Finding the best place to live is easier when we are younger and have less things to worry about. When we have no dogs, cats or kids involved, living just about anywhere is possible (within price range).
With families, you have many considerations. How old are your kids? Do you have any pets? Are any parks nearby? A checklist might be needed to decipher all the options and what will work best for your family’s particular needs. Luckily, you’ll find some fun and simple ways to evaluate what city is best for you and your family.
Of course you are always looking for the best for your family and that is where Family Hype can come in handy.
Consider Where You Have Family
Moving where you have siblings or parents living is a great way for your immediate family to be close to extended family. This is a great sociological decision because it will give the feeling of community and purpose. Attitude and belonging can make a huge difference in quality of living. This also can make it easier when adjusting and needing help with babysitting, etc. When starting a new job and moving, finding babysitters or dog sitters could be difficult. With family nearby, you have some built-in people to help out. It might feel like you and your family are the new kids in school when moving, but this feeling will disappear with the efforts of extended family to help you acclimate.
Another way to feel more connected to a community is to look into rental property. Some sites supply landlords with the ability to use a free rental application. This is a great way to get to know people in the city or town and to make some income on the side that can help with the cost of moving. Fixing up a rental property also can be a great family bonding project. These small cities or towns would be happy to have someone come in and create yet another amazing property to rent.
Plan Weekend Trips
Weekend trips are a way to get a good feel for a city. Look online to find the best restaurants and potential future hangout spots. Giving yourself a quick tour of a potential future home city is a great way to speed date a city and see whether it is a good match. And packing is easy for just a few days, especially if you use the best packing cubes.
If you are considering moving to the South, Mississippi has some great gems. Vicksburg and Corinth are two cities to consider. If you take a weekend trip to one of these, you might fall in love and want to make the move.
Weekend trips allow you to assess the potential activities for you and your family to do. You’ll find many unique things to do in Corinth, MS, such as exploring the city’s history or getting to know the bluegrass scene. Moving to a city with art and music is a great way to ensure always having something to do on the weekends! The opportunity to have experiences and get to know the culture of the town you are visiting or moving to is priceless. With that being said, the experiences in Vicksburg, Mississippi, allow for some amazing event spaces for family gatherings and some historic tours to go on as a family. Sometimes trips to new cities also means investing in a new wardrobe. A fresh start is a great excuse to buy some new clothes. Music events are great for a fun floral dress or a new blush maxi dress. Make sure to pack your comfiest and cutest clothes for your weekend Mississippi trip. Cities such as Vicksburg and Corinth should be added to the list of places to move to or just to visit for a weekend.
Pay Attention to School Districts, Employment Opportunities and Activities
Looking at the best school districts in the country will lead you to some amazing communities. Where the schools are great, you’ll usually find a community that cares about the well-being of students and their neighbors.
The Midwest might seem like cornfields and cowboys, but some up-and-coming urban areas might be worth putting on your radar. Some of these great cities are: Kansas City or St. Louis in Missouri, and Omaha, Nebraska. St. Louis has an East Coast vibe without the prices. Kansas City is a city with a lot of pride, friendly people and tons of art and music events. Omaha is another Midwest city that puts a lot of effort into building a community and bringing in art and music. These places also have a low cost of living because they are in the Midwest and not on the coast or in a city where people are fighting to pay $2,000 a month for a 500-square-foot apartment. Check out these cities when looking for jobs, school districts and activities.
Many people looking to move run into the issues that come with high cost of living and poor housing markets in big cities. It’s not that making a move to a big city can’t work for families, but it will be more expensive and take more effort to look into schools and budget. Smaller cities make it easier to have a family and live comfortably while getting the city-life feeling.
Take Your Time and Look at All of the Options
Moving isn’t a decision that is made in one week or even a month. Don’t rush a decision. One way to weigh the options is to narrow it down in a systematic and organized way. Start with thinking about job opportunities. Look at big industries in each city and let that be the first filter. Then look at schools if the kids in your family are younger or have high school ahead of them. Will they have to go to private school if you move? Some cities have poor public education, and private school is the only option. This brings something else to weigh the pros and cons of. Is private school in the budget when moving? Also, look at houses and apartments online and the cost of living. Compare this to your budget.
Once the difficult parts are figured out, take the cities you narrowed down and look at the fun parts of them. If you love live music, look at cities with a lively music scene. Some people want to live in a city but have close access to the outdoors. This is possible in most cities, but how enjoyable the outdoor scenes are varies. Denver, Colorado, and Seattle, Washington, are massive metropolitan areas with some of the most beautiful natural sites less than a 15-minute drive away.
Look at Statistics Because You Would be Surprised
Many cities that are amazing places to live aren’t the first to pop into your head. Usually, we think of the large cities and cities by beaches or mountains. Nearly every state has neat cities. You just need to know how to find some of the good ones. You might even find a city better for you and your family in your current state. The crime rate statistics are also to be taken into consideration. Some cities have an extremely high crime rate because they have specific unsafe pockets. Chicago, for example, has some extremely unsafe areas. Overall, it is a great city to live in and crime rarely happens in safe neighborhoods. Many cities have a higher crime rate because of the concentration of people. Still, it isn’t the best idea to move into a high-crime city with young children. This might be why suburbs exist. They are close enough to the city to enjoy it, but they are in safe locations where crime is usually lower.
Making the moving decision can be hard, but if you make a checklist and agree to a few weekend trips, you will be excited about a fresh start in no time.
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