ESCAPE FROM CA - Help me choose a new place to live

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Sven

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California is really starting to get at me - I mean REALLY get at me. The talk of tax hikes (income, $0.10 per round ammo tax) and all the draconian laws here are really getting me down.

Please help suggest places for me to move....not sure if my requirements below are realistic.

Desired characteristics:

1) Good weather most of the year (prefer warmer to colder)
2) Want rural setting, but relatively near (ie, 1-2 hour drive) metro center with conveniences and culture
3) Need high-speed internet access (ISDN OK, prefer faster)
4) Shall-issue CCW or easy issuance
5) No state income tax
6) No laws against AR-15s, std.cap mags, Class III, etc.
7) Low crime

Ideas?
 
Reconsider the No State Income Tax requirement. Texas has no income tax but our property tax is 3 times what it was in arizona. My overall taxes in AZ were half what they are in texas when you add state income tax with property tax.
 
Sven,

Kinda sounds like Knoxville to me, buddy, or Chattanooga.
Mapquest gives a time of 31/2 hours to Atlanta from Knoxville...driving the speed limit.

Tamara, how long does it take to get to Atlanta?:D
 
Try Pahrump Nevada 1Hr from Las Vegas, No handgun registration Nye County. Home of front sight plenty of Boflm to shoot on. low crime rate conservative part of Nevada. Looking to move from las Vegas myself.

If I can help let me know
Roy
 
Don't forget about the proposed tripling of your auto registration in CA.

My vote is for the DFW area. I just moved from San Diego a few weeks ago. My wife is a native San Diegan, and she loves Dallas so far.
 
I was going to suggest Pahrump NV myself, since it answers every requirement you have with one exception. To the best of my knowlege, there is no highspeed internet connection. Now, it looks like you may be talking about stuff that is beyond that of most home users, and I don't know about that.

We have good weather most of the year. The "bad" weather is when it is really (I mean REALLY) hot.
It is a rural setting, my drive to work is about an hour and 15 minutes, but I live on the farthest side of town away from Las Vegas, you could live in the South end of town and knock off probably 20 minutes. We do have two supermarkets and a super Wal-Mart is built and ready to open.
We have shall issue CCW, and open carry is not uncommon in Pahrump
We have no state income tax
There are no laws against AR15s (I have 9 of them and shoot them all the time). No magazine issues. Class III is no problem, I own a sub gun and have two suppressors ordered and paided for awaiting delivery. When I went into the Sheriff's office to get my paperwork signed I was really sheepish about it. I was telling the Chief Deputy that I had a minor collection of WWII rifles and I wanted to round out my collection with a Sten. Not only was there no problem with signing the paperwork , but he started telling me how much fun I was going to have with it and showed me a few of his personal guns he had in his desk.
Low Crime; compared to what ? We do have crime. It isn't nearly as bad as a major city, but it is not unheard of.

Pahrump is a town of 30,000 people, although it is very spread out. A standard lot is considered to be 1 1/4 acre. So the town is maybe 10-15 miles long across the valley. Pahrump is a growing town as Las Vegas housing prices, and California housing prices have gotten to the point that the average guy can't own a home. so it is in kind of a transitional state. It is going from a rural farming community, to a small city. We just got paid firefighters for example.
Pahrump is also close to Southern California if you live in Southern California now and have friends or family still there. In fact the Western edge of Pahrump pretty much ends at the California state line. I spent two days last week fishing in Lone Pine which is right on the other side of Death Valley from us.
 
NW Washington north of Mt. Vernon to the Canadian border and east to the Cascades. We get less than half the rain of Seattle. A cold overnight low in the winter is 20, a hot day in the summer is 85. Alternately, the Yakima Valley, our wine country. Gun friendly, except no Class III.

Prescott AZ.

East TN from Nashville east.

Bend OR.

Run to the boder...
 
There are some nice areas on the outskirts of houston, but to be honest, Houston traffic is horrible. I second the DFW recomendation, a lot of my friends live up there. Seems that there are LOTS of little cities close to dallas but still small and self sufficient...
 
Come on, you just have to join the Tennessee Chapter of THR!!!

No state income tax, sales tax is 9.25-9.75% though, depending on the county. Some counties have 28% liquor tax, so if you do consume alcohol, I would avoid those.

Shall Issue State.

Weather... how are you with tornadoes? We moved to TN from MD, and Cslinger still can't get used to the fact that weather kills people here. He is getting better, though - slept in his own bed and not in a closet this time around. Other than that, I really like the weather here. It's in the 90's right now, and summers and falls are awesome.

Have to disclose that, as a rule, people cannot drive. You will see people making left out of the right turn lanes in front of you, running red lights, U-turns in the middle of 4-lane roads, etc, and so forth.

Crime is probably average, worse to the West of Nashville, but it is less violent than what we are used to in Baltimore-DC area.

Shooting is cheap. I am not sure how fees are in CA but in MD Cslinger tells me you had to pay $30-ish for 1/2 hour or something. Indoor range fees are generally $12-15/day here, or annual memberships are around $150-250.

Registration and emission test are annual (mentioning, once again, because it was bi-annual in MD), and it's about $80-90.

We have Comcast cable modem, and it's decent, DSL is also here.

Overall cost of living is a pleasant change for us as we could never afford a single home in MD. Our house would easily be 2.5-3 times as much there.

Have I mentioned the TN Chapter of THR? Oh, yeah, I did...
Good Luck with whatever you decide.
Sheslinger
 
Come on over...

to Alabamastan. We have come a long way since the police dogs and fire hoses of the 60's. Most people don't realize we are not all living in houses on stilts in the swamp. We have a good quality of life, and it is getting better all the time. Don't listen to what Neal Boortz says, we have shoes and we wear them. A well kept secret. :cool:
 
Start here... http://www.findyourspot.com/

enter your non-gun criteria and it will generate a list of cities across the country, then go to packing.org to find out about gun laws in those places.

The website is fun, and it came up with some really great places for me (but now I have to stay where I'm at for a couple of years).
 
Short of the state income tax part, Colorado fits well.


Come on over and pretend you're John Denver for a while...except that nasty crashing habbit.
 
Ladybug wrote
Start here... http://www.findyourspot.com/
Click to expand...
That was an interesting site, Ladybug. Thanks. I was born, raised, and still live in California.

Your quiz ended up telling me Tennessee, either of the Carolinas, or maybe Georgia/Mississippi. I would never have thought that was where my preferences would lead.

I'm going to have to take a long vacation trip and come check out that part of the country. I drove through Tennessee one night, but have never visitied.
 
Places not to move to are Maryland. Generally anti-gun owner and high taxes, especially in the high population areas. In some places in Maryland crime is horrific (Baltimore and Prince Georges County). Maryland is about the sixth wealthiest State.

You might want to look at Virginia. Shall issue and lower taxes. I may move to Virginia out of Maryland when I retire. Climate is not too bad in either Maryland or Virginia. Some winters are fairly warm and there is not a lot of snow or ice storms usually except in the western mountains. Summers can be hot and humid. Spring and Fall are usually quite nice.

West Virginia might be another possibility. However they say if West Virginia was ironed flat, it would be bigger than Texas. Apparently taxes are pretty high too.
 
You might consider the area around Fredericksburg/Kerrville, Texas. An hour or so from either Austin or San Antonio. Lower humidity than either city. A bit of gentrification, but not nauseatingly so. Lots of hunting. Not too far for fishing and boat-riding.

A buddy of mine has Satellite Internet, and really likes it. I think he paid around $300 for the antenna rig, and it's $60/month. Saves the separate phone line and the $10/month higher-than-common ISP cost in Terlingua.

Art
 
Central Oregon

Weathers good most of year, a little dry in the summer, can snow several feet in winter. No extra gun laws, shall issue. There is an income tax, but no sales tax.

The area around Bend is nice.

Normally Oregonians despise Californians moving there and bringing their California ideas, but I think those ideas are what you want to get away from.

I hate Kali too, and want to get back to Oregon ASAP.
 
Another thanks to Ladybug. Chatanooga TN was #1. Most of the others were in the South, including a few more in TN. Some I have considered, others not. It will be fun exploring a few. Funny, MD and CA were not on the list.
 
Sven,

I'm in the same boat. We are trying to find a place with good gun laws and low cost of living and a place where I can work in my field of IT support.

Jacksonville FL is in my top 3 - more mild weather than most of FL, very business friendly and telecom infrastructure like crazy - low cost of living and low housing prices. Very affordable homes even with water front.

I just added San Antonio to the list. You can buy a GIGANTIC home there for $100k and its a 1.6Mil metro area so they should have some tech.

Use findyourspot.com and play with your answers - read about the cities it comes up with.

One of the things it asks you is your tolerance for taxes, crime and also any orgs you belong to - I put that I was in the NRA and that seemed to help steer it towards more gun friendly places.
 
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