Best place to live in the US?

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You might also consider Greenville, South Carolina. I have heard good things about it, and I think it is where Fr. Dwight Longenecker’s parish is, if I am not mistaken. (He is a well-known Catholic blogger.)
 
Kindness said:
We are currently living and working in Europe but thinking seriously about a move back to the US. My husband’s family is from CA. We lived in the Seattle area which we loved but we want more sun. Where would you live, given the choice? My husband is in medicine so he usually can find a job in most communities. Catholic schools though high school are very important to us and hopefully affordable housing. I would love to be somewhere where the church is vibrant.
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I’d look at the weather map–the whole middle is hot with the threat of thunderstorms–and reconsider the Pacific Northwest! 😃

Seriously, though…there is not a best place to live in the US, or at least not a best place for everyone. (A good thing, too, isn’t it!)

Think about your favorite things to do where you are now and in Seattle. Do not assume that these are all things you can do anywhere. For instance:

Skiing–you have to have some mountains nearby.
The Ocean–most of the continental US can’t get to it. If you like sunsets on the ocean, you’re talking either the West coast or West Florida.
Restaurants–get on the Chowhound website, list your favorites in Seattle, and ask if certain cities you are considering have anything like it.
Informal clothing–most of the rest of the country comes to Portland and Seattle and think we’re a bunch of slobs, wearing hoodies and comfortable shoes pretty much everywhere. They’re kind of right. (Of course, having been in Europe, you probably know this very well.)

Were it me, I’d locate near one set of your parents, probably somewhere roughly an hour away. Not half an hour, and probably not more than three hours. Why? Your parents are not getting any younger, and taking care of them is difficult from a distance. Don’t assume that siblings who are close will want that entire job–you cannot have too many hands set to that work. If you’re too close, though, you might have more command performances at family functions than would be good for anyone, since moving to be as close to them as possible was not on your Top Five List. Map the Catholic high schools within a four-hour drive of each of your parents, and see what you get. (Where there are Catholic high schools, there are Catholic grade schools, but not the other way around…)

With the affordability issue, you may have to go a bit farther out from the California parents than 90 minutes. You two may also have moved to Seattle precisely because you did not want to leave near your home towns ever again. In that case, consider the feasibility of travel to and from each of your parents. If you look at the travel options, times and cost from different major cities in the country, that could be a real eye-opener (as many parents doing university visits can tell you!!)
 
Megan7 said:
Great post with a nice sense of humor 😉 Thanks.

Do you happen to know if there are several Churches in the area that might offer the Mass in the Extraordinary Form? In Communion with Rome. If so, which ones & where? How hot are the summers? And are tornadoes a big concern or not? Thanks. Pax 🙂
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Ever see the Wizard of OZ? Kansas is in the heart of tornado alley.
 
Kindness said:
Thank you Canuck 000, we were wondering about Asheville, but I don’t see a Catholic high school there. I am also finding that outside the Triangle (where they have established more Catholic schools in the last 20 years) many NC Catholic schools are full with wait-lists. Do you know if that is the case for the Catholic k-8 school in Asheville?
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Asheville is in NC, Baptist county. Billy Graham lives there.
 
Kindness said:
My family are in England so unfortunately Kansas puts us approximately a million miles from everyone we are related to! We did drive through Kansas long ago pre-kids when we were driving from D.C. to Cali and although it sounds strongly Catholic I don’t think DH or I could handle the geography. We both like to get access to water, I am from an island nation and he likes to know we are within reasonable driving distance from an ocean. We also like to sail. We also like hills and valleys so the Great Plains are not really our land.

An international airport that is a reasonable commute is a big plus for when we want to see family abroad or they want to see us. Ditto if we are on the East coast with the American family on West.

We are interested in North Carolina, the Raleigh Diocese seems to have a strong bishop. What about Virginia, someone mentioned Roanoak? I wouldn’t call us conservative although we are Orthodox Catholic, if you follow church teaching you find yourself all over the map politically. I can’t vote anyway as I don’t want to give up my UK citizenship. (Although I can be taxed with no representation! Wasn’t that the revolutionary battlecry?) California doesn’t really hold a lot of appeal but we want to make sure we are open to God’s will and obviously family is there so we are not completely ruling it out. Southern Cal is not us at all. Too much focus on appearance and materialism. The family are in Sacramento and the Bay Area.
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Virginia Beach is not a bad place to live.

There is a decent beach there, and you can be in the Outer Banks of N.C. in 90 minutes. Sailing is popular on the Chesapeake Bay.
Washington is drivable, and N.Y.C is flyable. England is just one plane change although you might have direct flights out of Raleigh if you don’t mind being a little farther from the water.

There are many choices in Catholic Churches from liberal to Latin.

Good luck.
 
I do not recommend west Texas where I live. We are in a drought so bad that people are forbidden to water there lawns or wash their cars. And there is such a thing as TOO conservative and Texas is it. People here are very prejudiced and about the only Catholics are Latinos. Everyday the obits are full of Irish, Germans, Poles, people who should be Catholics but prejudice drives them into Baptist and “non-denominational” churches.

There is not a single parish in the diocese with an EF Mass, but tons of them where the Mass is exclusively Spanish.

I prefer Kansas City MO for it’s MidAmerican normality. Not too big and not too small. They have good churches. They have plenty of water being on the Missouri River, and fountains everywhere it seems. Best barbeque in the world too. NC BBQ is drowned in sour vinegar sauce. Works for fish and chips but not barbeque.
 
EasterJoy said:
Were it me, I’d locate near one set of your parents, probably somewhere roughly an hour away. Not half an hour, and probably not more than three hours.
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If it’s close enough that they can get bring a sauce over to your house and have it still be warm, it’s too close. If it’s far enough away that any visit is an overnight visit, it’s too far. 😛

Sorry, it reminds me of an episode of “Everybody Loves Raymond.” :o
 
EasterJoy said:
Were it me, I’d locate near one set of your parents, probably somewhere roughly an hour away. Not half an hour, and probably not more than three hours. Why? Your parents are not getting any younger, and taking care of them is difficult from a distance. Don’t assume that siblings who are close will want that entire job–you cannot have too many hands set to that work. If you’re too close, though, you might have more command performances at family functions than would be good for anyone, since moving to be as close to them as possible was not on your Top Five List. Map the Catholic high schools within a four-hour drive of each of your parents, and see what you get. (Where there are Catholic high schools, there are Catholic grade schools, but not the other way around…)
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I agree with this too, as a general rule. It is great if you can live close to relatives, especially your parents or your spouse’s parents. As EasterJoy mentioned, that means that you can more easily take care of them when they need it, but it also means that they can help you with babysitting and other things. My wife and I live near my parents, and they are a huge help with our kids. Maybe this isn’t possible in your case, if you really don’t want to live in California, but I think it is worth considering. (And if you can somehow afford to live in California, it is a great place to live in many ways.)
 
PaulGH said:
I agree with this too, as a general rule. It is great if you can live close to relatives, especially your parents or your spouse’s parents. As EasterJoy mentioned, that means that you can more easily take care of them when they need it, but it also means that they can help you with babysitting and other things. My wife and I live near my parents, and they are a huge help with our kids. Maybe this isn’t possible in your case, if you really don’t want to live in California, but I think it is worth considering. (And if you can somehow afford to live in California, it is a great place to live in many ways.)
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One set of parents seems to be in California, the other in England. For me, that would bring it to a choice of living close to one or the other or else living reasonably near a major airline hub that makes it possible to visit either family–like Atlanta, if you like Delta/NWA?–or both, such as living within 2 hr of SFO or LAX if you choose California, or finding somewhere in WA that is an easy grab to SeaTac. (My parents lived absolutely out in the sticks in Oregon, 10 miles from a grocery store, and they’re still only 90 minutes from PDX.) You don’t want a half-day trip to get to or from the airport to tack onto a half- or 3/4- day trip on the plane, and it is good to be able to get direct flights when you have children in tow. Besides, flights to and from the major hubs tend to be cheaper and more plentiful.
 
Hello all, England is not an option for various reasons. With my husbands parents they are no longer together and do not help us with the children. We don’t mind being within a drive so we can see the family. Any closer and the drama would be too much for my husband. We already help his mom financially.

As I mentioned upthread a major international airport within decent driving distance is a major plus. House prices are very important (as they are for anyone) because we always like to have space for relatives and friends to stay - and they are usually traveling internationally. That’s a big downside to CA and another reason that NC looks good.

Can anyone tell me about Walnut Creek in the Bay Area and surrounding areas? The Catholic school told me they were full, are there any Catholic schools and parishes that people are familiar with?
 
Kindness said:
Can anyone tell me about Walnut Creek in the Bay Area and surrounding areas? The Catholic school told me they were full, are there any Catholic schools and parishes that people are familiar with?
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I can’t tell you anything about Walnut Creek specifically, but I can give you a few of my thoughts on the SF Bay Area, based on having lived in or near San Jose about 15 years ago:
  1. Housing is OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive. So much so that I would not consider living there for this reason alone.
  2. Taxes are very high. State government is inept, and seems to want to make life difficult for people moving into California from another state.
  3. The people on average seem shallow and materialistic compared to southern part of the U.S. Midwest and the north-central part of the U.S. South (e.g., parts of Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, and Missouri). Of course there are exceptions to this; I am just giving a general, overall impression, and my impression might differ from other people’s impressions.
  4. The weather is very nice, but also very boring. There are basically just two seasons, warm and dry in the summer, and cool and rainy in the winter. And even the rain is boring. It is always just a slow, steady rain – never a downpour, never high winds, never a thunderstorm. Rain can last for a very long time though. (However, I didn’t live there very long, so maybe they do occasionally get more severe storms, and I just missed them.) But if you want to see snow, the Sierra Nevada mountains are just a short drive away.
  5. The scenery is amazing, and you can find just about any kind of terrain you want within a few hours’ drive – whether it is beach, farmland, redwood forests, grass-covered rolling hills, forested hills, snow-covered mountains, etc. And driving route 1 along the coast is an amazing experience.
  6. The restaurants are wonderful. The best Chinese food, the best Thai food, and the best Mexican food I have ever had were all in the Bay Area.
  7. There are many, many fun things to do, including some of which were mentioned in #5 and #6 above.
 
Kindness said:
Hello all, England is not an option for various reasons. With my husbands parents they are no longer together and do not help us with the children. We don’t mind being within a drive so we can see the family. Any closer and the drama would be too much for my husband. We already help his mom financially.

As I mentioned upthread a major international airport within decent driving distance is a major plus. House prices are very important (as they are for anyone) because we always like to have space for relatives and friends to stay - and they are usually traveling internationally. That’s a big downside to CA and another reason that NC looks good.

Can anyone tell me about Walnut Creek in the Bay Area and surrounding areas? The Catholic school told me they were full, are there any Catholic schools and parishes that people are familiar with?
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I lived in the Bay Area for awhile. Loved it, my husband has relatives down there, but wow is it expensive and wow is the State of California a political basket case. Still, they have all kinds there, every kind of liberal and every kind of conservative and everything in-between and in every other direction.

Walnut Creek is on the BART line but across the hills from the San Francisco Bay, so it is drier and hotter than San Francisco, Berkeley, Albany, or Oakland. Having said that, when I lived there it was also much more middle-class suburban.
 
Kindness said:
We are currently living and working in Europe but thinking seriously about a move back to the US. My husband’s family is from CA. We lived in the Seattle area which we loved but we want more sun. Where would you live, given the choice? My husband is in medicine so he usually can find a job in most communities. Catholic schools though high school are very important to us and hopefully affordable housing. I would love to be somewhere where the church is vibrant.
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I would look closely at Morgantown, West Virginia.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgantown,_West_Virginia

Morgantown is a small city (pop. +/- 30,000) that often shows up on various “Best Places to Live” lists for cities of its size. It is the home of West Virginia University; the state’s flagship center of education.

Morgantown offers a low cost of living, friendly people and a low crime rate. There is a large Catholic presence there; many of whom are decendants of Italian immigrants that came over to work in the coal mines in the late 1800s. There is a Catholic School in town.

And, Morgantown is a “mecca” of sorts for those in the medical field. There is the West Virginia University Medical School along with its affiliated Ruby Memorial Hospital, and well as a county-run “general” hospital. There are also several medical research facilities in Morgantown as well as Mylan Pharmaceuticals; the largest manufacturer of generic drugs in the country.

Plenty of cultural activities as well due to the University; everything from Division I college football to opera. And if you are an outdoorsy type person, you can’t go wrong living in the Appalachian mountains. There is a small airport with commecrial airline service. International Airport service is just 75 miles away in PIttsburgh.

Morgantown should really be on your short-list of places to look at.
 
Thank you all so much for your feedback, I really appreciate it. We will visit NC and CA in early October. At the moment we are still favoring NC but tying to be open to God’s will and not tell him how is has to be! Of course this all hinges on the right job, so at the moment that’s our focus. If I throw out random areas it’s because there is a job there. Neither of us are crazy about CA but the family would love us to be there so we will sincerely look to see if it can work. Pace of life is important to us and we are trying to avoid any ratrace scenarios. We also have never visited NC so we need to see if our impressions line up with reality. Any more thoughts and opinions would be gratefully received. Please pray for us that the right job comes up in the right community.

BTW we could always move his mom closer to us (or in with us) if need be in the future. His dad is remarried to a younger woman so has more support.

How is the heat in NC? I lived in Washington D.C. so I’m familiar with the humidity and heat but are the summers manageable?
 
Kelfa28 said:
I know I’ll probably get a little flamed for mentioning this…but have your considered Massachusetts?

Not all the areas are “Cafeteria” Catholic. I belong to a very Orthodox church and I know their are plenty of others like the one we attend.
The Southeast area of Massachusetts has tons of Catholic Churches and most of them are very active.
When I say there is a Catholic Church at each corner…I’m not kidding. We drive by two active parishes to get to our Church that is only about 4 miles away.
There are loads of good Catholic schools here too. I think there are 10 Catholic elementary/middle schools and 2 Catholic high schools within 15 miles of my house.

I’m in the Fall River Diocese and it’s a good diocese. Churches are closing all over the place in Massachusetts but not in this diocese.

The towns are nice, the beaches are close and beautiful…the politics are terrible and the taxes are high.
But, IMHO…there isn’t a better place to work in the medical field anywhere. Boston is so close to where I live…the state is small and their are hospitals everywhere.
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I agree with Kelfa!!! Look into the south shore in Massachusetts!!! Catholism is blooming in that area and she is not exaggerating when she says there is a church on every corner. I recently moved there from the north shore ( which is not bad but south shore religiously speaking is better) and have found a very strong catholic community and is really blooming. Most people I see around are practicing Catholics and yes there is plenty of great Catholics schools.
 
Kindness said:
Thank you all so much for your feedback, I really appreciate it. We will visit NC and CA in early October. At the moment we are still favoring NC but tying to be open to God’s will and not tell him how is has to be! Of course this all hinges on the right job, so at the moment that’s our focus. If I throw out random areas it’s because there is a job there. Neither of us are crazy about CA but the family would love us to be there so we will sincerely look to see if it can work. Pace of life is important to us and we are trying to avoid any ratrace scenarios. We also have never visited NC so we need to see if our impressions line up with reality. Any more thoughts and opinions would be gratefully received. Please pray for us that the right job comes up in the right community.

BTW we could always move his mom closer to us (or in with us) if need be in the future. His dad is remarried to a younger woman so has more support.

How is the heat in NC? I lived in Washington D.C. so I’m familiar with the humidity and heat but are the summers manageable?
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I haven’t been to North Carolina, other than walking just past the Tennessee/NC border sign at the peak of the road the crosses Smoky Mountain National Park. But I have heard many good things about North Carolina, and I don’t think you would be making a bad choice at all if you decide to move there.
 
Okay, it’s a few days later than your post, but I’m going to still keep plugging Roanoke, VA. My daughter loves Charlotte, NC but she’s younger and likes bigger city living 😃 We are in the bible belt here and yup there are lots of protestants (but being a former one, I don’t hold it against them…bad form). We have four Catholic churches to choose from, it’s smaller city living…rush hour is more like rush 10 minutes (having grown up in No. Va. right outside D.C, I know about real rush hours), lots of parks, year round farmer’s market, Salem is the city next door and it’s very nice as well. Google it…our autumn is sensational! Hiking trails, bike trails, small zoo, nice people 🙂
 
here guys i’m also going to introduce a Harvest Christian Center.The’re glad that you’ve come to The’re websiteharvestcc.me/
 
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