wouldn't mind northern CA if $ wasn't an issue. I'll probably live in AZ for the rest of my life though.

We live just north of Chicago (like a 20 minute drive if traffic is good). Same as many people have said, realistically we will never leave because my family is here and all our friends are here. We also love that it's a moderate COL for being a metro area. Plus it's easy for us to get into the city with so much great stuff to do and restaurants to eat at. If money was no object, we would move from the suburbs back to our old Chicago neighborhood, but it was way too expensive to buy a house there, and I was sick of condo living. BUT.... we hate the winters. Every winter we talk about moving, but we have no idea where that would be. Weather-wise and culture-wise, the two places I would consider would be southern CA or New Orleans (where I lived for a few years many years ago). But I love that we don't deal with natural disasters in our area of the midwest, and we don't know anyone in CA or New Orleans. So horrible polar vortexes and -50 weather is in our future for now.

It's so hard to say! Does Stars Hollow count? There are many regions of the U.S. I haven't been to, so I can't answer accurately but I feel like it's limited because my SAD is already bad enough in California winters. Basically, we are near family and get LOTS of help, we live in an area that pays teachers really really well, and COL is low. We are an hour and a half from everything: SF, beach. mountains, lakes... However, it's not a very desirable place to live. We have lots of diversity, but we have few amenities, high culture, etc. We don't have "real" museums, galleries, etc. I think the other saving grace is that I grew up in a town about 20 minutes here that is even WORSE. Like meth lab capital. At least the town I live in now has a university and a cute downtown area with lots of shops, cafes and coffee shops.
I used to live in the SF north bay and loved it, but it's so far out of our price range.

@kayla0416: This made me laugh. I’m in Winnipeg, and I heard a couple years ago that in 20 years we were going to have weather like Nebraska, so now I always check out the Omaha forecast and think “that would be so nice”.

@JJ2626: Feel free to pm me if you have questions. Burlington in particular is super community focused/friendly. Some of the burbs are a little less so, but still definitely more connected than our neighborhood in Chicago.

@hitchhiker: yay for Baltimore!

I live about 25 miles west of Baltimore and I love where we live. We are far enough away that we still see farms and traffic isn't crazy yet we are close enough to DC, Baltimore, Gettysburg that we get to enjoy all that the big cities offer. The cost of living is ridiculous but we love it here!!