Favorite place to live on the east coast

I am currently living in Seattle (I followed an Army guy and eventually landed here when he realized his co worker was more attractive than I - he didn't like moto, so its all for the better anyway). It's great here about 3 months of the year, maybe 4. The passive aggressive culture is really interesting. Everyone makes oodles of money, but no one is happy. Amazon has amazing awesome piloted programs that make everything so incredibly convenient, but I am sick of the rain, the cold, the fakeness.

I am looking at moving back to the east coast. I'm from Philly. I don't like cold weather (see: below 30). I love racing/track days. I am a CPA eligible accountant, plan on sitting of the CPA exam as soon as I pick a state/city to live in. NC has some nicer regs than VA on that subject. Anyway... I don't mind city living, but prefer a mountainous area where I can have an affordable small house with a garage and 2 acres to play dirt bikes on. I plan on running my own bookkeeping firm, so a higher population to serve clients from is mandatory. I'd like to be within 5 hours of several tracks. I'm not in anyway religious and don't want it thrown in my face (see: bible belt). My mom lives in NY and I'd like to stick within a 10 hour drive of her (or near a major airport).

My boyfriend (who may or may not come) is a software engineer (senior computer scientist) at a well known company, so a tech hub with really high paying jobs ($150-350kish?) for those guys would be ideal, but i know it;s unlikely there.

Mid Atlantic/South East guys n gals - what do you recommend and why? I was thinking:

Richmond, VA
Raleigh, NC
Charlotte, NC
Roanoke, VA
TN?

 

Houses I would assume. Possibly apartments or even condos.

 

Charleston or Savanah.

 

Not NoVa. This is Hell.

Jobs are here but so are stupid expensive houses, horrible drivers, miserable people and long commutes.

 

A few years ago I would have recommended Raleigh without reservation. However, NC politics have recently taken a hard jerk to the right from the slightly left-of-center (read HB2), so you should decide if you can stomach that.

Charlotte I would definitely NOT recommend. The county commission and school board are full of race-baiters on both sides, the Mayor is a left-wing boob, and the murder rate increases every year.

Geographically, you can pick a spot that is about 2 hours from both the beach and the mountains, the Piedmont and Coastal Plain rarely freeze for more than a few days at a time, and overall the weather is conducive to motorcycle riding.

But that's just my observations.

 

Oh, and for TN, E TN is all that I have first-hand knowledge of, but TN has no state income tax, but the sales tax is close to 10%.

 

Of what you have listed, only Raleigh is a tech hub.

 

Agreed - I lived in Arlington for a few years. It was great in my mid twenties, def not now. DEF NOPE.

 

Greenville, SC

Priorities in place :
CMP - 1.5 hrs
Road Atlanta -1:5 hrs
Barber - 4.5 hrs
Tally - 4.5 hrs
Roebling- 4 hrs
VIR - 7 hrs or about that.
NCM - 6 hours or about that

N.Ga Mountians about 2hrs
NC Mountians 45-1.5 depending on where

Lakes :
Hartwell - 45 mins
Jocasse(awesome) - 1hr - 1.5hr

Beach - 4hrs or a little more depending on where.

Plenty of jobs and housing is reasonable. It's growing and from 08-14 we felt very little compared to the rest of the country. Housing stayed flat vs major drops.

I'm from here and have moved around. I always end up back here. Great place. You can get country living or city life.

-BP

 

Greenville, SC.

Edit:: Beat me to it.

 

This is perfect.. how hot are the summers?

 

Hot. But better than Columbia or the Coast

 

Baltimore puts you right on top of a decent sized airport and 2 hours from having your toes in the sand at the beach. Same story with Richmond, VA.

I liked it where I grew up, just outside of York, PA, but I will *never* miss 98 degrees and 98% humidity.

I am an hour north of Seattle and agree with you about the 'winter' but I tolerate it because of all the places I have ever lived, there is nowhere else that I have been that beats Seattle in the summer.

As always, YMMV

Good luck !!

 

I really enjoy Knoxville. Been here for 7 years.

 

90's until late July and Aug. mid 90's most of the time. A few weeks of the year we might get below freezing, might.

Exactly this. Also, you have to deal with those pesky Clemson folks. They're ok I guess.

 

If your semi-significant other is into cyber security. Things are starting to get serious in Augusta and Fort Gordon. Cost of living is reasonable. Winters mild, summers...let's just say God created humidity in Augusta and perfected it before employing it elsewhere on the planet.

 

I think his Niche is IOS and Android App dev

 

Asheville is the mild version of Seattle in NC, so you may want to check it out. Of the cities listed, I lived in Knoxville, and thought it too was great. You have UT there, so plenty of job opps. We almost moved to Greenville, SC before settling back in Athens, and I liked it a ton too. Plenty of good choices without going to far north.

 

"...affordable small house..."
Affordable and small mean different things to different people, so, hard to pin it down based on that.

 

Jersey.......duh